Durgotasva in Dineshpur

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Durgotasva in Dineshpur

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time- One Hundred and Sixteen

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/

Tragedy struck the immersion ceremony of Durga idols in West Bengal's Bashirhat area when a boat full of devotees capsized.The incident took place on the Ichhamati river when the idols were being ferried for immersion.   

One person died in the accident. The victim has been identified as Sandeep Das. Four of his friends are still missing.

I was not at the Venue but the Accident was on TV Channels LIVE. It is the best Rhetoric to express shining India in post Modern Neo Capitalist Global Village!

Lacs and lacs of People witnessed the Tragedy being eventide. Both banks of River Ichhamati were thronged with Waves of people. thousands of boats were in the river.

But no one tried a little bit to rescue the drown Victims of the festival. Neither there was a stumble nor break in unbound Festivity!Unbelievable!

This tragedy reveals very cruelly the Neo Liberal Indian Reality where majority People do die daily in intense food Insecurity. lob Loss has gripped the Society inflicted with Displacement and Exodus. Who cares? Who cares for the Graveyard Infinite?

I have not witnessed the great Indian Holocaust of Partition as I was born a little late!

But I am not in any trouble to visualise the Trauma! We have seen Nandigram, Singur and Lalgarh in recent times. How the  Masses are punished and persecuted, ejected and evacuated systematically, these Insurrections have made us learn!

The Immersion tragedy showed me only the Detached mood of Bengalies in celebration, the Inhumanity and the Cruelty with which our Black Untouchable dalit Bengali Refugees have been ejected out of Bengali geopolitics!

Bengali Brahaminical Media covers Durga Puja Celebrations worldwide from Americas to Japan. Europe is combed. Indian Metros and Cities inhibited by elite Brahmin people Flash on live! But Bengal never looks on those outcasete black untouchables amongst whom I do root! HOW far stands Korea or Vietnam? How far stand Udhamsingh Nagar, Malkan Giri, Sadhan Nagar, Chandrapur or Pilibhit?

Our people resettled in Dineshpur area of Udhamsingh Nagar Uttarakhand at distance of Five hours of car Drive on the way of Nainital from new Delhi Celebrated their Durgotasav golden Jubilee this year!Quite unaware of Bengal realities and bengali history, our People also identify themselves with Brahaminical Bangla nationality! I my self did as I Never Knew  the History of Bengal until I landed in the land of Discrimination, Persecution and hatred!

I have been writing about Bengali Refugees, the unrecognised partition Victims selected for ethnic cleansing and Deportation! I have been writing about the Corporate Take Over and the peripherry Economy. But my people live with the legacy and tradition they inherited from their elders.They even today speak the dialects, not the Calcutta metro Bengali. I myself stumble to communicate them as I have been Uprooted long before!

I would rather concentrate in Dineshpur as a case study of the Refugee Re settlements and highlight the Rich folk and folklore elements discarded by Global Bengal living on either Plastic Money or hegemony Politics!

They have been thrown in the Jungles of Himalayan Terai in Nainital district of United Uttar Pradesh as Govind Ballabh Pant failed miserably to convince the Hill People to resettle in the Terai region. It was so dense a forest that famous Gim Corbett dared not to visit our place ever. Only the innocent tribes of Buksha  and Tharu lived there living on JHOOM cultivating. In 1922, scores of villages around Gadarpur were perished just because of Plague. Malaria, Small Pox, Dirreah and flash floods would take away life any time. The wild animals and Poisonous snakes would finish you any time! Since, the Kham Superindentendent had allotted thousands and thousands Acres of land for nothing to the Elite Ruling class political leaders, Military and Civil Officers and Industrialists and they created big big farms in Terai, since they could not clear the Jungle nor could they cultivate themselves, Bengali and Sikh Refuges were INSERTED in Terai region in 1952 onward!

