Sekhar b Changing Borders

Asian Studies Institute Victoria University of Wellington 610 von Zedlitz Building Kelburn, Wellington 04 463 5098 [email protected] www.vuw.ac.nz/asianstudies

Changing Borders, Shifting Loyalties: Religion, Caste and the Partition of Bengal in 1947

Asian Studies Institute Working Paper 2 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay ISSN: 1174-5991 ISBN: 0-475-11047-1 Originally published 1998

Abstract When, for the second and final time, the British province of Bengal was partitioned in 1947 to become parts of two independent nation states, Pakistan and India, social and political alignments in this region also began to change. This indicated very clearly that there was nothing 'essential' about community boundaries in colonial South Asia; these were constructed by collective imagination influenced by the specific historical context. So as the context changed and the prospect of a new politico-geographical boundary threatened to divide the communities living in the 'borderlands', the community boundaries also began to shift, new loyalties were born and new alliances made.

This paper seeks to show this process by focussing on two specific lower castes, or 'Scheduled Castes' (as they were known in British Indian official parlance), who lived in the border areas between East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and the West Bengal state of the Union of India. They maintained since the early twentieth century their distance from high caste Hindus and their politics and, often in alliance with Muslims, opposed them actively. But this social and political alignment suddenly began to change on the eve of the Partition, as the Hindu political organisations now successfully appropriated the Scheduled Castes in their political battle against the Muslim League and its Pakistan demand. This paper seeks to understand how, in the context of Partition politics, 'religion' replaced 'caste' as the defining criterion for community boundaries in the collective imagination of the Scheduled Castes.

Introduction The two most important communities which dominated Scheduled Caste politics in colonial Bengal were the Namasudras and the Rajbansis. The Namasudras, earlier known as the Chandals of Bengal, lived mainly in the eastern districts of Dacca, Bakarganj, Faridpur, Mymensingh, Jessore and Khulna. When these districts were ceded to East Pakistan, the inhabitants were forced to migrate across the new international boundary to the state of West Bengal in India. At the same time, a section of the Kochs of northern Bengal, living in the districts of Rangpur, Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and the Princely state of Cooch Behar, came to be known as the Rajbansis from the late nineteenth century. Of those districts, Rangpur and parts of Dinajpur went to East Pakistan, while the rest remained in West Bengal. In other words, so far as the Namasudras and the Rajbansis were concerned, the international political boundary that came into existence in 1947 did not correspond by any means to ethnic boundaries, and resulted in the uprooting of these two groups of people from their territorial anchorage. Incidentally, according to the 1901 Census, the Rajbansis and the Namasudras were the second and third largest Hindu castes respectively in the colonial province of Bengal. [1 [1]

Both of these two groups were considered untouchables among the Hindus of Bengal. Although untouchability per se was not as limiting a problem in this as in other parts of India, the Namasudras and the Rajbansis suffered from a number of disabilities, which created a considerable social distance


