Holocaust Never ceases!

Troubled Galaxy, Destroyed Dreams: Chapter Three

Palash Biswas

My parents and their generation saw the Holocaust. Partition of Indian subcontinent. I had no opportunity. In my childhood, everything was overlapped by their nostalgia.

Thamma, My Grandmother would weep everyday before her bath for the great river Madhumati.There was

no river around our place in Terai. She was habitual to take dip in river Madhumati. She could not wash on a

Tube well.The Old woman was the most active member of our family.She mixed the metaphors of Mohamed in all her fairy tales with which we grew.

The Refugee quarters were One room affair with a Veranda. It was better than the arm barracks and tents in the transit camp. But our people were accustomed with their thatched houses.The quarters were provided on loan of Rs One thousand. It was later written off in sixties with continuous representations and correspondences by my father Pulin Babu. Thamma always despised the quarter. Even my Jethamoshai, the elder brother of my father, Anil Babu and Chhoto Kaka, the younger brother refused to get one. They preferred mud and thatched houses. Thamma created her world in the Uttar Ghar, the house in the North with my kaka, uncle. Simply we children had our world in the Uttar Ghar, which later on turned into my study. Puber Ghar, the house in the east was inhibited by Jethamoshai. We had a Kachhari with four verandas. it was the Drawing room for the family as well as the Music room. My cousin sisters Meeradi and Beena was over engaged with music. Jethamoshai was the music master for the Village Jatra Party, folk form of drama. Our villagers formed this cultural troupe as soon as the land settlement committee took over the affairs of the Village. Mandar Babu was the President of the committee lifelong. He died in 1974. In 1967, the SAMVID government of Chaudhury Charan Singh made the Bengali refugees the masters of their land. Pulin Babu was in the executive committee of Uttar Pradesh Krishak Samaj formed by Chaudhuri. Land right made the land settlement committees irrelevant. But our village maintained the post of President until Mandar Babu died. So Atul Sheel was the secretary .The secretary died after my father breathed his last in 2001. But he remained the secretary. Shishubar Mandal was the Cashier. All three belonged to Khulna district. By caste, Mandar Babu and Shishubar Mandal were Paundras and Atul Sheel, a hairdresser, Napit. This Grand three were responsible for all village affairs. My father was to represent the village outside. This was maintained for decades. Nibaran Sana was the manager of the Jatra Party.He had to look after the programmes, property and dresses. We had a music master settled in the kachhari.

All Bengali refugee villages were surrounded by the gardens of Banana as big fruitful trees would take time to grow. Thamma managed to grow all types of trees around our Bahand, as they called our House, the residence of a mega Joint Family. We planted Mango, Jack fruits, Guava, Neem, Babul, Jamun, Bel and everything available. Thamma also planted coconut and failed. then, she tried with Palm. it was the same story around the village. In those days, Green was the landscape as we were amidst the dense forest of Terai.

`Ki Por dashe falaichhe salara’, Thamma would exclaim anytime.

Terai was just like a desert for her simply because the land could not grow Coconut, Palm and betel Nuts! Water was devoid of Hilsa and Prawns!

She was the Madhumati for us all. She was my grandmother Shantidevi who never forget the river left behind flowing by her village Kumordanga under Narail sub Division under Jassore district. Narail is now a district in independent Bangladesh. The freedom struggle for Bangladesh was intense while she died in 1970 more than thousand miles away in Basantipur, a remote village near pant Nagar university under the district of Nainital in U undivided.. Now Basantipur is in the Udham Singh Nagar District in uttarakhand. I was a schoolboy when she died aged eighty. I remember the day as I and my cousin Subhash were in the school Zila Parishad Uchchtar Vidyalay Dineshpur. Father reached the school to get us from our classroom. He was crying. Though we loved our grandmother very much but we did not see any logic to mourn for an ailing old woman. I perhaps laughed at a point because the mourning and its pathos somewhat aesthetically amused me. Father was irritated to note that and warned me , one day I might weep. Well, when my younger brother informed me about the demise of my father and his last wish to be cremated besides his lifelong friends , I could not help it and broke down. It was full thirty one years later to realise the impact of losing parents for ever.My grand mother left East Bengal just after partition and travelling refugee camps in Bengal and Orissa, at last resettled with her family in Basantipur. Even breathing last she never forget the river. We could feel the waves and tides of the river Madhumati as long as she survived. Though we had no great river around us.The migration was a burning curse for her life long. she kept burning and I as a small child could experience well the heat and smoke very well.

I had to lend my ears for her stories related to homeland far away in Jassore, in East Bengal. The village named Kumordanga, situated on the breaking banks of river Madhumati was her magic realism which she injected me on the first day while I was able to understand her infinite grudging.

Very hard days were those. We could see the great Himalays in the North. The landscape was very beautiful. The dense forest of Terai of Gim Corbett fame was around us. We were habitual to face nay type of animals tigers, leopards, bears, deer, rabbits, foxes, wolves,elephants to mix up with our day to day life. The males were busy to cut the big trees and shrubs on the fields and try to grow paddy and wheat. They learnt growing suger cane very late. rather they would look for fishing anywhere in available water bodies.

Continuously , quite consistantly they would talk about their Desh, the homeland left far behind. It could be Jassore. Khulna. Barishal. Faridpur.Noakhali. Dhaka anything.

My mother belonged to Barishal. She used to speak quite distinct Barishal Dialect spontaneously which was great amusement for us as we belonged to Jassore. My Jethima, aunt was from Orakandi Thakurbari in Faridpur. Rest of the villagers mostly belonged to Khulna. Some Barishal families also resided with us. The Khulna people were mostly Pundras. namoshudras would call them PODE. Whenever I visited any namoshudra prominent village , they would poin out without fail that my accents were just like the PODES.

Many of the families lost their dear ones in the Holocaust. The geopolitics was divided. So divided were the families.

Two orphans were the part of our family. Atul Kaka and aboni Kaka. For rehabilitation, they needed a family. Still a boy Atul Kaka was shown as a married man. Father wrote her wife`s name as Tulsi.Then he sought a bride for Atul kaka in the nearby village Haridaspur, full of Barishal people. We knew the new aunt, Kakima as Tulsi kakima so on. Later I was a student of Haridaspur Primary Pathshala. The people in Haridaspur were mostly Namoshudras. But they spoke typical Barishal dilect. Jammo, Khammo, hoga, Halar po Hala were their popular phrases almost amounting to abuse. They would get angry with anything and quarrel every time. Child marriage was quite in vogue. But all of them were very lovable people. They would support may father`s stance whatsoever might it be. I met there my first teacher of significance. Pitambar Pant. A brahmin from remote Pithoragarh district. Who recorded my birthday as 18 th May 1958.

