Transcript in English

00:00 – 00:45

Question: Your name?

Answer: Satish Chandra Biswas.

Question: Date of birth?

Answer: October 10, 1943.

Question: Well, that means before partition?

Answer: Yes.

 Question: Where?

Answer: Faridpur District, present day Bangladesh, East Pakistan. Sub Division Gopalganj, in a village.

Question: It was still a part of India?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Do you remember anything about the war?

Answer: I don’t remember the war anymore. I was very young.

1:36 – 06:15

Satish Chandra Biswas: When we came here from Bangladesh, at that time we were in Gramganj, we came to Khulna and boarded the train. I remember coming to Khulna in a big boat… with some other migrating families from our village… with ten or twelve families. One day we came to Khulna and stayed at the railway station. Next day, as per government rules they checked all the documents and we went from Khulna to the Bangaon border…

Question: What kind of documents were checked?

Answer: “Migration” that my father or uncle…they were migrants. They were also elders…others… I had no knowledge about them then. As far as I remember we migrated…

 Question: Whom do you mean by “migrant”, did you use the word “migrant” then?

Answer: Yes. Because we had “migration”, so we were sent to the camp and those who didn’t have migration or those who didn’t have proper documents were not allowed in the camp at that time. The officers, called, holding a list. We came this way and many families from our village, like my cousins or others who were our relatives, like my son-in-law, also crossed over from Bangladesh to Khulna. Later, it was seen, that the steam engine that came from Khulna via Bangaon and dropped us at Sealdah was the first one I saw in my life. I remember that in Sealdah, ten to twelve families were brought to Howrah station by truck, and after taking a train from Howrah station, a refugee camp was set up in each district where the government had a place. We were also sent to a place in Medinipur. A place called Chandipur. We were sent there. But when we started to get on the truck… following the list, and when they [our relatives] boarded, it was seen that the relatives of our village … some were called later, while our names were called first… In this confusion, some relatives were also divided. I didn’t understand who was being sent where. We were young then. Later when we went to the refugee camp in Medinipur there was a huge empty space. We were kept in tents…many families whom I came to know … our relatives, my son-in-law too… Some of them went to another camp in Bankura, some went to a camp in Burdwan. At that time, the Central Government had one camp in each district and the experience after going to this camp, we were there under the tent… two tents. Those with small families had one tent each. Two tents were given to those who had more people in their families. In the empty space, on the empty ground. We had chiramuri, so we ate that.

Question: You did not get anything from the government?

Answer: The government did not give anything immediately.

09:35-10:33

Satish Chandra Biswas: Refugees were kept working in the camps and after all those bighas the land was cleared for a small amount of money. A large rock was cut to make a pond? Why was it done? There was like a canal between the town and the village. The water of this pond will come from there and the water of that pond will be used by the refugees, it was probably the thinking of the government. It is a large pond, meaning bare rock, not soil. The stones were cut and the ponds were dug by the refugees by cutting the trees and working tirelessly day after day.

11:15 – 12:25

Satish Chandra Biswas: There was a village. People from there are very few …, maybe refugees came some with vegetables, some with something else to sell… Someone used to come to sell chocolates, lozenges. Then the government said that those who want to go to school, there is a refugee camp school four kilometers away from there, have to get admission there because there was no school here. From there four kilometers we walked. I was admitted in class five then. I had studied in Bangladesh till class four.

Question: You must have remembered your childhood then? What are the memories of that side of Bengal?

Answer: Very good point. Let me talk about my childhood.

16:16-16:50

Satish Chandra Biswas: I was studying in class two then. At that time I saw that there was a school in the village next to our village. There was a school in our village too, but I didn’t study there. Some of the older boys in our village, in Four, Five, or Six… had a junior high school.

20:27-23:30

Question: What was the condition of the camps during the flood?

