Marichjhapi massacre

Last updated

Marichjhapi incident
Date24 January 1979 (1979-01-24) – 18 May 1979 (1979-05-18)
Location
Marichjhanpi

22°06′25″N88°57′04″E / 22.1070°N 88.9510°E / 22.1070; 88.9510
Parties
Post-partition refugees from Dandakaranya camps who settled in Marichjhapi
Casualties
Death(s)100+

Marichjhapi massacre or Marichjhapi incident refers to the 1979 eviction of post-partition Bengali refugees who had moved out of the Dandakaranya camps in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and settled in protected forest lands on Marichjhapi island in the Sundarbans, West Bengal. [1] [2] There was a confrontation between the police and the settled population, that led to an economic blockade and later police action was taken to forcibly evict the settlers which all led to several deaths. [3] [4]

Contents

Background

During and after the division of Bengal, many fled communal violence in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and came to West Bengal. The first flow was of refugees who were mostly upper and middle class Hindus who were able to resettle in West Bengal. But over time a greater a flow of poorer Bengalis began. This later surge reached its peak in 1970's around the time of the Bangladesh War of Independence. During this time, Ram Niwas Mirdha had said in the Lok Sabha that Bengal had become saturated and relocating migrants was inevitable. [5] There was resistance from refugees, hailing from wetland marshy coastal landscape, against the relocation to wastelands. However, after initial resistance from them they were forcibly sent to "rocky inhospitable semi arid land" of Dandakaranya, mostly in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and Terai region of Uttar Pradesh (now Uttarakhand), and Little Andaman. Most of them remained in miserable conditions in refugee camps under the Dandakaranya Project. [6] [7]

Left Front leaders like Ram Chatterjee opposed the relocation policy of Union Govt. They reached out to migrants by visiting camps in Dandakaranya and promised them that if the Left Front comes to power in West Bengal then all migrants would be brought back and settled in Bengal itself. [1] [3]

Incident

Once the Left Front came to power in 1977, the refugees from Dandakaranya camps started to return to Bengal in large numbers. [7] The refugees were approximately 136,000 in numbers and the Left Front government identified 247,000 acres of readily reclaimable lands mostly in the Sundarban area (Ganges Delta) for the resettlement of these agriculturist refugees, originally from East Pakistan. [1] [3] Initially the government approved and actively encouraged voluntary resettlement of the identified lands by the refugees. [3] [2] Significant number of the refugees ended up also settling in unauthorised lands and were usually allowed to, around 40,000 refugees went to Hasnabad, Hingalganj and Geonkhali, and about 15,000 settling in the small island of Marichjhapi (renamed by them as "Netaji Nagar"), a protected place under Reserve Forest Act. [8] But in some time the Left Front had shifted its policy on refugee settling, taking a stance that the refugees were not just the citizens of West Bengal but of India and the rest of the country needed to take responsibility as well. [6]

In Marichjhapi, they attained self-sufficiency in fishing for food and had built schools and clinics on their own but had to travel to nearby Islands for obtaining grain and clean drinking water. One of the settlers later claims that there were only shrubs on the island when they came. The government considered the refugee settlements an unauthorized occupation of a reserved forest land and a report was published that a subsequent chain of migrations could result in a severe ecological disaster. They began pressuring the refugees to vacate. [9]

On 24 January 1979, the Government of West Bengal clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC around the island of Marichjhapi. Thirty police ferries were brought in for the eviction and they started patrolling the island, pressurising the settlers. [9] Eyewitness accounts say that on 31 January, the police opened fire on the Hindu refugees who settled on the island, when the refugees allegedly attacked a police camp with traditional weapons. [10] The police and the district administration started a complete blockade. It prevented access to food and clean drinking water for the residents of the island. Many of them ended up consuming contaminated water resulting in at least a few dozen deaths. [9] [11] Ananda Marga, a religious organisation, [12] is also suspected to have had a hand in sparking the violence, the organization was active in the region, allegedly involved in smuggling and would frequently get into conflict with the native tribal community. [13] [8] After 15 days, the Calcutta High Court ruled that "The supply of drinking water, essential food items and medicines as well as the passage of doctors must be allowed to Marichjhapi". [13]

Some of the refugees were forcibly relocated to Dandakaranya while the rest were escorted in police launches to Hasnabad. Some of them were settled in Marichjhapi Colony near Barasat while others rehabilitated themselves in the shanties near railway tracks in Sealdah. [14] Some of them resettled themselves in Hingalganj, Canning and nearby areas. [15]