Noakhali was the worst affected district in 1947 riots. We had a family from Chittagang in Durgapur number two. Chittagang has been the target of continuous minority persecution. Durgapur Number Two hosted the yearly Basanti Puja, most popular in east Bengal. It was Spring time festival with a rustic fair.Narayan was the elder son of the family who met me very soon in Dineshpur Highschool.He was one year senior but became a bosome friend very soon. His younger brother Premanand used to keep secure distance from us.

Now Premanand is an Elected member of Assembly in Uttarakhand for a full decade. his parents are still alive. I have learnt so many stories of Partition and Holocaust from this family during my childhood. I would not understand their complex Chitagang dialect easily. But their version of partition was so alarming that I would be scared sometimes. All the old people would narrate their stories of Lost Home, lost fields, lost families in riots.

The stories never ceased. A few years back I visited Ramanagar under Mahakalpara subdivision of Kendrapara in Orissa. It was a very tough journey on motorbike from the Paradeep Highway. The Ramnagra Refugees were served deportation notices. In fact, some people were deported already and were thrown into the No Man`s Land on Indo Bangla Border. The Ramnagar region was inhibited by the actual Partition victims of Noakhali. They are eyewitnesses of the Holocaust. They escaped massacres and Arson. they crossed the border after the riots and settled in Orissa in 1950s. but these people are being branded as Bangladeshi nationals nowadays. The local residents, Oria speaking masses formed a Kalinga Bangla Suraksha Samiti and launched a statewide movement to resist deportation. The holocaust for the Noakhali People never ceased after six decades of partition.

As my father was involved with this lot of underclasses lifelong and I may not detach myself from their unfortunate destiny, for me Holocaust Never Ceases!

It is sometimes Nagasaki.Sometimes Hiroshima. Partition of Indian Geopolitics. Vietnam War. Bangladesh. Cosovo. Afghanistan, Iraq and disintegrated Soviet Russia. It is all time around and worldwide after 9/11 in United states of America in form of Terrorist strikes or the War against Terrorism. Long before this we have seen Operation Bluestar and Anti Sikh riots. Riots after demolition of Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.

I saw Burning Meerut full three months. We see ethnic cleansing in Kashmir and North east. We feel the tremors in Jafna, Srilanka. Then, we had the Gujrat Genocide. And at last, indigenous people worldwide are being uprooted, displaced and killed for Capitalist Development under Neo Liberal Globalisation.

We witnessed the Cry Freedom call of Anti Apartheid Movement in South Africa. And we are surrounded by Palestine for so many decades! East Europe , Africa, Asia and Latin America are torn by War and Civil War.

The Holocaust never ceases , my friends! All the time I visualise all these developments, I find all the faces of the victims have been superimposed on my People.

I remember the death of my grand mother as before this, I became adult suddenly as a student of class eight. I led the high school agitation in demand of question paper in Bengali for Bengali language. The question paper in the half yearly examination was in Devanagari script. We had nothing against Hindi as it had become the spontaneous medium for our communication in the mini India of Himalayan Terai where Bengali and Sikh refugees, Raisikhs, Punjabi and Marwaries, Deshi and Purbia, Buksha and Tharu people lived side by side in the newly established in habitation with a siezable population of Kumauni and Garwalies. Specially we felt at home with the Hill People as their culture seemed to be very intimate to us.Politically and socially we enjoyed the strong support from the Hills without which we could not have sustained ourselves in an atmosphere dominated by the muscle power of big farmers and land mafia in Terai.

But Dineshpur High school had a history of struggle for the right of mother tongue.

Earlier in sixties there had been a strike and later in our time, I had the baton. Father was a part of the school management and a n associate of District Board Chairman Shyam Lal Verma.He had very good relation with the principal KL Sah. Though Mr Sah had been very affectionate to me I felt it my duty to fight for our mother tongue. And no one else was responsible for this but my father. He used to come Kolkata every year to fetch Bengali classics for me. I had to read and recite aloud Bengali edits by no less than an editor of Basumati,Vivekananda Mukhopadhyay, his poems, Tagore and Nazrul poetry, even Madhusudan Dutta. I had read Bishade Sindhu of Mir Musharraf Hussain as well as classics of Bankim and Sharat in my childhood. It all worked against the liberal turned politics of a former communist.

The procession came out of the school and I was leading from the front. Father came from the opposite direction,the bazaar on cycle.

He stopped and slapped me asking,` Ke bolechhe tomaya strike korte? (Who suggested you the for the strike?)

Grand mother supported my father even when during the strike father disowned me as I was reluctant to compromise and continued the strike.

After the strike ended, Grand Ma fell ill and at last died.

From that date of the strike Father learnt to treat me as an adult individual and never interfered in my activities. In my life , he never scolded me once again though we had very sharp differences in many matters and politics divided us vertically.

I was involved in naxalite activities in the seventies.

Father was neither scared nor he tried to restrain me. Although he continued to put forward his thinking.In turn, I used to help him in documentation and it was a great help for me to develop myself as a writer and journalist, for whom Father had always a special respect. When I began my career as a journalist he always suggested to adjust with the system and make way for my expression. Now, I realize he was much more modern than me.

Madhumati River is a tributary of the Padma (Ganges) River, flowing through southwestern Bangladesh. It leaves the Padma just north of Kushtia and flows 190 miles (306 km) southeast before turning south across the Sundarbans to empty into the Bay of Bengal. In its upper course it is called the Garai. It leaves the Madhumati River (there called the Baleswar) northeast of Khulna city and flows 110 miles (177 km) south past Chalna and Mungla through the Sundarbans to the Bay of Bengal. In its upper course it is called the Atharabanki.

The river Madhumati is gradually losing navigability owing to emergence of shoals, it is learnt.

Thamma Shantidevi had three sons Anil,Pulin and Sudhir and two daughters Shreemati and sarala.

