Transcript in English

Question: Your surname, is it anyway connected to your business?

Answer: Actually, in the olden days each business/skill was related to a particular caste and the work was carried out only by these groups or communities. For example, my community is ‘Basak’. Our community was engaged in producing bronze, brass, gold, silver utensils, jewellery and textiles for sarees. Similarly, different ‘categories’ of communities are from different castes. Like ‘Napits’ (barbers) cut hair, ‘Brahmins’ perform rituals, ‘Namasudras’…This form of caste divisions were clearly visible at that time. Everyone had their own distinct profession.

Question: Do you remember any particular song or poem that you had learnt as a child?

Answer: There was a form of poetry (mantra) that we used to have. This mantra has a history. By history I mean, if someone was bitten by a snake, there was a “goshai bari”, the ‘goshai’ (a head of a Vaishnav Akhra or religious meeting place) would help relieve the person of the snake’s venom. By this I mean, imagine if you were the one bitten by the snake, the goshai would not look at you. They would draw a picture of you, i.e draw a man or woman, then you would have to open any knots in your garments or hands. He would trace his hands over the portrait he drew of the victim. He would do this to see how far the venom had spread through the victim’s body. After this he would continuously tap the victim’s body to ‘bring down’ or nullify the venom while reciting that mantra. This was a common practice in my region.

Close to the partition when the ‘Goshai’s’ left the village, they had given this mantra to my paternal uncle. During the struggle for independence of Bangladesh this paternal uncle of mine was saved because he knew this mantra. The Muslims used to guard him to ensure his protection, they knew that without mantra he knew, they would be in a serious dilemma. Many people came to my uncle, sometimes ten to fifteen a day. During monsoon the numbers sometimes went up to twenty.

Question: Do you know this mantra?

Answer: No I don’t.

Question: In your village, or your mother’s village were there distinct differences between people for example, for being from genders or religions? In the community, were interactions free despite the divisions or do you feel that there were restrictions between the different groups?

Answer: To be very frank, there were restrictions. For example, I have seen for myself at our house, if a Muslim visited our home, they were never invited inside, at most they made to sit in the front patio. They were given a low stool or something similar to sit on. After they left the entire patio was washed down with water.

Question: What was the composition of your village like? Meaning, were there more Hindus or were there an equal number of Hindus and Muslims?

Answer: No, our village was entirely a Hindu one. However, all our surrounding villages were Muslim dominated. Though the Hindus had more control over this area.

Question: How was the relationship of your family with the Muslim families that lived close by?

Answer: We had a harmonious relationship with most Muslims that lived in our area, one of respect and love. They always depended on us. If there was ever a dispute among them that too was mediated by the Hindu elders. That is how peaceful the environment was at that time.

Question: When you came to India, which route did you follow?

Answer: When I came to India, legal migration to the country had started but I did not know about it. We had to run away from our homes and travel to India secretly. One of my brothers, his wife and I crossed the Rajshahi border to get to India. There were some brokers, they took three hundred rupees from us and helped us cross the Rajshahi border and then cross the Padma river to get to the other side.

Question: How long did it take you to get to the border?

Answer: It took us nearly eight to ten hours to reach the border. The transport system at the time was not as efficient. It took quite a long time to cross the river by ferry.

Question: At the border check post or after crossing the river on the ferry did you face any sort of interrogation from the guards?

Answer: No, they did not bother us much at the border checkpost. It was mostly because we crossed at midnight. Small boats were used to cross the Padma River. There would be people on the other side as well. When the people on the other side gave a signal, only then would the boat cross the river. Once we reached the other side, we walked for a long time and then stopped the night in a house. From there we took the bus to a place called Lalgola. We then took a train from there to get here. While we were on the train from Lalgola, a policeman caught us. He asked us where we had come from, and we told him that we had come from East Pakistan. They took us to the police station for a while and then let us go. The police asked us for money. In the evening, when a train arrived, the police had left and so we took the train to Sodepur. We stayed there at one of my paternal uncle’s homes.