It is said that the Terai region is cultivated SEVEN times and destroyed SEVEN Times! The Infrastructure was erected to benefit big farmers with holdings of thousands and thousands acres! While the alotee refugees rai Sikhs as well as Bengalies are reduced as landless labour. Even with SIDCUL status, the locals consist of the mainstay of labour forces! In our Childhood, we saw the concentration of eastern UP Labour specially from Gorkhpur zone. The equation changed very soon as Bengali Refugees continued to come since the riots of 1964 and institution of Rudrapur transit camp thereafter!

Pantnagar University was established as a Research and development centre and it became the TOOL of Green revolution only benefiting the Big Farmers so much so that in late sixties most of the Refugee Population lost the land. It was a flare up of Naxal Movement in the area extending to the terai of Nepal to Lakhim Pur Kheri!

It was Never to mean REHABILITATION. It meant literally Termination of unwanted people from Brahaminical Bengali Geopolitics to strike a suitable Power equation to hold on State power only for the Brahamins. it was proved in 1978 to 79, while the Marxists invited the Bengali refugees in MP camps and resettlement in Dandakarany spanning over Five states and later had been Massacred as the Marxist were already in power and needed not any Subaltern SC population of refugees in Bengal. The Marxist Hegemony supported us in Uttarakhand in 2001 while the BJP government reluctantly refused us as Indian citizens. We mobilised an Unprecedented Mass Movement supported by local communities. The left was AFRAID of a repeat of Marichjhanpi. thus, they tried their best to avoid the situation.

Since Nehru Government in the centre and BC Roy Government in West Bengal decided as Policy matter that the East Bengal refugees were not partition victims, they were dumped in Refugee camps. But the Refugee Movement intensified in Bengal with Marxist support compelled the Brhamin Bengali rulers to dispose OFF the Troublesome scheduled caste Refugees out of Bengal. They had been Forcibly EJECTED out of Bengal and thrown all over India in forest and Hilly areas against tribals. In Dandakaranya, In Andaman and Nicobar, In North east, in south India and in Uttar Pradesh also.But they had been simply dumped there without any help or rehabilitation!It was the same story repeated everywhere where ever the Refugees were dumped.

It was in Nainital Terai where My Father Pulin Kumar Biswas, Haripada Master and Radhakanta  Mandal led a Refugee movement in 1956 demanding Rehabilitation, land and civic fecelities. They sat on RUDRAPUR. They were lifted in trucks in mid night and were dumped in KILAKHERA Jungle about eighteen KM away. But our people continued the movement and the battle was won.

My Village Basantipur, named after my mother Basanti Devi and two more villages, Panchananpur and Udainagar were formed after this movement only. Until they were dumped in tents in Vijoynagar. later in 1974, the three villages jointly organised  a Durga Puja in between Panchanan Pur and Udai Nagar. Durga Puja meant RESISTANCE for us. I remember the year specially as my father visited every Refugee resettlement then and submitted a REPORT of the chaos to then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi. I reached new Delhi for the first time as a first year student of GIC Nainital with Refugee leaders like Kumud Ranjan Sarkar and Bibek Biswas to draft the report only. But the report was dumped.

In Basantipur, Ten families were further harassed as their land was allotted to the Sikhs residing in the nearby village Amarpur. My father, Mandar Mandal and Shishubar Mandal led the legal battle to bail out the Bengali Land from Judiciary!I was an infant at the time. But our cashier SHISHUBAR Mandal remembered that my father also slept with DEAD bodies to continue the fight for land. Shishubar Mandal, Atul Sheel and Mandar Mandal lives no more. The son of Mandar Mandal, KRISHNA, my bosom friend is also dead. but I am happy to say that the Grand children of Mandar Mandal are highly educated. His grand daughter in Law has passed LLB First year recently and continues the studies. They belong to Paundra Kshatriya community and this community used to have CHILD marraiages during our childhood. My father was not only striving for scheduled caste status for all the Refugees from East Bengal but also PLEADED most for the ABOLITION of caste Barriers!during his time, inter caste Marriages were UNTHINKABLE. But he always supported such marriages.One of my cousin was married to a SIKH Family. everyone was against it. but my father always supported. i am happy to note that Inter caste Marriages are in Vogue. Even the Brahmins who are treated out caste as they perform rituals for the untouchables, have become very liberal.They also practice INTER CASTE Marriages and Indulge themselves in Untouchable Mobilisation. Dev Prakash And shankar Chkra Barti have emerged as our best leaders!