Shreemati settled with her family in north 24 Parganas and her only son Nitai Pada Sarkar is a reputed businessman in Kankinar Jagdal area. Sarala was a widow and used to live with us. She eloped with someone when I was only four or five years old. Father was liberal enough to take it easy but grand ma was shocked.

We had a joint family.

My father Pulin Biswas was a committed social activist and Uncle Sudhir was a medical practitioner. Hence her eldest son Anil used to look after the home and agriculture.

Father went to riot hit Assam in 1960.While he returned he sent my uncle Sudhir there as he was a doctor.

The refugees in Assam even in the latest generation remember them , I realised when I visited the refugee colonies in Burfak in Marigaon district of Assam in 2003.

My youngest aunt ( kakima) remained at home. She was like a friend to me as my eldest cusin Meera got married in 1961.Aunt Usha devi and Eldest aunt (jethima) looked after me as I was the eldest boy in the family.

Not only in the family or in the village, I got special treatment all over Terai as I used to accompany father evrywhere.

Later, I felt the same love everywhere in the Himalayan zone , Uttarakhand to Manipur. It is an achievement i may boast.

I was never close to my mother and she never had a space. Zethima belonged to the Harichand Guruchand family and she had the culture of Gopalganj on the bank of Madhumati.

Thus, the river always seemed to flow within me. Whenever I fly over Bangladesh to reach a place in the North East I peep through the window to invent the river Madhumati.

I have not touched the land of my anchestors in my life but the roots always speak for them.Even when I see a Taslima Nasreen, a Salam Azad or read Shamsur, Ilius, selina, Abu Bakar, Kabeer, Azad, Goon, Saha and the lot of them or read about the stance taken by the Intelligentsia Bangladesh in Favour of democracy, freedom,soveriegnity and secularism , I feel a relationship.

I am exicited to know that Narail happens to be a part of Tagore Zamidari and declassed and converted Tagores still inhabit the land forlorn.

Later I read the great fight in Jassore sector and on the bank of river Madhumati in the freedom struggle of 1971. Now I feel what inspired my poor father to visit the forbidden land so often. I may realize why my grandma and her generation, the partition victims of 1947 could not forget the rivers, the fields, the jungles, the boats, the fruits and the harvest.

My grand mother never used to bathe with water artificial. She needed flowing water as she had in Madhumati.Anytime she would get irritated and curse the partition which threw her in a desert where no river passes by. She would spend most of her time busy with cattle on the bank of a rivulet near the village. We have so many of them around us as the intense Jungle of Terai was just colonised. The jungle sustained itself near Lalkuan and gularbhoj.

I came to know about this when my father was facing trial for Dhimri Block Peasants Revolt of 1958.

I heard about this when a policeman came on cycle and reached the land settlement cooperative village committee president to locate and serve court summon to my father. He was away and I learnt at that very moment about the event and the arrest of my father. His hand was broken in the Rudrapur police station.

Father and his Kisan sabha comrades faced the trial for ten years in various courts including High Court Allahabad.

I was also present in a hearing in Nainital Colectriate and they lost the case. They were released on bail. I felt no difference .

It was in 1963 when I visited the hill station and was spellbound by the beauty.

We were a lot of children in our home.

Me, my real and cusin brothers and sisters had to be taught by a resident teacher Abani Kaku and a music master Brajen Babu.

When Abani Kaku returned home in west Bengal we Had Jeeban Mama and Radhikada.

We had to cross the river to go to the school in the nearby village Chittaranjan Pur. Officially it was a girl school where all children from the area were admitted.

Madam Christie, a beautiful young lady, used to live in a vacated quarter by Kundus who could not bear the migration and fled Bengal in 1960.

We used to go to the school with Madam christie in a procession.

It was alright in winter and summer but in the rainy season while the rivulet flooded, we had to cross the river on large pans meant for making suger cakes Gur with sugar cane juice near Arjun Pur, the Risikh Punjabi village where we used to visit for lanagar often.

Soon madam Chriestie was transferred. As my cousin Meeradi and her friends were married meanwhile,it was no more safe for we kids to cross the rivulets.

Madam Chriestie had a relationship with the primary teacher Pitambar Pant in the primary school Haridaspur, one KMaway fro our village on the Jafarpur Dineshpur Road.

Madam got us transferred to Haridaspur enmasse.

We had not any pucca road.

It was very difficult to cross the mud and water but we had to bear till 1983-84 when at last we got a link road.

After my marriage the bride refused to get down from the Zeep when it was entrapped in mud.

Freedom fighter and Father`s most intimate friend Ramjee Roy, who got rehabilitated in Fulsinga near Rudrapur as a freedom fighter, owned this Zeep.

We had another freedom fighter in Basant kumar Bannerjee from the famous Banaras Bannerjee family who was rehabilitated in Khanpur number One.

These people survive no more. but they had a great impact on my childhood.

Ramjee Roy fought the Loksabha Election from Nainital against KC Pant in 1967. Pant won that election with thumping majority, though we supported Roy. I accompanied him in his election campaign and he used to take me very seriously. Even in 1977 he was with me and against my father who supported Mrs Indira Gandhi.

Thamma, My granmother could not know the death of all those revulets, trees around as she died in seventy and Hripura Dam was built in Gularbhoj, some six miles upstream. We had enough fish for daily protein and enough water for our fields.

Father opted for electric tub wells and Tiwari helped in electrification. Tiwari as a finance minister of Uttar Pradesh inaugruated electricity in our village and I refused to write the welcome address as I was dead against Congress and its leaders including Tiwari and Pant. This prompted me to join Chipko and Uttarakhand movement in UP and Jharkhand movement in Bihar later.

Grand Ma was full of sweet memories which she shared with us.

Later,Prabhabati Devi, the mother of my aunt (Jethima) joined her in the family after the riots of 1964. Jethima Hemlata was her only child. She belonged to the famous Harichan Guruchand Family. The son of Guruchand Thakur, Pramatho Nath Thakur who was elected MP from Barasat deafting legendary dalit leader Jogendra Nath Mandal visited her sister, our didima in our village.

The two old ladies were engaged with the rustic East Bengal culture.

Orakandi, the centre of Matu Dharam was the home of Didima.

Orakandi is situated under Gopalganj Subdivision, the home of Banga Bandhu Mujib, in Faridpur District. gopalganj later became an independent district.

Folk poets like Vijay sarkar, Nishikant, Rasik, Rajen were discussed often.

Some of them visited us, too.