by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay between them and the high caste Bengalis who dominated Hindu society. Hence, when as a result of land reclamations in eastern and northern Bengal in the late nineteenth century, these two groups of people both experienced some amount of vertical social mobility, they proposed creating their own distinctive community identities. Among the Rajbansis, a caste association was formed in 1891 to claim a Kshatriya (warrior) status for themselves. The Namasudras had their first organisation in 1902 and they demanded a Brahmin status. Eventually, in the early twentieth century, these social claims were transformed into political demands for separate representation in the legislature, reservation of jobs in public services and seats in educational institutions. These demands were not just expressions of political self-interest, but were based on a different ideological construction of colonial rule and a different perception of history from those which existed around them. As the Hindu nationalists began to invoke a glorious Hindu past as an inspiration for nation building, these people at the bottom of the social hierarchy began to look at the present as an improvement over the darker past. They regarded British rule as a good thing, seeing it as having overthrown the codes of Manu [2] and establishing equality in an otherwise hierarchical society. The nationalist movement, therefore, appeared to them to be an attempt to put the clock back - an endeavour by the higher castes to restore their slipping grip over society. [3] In 1906, a Namasudra resolution stated very clearly that "simply owing to the dislike and hatred of the Brahmins, the Vaidyas and the Kayasthas, this vast Namasudra community has remained backward; this community has, therefore, not the least sympathy with them and their agitation ...". [4] In 1918 the Namasudras and the Rajbansis in a joint meeting demanded unequivocally the principle of "communal representation" to prevent "the oligarchy of a handful of limited castes". [5] And when this was finally granted in the Communal Award of 1932, the leaders of both these communities greeted it as "a political advantage unprecedented and unparalleled in the constitutional history of India". But Gandhi, anxious to maintain the political homogeneity of the Hindu community, stood in their way. When Ambedkar finally succumbed to his moral pressure to sign the Poona Pact, the Rajbansi and Namasudra leaders condemned it as "Dr Ambedkar's political blunder" ; for, by taking away the privilege of a separate electorate, it "ultimately led ... to the political death of millions of people at the hands of the so-called caste Hindus". [6] This alienation from the caste Hindus and their politics, it needs to be emphasised here, was not just confined to the leaders of these communities; it was common among the peasant masses too. Sometimes this alienation took the form of violent confrontation, particularly as the Namasudra peasants got involved in bazaar looting, house breaking and, in alliance with the Muslims, socially boycotting the high caste Hindus. In the case of the Rajbansis, passivity was the more dominant form of expression of their alienation, although from time to time they too participated in shop looting and no-rent campaigns against their high caste zamindars. [ 7] The peasants of these two castes refrained from participating in Congress-led mass political agitations like the Non-Co-operation, Civil Disobedience and Quit India movements, led by Gandhi, because they were under the hegemony of the caste Hindu leaders. And then, finally, in the election of 1937 both Namasudra and Rajbansi voters rejected the Congress and the Hindu Sabha candidates and elected their own caste leaders in all the Scheduled Caste reserved constituencies. [ 8] The process of alienation seemingly came to a conclusion with Dr B.R. Ambedkar forming the All India Scheduled Caste Federation in 1942 and declaring that "the Scheduled Castes are distinct and separate from the Hindus ...". The following year, its Bengal branch was started by a few enthusiastic Namasudra and Rajbansi leaders, their avowed political goal being to establish "the separate political identity" of the Scheduled Castes. [9] The above description gives a picture of a divided Hindu society in the countryside of northern and eastern Bengal - a rather familiar picture to be found in practically every other part of India as well. This self-distancing of the lower castes from the dominant high caste Hindu social and political organisations, described by some as 'alienation', condemned by others as 'separatism', is a well-known phenomenon - indeed, this has become a cliché in India's colonial social and political history. But what this familiar ascription does not make clear is that in the 1940s, i.e., immediately before the Partition, the lower caste peasantry, particularly in the border districts, showed remarkable signs of integration as well. So far as Bengal is concerned, there are strong indications suggesting that, at a general level, the Namasudra and Rajbansi masses at this stage were developing a greater identification with the Hindu community, and that this Hinduisation was gradually overshadowing their caste identity. The existing literature on communalism in Bengal either ignores this phenomenon totally, or fails to fathom its real extent and significance. [10] The present paper is a humble attempt to fill that gap.


by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay

Alienation or Hinduism?