Durga Puja represented our Community and Commune life which included local communities who would celebrate Navratri or Ramleela along with us and it had never been a cause of tension. Only in late EIGHTIES while the Land mafias tried to eject out the landless Bengali refugees from MAHTOSH More near Gadarpur, they Gan graped scores of Bengali dalit Refugee ladies. But the RESISTANCE led by Pragatisheel Mahil sangathan was so intense that not only the Hills and plains of Uttarakhand but also the UTTARPRADESH combined stood United to defend our people! We never had this support nor we have anywhere in Bengal! Me ad Deepti Sunder Mallick were only two Bengali refugee students beside Hare Krishna Dhali  and Kali Pad Mandal for a brief period in the Hills, but we NEVER felt any DISCRIMINATION and this INCLUSIVENESS built my Primary character!

Since I was born in Basantipur in the same year as my Friends Tekka and Harri were born. I never Remember the earlier period of the Resettlement. I got large numbers of 1960 All India Refugee conference leaflets and posters only to trace out the plight  and turmoil. In between , in 1958 Dhimri Block Peasant`s Uprising was led by father and he was being tried in different courts, two of my sisters died without medical care and father Visited Riot Torn Assam in 1960. He also visited East Bengal and joined the Bhasah Andolan where he was arrested being chrgesheeted as Indian Spy. When I learnt to recollect memories, Indo china war in 1962 was over, my Eldest cousin Meeradi was married off and CHHOTOKAKA just returned from Assam as medical Practitioner. I was in class Two only as my father relied on me to draft all his letters and Memorandums!

I called my people back at home. The first Generation of the Bengali refugees survives no more. The most famous Jatra artist of our time in Dineshpur Chandrakant Mandal remembers  that it took full SEVEN years to resettle and they could initiate Durga puja in 1959. entire Bengali refugee population would gather in Dineshpur, then a weekly hat and CELEBRATE the Festival. Our movement was never Restricted and we CHILDREN were so FREE and safe that we could stay anywhere any time and our family would never bother! during that period while I used to be a student in Dinesh Pur High school, I had very strong friendship with Sudhir Haldar and would stay at his home during the festival. He belonged to a poor family. But his mother and sister in law were such good HOSTESS that I never Encountered in my life. In 1971, I was sent away to Shaktifarm for my Naxal ideology for a year and I lost a year due to some insignificant calf Love for an unfaithful girl, i would never name her, the bond of friendship disintegrated as he passed Highschool in 1972 and shifted to bareilly for higher studies. While I was still in BA Previous and was involved in  Nainital Social, Literary and cultural activities, sudhir shifted himself in remote Hills doing a job. We could never unite further. Durga Puja in Dineshpur is reminiscent of so many insignificant relations and incidents, that my heart bleed even today!

Thirty six colonies of Bengali Refugees constituted Dineshpur. every Village had a MIXED populations of different SC castes and the people, the partition Victims from Different Districts of East Bengal. My village basantipur had only Five or six Namoshudra families, Two Brahamin, One kayashtha, One Mahishya, Two barber and the Rest had been Paundra Kshtriya. We were not related by Blood or castes. But these People stood Unified since Ranaghat coopers camp in Bengal.They had been together in Charbetia in Orrissa. They had been the COMRADES knowing nothing about Ideology as almost all of them were ILLITERATE including my father! But we have been living as a SINGLE UNIFIED family generation after Generation for almost six decades. It remains the same story about all other Bengali Refugee colonies anywhere out of Bengal.