Grandma told us the stories of Ramayan and Mahabharat. She was very superstitious and I was very scientific as I had been influenced my doctor uncle who had been a technical wizard. We always made jokes of superstitions. I refused to do Pranam to the brahmins and Purohit in childhood and for this I had been thrashed often. In fact, the Bengali,English and Hindi literature made me an atheist who was in no mood to compromise. But I had to accompany Grandma whenever she visited a quack OJHA, KAVIRAJ, etc.I used to dishonour them openly and criticized their profession and said them that they were betrayers. Those rustic people in return loved me much .How strange it was.

We celebrated Gasi, the cultivation festival in the winter on Sankranti.The cattle were worshipped.

The old ladies organised the mela of Tennath for the health of cattle. They also dictated to worship the evil powers ghosts in our fields.

Basantipur is, in fact, a name of a great joint family of East Bengal refugees from Jassore, Khulna and Barishal. There were different caste, creed,culture and dialects. We have two Brahmin and a kayastha families among us. But we felt no discrimination. These people crossed the border and clubbed together and sustained the club in refugee camps and got the resettlement colony in Terai after the first mass movement in Terai in 1956 . The village formed and they named it on my mother`s name.

All festival were common. We had a sarbajaneen Durga Puja only In Dineshpur Bajar, the centre place of all 36 Bengal refugee colonies. There used to be a weekly Hat on satur day.

Dineshpur got a Junior High school which is now a government inter College, a primary health centre, a post office and an industrial trainig institute ITI with trades like electrical, fitter, welding, sewing,etc.

We children had the previllege to eat anywhere , sleep anywhere and play anywhere in the village as every home seemed to be a common property. We never felt any scarcity of love, passion,joy and sentiments. Those were abound.

All the old people were very nostalgic. They had fresh wounds which continued to bleed life long. They wept for the lost homeland.

It was very cold in winter and very hot in summer contrary to the average climate and weather in East Bengal. Food habits were different.

We learnt to eat bread only in mid sixties with the import of PL 40. But the revulets were full of water and fishes used to swim in. At that time the Sikhs and Punjabies did not eat fish neither the local population liked it. The Bengalies were the masters of all the revulets and fishing.

There was enough wood for cooking.We needed only clothing and Kerosine from the market.With emphasise on education we needed stationary and books, too.We had to study Bengali and English with mendatory Hindi. We had a Bengali school and a Jtara, folkdrama party.Basantipur is still famousin Uttarakhand for its folk activities. It celebrates the main function of Netaji jayanti in the district on every 23rd January.

Every one believed that India would be united once again as they felt the partition was political which meant nothing to them.

Even my father never accepted the border.

He never used a passport or visa and crossed the border anytime as if it was non existant for him.

He was arrested in Dhaka while participating a Bhasha Andolan procession.

He was once again arrested in 1971 when he demanded the merger of two Bengals as he felt it was the only solution of refugee problems.

Our village was constituted in 1956 along with two other villages Udai Nagar and Panchanan pur. Other villages in Dineshpur area were set up in 1952-54.

Narayan Dutta Tiwari won his first election in 1952 as a Praja socialist Party candidate defeating congress nominee Shyam Lal Verma from Haldwani assembly seat.

Pandit Nehru campaigned for verma in futile.

Tiwari first visited Lakhipur refugee colony in 1954 and since then he became the protagonist among Bengali refugees. He used to know everyone in this area by name. After the failure of Dhimri Block movement and because the CPI general secretary PC Joshi disowned the movement, Bengali refugees shifted their loyality to congress along with ND Tiwari who won the next assembly election fromKashipur in 1962 as a congress Nominee.

Bengali population remained his mobile vote bank in Kashipur and Haldwani.

KC Pant won the Loksabha seat from Nainital.

We had family relationship with both Tiwari and Pant.

Our village was deprived of voting rights. They voted in 1967 and it was against Tiwari.

Tiwari lost the election for which he began his campaign from our home.

The brother of Shaheed-e-Ajam Sardar bhahat singh Rajendra sandhu also tried his luck fro kashipur seat in 1969 on Jnasangh Ticket. As Atal bihari Vajpayee was the President of the party and he promised my father that the party would take up rfugee issue,we supported Sandhu.

THe mothre of the Shaheed came to our village and we were thrilled to see her face to face. We felt the warmth of the struggle for freedom.

We had a Kachhari Ghar with four varandahs which was full of music, jatra, folk, social and political activities . It was our guest house.

While the joint family disintegrated, at first this social centre degenerated.

Gassi has not been celebrated after the demise of Grand Ma.

We had festivals like doal, the Bengali Holi and Gajan, worshipping og Lord Shiva.

All these public festivals merged in Durga and Kali puja disintegrated.

Really, we are uprooted from tradition, culture and history.

We the unfortuanate lot!

We heard so much about Bhatiyali as SD burman sang on Vividh Bharati stimulatng the nostalgia of my people.

They were excited with Baulgan, Bhab Gaan and zaaree Gaan. Bhawaiya was in their blood. Ashtak gaan was a yearly affair.

I was very irritated whenever these people used to go back in reminicsence.

I used to ask why they left.

I wonder why they lost their land just to avoid conversion while they have no trace of their culture.

I treated Bangla nationality movement in East Bengal as it denied religion and preferred mother tongue as unifing spirit. And We have lost our mother tongue.

Now I know all about the partition saga and continued persecution of minorities in east Bengal. I sympathise with the flow of migrant people.

Now I realise how they overcome the calamity, an infinite tragedy haunting millions lifelong.

When I read about Pottery of Lohagara upazilas in Narail district is on the verge extinction due to the popularity of plastic made home appliances, it was a reminiscent of Grandma nostalgia once again.

Once, the villagers of the upazila used to make use of earthen made domestic devices for their daily necessary. The potters made pitchers, plates, pots and other household devices by their traditional hand made machines set in a particular room of their houses.

The potters were locally called as Paal.
The potters were of Hindu community.

Their main source of income were making household devices with soil and selling these to the village people.

The villagers used to buy their necessaries from the potters in exchange of different crops produced in their fields as most of the families in those days were fully depended on agriculture.

The potters came to the villages by carrying pottery.

In a bamboo made basket on head and used to attract the attention of the villagers by calling- “Rakhben Hari Patil, Thile…”

This call of the potters was familiar to the villagers.

