Bullets & Hunger in Island of Death

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ISLAND OF DEATH

31 YEARS AGO,THIS WEEK,POLICE WERE ON AN EVICTION DRIVE IN MARICHJHAPI ISLAND OF THE SUNDERBANS

TO OUST REFUGEES WHO HAD MOVED FROM DANDAKARANYA.MANY CONSIDER THIS THE DARKEST BLOT ON THELEFT REGIME.ITS STILL NOT CLEAR HOW THE EXODUS FROM DANDAK STARTED,WHO HAD ORGANIZED IT ANDHOW MANY LIVES WERE LOST.ACHINTYARUP RAY TRIES TO FIND THE MISSING LINKS OF THE MARICHJHAPI

MYSTERY IN A TWO-PART ARTICLE

Latitude 2211'North,longitude 8857'East.Seventy-five kilometres from Kolkata as the crow flies.This is Marichjhapi the placewhere thousands of drifting people had anchored three decades ago in the hope of finding a home of their own.But it proved to

be an island of death of human beings and the dreams they had reared in their hearts.Not realising that they were mere pawns

in games of politics and greed,these rootless people were lured by those who cared little for their lives.

HOW IT BEGAN

Marichjhapi was just another uninhabited island in eastern Sunderbans,bordering Bangladesh.How it came to be a part of

history and political myth is a long story a story that began on August 15,1947,at the stroke of midnight.

Ever since the Partition,waves of Hindu refugees from East Pakistan (and later,Bangladesh) have washed upon the shores ofBengal,time and again.Millions of them managed to settle in the state,thousands scattered across India and many more were

packed onto ships and trains to rehabilitation centres in the Andamans and central India.

Those who had been sent to Madhya Pradesh and Orissa had to face the harsh nature and an unfamiliar way of life.Mostlonged to return to Bengal.And political parties mainly the Left stoked that longing.Reason: the refugee support base.

In 1961,when the government was trying to send the refugees to Dandakaranya,it was the undivided CPI that stood by theunwilling thousands.Party leaders particularly Jyoti Basu advocated for settling some of them in the Sunderbans,at Herobhanga

Second Scheme.(Ironically,it was Basu who had to force those same refugees back to central India after 18 years.)

The refugees 25,849 families of them,according to official records were sent to Dandak camps till February 1,1978.But leadersof the Left-backed United Central Refugee Council (UCRC) kept in touch with the refugees and some of them reportedly

assured the hapless people that someday they would be brought back to Bengal.

In January 1978,a few months after the Left Front came to power in the state,minister Ram Chatterjee of Marxist Forward Blocand Asok Ghosh of All India Forward Bloc visited central India refugee settlements.They addressed several public

meetings,sharing the dais with Udbastu Unnayanshil Samiti (UUS) leaders like Satish Mondal,who had been instigating the

refugees to settle in the Sunderbans.

The Left leaders had told the gatherings,Five crore Bengalis will welcome you back to Bengal extending their 10 crore hands,claimed Nirmal Dhali (one of the refugees who had come and settled in Marichjhapi in 1978 and was evicted,arrested and sent

back to Dandakaranya the next year).Asok Ghosh,however,denied this allegation.Chatterjee,too,denied making any such clarion

call to the refugees.But he didnt protest when at those meetings,Satish Mondal said from the same dais: India is not anyonespaternal property and we can settle anywhere we like.The Sunderbans is where we want to sett le and so let us go to

Bengal.We will die in West Bengal.

In an interview for a documentary film (Marichjhapi 1978-79,Akranto Manabikota) by journalist Tushar Bhattacharya,formerminister and RSP leader Debabrata Bandyopadhyay,too,said: Some Left leaders had visited Dandakaranya and told the

refugees to come back to Bengal.We will help you settle in Marichjhapi in the Sunderbans, they had said.

Interestingly,while Nirmal Dhali told TOI that the comment,five crore Bengalis will welcome you back had been made by AsokGhosh,in Bhattacharyas documentary,refugee leader Radhakanta Biswas attributed it to Kiranmoy Nanda.

