The Morichjhanpi massacre: When tigers became citizens, refugees "tiger-food"
April 3, 2009
The massacre in Marichjhapi, which took place under CPIM rule in Bengal between January 26 and May 16, 1979, has few parallels in the history of independent India. It holds fair comparison with the Jalianwala Bag massacre perpetrated by the British. The level of police brutality was horrific. The entire island of refugees was put under economic blockade from January, after the Left had come to power the previous year promising to champion the cause of the refugees. The blockade first starved out the population, and then the killings began.
Excerpts from West Bengal Policy Reversal and the Marichjhapi Massacre by Ross Mallick, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol 58, No. 1 (Feb 1999), pp. 104-125:
When police action failed to persuade the refugees to leave, the State Government ordered the forcible evacuation of the refugees, which took place between May 14 to May 16, 1979. The men were first separated from the women. Most of the young men were arrested and sent to the jails and the police began to rape the helpless young women at random. At least several hundred men, women, and children were said to have been killed in the operation and their bodies dumped in the river.
Photographs were published in Anandabazaar Patrika and the Opposition members in the State Assembly staged a walkout in protest. Prime Minister Desai, wishing to maintain the support of the Communists for his government, decided not to pursue the matter.
4,128 families perished in transit, died of starvation, exhaustion, and many were killed in Kashipur, Kumirmari, and Marichjhapi by police firings. The CPIM congratulated its participant members on their successful operation at Marichjhapi and made their refugee policy reversal explicit by stating that "there was no possibility of giving shelter to these large number of refugeesunder any circumstances in the State".
In a final twist to the episode, the CPIM settled its own supporters in Marichjhapi, occupying and utilizing the facilities left behind by the evicted refugees. The issues of the environment and the Forest Act were forgotten.
The subsequent silence in the Bengali academic community about what so many knew had happened at Marichjhapi is indicative of the intellectual dominance of certain perspectives and the acquiescence of this intellectual elite in the abuses.
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