[Reader-list] Marichjhapi and the Revenge of Bengali Bhadralok: The story of a Dalit Genocide that remains untold

Sudeep K S sudeep.ks at gmail.com
Mon Nov 30 17:26:41 IST 2009


Dear Mani,

It was interesting to see your response. The article may be biased (which I
think every article/report is), but I admire Ajay, Nilesh and Anoop for
their effort to throw some light to this incident that remained in the
blackholes of our history till now.

This is another Jalian Walabag, but it happened in an independent India. I
think it is also an example of how media and academia can work together to
make sure some unpleasant stories never get told. Unless of course, some
'baastuharas' start speaking up and make their histories heard. (That story
is bound to be biased, no doubt!)

I would be happy if you could do some rich research on this (I wonder if
Government records will be any useful at all, but you could give it a try)
and come up with a less biased or unbiased version of it.

Regards
Sudeep

[PS: A comment at the blog post that I found interesting:

*Amra kara?
Baasthuhaara;
Morichjhappi chharbona..*

(Who are we? We are the dispossessed; We will not leave Morichjhappi, do
what you may)
The slogan shouted by the villagers in unison when they took on the armed
police force in May 1979.
-The Hungry Tide (Amitav Ghosh)

It was Amitav Ghosh’s novel ‘The Hunger Tide ’which prompted me to this
unheard tale of these Baasthuhaaras. His characters Nirmal and Kusum took me
to Morichjhappi, the tide country island where thousands of dispossessed who
braved the tigers, crocodiles -and then the state machinery- lived their
extra ordinary lives. Then only I came to read the legend of Saphala nanda
Halder who swam all the way to the mainland to take the media men to the
Sunderban islands to convince them that they were not encroachers of reserve
forests..]

On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 11:41 PM, A. Mani <a.mani.cms at gmail.com> wrote:
> The article is poorly researched, is biased, based on very
> questionable studies and seems to be propaganda work. The authors will
> need to review plenty of available Government records and other
> documentation.
>
> The casteist dimension has no basis.
>
> Best
>
> A. Mani
>
> --
> A. Mani
> ASL, CLC,  AMS, CMS
> http://www.logicamani.co.cc


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