Nanda,however,said when he had been to Dandakaranya with Ram Chatterjee,Rambabu asked the refugees,Where do you

want to go They said they wanted to settle in Marichjhapi.Rambabu said OK.Then they came to the Sunderbans. Asok Ghoshwas not with them on that occasion.

Coincidentally,a few days after Ghosh and Chatterjee returned from Dandakaranya,an exodus started from the camps

there.Thousands left whatever little they had and set off for the Sunderbans.Within weeks,160,000 refugees deserted theircamps and reached West Bengal,according to official estimates.

WHODUNIT

But could just a few meetings addressed by two leaders within three days (January 16-19,1978,according to Nirmal Dhali) start

such a big exodus Could it have been possible without a concerted and well-organised effort and without several years ofmeticulous planning It seems different groups,with different motives political,and sometimes personal had been trying to bring

the refugees to the Sunderbans (and particularly Marichjhapi) for some time.

THE RECCE

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It was not in 1978 that the refugee leaders set foot in Marichjhapi for the first time.Three years before that,in 1975,an UdbastuUnnayanshil Samiti (UUS) team led by Satish Mondal did a recce of the region and decided that Marichjhapi not too far from

Bangladesh border was an ideal place for the refugees from Dandakaranya to be brought and settled.Soon after,there was an

attempt to stoke an exodus in Dandakaranya,which was aborted by the then Congress government.Some refugee leaders werearrested on their way to the Sunderbans.

SOME NEWS REPORTS

A few weeks after the exodus started in 1978,an all-party team from Bengal,including some ministers,visited Dandakaranya to

assess the situation.Here are some newspaper reports filed from Dandak during that t ime: the refrain (of the refugees is) thatwe want to die in West Bengal.But the question is whether the conviction has been created by some instigating agencies as the

situation does not seem to justify such a feeling

The economic grievances listed by the refugees at every village the delegation visited were low yield of the land andunremunerative prices for the produce ... Interestingly,the grievances listed in the memoranda received in far flung villages were

all couched in the same language and even the grievances listed in the same orderAt different places refugees did not deny that people had urged them to leave for West Bengal. The Statesman,March 27,1978

Though many people talked of outside instigation,none identified the persons.The situation is intriguing and after a hectic tour of

the area they (the all-party team) were convinced that there was an instigating group who wanted the settlers to leave.Thoughnone of the ministers identified the group,they so strongly criticised the Udbastu Unnayanshil Samiti that there was no doubt

who the instigators were. The Statesman,March 26,1978 Another newspaper reports after a few days:

According to official estimate,the total number of deserters in and around Raipur station is 10,000.Their refrain is,we will die in

Bengal.Railway officials state that during the last four-five days nearly 3,000 t ickets for Calcutta have been sold I spoke tomany deserters.Each one of them are eager to reach Calcutta and all of them have tickets.Each ticket costs Rupees

25.36.They are,however,unwilling to disclose as to who paid for their tickets. Anandabazar Patrika,April 2,1978

STRANGE COINCIDENCES

Was the UUS too close to the Forward Bloc No, says AIFB general secretary Asok Ghosh.And the rumour that Ram Chatterjee

had asked the Dandak refugees to come to Bengal had no element of truth in it,says former 24-Parganas SP Amiya KumarSamanta.But a study of the incidents before and after the exodus throws up some strange coincidences.

i) The exodus from Dandakaranya began a few days after leaders of two Forward Bloc AIFB and Marxist Forward Bloc visited

the area.ii) The settlement in Marichjhapi was named Netajinagar by the Udbastu Unnayanshil Samiti.

iii) In early 1979,when the administration clamped Section 144 around Marichjhapi and started a virtual economic blockade,awrit petition was filed in the Calcutta high court by Sakya Sen and Niharendu Datta Majumdar.While Sen was affiliated to AmraBangali (he later fought a Lok Sabha election from Kolkata South on an Amra Bangali ticket),Datta Majumdar was a senior

leader of Forward Bloc.