Answer: The officers who were in the camp used to tell us to stand like this. Make a small hole in the side. When water fell over the tent it would also fall to the side, if it falls to the side it will move away from us. The middle of the tent would not get wet. But still the soil in the middle… Then again they gave instructions, cut some soil from the side… I tell you… spades etc. were all supplied by the government. We didn’t bring any of it. By cutting the ground with the spade… each of us raised about a foot between the tents. After raising, we laid something on top of it. It was a really painful life. I really can’t explain.

Question: No, no. Still…

Answer: So, we somehow covered the ground with leaves, torn mats… I mean, even beggars don’t beg like we did (I shouldn’t say like that.) And those people helped us. They were quite cooperative. That’s how everyone studied from inside the tent. And my father, uncle, who were older, used to plow the field with a spade in the morning. A large pond was made. Then the camp was dismantled. The order from the government arrived that it will be made into a colony. Those who want to stay, such families were chosen. Those who had reached the age of fifty, were not to be kept there, but sent to another camps. My father was in his fifties at that time so he wasn’t placed there. In this way many families were shifted to other places.

31:57-35:00

Question: You must have lost a few months in your studies when coming here?

Answer: Yes I did. At that time admission was processed according to the season. That did some damage. Those of us who went to high school at that time… there was a peach road, and a huge forest to the left. From there we walked to school in groups. Some five, some six, some seven. As far as I remember, when I joined class five there was no one above class eight in our camp. So the older ones would go in one group, the younger ones would go in another group. I used to return like that when I came back too. This was the way to travel to school. But the high school was located in a camp that was a PL camp. Many camps were built by the government for those who did not have an elder son. All the families whose sons were under the age of eighteen were kept in that camp. A long long house. One family was kept in four houses. That high school was there for a month. They studied in that school. From there, many people got jobs and went out. I also know that children who studied there later became District Magistrates. Many things have happened. That’s how we studied. That’s how I studied from five to eight. Then we went to another camp. It was also a refugee camp. The forest has to be cleared there too. There was also a tent. In a word, they came from Bangladesh and cleared the forest and allowed them to stay. Just like Dandakaranya. I did not go, but heard that thousands of bighas of land had been cut in this way and refugees had been settled there. There are schools, colleges, mill factories…

36:25 – 37:54

Satish Chandra Biswas: The camp we moved to, the the pain of losing my relatives which… We did not know for two years where the uncles of our family disappeared, who took whom to which camp. Later, when we had tidied up a bit, set up the tent, my father started to find out who was in which camp. Some relatives were found, some are still unaccounted for. It is very painful. To this day, I have not found where my cousin’s sons are!

Question: Which camp did you find them in?

Answer: They were in Bankura, Vasudevpur camp… It was my son-in-law. He is a teacher. Later he came to Nadia and taught there for a long time. He is dead now. Then Burdwan… Some people were found in different places and many were not found. We still don’t know about them.

38:10 – 44:45

Satish Chandra Biswas: We had our School Finals then. Not yet called ‘Madhyamik’. From there we, father, uncle who passed the school finals… a list of them was published, that they will be taken to another place. And if there are elder sons then they will be given three kathas of land. There will be a house. Thus we were brought from there to Nadia district. We got three kathas of land.

Question: What did you do with the house you had there?

Answer: My grandparents were three brothers. My father was the eldest. The younger one stayed in Bangladesh to protect it. The three sons of Chota Thakurda, one remained, three came here. It went on like this. We didn’t go anymore. When ‘Bangladesh’ came to be in 1971, we almost left… We don’t know who got the money… but various uncles, various people of the village, ran shops here and there, they suffered a lot…

Question: Did you get in contact with them?

Answer: My uncle was contacted later. My father helped him.

Question: Were you in your home or the refugee camp then?

Answer: No when uncle came…

Question: The year?

Answer: In 1971 we came ‘home’ after many years. At that time I went to Nadia district, there was Sri Krishna College. I joined there. I studied there for one year. Then I got a job in the railways. There was a great need for jobs then.