The articulation of the Hindu identity of the lower caste peasantry in Bengal during the last phase of colonial rule was to a large extent the result of deliberate endeavours of the various Hindu religious organisations. For example, the Hindu Mission from the 1930s on clearly realised that in order to thwart what it conceived to be the Muslim threat, it was essential to mobilise the lower caste segments of the Bengali Hindu population. [11] From December-January 1934-1935, Swami Pranabananda of the Bharat Sebashram Sangha started working among the Namasudras, Paundra-Kshatriyas and other Scheduled Caste villagers in the four districts of Jessore, Khulna, Faridpur and Bakarganj. From 1938 he intensified his efforts to organise the Hindu community of eastern Bengal in a more militant way and the keynote of his message was to mobilise the untouchables and the lower castes so that instead of defecting from the Hindu camp they could enhance its muscle power. [12] Throughout 1938, the Mission actively worked to uplift poor Namasudras in areas like Perojpur in Bakarganj district or Nawabganj in Malda. [ 13] The efforts continued into the 1940s with the active assistance of such prominent Scheduled Caste leaders as Patiram Roy of the Paundra-Kshatriya caste, who addressed 'Backward Class Hindu Conferences' organised by the Sangha, where issues like conversion and suddhi [14] were discussed along with the problems of spreading primary education. [15] However, most crucial in this respect were the endeavours of the All India Hindu Mahasabha. Ever since it started functioning in Bengal, it had targeted the lower caste peasantry for political mobilisation. Around 1924, it made contact with the Rajbansis in northern Bengal, particularly with their charismatic leader Rai Sahib Panchanan Barma. Ultimately, however, this alliance did not bear any fruit. [16] Then, from 1939-1940 the Mahasabha again renewed its efforts towards mobilisation of the Scheduled Caste peasantry in Bengal. The formation of the Shyama-Huq ministry in December 1941 with the support of the majority of Scheduled Caste legislators brought the two groups closer. Consequently, in the course of the next five years, the Mahasabha built up an intricate network of rural branches in areas which had considerable concentrations of Scheduled Caste populations. [17] Around this time Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the key figure in the Mahasabha organisation, was in close contact with local level Scheduled Caste leaders like Krishnapada Samaddar who, under Mukherjee's advice, was trying "to remove the separationist [sic] mentality from the scheduled caste people" . They were being "made to feel that they are integral part of the Hindu society. Before all else they are Hindus" . In western Bengal, the Paundra-Kshatriya Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), Patiram Ray, was acting as the liaison between Mukherjee and such local leaders as Samaddar. [18] In eastern Bengal, Upendranath Edbar, the Scheduled Caste MLA from Bakarganj, was receiving money from the Hindu Mahasabha "to organise the scheduled caste people" . [19] At meetings he explained "the present position of the Bengal ministry [Nazimuddin] and their misdeeds" and preached "the dire necessity of the Hindu Sangathan [organisation] among the Hindus" . And such gatherings, as he reported back to the Mahasabha President, "highly appreciated" his views. [20] At this stage, apart from such individuals, even organisations like the Dacca Namasudra Samiti appear to have been eager to maintain a cordial relationship with Mukherjee and through him also perhaps with the Mahasabha. [21] The impact of such organised efforts to articulate Hindu identity among the Scheduled Castes can be identified in the communal riots that subsequently broke out between the Namasudras and the Muslims. There had been series of frenzied riots between the two communities in the past; but those were of a more secular nature, centring around land disputes, protection of women or the honour of the community - rarely was there any overt use of religious idioms. And simultaneously with confrontation there was co-operation as well. [22] But the situation began to change from the 1940s as, arguably due to Hindu Mahasabha influence, the Namasudras now began to confront the Muslims not simply as Namasudras, as they did previously, but as Hindus as well. After the election of 1937, when the leaders of the Namasudra and Muslim communities were coming to a political adjustment and the first coalition ministry under Fazlul Huq had started functioning smoothly, their followers in the eastern Bengal countryside got involved in a series of violent riots in Faridpur, Mymensingh and Jessore between February and April 1938. [23] Though rioting had been entirely due to local initiative of the peasants of the two communities over such issues as disputes


by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay over cattle or demarcation of land, the Hindu Sabha decided to take up the issues and make them items for a propaganda campaign. In an organised way rumours were spread, particularly in Jessore, that temples had been desecrated and images broken and an Assistant Secretary of the organisation was sent to the troubled area to conduct an enquiry on the spot. [24] Religious emotions were thus fermented in a conflict which initially had nothing to do with religion. During the subsequent years the relationship between the two communities continued to be tense. This was particularly so in the Faridpur and Jessore-Khulna regions, [ 25] where the two communities had often been involved in violent frictions in the past. The causes of the recent conflicts remained the same but some changes in the communities' collective mentalities were visible at the same time. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, during this period, was addressing meetings in the eastern Bengal countryside and was pleading for "Hindu unity and political resistance to communal demands of the Muslims" . [26] In areas like Jessore and Narail where many Namasudra lived, events like 'All Bengal Hindu Day' on 4 August 1940 was observed with success. [27] While speeches during this period increased Hindu militancy around the demand for Akhand Hindustan, [28] the Muslim League propaganda "more forcibly impressed on the minds of the Muslims" the demand for a Muslim state in Pakistan. [29] It was during this period that we witness what a recent historian of communal riots in Bengal has called "the transition to a new phase" which ultimately led to "the convergence of elite and popular communalism" . [30] The most authentic representation of the new mood was perhaps the Dacca riot of 18-21 March 1941. The Namsudras and the Muslims of other regions could hardly remain unaffected by this new high pitch of politicised communalism. At the same time as the Dacca riot, and a short way away, another riot broke out in Khulna on 20 March 1941 in which "one Namasudra Hindu village and one Moslem village [were] burnt to the ground" . [31] We know nothing more about this riot; but its timing and location perhaps suggest that it was not caused by any land dispute or quarrel over cattle. The year of 1942 passed off rather peacefully, so far as communal violence was concerned, as the attention of the entire nation was focused on the Quit India movement. But the Mahasabha attempts to Hinduise the social identity of the Scheduled Castes did not cease and local Mahasabha leaders continued to make use of minor issues to sensitise the relationship between the Scheduled Caste and Muslim peasants. [32] The result was that in June 1944 the Namasudra and Muslim mobs in Bagerhat in the district of Khulna openly confronted each other with such highly politicised communal slogans as "Hindu sakti ki jay" [Victory to Hindu power], "Shyama Prasad jindabad" [Long live Shyama Prasad] and, on the other hand, "Muslim sakti ki jay " [Victory to Muslim power] and "Shyama Prasad dhansa houk" [Let Shyama Prasad be destroyed]. The local officers in Khulna had good reason to believe that the ill-feeling between the two communities had been "instigated by the organisers of the Hindu Mahasabha" . [33] This incident is certainly indicative of a new feature of Namasudra-Muslim relations in the area, where local frictions over agrarian disputes were fast being tagged on to the wider political conflict between the two religious communities. As was evident from their vindication of Hindu power, the identification of common Namasudra villagers with the Hindu community in this region was perhaps no longer a distant dream for the Hindu Mahasabha. By contrast, the Rajbansi areas in northern Bengal remained relatively free of communal trouble, but certainly not of Hindu communal sentiments. At one time, in fact, the 'Dangdhori Mao' or the club-wielding mother, had become the rallying symbol for Rajbansi communal mobilisation, ostensibly to protect the honour of their women against imagined Muslim threats. [34] The Rajbansis too thus seemed to have been influenced by the dominant Hindu communal discourse of the time, in which women appeared to symbolise the honour of the community and Muslims were portrayed as ever prepared to violate Hindu women in order to trample the honour of that community. [35] The Hindu-Muslim communal divide was no longer just a high caste elite affair in the mid-1940s.