HOMELAND INSTIGATION

a) Amra Bangali had helped the refugees in Marichjhapi in more ways than one.If those who had settled on the island are to bebelieved,the organisation had provided financial and other assistance to the refugees.Says former Marichjhapi dweller Nirmal

Dhali,With the help of Amra Bangalis Subrata Chatterjee,we had sunk seven tubewells in five sectors on the island.The ultimate announced goal of the organisation is the creation of Bangalistan,covering West Bengal,Tripura,the

Andamans,parts of Assam,Meghalaya,Bihar,Jharkhand,Orissa,Nepal and Myanmar and the whole of Swadhin Bangladesh.

b) There were other organisations involved in the Marichjhapi episode.According to intelligence reports,a Kolkata-based

outfit,Nikhil Banga Nagarik Sangha,distributed hundreds of copies of the route map from Kolkata to Marichjhapi and a roughsketch of the island among refugees in Dandakaranya before the exodus started in February,1978.

Around the same time,leaders of the organisation,S Chatterjee and Dr Kalidas Baidya,and some volunteers,staged severaldemonstrations a couple of them in front of the Bangladesh deputy high commission office demanding a Hindu homeland,says

Amiya Kumar Samanta,the 24-Parganas SP during the Marichjhapi operation.Baidya was arrested during one such

demonstration,but Chatterjee managed to give police the slip and maintained contact with UUS,Samanta adds.On August 20 and 21,1978,S Chatterjee sent two phonograms to the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai,drawing attention to the

planned massacre of innocent refugees at Marichjhapi,Sunderbans and asking him to let them stay there.

Why was the sangha interested in settling the refugees on an island close to the Bangladesh border Was it because of its

dream to create a Hindu homeland covering several districts of Bangladesh The organisation began its movement on August15,1977.And on March 25,1982,it officially declared the formation of Bangabhumi covering greater

Khulna,Jessore,Kushtia,Faridpur,Barisal and Patuakhali of Bangladesh.

The organisation also formed an armed wing called Bangasena,with Kalidas Baidya as its commander.Some soldiers of

Bangasena were also active members of the volunteer force at Marichjhapi in 1978-79.One of them,Jadab Haldar,who nowstays in a shanty on the outskirts of Kolkata,admitted this to TOI.

THE VOLUNTEERS


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So,what was the role of the volunteers in Marichjhapi Former SP Amiya Kumar Samanta writes: There was no semblance of

state authority in the island as the entry of the police and administrative officials was stoutly resisted by armed volunteers. Thevolunteers also allegedly forced people to stay back on the island if they wanted to leave.According to Samanta,On 13

February one Manindra Roy of Marichjhapi reported to a police patrol that one Mahesh Baroi and 10/15 volunteers threatened

him and the members of his family with dire consequences and kept them confined in their houses (Ref.Gosaba PS Case No.9dated 13.2.1979).

Jadab Haldar didnt deny.Yes,we had to force the refugees to stay back.Otherwise,people would have left and that would have

diminished our strength.Sometimes,we even had to beat up people to prevent them from leaving Marichjhapi, he said.Khagen Mistri of Gosaba,who had gone to settle at Marichjhapi in the hope of getting some land there,too said: I had a good

rapport with the UUS,but when I was leaving the island with my family after the police firing in Kumirmari,the volunteers tried to

prevent me as well.Many people had to flee on the pretext of bringing water from the other side of the river.The volunteers didnt have firearms ( The Naxalites had offered to supply us with guns,which we refused, says Haldar),but they

were armed to the teeth with traditional weapons.Apart from lathis,tangis and choppers,they had spears and poisoned arrows (

the poison was so strong that just one arrow was enough to finish off a policeman, Haldar adds).Also,there were chengas smallwooden sticks sharpened like pencils at both ends that the refugees could throw with lethal precision.One of the chengas had

pierced through the helmet of a policeman, says Samanta.