In those days most of the potter families were well-off as the demand of soil made household devices in the villages even in the towns were very much popular. It is mentionable that the plastic made household devices were not available and was costly.

On the other hand, the household devices made by silver and other costly materials were out of the buying capacity of the village people. As a result, the villagers used it.

According to sources, a great number of pal (potter) families had been living in the different areas of the three upazila in the district for years as the water ways of the river Madhumati, Nabaganga, Chitra was convenient to bring their produces to another places. On the other hand a lot of Hindu families were living in the different areas of the district.

A good number `of pal families lived in Mohajon, Kumardanga, Doulatpur, Itna, Korfa, Laxmipasha, Lohagara villages in the district. Most of the villages are situated on the bank of the river Madhumati. In those days, it was a common sight to the local people that the boats full of earth made household devices were plying in the rivers.

But now the scenario has changed a lot. These types of boats are rarely seen in these rivers as popularity of plastic made household devices replaced the soil made devices. A large number of pal families have already left the country and who are living here have changed their professions.

Bangladesh slammed for persecution of Hindus , wrote Aziz Haniffafrom Washington, DC on November 02, 2006 and the bleeding touched me once again. She wrote:`The US Commission on International Religion Freedom slammed Bangladesh for continuing persecution of minority Hindus. It also urged the Bush administration to get Dhaka to ensure protection of religious freedom and minority rights before the next national elections in January.

In a new report titled 'Policy Focus on Bangladesh', released on Capitol Hill last week, the USCIRF, an independent, bipartisan federal agency funded by the US Congress, said that since its last election, 'Bangladesh has experienced growing violence by religious extremists, intensifying concerns expressed by the countries religious minorities'.

It noted that 'Hindus are particularly vulnerable in a period of rising violence and extremism, whether motivated by religious, political or criminal factors, or some combination'.

The commission, includes one South Asian American, former New York solicitor general Preeta Bansal, now an attorney with the New York-headquartered Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher and From.

'The position of Hindus has multiple disadvantages: perceived identification with India, an alleged preference for one of Bangladesh's two major political parties, and religious beliefs abhorred by Muslim fundamentalists', it noted.

The report said that in many instances, 'such violence appears aimed at encouraging Hindus to flee in order to seize their property in what is a desperately land-poor country'.

It recalled that during and immediately after Bangladesh's Parliamentary election in October 2001, 'there were numerous reports of illegal land seizures, arson, extortion, sexual assault, and intimidation of religious minority group members, particularly Hindus'.

The report, drawn up after commission members, including Bansal, visited Bangladesh, said that 'minority group representatives and human rights groups with whom the commission met ascribed these attacks to armed militant groups or to partisans of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is led by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

'As Hindus and other non-Muslims are popularly perceived to favor the Awami League, intimidating Hindu voters was viewed as a way to help to the BNP and its Islamic allies in the elections', it stated.

The Commission warned the lack of accountability for crimes reported against minority groups in the previous election promoted an atmosphere of impunity and for a renewal of violence against Hindus and other non-Muslims in the upcoming election.It said that during meetings with the commission, Hindus said they feared political manipulation of voter registration process that could have them excluded from voter rolls. They said government representatives administering the process overlooked minority neighborhoods.

'Hindu leaders with whom the commission met also described problems their children faced in gaining access to religious education in their own religion, as is supposed to be the case in Bangladesh's public education system', the report said.The commission urged the Bush administration to 'face up to the seriousness of the threat facing Bangladesh and to lead the international community in monitoring the January 2007 elections'.

It also called on Washington to urge Dhaka to prevent anti-minority violence during the election and to encourage the Bangladesh government to address religious extremism and violence.

The Hindu American Foundation applauded the report and commended the commission on the recommendations it submitted to the administration. The commission had invited the HAF as a respondent at a meeting it convened on Capital Hill to coincide with the report's release.Ishani Chowdhury, HAF's executive director, told rediff.com the commission's policy brief reiterates the foundation's concern about the situation of the minority Hindus in Bangladesh.
She said the commission's report was in concert with the HAF's detailed report on human rights violations in Bangladesh against minority Hindus.’
Torture Against Press In Bangladesh Continues , and the journalists represents well the spirit

Partition of India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Partition of India led to the creation on August 14, 1947, and August 15, 1947, respectively, of two sovereign states, upon the granting of independence to British India by the United Kingdom: the Dominion of Pakistan (later Islamic Republic of Pakistan); and the Union of India (later Republic of India). 'Partition' here refers also to the division of the Bengal province of British India into the Pakistani state of East Bengal (later East Pakistan, now Bangladesh) and the Indian state of West Bengal, as well as the similar partition of the Punjab region of British India into the Punjab province of West Pakistan and the Indian state of Punjab, in addition to the division of the British Indian Army, the Indian Civil Service and other administrative services, the railways, and the central treasury, and other assets.

The secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War is not covered by the term Partition of India, nor are the earlier separations of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Burma (Myanmar) from the administration of British India. Ceylon, part of the Madras Presidency of British India from 1795 until 1798, became a separate Crown Colony in 1798. Burma, gradually annexed by the British during 1826 – 86 and governed as a part of the British Indian administration until 1937, was directly administered thereafter. [1] Burma was granted independence on January 4, 1948 and Ceylon on February 4, 1948. (See History of Sri Lanka and History of Burma.)

The remaining countries of present-day South Asia include: Nepal; Bhutan; and the Maldives. The first two, Nepal and Bhutan, having signed treaties with the British designating them as independent states, were never a part of British India, and therefore their borders were not affected by the partition. The Maldives, which became a protectorate of the British crown in 1887 and gained its independence in 1965, was also unaffected by the partition.

Pakistan and India
Two self governing countries legally came into existence at the stroke of midnight on 15 August 1947. The ceremonies for the transfer of power were held a day earlier in Karachi, at the time the capital of the new state of Pakistan, so that the last British Viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, could attend both the ceremony in Karachi as well as the ceremony in Delhi. Pakistan celebrates Independence Day on August 14, while India celebrates it on August 15.