Our People NEVER Invoked the War Goddess DURGA. Durga remains the Pre Aryan Motheh Earth, the Goddess of Fertility, Prosperity and Peace for our People. They had been Untouchables and have NO RIGHT to perform VEDIC Rituals.Unlike mainland Bengal, Durga  Puja in Bengali Refugee Colonies had nothing to do with Rituals.Durga had never been VIOLENT for us as we Identified the Himalayan daughter with the Local Communities which stood United with us and defended us in any adversary at any time!

Rather, it had been an ABORIGINAL legacy of Celebration Life and Nature! It had always been rooted in FOLK. Our People NEVER worshipped CHANDI or Chamunda. We Worshipped the SAVIOUR kali, Raksha Kali. We Celebrated GAJON to worship Lord Shiva, the Personified Nature. We never DEVOTED RUDRA, the Destroyer!

My father would speak hours on our problems as it was the best forum and I had to insert INFORMATION which I could supply for my EXTROVERT Connections! My father as an ALL India Refugee leader would spend rest of the time anywhere, but he would return home from any Hell or Heaven to address our People during Durga Puja!I am SORRY that I could not follow his legacy!

Hence, neither Vedic Tradition,Nor Rituals could unite US! Durga Puja always remained an annual occasion to Celebrate our Folk and folk Lores. So, the Folk Poets from Bengal would be called for Kavi gaan and every village would form a Jatra party. OUR Basanti Pur jatra party was a famous one which was launched with the enactment of Manasa Mangal BHASAN and deviated in religious, social and historical plays!

Thus, Durga Puja had never been associated with Brahmins.It was rather assocaited with the Bhaskar who woul make the IDOL. It would associate with any Social cause emerging as very Important. As in earlier period, Durga Puja was used as FUND Raising Resource Mobilisation tool to deal with refugee Problems. I witnessed our People to collect Money to get our First graduate Rohitashwa Mallick!

Brojen master was our Music teacher who would stay at our home and teach us Music! He had to work with our Jatra party. I visited the Old man in 2006, the year in which my mother died! He was very old. But he could recognise me after a decade`s absence! I was a naughty boy who would Never learn Music. I visited Bijnore earlier in this month and learnt that the Man lives no more! Thus, Khagen Master was the Coach of our Jtara Party. He used to live in Rudrapur Transit camp waiting Rehabilitation. He had a Royal Personality and would fit in any role. He made our Jatra team, the champion. Almost every actor of the First generation has died in last six decades except Kartik Sana, the Hero and Bidhu Adhikari, the Prompter. Akshay has left the village. I was told that Khagen Master has been Rehabiliated in Dandakarnya and while I visited Dandakarany, I looked for the man in every village. He was not there. When I returned to Basantipur, kartik Sana told me that the Man lives with his art somewhere in Uttar pradesh!

Every Jatra Party in Bengali colonies anywhere in India has a story to tell. I visited Danda Karanya and saw HARI Jatra Enacted by the People of Malkangiri which is all about the Life and works of Harichand Thakur and Guru Chand Thakur, the Original leaders of dalit renaissance in Bengal.

Dr Nikhil Roy and his Son In law Ajoy Goshwami had been the most celbrated jatra artist in Dineshpur along with Chandra Babu! Both  DR Nikhil Roy and Ajoy Goswami have left for the ultimate abode. But Subir Goswami, the son of Ajoy is a STRUGGLER in Bollywood. He was all in all in Dinesh Pur Durgotsav Golden Jubilee! At the same time, ABHIJIT, the Son of Chandra Babu has got his PHD degree on the  research works of Habib Tanveer. Abhijjet worked with NAYA Theatre for some time. Both Subir and Abhijjet succeeded to make BASE in Dinsehpur. They go to Mumbai and Delhi and returns Home any time! I am not that LUCKY!