Partition

However, the main issue around which this communal-political polarisation was taking place was the Pakistan demand of the Muslim League. At a meeting at Agra in March 1946, Ambedkar had announced his support for the League demand, "Muslims are fighting for their legitimate rights and they are bound to achieve Pakistan" . [36] About a month later, in a press interview, he justified his


by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay demand for separate villages for the Scheduled Castes. This would not amount, he thought, to an encroachment on the rights of any other party. There were large areas of cultivable waste land lying untenanted in the country which could be set aside for the settlement of the Scheduled Castes. [37] The echoes of this demand could be heard from distant places. In the Central Provinces some of the Scheduled Castes started talking vaguely about a 'Dalistan'; [38] and in northern Bengal a few Rajbansis, supported by the Scheduled Caste Federation leader Jogendranath Mandal, raised the demand for 'Rajasthan' or a separate Rajbansi Kshatriya homeland. [ 39] But the majority of the Scheduled Castes in Bengal, the Rajbansis included, seemed to be on the exactly opposite pole. Their responses to the partition issue clearly show that they had completely identified themselves with Hindu sentiments and apprehensions on this matter. The Hindu Mahasabha, though initially committed to opposing any partition of Akhhand Hindustan, eventually accepted it after the outbreak of communal violence and concentrated on retaining the predominantly Hindu majority areas within the Indian Union. [40] It appointed, in February 1947, a Working Committee to report on "the feasibility and desirability of having a separate province for securing a homeland for Bengal Hindus" . [41] Following this on 6 April the Mahasabha workers at a conference at Tarakeswar resolved to start a movement in east Bengal for "retaining East Bengal province ... within the Indian union" . [42] But as it appears, even before this meeting a movement had already been launched in the eastern Bengal countryside for building up public opinion in support of the proposed Bengali Hindu homeland. A survey of public opinion by Amrita Bazar Patrika in early May showed that an overwhelming proportion (98%) of Bengali Hindus supported partition. [43] The Scheduled Caste population of the province could hardly insulate themselves from this popular euphoria that Hindu Mahasabha had created. And particularly the Namasudras of eastern Bengal and the Rajbansis in the north could hardly afford to remain aloof, as the proposed partition plan concerned them in a very direct way. In Bakarganj district on 3 April 1947, a joint meeting of the Jhalakati Subdivisional Congress Committee and the Subdivisional Hindu Mahasabha resolved to demand the creation of "a separate Province ... comprising the Hindu majority areas of Bengal" which would remain "an integral part of the Indian Union" . The new province, it was demanded, should "include the Barisal Sadar Subdivisions (North & South) and the Perojpur Subdivisions of the District of Bakarganj" [44] where the Namasudras constituted the largest Hindu caste group. A month later on 4 May the Goila Union Hindu Mahasabha held another meeting where identical resolutions were passed unanimously. [ 45] On the same day, in the Gournadi Police Station area of Bakarganj district, there were two other meetings at Tarkibandar and Ramshidhi Bazar. At both places resolutions were passed in favour of partition and inclusion of the Hindu majority areas of Bakarganj and Faridpur into a new province for Bengali Hindus. The meetings were attended by people from a number of villages of the Gournadi Police Station area [46] - where a large segment of the population were Namasudras. In neighbouring Faridpur, the Scheduled Caste population was more directly brought into this propaganda campaign. On 6 May a "meeting of the scheduled caste inhabitants of the Gopalganj subdivision of Faridpur District" was held at the village of Tuthamandra. The meeting was attended by "several thousand villagers" and was addressed by fifteen speakers, all of whom except one belonged to the Scheduled Castes. It resolved to support partition, since there was "no other remedy" for the threats to the "life, property, honour and culture of the non-Moslems of this province" , and demanded that the Gopalganj sub-division should be united with Khulna and attached to the new province of West Bengal. [47] In the same Gopalganj sub-division, another "very largely attended meeting of the Scheduled Castes" was held at Boultali on 12 May and it again adopted identical resolutions. [ 48] In Khulna the extent of Scheduled Caste mass participation in the partition campaign is unknown to us. However, in this district a "conference of the leading members of the Scheduled Caste community" was held at Khulna town on 3 May. It demanded "the creation of a separate province called West Bengal Province under the Central Indian Union" . [49] On the following day, the same resolution was adopted again at Bagerhat town at another meeting of the Scheduled Castes of the Bagerhat subdivision. [50] The Hindu militancy among the Namasudras of this region we have already noted. To some politicians in Bengal, however, partition of the province was still unthinkable. It was at this juncture on 22 May that Sarat Bose, now an isolated figure in the Bengal Congress, and Abul Hashim, of the Bengal Muslim League, released to the press their proposal for the formation of a free united Bengal. The campaign was then taken up by Suhrawardy and his followers in the Bengal Muslim League. Among their other supporters was Jogendranath Mandal, the President of the Bengal Provincial Scheduled Caste Federation. [51] The Working Committee of the Federation resolved on 14