1920–1932

Train to Pakistan being given a warm send-off. New Delhi railway station, 1947
Train to Pakistan steaming out of New Delhi Railway Station, 1947.The All India Muslim League (AIML) was formed in Dhaka in 1906 by Muslims who were suspicious of the mainstream, secular but Hindu-majority Indian National Congress. A number of different scenarios were proposed at various times. Among the first to make the demand for a separate state was the writer/philosopher Allama Iqbal, who, in his presidential address to the 1930 convention of the Muslim League said that he felt a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated subcontinent. The Sindh Assembly passed a resolution making it a demand in 1935. Iqbal, Jouhar and others then worked hard to draft Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who had till then worked for Hindu-Muslim unity, to lead the movement for this new nation. By 1930, Jinnah had begun to despair of the fate of minority communities in a united India and had begun to argue that mainstream parties such as the Congress, of which he was once a member, were insensitive to Muslim interests. At the 1940 AIML conference in Lahore, Jinnah made clear his commitment to two separate states, a position from which the League never again wavered:

“ The Hindus and the Muslims belong to two different religions, philosophies, social customs and literature… To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority, must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built up for the government of such a state. ”

[edit] 1932–1942
However, Hindu organisations such as the Hindu Mahasabha, though against the division of the country, were also insisting on the same chasm between Hindus and Muslims. In 1937 at the 19th session of the Hindu Mahasabha held at Ahmedabad, Veer Savarkar in his presidential address asserted:[2]

“ India cannot be assumed today to be Unitarian and homogeneous nation, but on the contrary there are two nations in the main — the Hindus and the Muslims. ”

Rural Sikhs in a long ox-cart train headed towards India. 1947. Margaret Bourke-White.Most of the Congress leaders were secularists and resolutely opposed the division of India on the lines of religion. Mohandas Gandhi was both religious and irenic, believing that Hindus and Muslims could and should live in amity. He opposed the partition, saying,

“ My whole soul rebels against the idea that Hinduism and Islam represent two antagonistic cultures and doctrines. To assent to such a doctrine is for me a denial of God. ”

An old Sikh man carrying his wife. Over 10 million people were uprooted from their homeland and travelled on foot, bullock carts and trains to their promised new home.For years, Gandhi and his adherents struggled to keep Muslims in the Congress Party (a major exit of many Muslim activists began in the 1930s), in the process enraging both Hindu Nationalists and Indian Muslim Nationalists. (Gandhi was assassinated soon after Partition by Hindu Nationalist Nathuram Godse, who believed that Gandhi was appeasing Muslims at the cost of Hindus.) Politicians and community leaders on both sides whipped up mutual suspicion and fear, culminating in dreadful events such as the riots during the Muslim League's Direct Action Day of August 1946 in Calcutta, in which more than 5,000 people were killed and many more injured. As public order broke down all across northern India and Bengal, the pressure increased to seek a political partition of territories as a way to avoid a full-scale civil war.

[edit] 1942–1946

Viceroy Louis Mountbatten with a countdown calendar to the Transfer of Power in the backgroundUntil 1946, the definition of Pakistan as demanded by the League was so flexible that it could have been interpreted as a sovereign nation Pakistan, or as a member of a confederated India.

Some historians believe Jinnah (whose catch-phrase was that India would be "divided or destroyed") intended to use the threat of partition as a bargaining chip in order to gain more independence for the Muslim dominated provinces in the west from the Hindu dominated center.[3]

Other historians claim that Jinnah's real vision was for a Pakistan that extended into Hindu-majority areas of India, by demanding the inclusion of the East of Punjab and West of Bengal, including Assam, all Hindu-majority country. Jinnah also fought hard for the annexation of Kashmir, a Muslim majority state with Hindu ruler; and the accession of Hyderabad and Junagadh, Hindu-majority states with Muslim rulers.[citation needed]

The British colonial administration did not directly rule all of "India". There were several different political arrangements in existence: Provinces were ruled directly and the Princely States with varying legal arrangements, like paramountcy.

The British Colonial Administration consisted of Secretary of State for India, the India Office, the Governor-General of India, and the Indian Civil Service.

The Indian Political Parties were (alphabetically) All India Muslim League, Communist Party of India, Hindu Mahasabha, Indian National Congress, and the Unionist Muslim League (mainly in the Punjab).

[edit] The Partition: 1947

[edit] Mountbatten Plan

TIME Magazine October 27, 1947 cover depicting the partition of India. The caption says: “INDIA: Liberty and death.”The actual division between the two new dominions was done according to what has come to be known as the 3rd June Plan or Mountbatten Plan.

The border between India and Pakistan was determined by a British Government-commissioned report usually referred to as the Radcliffe Line after the London lawyer, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who wrote it. Pakistan came into being with two non-contiguous enclaves, East Pakistan (today Bangladesh) and West Pakistan, separated geographically by India. India was formed out of the majority Hindu regions of the colony, and Pakistan from the majority Muslim areas.

Countries of Modern Indian subcontinentOn July 18, 1947, the British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act that finalized the partition arrangement. The Government of India Act 1935 was adapted to provide a legal framework for the two new dominions. Following partition, Pakistan was added as a new member of the United Nations, The union formed from the combination of the Hindu states assumed the name India which automatically granted it the seat of British India as a successor state.[4]

The 625 Princely States were given a choice of which country to join.

[edit] Geography of the partition: the Radcliffe Line

An aged and abandoned Muslim couple and their grand children sitting by the roadside on this arduous journey. "The old man is dying of exhaustion. The caravan has gone on," wrote Bourke-White.The Punjab — the region of the five rivers east of Indus: Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej — consists of interfluvial doabs, or tracts of land lying between two confluent rivers. These are the Sind-Sagar doab (between Indus and Jhelum), the Jech doab (Jhelum/Chenab), the Rechna doab (Chenab/Ravi), the Bari doab (Ravi/Beas), and the Bist doab (Beas/Sutlej) (see map). In early 1947, in the months leading up to the deliberations of the Punjab Boundary Commission, the main disputed areas appeared to be in the Bari and Bist doabs, although some areas in the Rechna doab were claimed by the Congress and Sikhs. In the Bari doab, the districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Lahore, and Montgomery were all disputed.[5] All districts (other than Amritsar, which was 46.5% Muslim) had Muslim majorities; albeit, in Gurdaspur, the Muslim majority, at 51.1%, was slender. At a smaller area-scale, only three tehsils (sub-units of a district) in the Bari doab had non-Muslim majorities. These were: Pathankot (in the extreme north of Gurdaspur, which was not in dispute), and Amritsar and Tarn Taran in Amritsar district. In addition, there were four Muslim-majority tehsils east of Beas-Sutlej (with two where Muslims outnumbered Hindus and Sikhs together).[5]

