The Other Jew Anya Ihudi by Kapil Krishna

The Other Jew (Anya Ihudi) by Kapil Krishna Thakur

First step • Read the story – it is the story of Bishtucharan and his daughter Runu who migrate to West Bengal. They stay at the house of his nephew Brajabasi in a railway colony near the railway tracks. The migrants are not provided any relief by the govt and they are also exploited by the local leaders. As the story progresses we learn about the murder of Jhunu by Ferumiya and the death of the wife of Bishtucharan in the 1971 massacre. There is a liquor store near the colony and the people who drink there constantly harass the migrants. At the end of the story Runu and a few other women in the colony are taken and raped by these hooligans. Bishtucharan ends up losing everybody.

Historical context – partition of Bengal and the plight of the migrants • After the partition of Bengal - West Bengal contained a population of 21 million, of whom approximately 25 per cent, or 5. 3 million, were Muslims. • East Bengal population - 39 million - 11 million Hindus. • From 1946 to 1964 - total number of migrants from east Bengal almost 5 million.

Reasons for migration • Steady and continuous migration of Hindus from east Bengal – almost 2 million Hindus fled to West Bengal due to the Noakhali and Tippera riots in 1946 (check Naokhali riots in Wikipedia for more details) and the Khulna (a district that was exchanged for Murshidabad) riots in 1950. • Another million left East Bengal when violence between the communities erupted in 1964 after theft of holy Muslim relics from the Hazratbal shrine in Kashmir. Migration from east to west also tended to increase wherever relations between India and Pakistan worsened. When the two countries were at odds, whether over India’s takeover of the princely state of Hyderabad, or over Kashmir, tensions on the bigger stage drove the Hindus out of East Bengal into India

• Changing social norms in east Bengal – Hindu women were no longer safe. The case of Bishtucharan and his family is an example of this concern. The wife of Bishtucharan died during the 1971 massacre in East Pakistan and his daughter Jhunu is kidnapped, raped and murdered by Ferumiya and his mates. Refer to Tetsuya Nakatani’s ‘Away from home’ which includes testimonies of refugees in Nadia. One of the refugees talks about a muslim labourer who asked for a Hindu woman’s hand in marriage.

Places of settlement • most of the refugees from East Bengal ended up in just three districts of West Bengal, the 24 Parganas, Calcutta and Nadia • Four other districts, West Dinajpur, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Burdwan absorbed much of the remaining third • refugees went to places where they had kin and where they thought they could find work – also illustrates the case of bishtucharan who went to seek refuge at Brajabasi’s (his nephew) place • Those Hindus with the greatest wealth, who had the most to lose in terms of worldly goods, tended to get out quickly after partition. In contrast, lowly Hindus who had the least to lose, and who had no social status or economic independence and were most vulnerable to violence and discrimination, were the most reluctant to leave and hung on at home as long as they could.

Reaction of the central and state govt. • Both state and centre - Reluctant to accept responsibility for the problem of resettling and rehabilitating the refugees. • Nehru – more concerned with violence in Punjab - remained convinced that conditions in East Bengal did not constitute a grave and permanent danger to its Hindu minorities. • Tried to stop or reverse the migration problem - In April 1948, the two governments signed the Inter-Dominion Agreement. The first Inter. Dominion Agreement, signed in April 1948, envisaged setting up Minorities Boards and Evacuee Property Management Boards in East and West Bengal, composed of members of the minority communities. The agreement was intended to reassure Hindus in East Bengal that it was safe for them to stay on there and to persuade Hindu refugees in the west to return home

Cont… • In 1950, when the violence against minorities in East Bengal was on a scale that could no longer be ignored, Nehru signed ‘the Nehru– Liaquat Pact’ - According to the pact, the two governments agreed to extend to all nationals of both countries, irrespective of religion, equal rights as citizens, as well as giving them equal opportunities in the civil services and armed forces. They agreed to give facilities to those intending to migrate, and Minority Commissions were to be appointed in East and in West Bengal, chaired in each case by a minister of the provincial government. India and Pakistan also agreed to appoint ministers to their respective central governments, with special responsibilities for ‘minority affairs’.

Cont… • B. C. Roy’s policy towards the refugees was guided by two main tenets. First, refugees were to be strongly discouraged from coming to West Bengal; to this end they were to be offered as little relief as government could get away with. Secondly, help was to be given to the refugees who arrived despite government’s best efforts to keep them out only on the condition that they did precisely as they were told by the state • In December 1957, government decided that no assistance would be given to anyone who migrated after March 1958. Before they were granted migration certificates, those who wanted to get out despite this draconian clause had to sign undertakings that they would not claim any relief or rehabilitation benefits from government.

Migration to Calcutta and the complex effects of migration • Refugees had literally filled up every empty space in and around the big towns, particularly in the great metropolis of Calcutta, occupying every tiny piece of vacant land they could find, whether on pavements or the ‘set-asides’ along the runways of airfields, in empty houses, on snake-infested marsh and scrubland, and even on the unsanitary verges of sewers and railway tracks. • The West Bengal govt. wanted to get the refugees out of Calcutta and other Major cities – of the 389 refugee colonies set up by the government in West Bengal, not a single one was in Calcutta.

Cont… • By 1973, almost 15 per cent of West Bengal’s entire population, and one in four of those who lived in its towns, 141 were refugees. • Migration had complex effects on social relations within refugee communities. At one level, the bonds of caste and kinship among refugees were strengthened, since these ties were a key resource in enabling them to pitch their tents in new encampments in West Bengal – family, kin and caste associates provided shelter to many of them when they first arrived and then helped them on their way. Yet at another level, living cheek by jowl in crowded camps and colonies rubbed away some of their most rigid attitudes in regard to caste purity and pollution.

Cont… • Shifting from east to west was a passage which eroded some of the traditional links between status, caste and occupation, and thus began the long process by which caste status and social identity began subtly to change in West Bengal. • As refugee women rapidly became more literate and as more of them joined the ranks of the employed, the working bhadramahila (gentlewoman) was a new and important phenomenon in urban West Bengal. • Keep in mind Intersectional feminism – most refugee women had to work because earnings of a sole male bread winner were not enough for feeding a family especially in a joint family setup.

Violence against women • Feminist movements in India started mainly as a response to violence against women • Intersectionality – gender isn’t always the only determinant of the nature or level of exploitation or violence – other factors play an important role in the exploitation of women such as their class, caste, race, religion, location etc - in the story it is Bishtucharan and Runu’s migrant status and their location that ultimately leads to the rape of Runu by a bunch of drunk men while in the case of Jhunu it is religion (their religious minority status in the newly formed state of Bangladesh) that leads to her being abducted, raped and killed. • It is also interesting to note that caste does not play a role in the violence perpetrated – Bishtu Pandit is an uppercaste man which seems to have no effect in the case of Runu. Sometimes intersectionality works sometimes it does not work.