by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay May that "the division of the province into Hindu and Muslim Bengal ... [was] no solution of the communal problems" . It would "check the growing political consciousness and ruthlessly crush the solidarity of the Scheduled Castes of Bengal ... While the Scheduled Castes of Eastern Bengal ... [would] be at the mercy of the majority community [Muslim], the Scheduled Castes of Western Bengal ... [would] be subject to perpetual slavery of the caste Hindus. Hence the Scheduled Castes of this province ... [could] not be a party to such a mischievous and dangerous move ..." . [52] Both Suhrawardy and Mandal at this stage were claiming that the Scheduled Caste Hindus were not in favour of the partition of Bengal, as demanded by the Hindu Mahasabha. [ 53] The actual situation in the interior, however, suggests that the majority of the Scheduled Castes, particularly in eastern and northern Bengal, had identified themselves with the sentiments whipped up by the Mahasabha and had rejected the leadership of Jogendranath Mandal. On 21 June 1947, a meeting at Sreeramkathi High School compound in Nazirpur Police Station of Bakarganj district was "attended by thousands of people specially of Scheduled Caste communities" . The meeting resolved that the north-western portions of Bakarganj district, along with the contiguous areas of Gopalganj sub-division, Rajair and Kalkini Police Stations of Faridpur, "being predominantly Hindu Areas wherein the Scheduled castes are majority, ... should be included in the West Bengal Province for the cultural, religious and economic advancement of the Scheduled Castes who in no case would submit to the rule of the Muslims" . The meeting further resolved that "the Scheduled Caste Hindus of the area have no confidence in the leadership of Mr. Jogendranath Mandal ... because of his surrender to the Muslim League ..." . [54] Another meeting on 22 June at Jalabari School compound in Swarupkathi Police Station of Bakarganj resolved that along with the above mentioned regions, "the Northern portions of Pirojpur subdivision ... being predominantly Hindu Majority areas" should also be included in the province of West Bengal. The other resolution passed in the meeting registered a lack of confidence of the Scheduled Castes of the area in the leadership of Jogendranath Mandal. [ 55] On the same day another "Public Meeting of the People of Pirojpur P.S. North" held at Rayerkathi School compound adopted unanimously the same resolutions. [56] All these three meetings, like the other pro-partition meetings mentioned earlier, were presided over by local Scheduled Caste leaders who had never been prominent in institutional politics. But on the other hand, the identical wordings of the resolutions adopted in three different meetings held simultaneously at three different places also indicate some amount of organisation and planning to mobilise public opinion among the local Scheduled Caste population. Their counterparts in northern Bengal identified themselves with the same sentiments and apprehensions. At a meeting in Jalpaiguri in May 1947, attended by 500 delegates from all the districts of the Rajshahi division, the Rajbansi leader Upendranath Barman described the Sarat BoseSuhrawardy scheme of united independent Bengal as "a great political trap" for the Hindus. [57] One month later, a "meeting of the Scheduled Caste Rajbansis of Dinajpur" , held at Thakurgaon on 22 June, demanded that "the Districts of Dinajpur, Malda and such portions of Rangpur which are predominantly inhabited by the Rajbansis ... be included in the new Province of West Bengal ..." . The meeting was presided over by a not very well known Rajbansi leader, indicating that there was local initiative to remain in the Hindu province to preserve what they described as "the linguistic, social and cultural unity of the Rajbansi community as a whole" . [58] All these meetings in the villages of eastern and northern Bengal reveal a new mentality which recognised caste only as a microcosm within the greater Hindu identity. At the institutional level also, most of the Scheduled Caste MLAs had already accepted this integrationist position. This became clear when the partition issue was put to the vote in the Bengal Legislative Assembly on 20 June 1947. Rup Narayan Roy, the Rajbansi Communist MLA from Dinajpur did not vote, like Jyoti Basu of his party. Four other Scheduled Caste members from eastern Bengal also voted with the Muslims. The rest of the Scheduled Caste MLAs voted for the Congress-Mahasabha scheme to keep West Bengal as a Hindu majority province within the larger political entity, India. [ 59]

