Many are happy that they were settled with their families in India; many seek permanent Indian citizenship.
NEW DELHI: The 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War which marked its 51st anniversary on Friday had witnessed millions of people fleeing from what earlier was East Pakistan and now Bangladesh to safer locations in the border areas of India’s West Bengal, Assam and Tripura to save themselves from the wrath of the Pakistani army.
The period between March to December 1971 saw one of the largest human migrations after the partition of 1947. According to estimates, more than 10 million people, mostly Hindus, fled from East Pakistan and landed in places like present day North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Malda, Nadia, districts in West Bengal, while many from the upper reaches of Bangladesh like that of Chittagong fled to places like Assam and Tripura to take shelter. The Indian government had opened the borders to these refugees to settle them in India smoothly.
These border districts of the three states hosted the million refugees who managed to walk for nights, sometime even without food and water, with their children and women. Refugee camps were set up in places by the Indian government where food and water were provided to the distressed families who have just managed to save their lives from the wrath of the Pakistani army.
According to a refugee family now settled in Bengal, thousands of people from areas like Barishal, Bagerhat, Faridpur had walked hundreds of miles before reaching Khulna, one of the bordering districts in Bangladesh, from where they had entered the Indian side in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Refugee camps were set up, where these people were escorted by the Indian Army and the local people and provided with food and water.
Among the millions of people who migrated to India during the Liberation War in 1971, lakhs of people belonged to the Hindu community who had fled from the erstwhile East Pakistan as the Pakistani army was hunting the Hindus down and indiscriminately killing them. One of the largest communities that moved to India from Bangladesh then was the Matua community.
The Matua community is a Hindu mendicant community which was at the lower rung of society, people who are called in modern times as the Dalit community. They are practicing Hindus who were often wanderers and vagabonds, doing odd jobs to sustain themselves in East Pakistan.
Many of the people from this community who had come to India during the period of 1971 are mostly settled in West Bengal and in the bordering districts like North 24 Parganas, Nadia and parts of South 24 Parganas.
People from the community for decades now have made Bengal their new home and have been involved in activities like farming, some even work as daily wage labourers, while many have established businesses for themselves in India.
The Sunday Guardian spoke to a couple of such families who had migrated from East Pakistan into India during the 1971 Liberation War and some narrated the horrific tales of the war, while many were happy and content that they were settled with their families in India.
One such lady, who is now 65 years old, had migrated to Bongaon, in North 24 Parganas in April 1971, when she was 14 years old, said that she, along with her three sisters, walked for three days before they reached the borders in Bongaon, from where she was taken to a refugee camp in the nearby areas. She also said that she had at one point thought that she would never see her parents, but then her parents also moved to the same refugee camp in a couple of days, where they were reunited.
Like this lady, there are thousands of people who are settled in these areas of Bengal and have moved on in life with their children and grandchildren. While almost 51 years have passed, many who had migrated to India then and even during the 1947 partition demand that they be given permanent citizenship in India as they are still often called as the refugee community, which they consider to be a “taboo”.
In 2019, Indian Parliament had passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to this effect so that such persecuted Hindus who have come from Bangladesh since 1947 till 2014 would be granted Indian citizenship.
The CAA also played an important role in shaping the politics of West Bengal in the last few years since a majority of the migrant population lives in this state who have come from Bangladesh due to religious persecution. Matuas are primarily a Hindu community that lived in Bangladesh also known as the erstwhile East Pakistan. Since the 1971 war, a huge influx of this community into West Bengal has taken place.
According to estimates, more than 1.7 crore Matuas live in West Bengal, mostly prevalent in districts like that of North 24 Parganas, Nadia and parts of South 24 Parganas, Cooch Behar, Uttar Dinajpur and Birbhum.
This community has always played a significant role in shaping the politics of Bengal as it holds sway in over 40 Assembly constituencies. Traditionally, the Matuas constituted a strong vote bank of the Congress, but since the CPM took over the reins of Bengal in 1977, Matuas slowly shifted their allegiance to the Left parties and their support was a key factor in keeping the Left in power for almost 34 years.
But the community, once again shifted its loyalty to the Trinamool Congress in 2010, which was launched by the TMC to form its first government in West Bengal in 2011. But as their demand for permanent citizenship fell into deaf ears of the political parties in Bengal, the Matuas saw a ray of new hope in the BJP, who promised them their long time due. The BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha promised that the Citizenship Amendment Bill would be passed in Parliament and through which the Matuas would be getting their due of permanent citizenship of India.
This led to a massive victory of the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls where the BJP for the first time won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from Bengal. The Matuas also stood by the BJP in the 2021 Assembly polls of West Bengal and most of the Matua dominated seats from the state went into the BJP’s kitty. However, two years have passed since the CAA was passed in Parliament, but the rules for the same are yet to be formulated by the Central government, which is making the Matuas restless. The BJP has on several occasions told The Sunday Guardian that it is committed to the implementation of the CAA and granting citizenship to the persecuted minorities not only from Bangladesh, but to all from countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan as well.