The bridge on the Padma, a narrow stream that disgorges into the Ichhamati river to the east, is usually where small clutches of Chatra’s village folks, both Hindus and Muslims, gather in the evenings to spend a few pleasant moments – sip tea or light a beedi – before returning to the routines of life.
But on 6 July, the calm in leafy Chatra and its nearby sleepy villages, some 25 kms from the India-Bangladesh border, was shattered. A 3,000-strong horde of angry Muslims massed at the southern side of the bridge. A few thousand Hindus laid siege to the northern end. The face-off lasted a couple of hours.
Chatra’s Communal Fissures
A violent confrontation, with potentially tragic consequences, was averted when saner heads among the two communities in and around Chatra under Machhlandpur block of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, intervened to find ways and means to “talk things over”, a day after a Muslim mob set ablaze the house of a 17-year-old Hindu schoolboy in Magurkhali village in Baduria for allegedly posting a deeply offensive photograph on Facebook.
While a head-on clash was avoided, Chatra’s Hindus, at least 30 per cent of whom are Bangladeshi illegal immigrants who have settled in the village over the past 10-12 years, continue to nurse deep hatred for the Muslims and the political patronage they are said to be getting under a Trinamool Congress dispensation.
Babul Boral, who originally hails from Jhalukathi in Bangladesh’s Barisal district, said:
It was only a matter of time before this communal fissure would surface. Chatra is ringed by villages such as Rosui, Sholua, Pratap-para and Ghoshpur, which have a sizeable presence of Muslims who seem to be getting all the attention of the state government while we Hindu refugees from Bangladesh just about manage to make ends meetBabul Boral, immigrant, Barisal district, Bangladesh
As an afterthought, Boral wished “a confrontation had happened”. There was nodding approval from his party colleague Gopinath Das, a “son of the soil” Hindu.
Of Indian Citizenship and Dual Lives
Boral leads a dual life: He often visits Jhalukathi to meet his parents and a sibling who continue to live there. He settled with his family in Chatra some 12 years ago and works odd jobs to make a living with all the documentary trappings of an Indian citizen. He has procured an Aadhaar card, a PAN card and a voter identity card.
More recently, however, Boral has found in the BJP the “real” response to the Muslims’ assertiveness. He said:
Compared to the CPI(M), the Congress and the TMC, at least the BJP is speaking up in favour of Hindus, including those who have moved over from oyi paar (the other side).Babul Boral, immigrant, Barisal district, Bangladesh
While finding steady jobs is a problem that the Hindu immigrants do face, others of the ilk take to more innovative means of livelihood. Take for instance Nimai Mondal, who emigrated from Khulna, which is across North 24 Parganas, a few years before Boral, and took to assisting for a fee, Bangladeshi Hindus to cross over to West Bengal.
At the Chatra market and in his neighbourhood, he is better known as ‘Nimai Dalal’ – someone who helps these illegal border crossings.
Crossing Over From the Other Side
An “Indian citizen”, Mondal, who runs a poultry farm and owns a small garments store in Chatra, has not severed all links with his ancestral village in Khulna where four of his brothers continue to live. Mondal, who owns about 2 bighas of land in North Chatra, said:
I keep going back and forth to Khulna, but for the past three to four years, dalal operations and illegal border crossings have been badly hitNimai Mondal
Mondal’s political allegiance lies with the BJP.
While Mondal has made it good, other border dalals (brokers) have done even better, he said, pointing out the pink-painted two-storey house of Chatra’s “boro dalal” (the big broker), who he identified as Mahananda Mistiri, said to be a Bangladeshi Hindu immigrant.
When dalali thrived, Mondal would, as a “matter of principle”, not assist Bangladeshi Muslims to cross over the porous border.
Thanks to the dalals of Chatra and other border villages in the North 24 Parganas district, the population of Bangladeshi immigrant Hindus grew in leaps and bounds after 1971, continuing the Partition narrative of persecution and immigration.
The most visible form of the presence of Bangladeshi Hindus in the district, are the shanties along the train tracks running from Sealdah to Bongaon.
Living on the Edge
Living on the margins and faced with the constant danger of being run over by the suburban trains, the Hindu immigrants have, over the time, gravitated towards the BJP, though after their arrival in Bengal they took to supporting the CPI(M).
Organised under the banner of the Udbastu Kalyan Parishad (Refugee Welfare Council), the Bangladeshi Hindus initially sought refugee status. This move did not yield any positive result, though they now see a ray of hope in the Narendra Modi government’s decision to amend the Citizenship Act and conferring on them Indian citizenship.
Narayan Mondal, a member of the local Refugee Welfare Council, who earns about Rs 400 a day working as a raj-mistiri (mason), said:
We don’t have food in our bellies or clothes on our backs. Of course, some of us udbastus (immigrants) would be attracted by the citizenship bait. We have been used in the past and will be used now and in the future too.Narayan Mondal, Member, Refugee Welfare Council
Narayan came to West Bengal from Barisal about 25 years ago and has been living along the railway tracks in New Barrackpore near Madhyamgram.
No Light at the End of the Tunnel?
Over the past few years, several of the immigrants moved away from the risky environs of the rail tracks to purchase small plots of land in the thickly-populated towns of North 24 Parganas, losing themselves in the vast multitudes of people. But most of the “rail track refugees” live on the edge.
Near Madhyamgram station, a group of men are busy playing auction bridge under a tarpaulin shed as local trains speed past.
The women cook in the shanties or spread out wet clothing on the tracks for them to dry. Unemployed young men idle away time on the tracks.
“Our future is certainly bleak, but if Muslims so much as touch us, we will certainly fight back,” said Bipul Haldar, who lived in Barisal before crossing over the border some 30 years ago, said adding, in reference to the communal violence in Baduria and Basirhat, “okhane jerom Mussalmaner attyachar hoto, ekhaneo tayi hochhe (we faced atrocities by Muslims there and we are facing the same here too)”.
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