Durga Puja celebrations make me remember two excellent young speakers in sixties.Pulin Goldar from Panchanan Pur and Gopal Biswas from Khanpur Number one! Since I was able to speak, my father tried to train me as a Public Orator. I had to speak on Loudspeaker whenever wherever available and even before an INVISIBLE Audience. During Durga Puja, i had to do all the announcements and had to inform public all about Current affairs and even the topics like Economics! I had no ICON to Follow! I would hear All India radio or BBC or Akashvani Kolkata. But I could not dare to replicate Birendra Krishna Bhadra or Amin Swani. rather I would replicate Pulin Goldar or Gopal Biswas. They were too LIVE for Me! First Pulin Goldar left the area and shifted to New Delhi. He and his wife were very senior to me but most Friendly with me! Premanand Mahajan, the present MLA from Pant Nagar Gadar Pur area is the younger Brother in Law of Pulin Goldar. I hardly remember him in my childhood and I left the area in 1073 as Nainital became my home town since my GIC days. They Library and friend would restrict me from going back home. At the same time, I was also involved in Durga Puja committee in Nainital!

This was a Period while I enjoyed a status of an ICON in Terai area! I would play the role of Hero in Jatra party. In 1972 Puja , I was the Hero of THAMAO RAKTOPAAT, Stop Blood Shed. Thanks to students Movement and Chipko Movement in seventies, I was rather a very Busy Socio Environmental activist and had access in every community residing anywhere in Uttarakhand, in the Terai as well as Hills. Gopal Biswas was the First Journalist from Terai along with Keval Krishan Dhal in Sitarganj!Gopal was a Peon but dared to publish a Bengali little mag in late sixties from Dineshpur. While I was a student in GIC Nainital, he had joined Amar Ujala, Bareilly. I wrote a long letter to Gopal and it was Published.Meanwhile , I was writing regularly in Dainik Paravtiya. When I joined Amar Ujala in 1990. UDIT Sahu, the old man still working as an Assistant editor told me GOPAL had a SMELL for news. He had. But he had some bad habits lie DRINKING and lost in the profession. Now he happens to be in kashipur, I learnt. But I could not meet the man for Three decades!

During my High school and GIC Days I had been tagged with at least Two Teen Age Divas. While the Junior girls had never been Noticed by me. Amongst them, there was a SIKH Girl from Sriram Pur whom I neglected most. But these calf Love affairs never meant-as any serious thing for me and I never wasted my times with the girls. Thus, I had No LOVE affair mentionable as I Engaged myself in Social activism with FOLK and FOLK Lore based lives of my people Emphasised me to escalate our Solidarity base. I am still working for that round the clock!My dear old girlies, provided you stumble between these lines, FORGIVE Me, I could never EVALUATE your love and Affection! Sorry!

It was a spectacle to behold. After four days and nights of revelry, Monday marked Bijoya Dashami, the last day of Durga Puja festivities when huge idols of the goddess were immersed by thousands of teary eyed devotees in West Bengal.
In keeping with tradition, the idols of Goddess Durga along with those of her four children - Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik - were immersed with much fanfare in the Ganga and other rivers across the state.

But this came only after the womenfolk smeared the deities and each other with red vermilion. They also offered sweets to the gods.

"I am thoroughly enjoying 'sindoor khela' (smearing of vermilion). This is my first Durga Puja after marriage," Sandipta Basu said. Vermilion, with its blazing red colour, is a symbol of marriage for Hindu women.

Married women pray for the well-being of their families and long lives of their husbands while performing these rituals.

Schoolgoers were also seen at the pandals or marquees with books and pens in the belief that the goddess would bless them with a good academic record.

"I come to the pandal to take the blessings from Maa Durga and her daughters and sons every year," said Tanima, a student of Class 9.

Now begins a period when Bengalis wish each other "Shubho Bijoya" - Happy Bijoya Dashami - and visit each other's places with sweets. All sweet shops in the state were overcrowded Monday and will be so for at least another week.

However, not all idols across the state are immersed on the same day. While the traditional puja organisers conduct the immersion on Dashami, some community puja organisers keep the idols in the pandals for one or two more days.