Question: Where did you study? Which school? College? University?

Answer: We studied there in the camp school.

Question: Do you remember what the name was?

Answer: The name is… what school was it? Well anyway, I’m off then. A job was needed then. Let’s talk about father. Baba opened a ready-made cloth shop in the market. You have to live you know. That two and a half thousand rupees was a loan by the government and three kathas of land. My brothers were studying then.

Question: How many brothers?

Answer: We are five brothers. And three sisters – they are married.

Question: They were also in India?

Answer: My younger brother was born in India, in that first camp. So, since I was older, I had more responsibility. So I needed a job. Getting a job was not as difficult as it is today. Then I applied… I thought I came here and saw engines, steam engines and all, so I thought better get a job. So I got a job in the railways in ’64 in the Kharagpur Division. So I went there. Father and mother remained in Nadia district. While working at that time, father said that grandmother should be brought here. Bangladesh was still not established. So, I remember, my father brought my grandmother to the border with a bribe, in a basket on his head. Grandma was alive for another two or three years, I used to go home sometimes. I received my grandmother’s love. I was old by then.  Then the brothers started studying slowly, the middle one got a job. In this way slowly I got married in ’72. We got married on February 23rd. My wife got a job in the railways as a nurse. I got transferred here from Kharagpur after getting job. Then, slowly, my wife got promoted from ‘Sister’ to ‘Matron’ to ‘Officer.’ Assistant Nursing Officer, she was. I was also an electric driver, then became an inspector. We stopped working long ago. I finished my job in ’98. It’s been a long time.

46:20 – 49:30

Satish Chandra Biswas: When we were sent to different places from the camp, ten families here… ten families there…  camps started to be dismantled. Then how the government dismantled them… the camps were given to some of those who had an older son over eighteen years of age, with land and money. Now in West Bengal I have heard that in some places, those who do not have children, the elderly… some such families were kept alive by cash loans. They have nowhere else to go. Now there was no such thing in camps.

Question: No, not now. But those families, they are also somewhere like this…

Answer: Yes, about two or four families… like one established with my sister-in-law, who was a school teacher. There were two other families, they went to Dandakaranya but at another time… there was a place called Morichjhanpi where the gunfight took place. Many families were brought there, from where they were sent to the penitentiary. So they went there to Raipur… I found this family there, from our village. They are alright now. However, the grass land had to be cut to build houses. All the refugees did. But the government did nothing. They are pressured, they had to cut down the forest and make houses, land like this…

Question: Food from the government? Food and some…?

Answer: Yes, when we were in the camp, we got 10 or 12 rupees per month… At that time, the money wasn’t worth much. In fact, we could just afford rice, not even salt really. I remember, the small rice that is rice, what is it called? Small rice? So if the price of one kilo of rice is 10 rupees, then its price was 6 rupees. So I used to see my father carrying weight on his head. Because he had to bring up his boys. How to save? We had to buy oil, salt, etc. How? Very painful! Tears come to my eyes as I speak.

51:30 – 54:15

Satish Chandra Biswas: Oh, why did we come here? As far as I know, at that age, there were some atrocities in those places where Muslims were more and Hindus were less. I don’t remember everything from before – the time after my birth. But it happened. But I saw that there was a riot in such and such a place. Muslims on one side, Hindus on the other. We’re sitting at home listening to it. This person has been captured… that person got their throat cut. We realised it was very difficult to stay there. At that time, the educated people in the village said, if the children have to be brought up properly, then they should not stay here. But what do we do with the land? At that time no one bought our land out of fear. What will you buy? You have to leave everything behind. Thousands, crores of acres of land and tears had to be left behind. At that time, Muslims were like that, I heard. Later when the Government of India said, the door is open, migrants came as soon as they could. They came because the government gave the green signal. We came in batches, that is, 1952, ’53, ’54, as far as I remember till ’56, the largest number of refugees arrived in India. It is hard to imagine! What kind of days we have spent!