Outcomes

But the partition which ultimately came in the midnight of 14-15 August 1947 did not help the Scheduled Caste masses. Many prominent groups like the Namasudras and the Rajbansis lost their territorial anchorage and, contrary to their hopes and in spite of their pleas, most of the Namasudrainhabited areas in Bakarganj, Faridpur, Jessore and Khulna, like the Rajbansi areas of Dinajpur and


by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay Rangpur, went to East Pakistan, instead of West Bengal. The post-partition violence, as F.C. Bourne, the last British Governor of East Bengal reported in 1950, left many of them with "nothing beyond their lives and the clothes they stand up in" . [60] This compelled many of them to migrate as refugees to India, where being uprooted from their traditional homeland they had to begin once again their struggle for existence. In the early 1950s, in the border districts of West Bengal the Namasudra refugees were involved in violent strife with locally entrenched groups like the Goalas and Muslims and desperately tried to acquire a foothold in the area. [61] Thus, social mobility which they had achieved in the course of the previous 75 years was undone and the strength of their social movement was sapped. But what the partition movement indicated, and the post-partition behaviour of the Scheduled Caste peasants in West Bengal confirmed, was their integration into the mainstream of Bengali Hindu society, of which they have remained part and parcel ever since. And this is true in spite of the short-lived separatist movement of the Rajbansis in northern Bengal. The post-1971 new waves of migration, this time by an impoverished and desolate Muslim peasantry from Bangladesh, once again threatened the position of the Scheduled Caste peasantry, settled, after long periods of stress and pain, in the border districts of West Bengal. They do not want to be second-time losers and therefore these areas have become strongholds of Hindu fundamentalist politics, in an otherwise trouble-free West Bengal. But that is a story which has other dimensions too and therefore needs separate treatment.

Conclusion

The point that this paper seeks to drive home is that the Scheduled Caste responses to the Hindu Mahasabha activities in the 1940s, as well as their electoral support for the Congress in 1946, reflected their integrationist feelings and their willingness to co-operate with their co-religionists across class and caste lines. They were determined to merge into the Indian, predominantly Hindu, nation, which was represented by the Congress-Mahasabha combination in the critical last days of colonial rule in India. Thus, to get back to the point which we made initially, the Namasudra and Rajbansi notions of 'community' were neither wholly autonomous nor absolutely static, and physical and ideational boundaries were continually redrawn as they were exposed and responded to varied socio-political realities, ideological influences and organisational mediation. To put it in a different way, the international boundaries that were drawn in eastern India in 1947 certainly did not correspond to religious or caste frontiers. But those boundaries also changed the mental frontiers that bounded the communities in those areas.

Sekhar Bandyopadhyay is a Senior Lecturer in History at Victoria University of Wellington.

Endnotes

1 Census of India, 1901, Vol.VI, Part I, pp. 395-6, 459, Vol.VIA, Part II, Table XIII, p. 246. 2 The legendary 'Codes of Manu', as most lower caste people believed, determined the rules of conduct in Hindu society, and most particularly prescribed the rules of the caste system. 3 For more details on the political movements of these two castes, see my earlier essay, Sekhar Bandyopadhyay (1987-88) 'Protest and accommodation: two caste movements in eastern and northern Bengal, c.1872-1937', Indian Historical Review, 14(1-2), pp. 219-33. 4 Quoted in Sufia Ahmed (1974) Muslim Community in Bengal, 1884-1912, Dacca, p. 257. 5 The Statesman, 5 November 1918. 6 Government of India (hereafter GI), Reforms Office, File No. 199/R/1932, National Archives of India (hereafter NAI). 7 For details, see Bandyopadhyay, op. cit., pp. 228-9. 8 The Government of India Act of 1935 provided for reserved seats for the 'Scheduled Castes', a new official term for the former untouchables. 9 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay (1990a) Caste, Politics and the Raj: Bengal 1872-1937, Calcutta, p. 183.