"We do the immersion on the day of Bijoya Dashami itself," said Ratan Pal, whose family has been conducting Durga Puja for the last 65 years.

Babughat, a popular stretch on the banks across the Ganga river, was teeming with thousands of people who turned up to watch the grand immersion spectacle as chants of "Bolo Bolo Durga Mai Ki Jai" (Hail, Mother Durga) rent the air.

Many foreigners also descended with their cameras to watch and click the colourful spectacle that comes only once a year.

There were many other venues for immersion too.

"Tight security has been arranged at the ghats (riverbanks) where immersions will take place. Today mainly the traditional idols will be immersed along with a few community pujas and Tuesday and Wednesday the other community pujas will be carrying out their immersions," a police official told IANS.

Men and women could be seen dancing to celebrate the occasion at Babughat.

For traditional pujas like Sovabazar Rajbari and Baghbazar Rajbari, several people carried the deities with their bare hands while others carried the idols on trucks. These revellers also carried a symbolic clay Neel Kontho Pakhi - a bird with a blue neck - with them. It was the carryover of a practice in the times of the zamindars, or big landowners, who used to set free these birds before immersion.

Indian mythology says that Durga Puja celebrates the annual descent of the goddess and her four children to her parental abode on earth. The goddess stays for four days to eradicate all evil from earth and on the fifth day of Dashami begins her return journey to her husband Lord Shiva's abode at Mount Kailash in the Himalayas.

In New Delhi,As thousands of onlookers cheered, the effigies of demon king Ravana were set ablaze amid a burst of fire crackers at many places across the national capital Monday evening to celebrate Dussehra, symbolising the victory of good over evil. The day also saw hundreds of idols of Goddess Durga being immersed in the Yamuna river as the Navaratri celebrations ended.
Thousands of people gathered at the Ram Lila Ground near the Red Fort here to watch the city's oldest Ramlila event. It has been organised for over 150 years, with India's erstwhile British rulers granting it permission in 1921.

Vice-president Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and other senior Congress leaders earlier witnessed the staged ritual fight between Lord Ram and Ravana at the ground.

Also present at the ground was Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal. The Congress president, wearing a maroon sari, waved to the thousands of people gathered to watch the event.

"It's a once a year celebration and we don't want to miss it," said Shakti, en route to the venue where people from all walks of life were present.

Giant sized effigies of Ravana, his son Meghnad and brother Kumbhakaran were burnt in many neighbourhoods across Delhi as well. Standing atop trucks, devotees and enthusiasts dressed as Ram, Ravana and the monkey god Hanuman recreated the mythological scenes of the epic Ramayana.

Scenes of Ram's journey as a prince, his 14-year exile in the forest, his wife Sita's abduction by Ravana, the king of Lanka, were also portrayed.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, in her greeting to the people, hoped the festival would bring joy and goodness in the lives of people and strengthen the spirit of togetherness and brotherhood in the society.

Bengalis in the city bid an emotional farewell to Goddess Durga on Bijoya Dashomi. With beating of drums and dancing, hundreds of idols of Durga, which had adorned puja pandals (marquees) for four days, were immersed in the Yamuna to mark her return to her celestial abode.

In the morning, married women smeared vermilion first on the idol of the goddess before the immersion ceremony.

The 100-year-old Durga Puja at Kashmere Gate has donated all the used flowers to a local non-profit organisation for recycling.

"The flowers will be crushed and their essence extracted for making perfume. We did not want to dump the flowers in the river," vice-president of the Kashmere Gate Durga Puja Samiti said.

Ameeta Chatterjee, camping at her friend's residence in Chittaranjan Park, a largely Bengali dominated area to get a feel of the Durga Puja, said she was feeling a "wee wistful".

"It always happens on the last day when you suddenly realise that the goddess is leaving and the festivities are over," Chatterjee, a young writer, writing her first fiction about the capital's Durga Puja, said.