But these traditional weapons could definitely not have been as lethal as the.303 bullets used by Samantas policemen.

HIRED GOONS

If the UUS had its volunteer force to keep the cops at bay,police too had hired locals to help in the eviction.Most of them had

been hired from Kumirmari,the island separated from Marichjhapi by the Korankhali river.It is often said that police and CPM

cadres together had attacked the refugees in Marichjhapi,but those hired by police were quite unlikely to be CPMcadres.For,CPM was almost nonexistent in Kumirmari and nearby islands.On the other hand,the strongest political party in the

area was RSP,which apparently was sympathetic towards the refugees.Says Kalipada Gayen,a resident of Kumirmari: Police offered us Rs 80-100 per day and we were supposed to destroy the

houses there and make people board the launches with their belongings.Many villagers from Kumirmari had been hired by police

as labourers.By the time we reached Marichjhapi,most male members of the refugee families had been taken out by police.Isaw women crying and could not force them or damage their huts.I came back to Kumirmari and did not go back.Nor did I take

any money from the police.

In Tushar Bhattacharyas documentary,another Kumirmari resident,Dinabandhu Mondal,says: It was us,the common people,whodrove the refugees away.Police gave us money for that.

In the same documentary,villager Rabi Mondal describes how he and four others snatched a boat from the Marichjhapi settlers

to stop the ferry service between the two islands.Then a launch (of the BDO or the DM) picked us up and the officials

interrogated us.They asked us who had stopped the ferry service.As we told them that it was us,they said well done my boys

and gave us Rs 500 each.


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MARICHJHAPI MYSTERY

BULLETS AND HUNGER

31 years after police evicted Bengali refugees from Marichjhapi,its not yet clear how many people were killed by police and how manydied of hunger right from the exodus to the return to the Dandakaranya camps.ACHINTYARUP RAY searches for answers

WHY NOW For around three decades,West Bengal had forgotten Marichjhapi.But now,with the political situation turning

volatile,its back in the news.Here is TOIs take on the issue

Just 31 years ago,on May 17,a 1,000-strong police force cleared the island of Marichjhapi in the Sunderbans of all settlers.The

settlers had come from the refugee camps of Dandakaranya,hoping for a better life.

How many lives were lost in the process of settling in Marichjhapi and the forced eviction that followed There is no clear answer.While

the government claimed that only two people died in police firing,some researchers claim that the total number of deaths in police

firing,starvation and during transportation was around 17,000.None of these,however,appears close to the real figure,which is almost

impossible to find out today.

While police and government claim only two tribal villagers of Kumirmari died in firing,one is bound to become a little

suspicious.According to the then 24-Parganas SP Amiya Kumar Samanta,on January 31,1979,police had opened fire atKumirmari,when a police camp was attacked by volunteers armed with spears,choppers and chenga.There was a small house

belonging to a local adivasi family near the embankment As the attack was coming from the side of the house,the police fired in that

direction killing two adivasi women who were totally innocent No deserter was killed in police action, writes Samanta.

But when a police force is firing to ward off a crowd of armed volunteers,isnt it unlikely for the killer bullets to miss all of them and hit

only two innocent localsAccording to the people of Kumirmari,however,only one local resident,Meni Munda,had been killed by police.The other victims were all

refugees.The day Meni Munda was killed,this place was swarming with police.They were firing bullets and tear gas shells.Several of

us got stuck in the house of Baburam Biswas,a villager.From there,we saw policemen pulling the bodies by their legs onto the

launches.The bodies had been dumped on the char (sandbar) near Rabi Mondals house.We didnt go to see how many bodies were

there, says Kalipada Gayen.The toll must be more than two.The policemen were firing at the refugees it was like shoot-on-sight.Sinceeverybody was running around,the cops couldnt always aim correctly and thats why a stray bullet hit Meni Munda.