by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay 10 Suranjan Das (1993) Communal Riots in Bengal 1905-1947, Delhi, does not at all take account of this phenomenon; the more recent Joya Chatterjee (1995) Bengal Divided: Hindu communalism and partition 1932-1947, Cambridge, does mention it, but misses out a whole lot of details about what was happening in the eastern Bengal countryside in 1946-47. 11 Gurudas Ray (n.d.) [1933] Asprisyer Marmabedana (in Bengali), Calcutta: Hindu Mission Bani Mandi, Calcutta, p. 10. 12 Swami Vedananda, Sree Sree Jugacharyya Jiban Charit (in Bengali), Calcutta: Bharat Sebashram Sangha (1398 BS), pp. 355, 379-86. 13 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 29 April 1938; Hindustan Standard, 21 June 1938. 14 Suddhi meant reconversion of untouchables who had earlier been converted to Islam or other religions. 15 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 1 March 1941. 16 Rajat K. Ray (1984) Social Conflict and Political Unrest in Bengal, Delhi, p. 306. 17 Mahasabha Papers, File No. P-32, 1944, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi (hereafter NMML). 18 Shyama Prasad Mukherjee to Krishnapada Samaddar, 7 December 1944, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Papers, II-IV Instalment, Subject File No. 90, NMML. 19 Shyama Prasad Mukherjee to U.N. Edbar, 13 October 1944, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Papers, II-IV Instalment, Subject File No. 90, NMML. 20 Upendranath Edbar to S.P. Mukherjee, 2 October 1944, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Papers, II-IV Instalment, Subject File No. 90, NMML. 21 Mohan Lal Mandal, President, Dacca Namasudra Samity, to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, 29 June 1946, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Papers, II-IV Instalment, Correspondence, Serial No. 849, NMML. 22 For details, see my earlier essay, Sekhar Bandyopadhyay (1990b) 'Community formation and communal conflict: Namasudra-Muslim riot in Jessore-Khulna', Economic and Political Weekly, 25(46), pp. 2563-8. 23 Fortnightly Report for first half of February 1938, Government of India (hereafter GI), Home (Political), File No. 18/2/38-Poll, National Archives of India, New Delhi (hereafter NAI); Hindustan Standard, 15 March 1938; Special Report case No. 8-38, Report Ist, 4 May 1938; Copy of Magura P.S., F.I.R. No. 12, 28.4.38, u/s 148 I.P.C., Forwarding Note by H.L. Saha, S.P., Jessore; Copy of Magura P.S., F.I.R. No. 13, 28.4.38, u/s 148/324 I.P.C., Government of Bengal (hereafter GB), Home (Political) Confidential File No. 248/38, West Bengal State Archives, Calcutta (hereafter WBSA); Copy of Report submitted by C.I. Narail, in connection with the recent rioting cases of the district, GB, Home (Political) Confidential File No. 248/38, WBSA. 24 The Associated Press of India, 1.5.38, GB, Home (Political) Confidential File No. 248/38, WBSA. 25 Fortnightly Report, Dacca Division - Period ending 15 February 1940, Section III; Fortnightly Report for 1st half of March 1940; Fortnightly Report, Presidency Division - Period ending 25 April 1940, Part 3; Fortnightly Report, Presidency Division - Period ending 12 August 1940 and 27 August 1940, Part 3, GB, Home (Political) Confidential File No. 30/40, WBSA. 26 Fortnightly Report, Dacca Division - for the 1st half of May 1940, Section IV, GB, Home (Political) Confidential File No. 30/40, WBSA. 27 Fortnightly Report, Presidency Division - Period ending 12 August 1940, Part 4, GB, Home (Political) Confidential File No. 30/40, WBSA. 28 Akhand Hindustan is a slogan referring to a united land for Hindu people (as opposed to claims for Pakistan, a Muslim homeland). 29 Report of the Dacca Riots Enquiry Committee, pp. 29, 53-4, GI, Home (Political), K.W. to File No. 5/7/42-Poll(I), NAI. 30 Das, op. cit., Chapters 5-6.