The official toll was at first two. [16] [17] The incident led to severe criticism of the government from the media, the opposition and from within members of the Left Front coalition. [1] The demand for a formal investigation into the eviction was however denied by the government with Basu convinced that it was greatly exaggerated by the media. [3] [1] In the end the official figure put the deaths at 2 to 8, considered to be a significant under-estimation but the lack of a proper investigation has led to various highly exaggerated accounts to circulate on the killing, years afterwards. [3] [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jyoti Basu</span> Indian politician (1914-2010)

Jyoti Basu was an Indian Marxist theorist, communist activist, and politician. He was one of the most prominent leaders of Communist movement in India. He served as the 6th and longest serving Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. He was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was the member of Politburo of the party since its formation in 1964 till 2008. He was also the member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly 11 times. In his political career, spanning over seven decades, he was noted to have been the India's longest serving chief minister in an elected democracy, at the time of his resignation. He declined the post of Prime Minister after the 1996 Indian general election after the CPM refused to let him head a multi-party coalition as would not be able to implement Marxist programs and relinquished the prime ministership to Deve Gowda.

Namasudra, earlier known as Chandal, is an Avarna Bengali Hindu community originating from eastern and central Bengal. The term Chandal or Chandala is usually considered as a slur. They were traditionally engaged in fishing and as boatmen, and later in cultivation. They lived outside the four-tier ritual varna system and thus were outcastes.

East Bengali Refugees are people who left East Bengal following the Partition of Bengal, which was part of the Independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. An overwhelming majority of these refugees and immigrants were Bengali Hindus. During the Bangladesh liberation war with West Pakistan, an estimated ten million people of East Pakistan fled the country and took refuge in India particularly in the Indian states of West Bengal and Indian North East region, especially Tripura and Assam.

Marichjhanpi is an island set in the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans in West Bengal, India. It is primarily known today for the Marichjhapi massacre in 1979 when the newly elected Communist Party of India (Marxist) government of West Bengal evicted several post-partition Dalit refugees who were living in the reserved forest. The clash between armed residents and the police resulted in about 10,000 deaths. Although the exact death count is unknown, researchers believe that several collateral deaths took place from violent clashes, alleged police brutality, and disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taki, India</span> City in West Bengal, India

Taki is a city and a municipality under the Hasnabad police station of the Basirhat subdivision in North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hasnabad (community development block)</span> Community development block in West Bengal, India

Hasnabad is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Basirhat subdivision of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

This is a list of States and Union Territories of India by Bengali speakers at the time of the 2011 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hingalganj</span> Community development block in West Bengal, India

Hingalganj is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Basirhat subdivision of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

The Dandakaranya Project, or the DNK Project, was the form of action the Indian government designed in September 1958 for the settlement of displaced persons from Bangladesh and for integrated development of the area with particular regard to the promotion of the interests of the local tribal population. The particular focus was on Bengali refugees from East Pakistan moving to lands and resources in Odisha and Chhattisgarh. To implement this project, the Government of India established the Dandakaranya Development Authority.

Soumya Sankar Bose is an Indian documentary photographer. In his practice he uses photography, archival material and text to explore desire, identity and memory. His first book 'Where the Birds Never Sing(2020)' is on Marichjhapi massacre, the forcible eviction in 1979 of lower caste Bengali refugees on Marichjhapi Island in Sundarban, India, and the subsequent death of thousands by police gunfire, starvation, and disease. The Book was shortlisted for the First Photobook award in the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2020. Soumya Sanker Bose was awarded Magnum Foundation's Social Justice Fellowship for Full Moon on a Dark Night in 2017, was Hello! India's Emerging Artist of the Year in 2023, and received the Louis Roederer Discovery Public Award at Les Rencontres d'Arles for A Discreet Exit Through Darkness in 2023.

An illegal immigrant in India is a foreigner who has entered India either without valid documents or who initially had a valid document, but has overstayed beyond the permitted time, as per the general provisions of the Citizenship Act as amended in 2003. Such persons are not eligible for citizenship by registration or naturalisation. They are also liable to be imprisoned for 2–8 years and fined.

The Bengali Language Movement is a campaign to preserve Bengali language and Bengalis culture and to oppose anti-Bengali sentiment in India. The movement was started in Manbhum in 1940, ahead of the Partition of India which allocated eastern Bengal to the new nation of Pakistan and led to the relocation of many Bengali communities. In 1947 British India bifurcated into India and Pakistan. The population of the eastern part of Bengal was majority Muslim, and was incorporated into Pakistan. Bengali Hindus in this eastern region migrated to India, principally settling in West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Dandakaranya and Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka. The Movement remains prominent in Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.

Swarupnagar is a village in the Swarupnagar CD block in the Basirhat subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India.

Hemnagar is a village in the Hingalganj CD block in the Basirhat subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India.

Kalinagar is a village and a gram panchayat in the Sandeshkhali I CD block in the Basirhat subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India.

