'There are sane souls even in a madhouse'

Maloy Krishna Dhar was twelve when he crossed the ‘rivers of blood’ and ‘mountains of carcasses’ that marked the pathway from East Pakistan to India. Sixty-five years and seven books later, he has chronicled the final train ride to the new India in his latest book, Train to India: Memories of Another Bengal. In this exclusive interview, the best-selling author tells Ramananda Sengupta about the political apathy, hidden agendas and vested interests that tore a region bound by language into a battlefield divided by religion.

Writing a book like this must be an intensely emotional experience, reliving those traumatic days. Looking back, would you like to recollect one event or person who left an indelible impression on your mind?

Indeed it was. Political shenanigans had left us embroiled in a situation where people who had been friends for centuries turned foes and a culturally-united people were divided emotionally. Violence was showered on us like red fire-flakes. The event that left an indelible mark on my life was enacted in the burnt and abandoned house of an aristocratic Muslim at Park Circus, Calcutta. My father stood up against his son, my eldest brother, and said that he would not live under a roof where human lives and women’s dignity had been violated by devilish people. That’s where the bond between a father and son was fully and finally ruptured.

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Most commentators on partition seem to focus more on the trauma and events on the western side than on the eastern, even though massacres like Noakhali were as brutal as the events in the west. To what would you attribute this?

Yes. Sadat Hasan Manto and Sardar Khushwant Singh gave literary expression to the human tragedy in the west. Materially also, the Exodus from the west received better attention from the political authorities. The Eastern Exodus has not been chronicled in literary expressions so far, based on real-life experiences, though a few historical tracts have been written. At the time, the political class had not risen up to the expected level to mitigate the material and emotional tragedy of the migrants from the eastern sector. Some were offered accommodation in Dandakaranya, the Andamans and Terai areas. No effort was made to settle them in Bengal itself and the government didn’t open its purse strings to resettle the uprooted people. This was due to political failure of the leaders of Bengal and Delhi.

Somebody once told me that while the people in North and Northwest India still seethe over those dreadful days, the people of West Bengal concluded that religion lay at the root cause of the violence, and hence turned to communism. Would you agree?

I beg to disagree. Religion was at the core of Muslim separatist politics everywhere. In Bengal too, religion was used to partition Bengal in 1906 and again in 1947. In Bengal, Congress was never a peak movement. The peak movements were nationalist terrorism, armed struggle and a drift towards socialism introduced by Netaji Subhas and others. Mainstream Congress had ditched C. R. Das and Subhas, and had foisted the Nehru family. Gandhi aided that machination. Later, frustration with the Congress’ attitude towards Bengali refugees convinced the Bengalis that P.C. Ghosh and B. C. Roy were lackeys of Gandhi and Nehru. The Bengalis wanted a system change, and therefore welcomed the communists. This was because frustration with Congress had driven them to seek a viable alternative.

Those were very divisive and violent times. Yet there must have been sane voices from both sides of the divide. Would you like to remember some of them?

I think there are sane souls even in a madhouse. I have personally observed a very secular attitude in some of the political colleagues of my father- Nazar Kaka, Sobhan Kaka, Karamat Kaka and others. My boyhood friends Lutf-un-nissa, Jasimuddin, Saifullah etc were above any communal feeling. In my adult life, my best friend was Ustad Karamatullah, the Tabla maestro, and A. K. M. Hassanuzzaman who later became a minister in the Bengal United Front government. All Muslims cannot be hated for the sins of a few.

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Even today, Bengalis divide themselves into the original inhabitants of today’s Bengal and those who escaped from East Pakistan. Have you ever faced any discrimination because your family came from what would become the other side of the border?

I faced lots of humiliation soon after our migration. However, the dashed hope was restored after we settled at Uttarpara, a town in Hooghly district. The divide between West Bengal inhabitants and East Bengal migrants still exists as background radiation in matters related to food style, marriage and certain cultural traits. Perhaps it would take another 50 years for these subtle lines of distinction to completely merge.

Today, so many years later, and after we helped liberate East Pakistan in 1971, how do you see the relationship between (a) India and Bangladesh and (b) People of West Bengal and Bangladeshis?

Bangladesh has three distinct elements: the broad secularist democrats; pro-Pakistani political elements and hardcore Islamists who want reunion with Pakistan. Prolonged military rule had subdued the secular forces and pro-Pakistani forces had gained upper hand. The Islamists seeking reunion with Pakistan have taken to terrorism. They are represented by the Jamait-e-Islami, Ahl-e-Hadith, and Jamait-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh etc. Presently the secularist government is in power and relationship between Bangladesh and India is improving steadily.

Bangladeshi immigrants are not acceptable to the people of West Bengal (Hindus). According to them, the bordering districts are gaining Muslim majority character and this may lead to another partition of Bengal and creation of a Greater Bangladesh.

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When you look back now, do you ever wonder what would have happened if you had stayed on in East Pakistan/Bangladesh?

The worst that could have happened was our assassination and the least that could be expected was the status of a second class citizen. I, as an individual, would have been not able to live with that situation. I am a free-born person and I cherish my freedom more than any other incentive. Simply I would have suffocated.

This is your ninth or tenth best-selling book, on topics ranging from intelligence operations to women to politics. Where do you get (a) the ideas and (b) the energy to write these books?

I am a work addicted person. I felt it was more honourable to take to writing than slave away at another appointment. I have gathered varied experiences while serving in different areas of India as an operations executive of the Intelligence Bureau. Studying life is a passion for me. Human character fascinates me. I get ideas and inspiration from that storehouse of experience.

What's your next book going to be about?

My next book is Battleground India: Cruces of Hindu-Muslim Exclusivism. The book is an interpretation of Majorityism of the Hindus and Minorityism of the Muslims, memorization of past history and its effect on national unity. It covers up-to-date Muslim and Hindu warfare and war on the cyberspace. Editing should begin soon after the publisher’s acceptance.