In journalist Tushar Bhattacharyas documentary,Marichjhapi 1978-79,Akranto Manabikota,villager Rabi Mondal says,I think 30/35/40people had been killed.The bodies were stacked beside my house,near the pond.

Panchayat member of Kumirmari,Basudeb Mondal,also an eyewitness,says in the same documentary,I guess around 25 to 30 peoplewere killed.

Menis younger brother Nitai Munda,who was also at the spot on that day,told TOI: They held the refugees by their hair irrespective oftheir gender pressing them against the byne trees on this char and hacked them.It all happened in front of our house.Then they took

the dead and the injured to the Kalindi on their launches and threw them away in the river.The policemen even forcibly took away the

body of my sister,which we never got back.They must have killed at least 150 people.Its my guess.I didnt see the bodies myself.I

was sitting inside my house,in front of the door.

Former Marichjhapi dweller Nirmal Dhali who was not in Kumirmari at that time claimed more than 150 people had been killed on that

day.

But these figures seem exaggerated,since Udbastu Unnayanshil Samiti (UUS) secretary Raiharan Baroi himself wrote in amemorandum (submitted to a team of MPs visiting Marichjhapi): The police became angry and opened fire indiscriminately resulting in

death of 15 refugees and two local people including one woman. That makes the toll 17.But in the list of the victims names submitted

with the memorandum,he mentions 14 people (including two locals)!

On March 22,1979,a team of MPs visited Marichjhapi (to whom Raiharan had submitted his memorandum).The next month (April

25,1979),Anandabazar Patrika wrote that Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi published the report submitted by the MPs.Thereport said 10 people died in January 31 police firing.

According to Amiya Kumar Samanta,it was only on that day (during the entire episode) that police had to open fire.But in hismemorandum,Raiharan claims: On 20 August 1978 (police launches) ran over 43 boats... and opened fire resulting deaths of two

young refugee boys.

Regarding this incident,Samanta writes: I was in the SPs launch in front of Sandeshkhali Police Station and all actions were taken

under my order and within my view.There was no need to fire either bullet or teargas shells as there was no resistance.

STARVATION & DISEASES

But bullets were not the only killer in Marichjhapi.Many more died of hunger and diseases.And this was not only during the period

when the administration clamped prohibitory orders around the island under Section 144,CrPC,and started a virtual economicblockade.The prohibitory orders were clamped on January 26,1979,almost a year after the refugees came.By then,many people

mostly children and the elderly died of starvation,diarrhoea,dysentery and other diseases.Almost every former dweller of Marichjhapithe TOI spoke to said many people died before the blockade.As soon as we set up the hutments,the food crisis began.People used

to sell wood from small trees in nearby villages,used to beg for money and food,ate whatever little they could arrange, says NirmalDhali.

Former volunteer Jadab Haldar,who had quit his job (the monthly salary was Rs 300 in 1978) in Dandakaranya to come to

Marichjhapi,says: Many people died,even before the blockade.

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Manoranjan Mondal of Dum Dum,Madhabi Bahadur and Kanchan Tapali of Gosaba all said that people started dying like flies much

before the blockade began.

Madhabi,who had gone to settle in Marichjhapi with her family in the hope of getting some land,had left the island before the policefiring.When we went there,we found the place full of small shacks.And everywhere there were bodies bodies of young and

old,dumped under trees,beside houses,beside the canal They didnt cremate bodies.They just left them there to rot.

So,the claim that it was because of the blockade that people died of hunger and diseases is not true.And the refugee leaders,who in

their enthusiasm had lured thousands of people to an island not yet fit for human habitation,were no less responsible than the

administration for the loss of lives.