Sandelerbil is a village and a gram panchayat in the Hingalganj CD block in the Basirhat subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India.

Bamanpukuria is a village and a gram panchayat in the Minakhan CD block in the Basirhat subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sundarbans settlements</span> Human settlements in West Bengal, India

The Sundarbans settlements refer to the areas of the Sundarbans that were cleared of forests for human habitation in the present North 24 Paganas and the South 24 Parganas districts in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Bankra is a census town in the Hingalganj CD block in the Basirhat subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India.

Anti-Bengali sentiment comprises negative attitudes and views on Bengalis. This sentiment is present in several parts of India: Gujarat, Bihar, Assam, and various tribal areas. etc. Issues include discrimination in inhabitation, other forms of discrimination, political reasons, government actions, anti-Bangladeshi sentiment, etc. The discriminative condition of Bengalis can be traced from Khoirabari massacre, Nellie massacre, Silapathar massacre, North Kamrup massacre, Goreswar massacre, Bongal Kheda, etc. This has led to emergence of Bengali sub-nationalism in India as a form of protest and formation of many pro-Bengali organisations in India.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mallick, Ross (1999). "Refugee Resettlement in Forest Reserves: West Bengal Policy Reversal and the Marichjhapi Massacre". The Journal of Asian Studies. 58 (1): 104–125. doi:10.2307/2658391. ISSN   0021-9118. JSTOR   2658391. S2CID   161837294.
  2. 1 2 Butalia, Urvashi (24 February 2015). "6. Reconstructing Marichjhapi". Partition: The Long Shadow. Penguin UK. ISBN   978-93-5118-949-7.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sengupta, Debjani (1 February 2011). "From Dandakaranya to Marichjhapi: rehabilitation, representation and the partition of Bengal (1947)". Social Semiotics. 21 (1). Taylor & Francis: 101–123. doi:10.1080/10350330.2011.535673. ISSN   1035-0330. S2CID   144730817.
  4. ↑ Deep Halder (11 May 2019). "The Left massacre of migrant Hindus in Bengal that was bigger than 2002 & 1984". theprint.in. ThePrint . Retrieved 16 July 2020. Not much is known about the Marichjhapi incident that took place under the Jyoti Basu government on a tiny island in the Sundarbans where Hindu refugees had settled.
  5. ↑ Pramanik, Asim (23 March 2014). "1979 Marichjhapi killings revisited". The Statesman. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  6. 1 2 Chowdhury, Debdatta (2011). "Space, identity, territory: Marichjhapi Massacre, 1979". The International Journal of Human Rights. 15 (5): 664–682. doi:10.1080/13642987.2011.569333. S2CID   144052321.
  7. 1 2 Mallick, Ross (2007). Development Policy of a Communist Government: West Bengal Since 1977. Cambridge University Press. p. 99. ISBN   978-0-521-04785-2.
  8. 1 2 Mallick, Ross (February 1999). ""Refugee Resettlement in Forest Reserves: West Bengal Policy Reversal and the Marichjhapi Massacre"". The Journal of Asian Studies. 58 (1): 104–125. doi:10.2307/2658391. JSTOR   2658391. S2CID   161837294.
  9. 1 2 3 Halder, Deep (17 May 2019). "'We were attacked thrice': A survivor's story of the Left Front government's siege of Marichjhapi". Scroll.in. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  10. ↑ ""Controversies that dogged the pragmatic chief minister"". The Telegraph. 18 January 2010. Archived from the original on 21 January 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  11. ↑ "Marichjhapi massacre: Forgotten story of Hindu refugees slaughtered in Bengal". India Today. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  12. ↑ "Ananda Marga: Spiritual Saviors or Tantrik Terrorists?". India Today.
  13. 1 2 "The Tale of Marichjhapi :Review of the book "Marichjhapi chhinna desh, chhinna itihaash"". radicalsocialist.in. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  14. ↑ Mitra, Sukumar (6 July 2011). "Today English Newspaper Update Headlines India- the Sunday Indian Online Magazine - - the Sunday Indian" গণহত্যার সুবিচার হবে!. The Sunday Indian (in Bengali). Archived from the original on 23 June 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  15. ↑ Mitra, Shyamalendu (3 August 2011). তিন দশক পরে মরিচঝাঁপির ফাইল ফের খুলল রাজ্য. Anandabazar Patrika (in Bengali). Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  16. ↑ Bhattacharya, Snigdhendu (25 April 2011). "Ghost of Marichjhapi returns to haunt". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  17. ↑ Sankha Ghosh (27 November 2019). "Bauddhayan Mukherji busy with his 'Marichjhapi' project". The Times of India. Retrieved 16 July 2020.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.