by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay 31 Telegram from Governor of Bengal to Viceroy, 20 March 1941, GI, Home (Political), File No. 5/25/41Poll(I), NAI. 32 Superintendent of Police, Jessore, to Special Superintendent, I.B., 10 March 1943, GB, Home (Political) Confidential File No. 206/43, WBSA. 33 Report by the Commissioner, Presidency division on allegation against the conduct of the Police and local officers in connection with the communal riots in Mollahat P.S. on 26th May 1944 and subsequently, GB, Home (Political) Confidential File No. 272/44, WBSA. 34 Upendranath Barman (1980) Thakur Panchanan Barmar Jibancharit, Jalpaiguri, 1387 BS, pp. 47-57. 35 For details, see Swaraj Basu (1993) 'The Rajbansis of North Bengal: A study of a caste movement, 1910-47', Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Calcutta University. 36 News from India: Political Situation, 18 March 1946, GI, Home (Political), File No. 51/2/46-Poll(I), NAI. 37 News from India: Political Situation, 2 May 1946, GI, Home (Political), File No. 51/2/46-Poll(I), NAI. 38 Amrita Bazar Patrika, 15 September 1946. 39 Ranajit Das Gupta (1992) Economy, Society and Politics in Bengal: Jalpaiguri 1869-1947, Delhi, p. 238. 40 For details, see Leonard A. Gordon, 'Divided Bengal: problems of nationalism and identity in 1947 partition', in Mushirul Hasan (ed.) (1993) India's Partition: Process, Strategy and Mobilization, Delhi, pp. 300-1, 305-7. 41 Paper clipping from Hindu Outlook (New Delhi), 11 February 1947, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Papers, II-IV Instalment, Subject File No. 102, NMML. 42 Suggestions made at the conference of Hindu Mahasabha workers on 6.4.47 at Tarakeswar, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Papers, II-IV Instalment, Subject File No. 102, NMML. 43 Shila Sen (1976) Muslim Politics in Bengal, New Delhi, p. 227. 44 Hindu Mahasabha Papers, File No. P-107, 1947, NMML. 45 AICC Papers, File No. CL-14(B), 1946, NMML. 46 P.C. Banerjee to President, All India National Congress, 4 May 1947, AICC Papers, File No. CL-14(B), 1946, NMML. 47 GI, Reforms Office, File No. 41/3/47-R, Part II, p. 238, NAI. 48 Memo No.1/a, dated 13 May 1947, from Shyam Lal Ray, Secretary, All Bengal Nationalist Scheduled Caste Association, GI, Reforms Office, File No. 41/3/47-R, Part III, p. 35, NAI. 49 Copy of the proceedings of the conference held on the 3rd May, 1947, GI, Reforms Office, File No. 41/3/47-R, Part III, p. 42, NAI. 50 GI, Reforms Office, File No. 41/3/47-R, Part III, p. 43, NAI. 51 For details of this movement, see Leonard Gordon (1989) Brothers Against the Raj: A biography of Sarat & Subhas Chandra Bose, New Delhi, pp. 580-5; Shila Sen, op. cit., pp. 223-45. 52 K.P. Mazumder, General Secretary, Bengal Provincial Scheduled Castes' Federation, to Private Secretary to Viceroy, 14 May 1947, GI, Reforms Office, File No. 41/3/47-R, Part III, NAI. 53 Sunil Kr Sengupta, Hon. Secretary, Council of Action for New Bengal, to Private Secretary to Viceroy, 19 May 1947, GI, Reforms Office, File No. 41/3/47-R, Part III, p. 43, NAI. 54 Proceedings of the meeting, GI, Reforms Office, File No. 41/3/47-R, Part V, p. 82, NAI. 55 Proceedings of the meeting, GI, Reforms Office, File No. 41/3/47-R, Part V, p. 83, NAI. 56 Proceedings of the meeting, GI, Reforms Office, File No. 41/3/47-R, Part V, p. 84, NAI. 57 Quoted in Ranajit Das Gupta, op. cit., p. 237. 58 Resolutions passed at Thakurgaon Sessions of Dinajpur District Schedule [sic] Caste (Rajbansi) conference on 22-6-47, GI, Reforms Office, File No. 41/3/47-R, Part V, p. 42, NAI. 59 Gordon, 1989, op. cit., p. 586.


by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay 60 Note by Governor of East Bengal to Nurul Amin, Prime Minister of East Bengal, 24 February 1950, Bourne Papers, IOL, MSS.Eur.E.364. 61 Shantipur Police Station, Village Tewarimath and Char Nrisinghapur, Village Crime Note Book No. 22/9/53; I am indebted to Dr Basudeb Chattopadhyay for this reference.

Sekhar b Changing Borders

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