According to an unpublished PhD dissertation (Brown University),by Nilanjana Chatterjee,at least 3,000 refugees had secretly left

Marichjhapi and scattered across West Bengal At the end of July 1979,a spokesman for the Dandakaranya Development Authority

announced that of the nearly 15,000 families who had deserted,around 5,000 families (approximately 20,000 refugees) had failed toreturn. Its not clear how the figure of 3,000 (those who secretly left Marichjhapi) was arrived at.Based on this paper,another

researcher has done a simple arithmetic: From these figures (20,000 3,000) it can be estimated that as many as 17,000 people died

a toll which not even any refugee leader has ever claimed.Its true that many people had sneaked out of Marichjhapi,eluding volunteersand police.Many of them settled in different islands of the Sunderbans,including Jharkhali,Mollakhali and Gosaba.No effort has ever

been taken to find out their number.Also,while the refugees were being taken back to Dandakaranya from Marichjhapi,many gave theauthorities the slip and scattered across south Bengal.Jadab Haldar is one of them.There are many others like him who live in

Kolkata,Dum Dum,Patipukur,Barasat and Basirhat.Today,it is difficult,if not impossible,to find out their exact number.

MISSING LEADERS

The three most prominent leaders of the UUS Satish Mondal,Raiharan Baroi and Rangalal Goldar mysteriously disappeared from

Marichjhapi before the final police crackdown (in May,1979).They left behind thousands of people whom they had lured to this island

with a dream.As soon as police landed in Marichjhapi,the leaders just vanished from the scene, says Nirmal Dhali.The hapless

thousands remained on the island to face the police force and their hired labourers.Satish Mondal later went back to Madhya Pradeshto pursue his business,Raiharan reportedly fled to Bangladesh,got arrested there and spent two years behind bars.Later he cameback to India.His family is now settled near Dum Dum.Rangalal was helped by some intellectuals and politicians including Gourkishore

Ghosh,Ram Chatterjee and Gobinda Naskar to settle in a village near Ghutiari Sharif in todays South 24-Parganas.The refugee leader

named the small village Pather Shesh End of the Road.

ECONOMY OF MARICHJHAPI

In February-March 1978,around 30,000 homeless,penniless refugees reached Marichjhapi and built their shacks (kunji in local dialect)

on the island.And within three to four months they built several factories : a bidi factory,bakery,carpentry workshop,a hosiery factoryan achievement unheard of anywhere else in the Sunderbans,neither before,nor after the Marichjhapi episode.Where did the capital

come from Apparently,one of the major sources of capital was timber business.Not only small shrubs,as claimed by some leaders,the

refugees regularly felled trees from the forest and did brisk business in timber.Middlemen (phore) from different islands used to cometo Marichjhapi to buy timber,says a former settler.Amiya Samanta,too writes: The wood trade became so widespread that the

merchants of Canning and Basirhat advanced money to the deserters for supply of wood. Asked how he used to make ends meetwhile in Marichjhapi,Manoranjan Mondal (who now stays in a shanty on the outskirts of Kolkata) smiled hesitantly.I used to steal wood

from the forest.With other dwellers of the island,we used to go do different blocks of the forest and cut big trees.Then we sold thoseto the samiti (UUS).I cant say what the samiti did with the timber. In his memorandum,Raiharan himself wrote: The refugees ran away

leaving 157 boats behind loaded with timber and firewood costing Rs 3.50 lakhs.

The UUS set up a big market in Marichjhapi,according to Kumirmari villagers.They used to bring foodgrains,garments and hardware

items from outside.Their market was bigger than the one in Kumirmari.Sometimes,we used to get things there which were not

available in any other island nearby, says Kalipada Gayen of Kumirmari.

But that doesnt mean that the common refugees were well off.They could not grow any foodgrain there because of high salinity.Only

if they allowed us to stay there for another year or two,we could have grown paddy, says Madhabi Bahadur.We couldnt grow anything there, says Nirmal Dhali.So,people had to eat jodu palong,a kind of grass,during the blockade.Some of us

used to call it Jyoti palong, he adds.There was no farming or cultivation.The land was salinated, says former settler Manoranjan

Mondal.