Two Muslim men (in a rural refugee train headed towards Pakistan) carrying an old woman in a makeshift doli or palanquin. 1947.
A map of the Punjab region from 1947
The claims (Congress/Sikh and Muslim) and the Bounday Commission Award in the Punjab in relation to Muslim percentage by Tehsils. The unshaded regions are the princely states.Before the Boundary Commission began formal hearings, governments were set up for the East and the West Punjab regions. Their territories were provisionally divided by "notional division" based on simple district majorities. In both the Punjab and Bengal, the Boundary Commission consisted of two Muslim and two non-Muslim judges with Sir Cyril Radcliffe as a common chairman.[5] The mission of the Punjab commission was worded generally as: "To demarcate the boundaries of the two parts of the Punjab, on the basis of ascertaining the contiguous majority areas of Muslims and non-Muslims. In doing so, it will take into account other factors." Each side (the Muslims and the Congress/Sikhs) presented its claim through counsel with no liberty to bargain. The judges too had no mandate to compromise and on all major issues they "divided two and two, leaving Sir Cyril Radcliffe the invidious task of making the actual decisions."[5]

The communities in the disputed regions of the Upper Bari Doab in 1947.
[edit] Independence and population exchanges
Massive population exchanges occurred between the two newly-formed states in the months immediately following Partition. Once the lines were established, about 14.5 million people crossed the borders to what they hoped was the relative safety of religious majority. Based on 1951 Census of displaced persons, 7,226,000 Muslims went to Pakistan from India while 7,249,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from Pakistan immediately after partition. About 11.2 million or 78% of the population transfer took place in the west, with Punjab accounting for most of it; 5.3 million Muslims moved from India to West Punjab in Pakistan, 3.4 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from Pakistan to East Punjab in India; elsewhere in the west 1.2 million moved in each direction to and from Sind.[citation needed]

"With the tragic legacy of an uncertain future, a young refugee sits on the walls of Purana Qila, transformed into a vast refugee camp in Delhi." Margaret Bourke-White, 1947
A crowd of Muslims at the Old Fort (Purana Qila) in Delhi, which had been converted into a vast camp for Muslim refugees waiting to be transported to Pakistan. Manchester Guardian, 27 September 1947.The newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with migrations of such staggering magnitude, and massive violence and slaughter occurred on both sides of the border. Estimates of the number of deaths range around roughly 500,000, with low estimates at 200,000 and high estimates at 1,000,000.[6]

[edit] Punjab
This section requires expansion.

The Indian state of Punjab was created in 1947, when the Partition of India split the former Raj province of Punjab between India and Pakistan. The mostly Muslim western part of the province became Pakistan's Punjab Province; the mostly Sikh and Hindu eastern part became India's Punjab state. Many Hindus and Sikhs lived in the west, and many Muslims lived in the east, and so the partition saw many people displaced and much intercommunal violence. Lahore and Amritsar were at the center of the problem, the British were not sure where to place them - make them part of India or Pakistan. The British did make a decision to hand both cities to Pakistan, however, due to lack of control and regulation for the border Amritsar became part of India whilst Lahore became part of Pakistan.

[edit] Bengal
The province of Bengal was divided into the two separate entities of West Bengal belonging to India, and East Bengal belonging to Pakistan. East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan in 1955, and later became the independent nation of Bangladesh after the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971.

[edit] Sindh
 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (November 2007)

At the time of Partition there were 1,400,000 Hindu Sindhis; in a space of less than a year approximately 1,200,000 of them had left for India, leaving their property behind[citation needed].

[edit] Perspectives

A refugee train on its way to Punjab, PakistanThe Partition was a highly controversial arrangement, and remains a cause of much tension on the subcontinent today. British Viceroy Louis Mountbatten has not only been accused of rushing the process through, but also is alleged to have influenced the Radcliffe Line in India's favor since everyone agreed India would be a more desirable country for most.[7] [8] However, the commission took so long to decide on a final boundary that the two nations were granted their independence even before there was a defined boundary between them. Even then, the members were so distraught at their handiwork (and its results) that they refused compensation for their time on the commission.

Some critics allege that British haste led to the cruelties of the Partition.[9] Because independence was declared prior to the actual Partition, it was up to the new governments of India and Pakistan to keep public order. No large population movements were contemplated; the plan called for safeguards for minorities on both sides of the new state line. It was an impossible task, at which both states failed. There was a complete breakdown of law and order; many died in riots, massacre, or just from the hardships of their flight to safety. What ensued was one of the largest population movements in recorded history. According to Richard Symonds[10]

“ at the lowest estimate, half a million people perished and twelve million became homeless ”

However, some argue that the British were forced to expedite the Partition by events on the ground.[11], Law and order had broken down many times before Partition, with much bloodshed on both sides. A massive civil war was looming by the time Mountbatten became Viceroy. After World War II, Britain had limited resources[12], perhaps insufficient to the task of keeping order. Another view point is that while Mountbatten may have been too hasty he had no real options left and he achieved the best he could under difficult circumstances[13]. Historian Lawrence James concurs that in 1947 Mounbatten was left with no option but to cut and run. The alternative being getting involved in a potentially bloody civil war from which it would be difficult to get out[14]

Some have argued that much of the blame for the massacres lies with Pakistani nationalists such as Jinnah[15].

Conservative elements in England consider the partition of India to be the moment that the British Empire ceased to be a world power, following Curzon's dictum that "While we hold on to India, we are a first-rate power. If we lose India, we will decline to a third-rate power." The 'flick' of the pen with which Clement Atlee signed the independence treaty is, where remembered, considered sadly; not for the loss of India, but for the loss of what holding India meant.

[edit] Delhi Punjabi refugees
An estimated 20 million people - Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs - crossed the newly carved borders to reach their new homelands. These estimates are based on comparisons of decadal censuses from 1941 and 1951 with adjustments for normal population growth in the areas of migration. In northern India - undivided Punjab and North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) - nearly 12 million were forced to move from as early as March 1947 following the Rawalpindi violence. Delhi received the highest number of refugees for a single city - the population of Delhi grew rapidly in 1947 from under 1 million (917.939) to a little less than 2 million (1.744.072) between the period 1941-1951.(Census of India, 1941 and 1951). The refugees were housed in various historical and military locations such as the Old Fort Purana Qila), Red Fort (Red Fort), and military barracks in Kingsway (around the present Delhi university). The latter became the site of one of the largest refugee camps in northern India with more than 35,000 refugees at any given time besides Kurukshetra camp near Panipat. The camp sites were later converted into permanent housing through extensive building projects undertaken by the Government of India from 1948 onwards. A number of housing colonies in Delhi came up around this period like Lajpat Nagar, Rajinder Nagar, Nizamuddin, Punjabi Bagh, Rehgar Pura, Jungpura and Kingsway. A number of schemes such as provision of education, employment opportunities, easy loans to start businesses etc. were provided for the refugees at all-India level. The Delhi refugees, however, able to make use of these facilities much better than their counterparts elsewhere. [16]

[edit] Refugees settled in India
Many Sikhs and Hindu Punjabis settled in the Indian parts of Punjab and Delhi. Hindus migrating from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) settled across Eastern India and Northeastern India, many ending up in close-by states like West Bengal, Assam, and Tripura. Some migrants were sent to the Andaman islands.

Hindu Sindhis found themselves without a homeland. The responsibility of rehabilitating them was borne by their government. Refugee camps were set up for Hindu Sindhis. However non sindhi Hindus had very little help from the Government of India and many never received compensation of any sort from the Indian Government.

Photo of a railway station in Punjab. Many people abandoned their fixed assets and crossed newly formed borders.Many refugees overcame the trauma of poverty. The loss of a homeland has had a deeper and lasting effect on their Sindhi culture,it may be in decline in India.

In late 2004, the Sindhi diaspora vociferously opposed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court of India which asked the government of India to delete the word "Sindh" from the Indian National Anthem (written by Rabindranath Tagore prior the partition) on the grounds that it infringed upon the sovereignty of Pakistan.

[edit] Refugees settled in Pakistan
Refugees or Muhajirs in Pakistan came from various parts of India. There was a large influx of Punjabi Muslims from East Punjab fleeing the riots. Despite severe physical and economic hardships, East Punjabi refugees to Pakistan did not face problems of cultural and linguistic assimilation after partition. However, there were many Muslim refugees who migrated to Pakistan from other Indian states. These refugees came from many different ethnic groups and regions in India, including Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh (then known as "United Provinces of Agra and Awadh", or UP), Madhya Pradesh (then Central Province or "CP"), Gujarat, Bihar, what was then the princely state of Hyderabad and so on. The descendants of these non-Punjabi refugees in Pakistan often refer to themselves as Muhajir whereas the assimilated Punjabi refugees no longer make that political distinction. Large numbers of non-Punjabi refugees settled in Sindh, particularly in the cities of Karachi and Hyderabad. They are united by their refugee status and their native Urdu language and are a strong political force in Sindh.

First partition, 1905–1912
Main article: 1905 Partition of Bengal
Also see Indian Independence Movement

Map of Eastern Bengal and Assam Province, from Bengal Gazetteer, 1907-9The first instance of the name was during the British rule of India. British governance of large swathes of Indian territory began with Robert Clive's victory over the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The victory gave the British East India Company dominion over Bengal, which became the headquarters of British administration in the sub-continent. After the Indian rebellion of 1857 (known as the "Mutiny"), the British government took direct control away from the East India Co., and established its imperial capital at Calcutta, the city founded by the Company. By 1900, the British province of Bengal constituted a huge territory, stretching from the Burmese border to deep into the Ganges valley.

With the assumption of Lord Curzon to the office of Governor-General of India, British India was finally put under the charge of a man who considered himself an expert in Indian affairs. Curzon, seeing the logistical problems of administering such a large province, proposed to divide Bengal. Bengal, henceforth, would encompass Calcutta and the western territories, roughly comprising modern West Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. Eastern Bengal and Assam, the new province, would roughly encompass modern Bangladesh and the northeastern states of India (then all grouped under the heading of Assam, with its capital at Dacca).

While Curzon claimed the action was one merely founded upon administrative principles, the growing nationalist movement, which originated with the educated elite of Calcutta and the Bengali aristocracy, took the action as an attempt to cut off Bengal's Hindu intellectual leaders (based in Calcutta) from the majority Muslim agriculturalists of the east, dividing the nationalist movement along lines of class and religion. The partition of Bengal, effected in July 1905, sparked a firestorm in the nationalist movement. The partition was revoked in 1912, but it was accompanied by slicing off the non-Bengali portions of the province – creating two additional provinces, Assam and Bihar and Orissa (both themselves further subdivided after Indian independence) – and the shifting of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi.

In the now divided Bengal, East Bengal comprised an area of 196,540 sq. miles that included 18 million Muslims and 12 million Hindus. The (old) Bengal area had 141,580 square miles (366,700 km²) with a majority of 42 million Hindus and 9 million Muslims.

[edit] Second partition, 1947–present
Bengal was divided into two provinces on 3rd July 1946 in preparation for the partition of India - the Hindu-majority West Bengal and the Muslim-majority East Bengal. The two provinces each had their own Chief Minister. In August 1947 West Bengal became part of India and East Bengal became part of Pakistan. Tensions between East Bengal and the western wing of Pakistan led to the One-Unit policy. In 1955, most of the western wing was combined to form a new West Pakistan province while East Bengal became the new province of East Pakistan. This system lasted until 1971 when East Pakistan declared independence during the Liberation War of Bangladesh and the new nation of Bangladesh was formed. However Pakistan did not recognise Bangladesh until 1974, and diplomatic relations were established in 1976.

[edit] Government
The province of East Bengal was administered by ceremonial Governor and an indirectly-elected Chief Minister. During the year from May 1954 to August 1955, executive powers were exercised by the Governor and there was no Chief Minister.

Tenure Governor of East Bengal[1]
15th August 1947 - 31st March 1950 Sir Frederick Chalmers
31st March 1950 - 31st March 1953 Sir Feroz Khan Noon
31st March 1953 - 29th May 1954 Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman
29th May 1954 - May 1955 Iskandar Ali Mirza
May 1955 - June 1955 Muhammad Shahabuddin (acting)
June 1955 - 14th October 1955 Amiruddin Ahmad
14th October 1955 Province of East Bengal dissolved
Tenure Chief Minister of East Bengal[1] Political Party
3rd July 1946 - 15th August 1947 Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy Bengal Province Muslim L