According to Bharati Mondal of Gosaba,who had gone to Marichjhapi with her family,The refugees used to beg for food they used to

disturb us a lot (khub jwalaton korto khabarer jonye). Kanchan Tapali,who too went with Bharati,says,The refugees used to beg forrice starch (bhater phyan) from us.Incidents of theft had risen in Kumirmari during that period, says Biren Mridha,a private tutor based in Kumirmari.

Apart from timber trade,the UUS used to distribute land patta in lieu of money.Amiya Kumar Samanta writes: The UUS distributed the

land of Marichjhapi island by issuing written and signed documents of right to individuals or groups.Besides the settlers,their friends

and relatives living in Khulna and the neighbouring island of Kumirmari also received such papers.

Local RSP leader Prafulla Mondal,the then panchayat pradhan of Kumirmari,was sympathetic to the refugees.He was even called by

Jyoti Basu to Kolkata and pulled up for helping the settlers.Mondal told TOI: My brother had paid Rs 25,000 to the samiti in the hope

of getting land on Marichjhapi.Had I known that,I wouldnt have allowed him to lose the money.Says Bharati Mondal: My husband Dinabandhu sold one bigha of land in Gosaba and we took the money to Marichjhapi.The samiti

charged us Rs 150 for nine bighas there.We never got back the money.

Then there was outside help.Some of us contacted different voluntary organisations for food and money.Besides that,many outsiders

used to help us personally, says Nirmal Dhali.The refugee leaders sometimes held meeting at Pulin Mondals house in Kumirmari, Biren Mridha says.Occasionally,relief would come

from outside and used to be distributed in those meetings.Mridha has an interesting story to tell: Refugee leader Raiharan used to call me bondhu (friend).One day,he sent news to me thatsomebody would spend the night at my place.After the evening,the person came.He was a sannyasi with flowing beard and ochre

robe.He was carrying a jhola (sling bag) with him,which was full of money.The next day,before dawn,the mysterious man went away.

PERSONAL GAINS


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Did any of the leaders make any personal gain from the whole affair Yes,claim some former settlers of Marichjhapi.One of the mostprominent UUS leaders used to hoard tins of milk powder which he refused to give to anybody,not even when children were dying of

hunger,says Subhasini Goldar,widow of UUS leader Rangalal Goldar.What did he do with the milk powder then How am I supposed

to know says Subhasini.Former settler Shefali Mondal is more straightforward: He must have been selling the milk powder outside.

That person had made a lot of money, says Subhashini.When he fled Marichjhapi,he took away a sackful of money with him.

END OF THE ROAD

So here is how the Marichjhapi movement came to an end.The road ended back in Dandakaranya for thousands,in shanties along

railway tracks of Kolkata and suburbs for many,in Madhya Pradesh for Satish Mondal,Dum Dum for Raiharans family and forRangalal,it was at the village called Pather Shesh.

(Concluded)

The death of two adivasi women in police firing in Kumirmari island was the most tragic incident in the entire episode... there was no other occasion when police resorted to firing... Nodeserter was killed in police action

Amiya Kumar Samanta | EX-SP,24-PARGANAS

Police offered us Rs 80-100 per day and we were supposed to destroy the houses there and make people board the launches with their belongings.Many villagers from Kumirmarihad been hired by police as labourers

Kalipada Gayen | VILLAGER,KUMIRMARI

One evening,a person came to my place to stay for the night.He was a sannyasi with flowing beard and ochre robe.He was carrying a sling bag with him,which was full of money.Thenext day,before dawn,the mysterious man went away

Biren Mridha | VILLAGER,KUMIRMARI


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My brother had paid Rs 25,000 to the Udbastu Unnayanshil Samiti (UUS) in the hope of getting some land on Marichjhapi island.Had I known that,I would never have allowed him tolose the money

Prafulla Mondal | EX-PRADHAN,KUMIRMARI

MARICHJHAPI NOW: (Top left) The island seen from Kumirmari across the Korankhali river;(above) the forest range office in Marichjhapi


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Bullets & Hunger in Island of Death