AN ODE TO THE SUFFERED REFUGEES OF CALCUTTA

‘What village, ha?’ Amala’s head automatically turned towards Manas as she snapped. ‘Do I have any village, Babu? What stories do you want to hear? Why? To see if my mouth bleeds when I tell them? Or so you can feel happy it’s not your story?’ What stories one can dare to listen to about the Indian partition? Firm on this point, 'Victory Colony 1950' has tried to argue about the incidents regarding that era of Indian history, whose intensity is slowly diminishing and fading away in this contemporary age.

Victory Colony 1950 (Image Source: Telegraph)

It was a tumultuous time. The whole country was immersed in the joyous celebration of Independence, whereas on the other side of the light, several lives were getting crushed and dying under the fists of unjustified immigration. The government and administration had already refused to listen to their pleas, neighbours had also turned into enemies, not a morsel to feed their hunger, not a home to call their own, and not a life to live any longer. The partition of India in 1947 has been a saga of miseries for thousands as they became the victim of grave violence and were torn apart in communal riots, loss of property, and extreme upheavals.

Based on this backdrop, in the novel Victory Colony 1950 written by Bhaswati Ghosh,  the journey of a homeless refugee Amala Manna starts, as she arrives in Calcutta (now Kolkata) from Barishal in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) with her little brother Kartik on a humid day in 1949. Petrified and completely lost in a new city, apparently a new country, Amala lost her brother in the crowd and was completely shattered until a team of volunteers rescued her and brought her to a refugee camp in Gariahat. From there, the hardships of every refugee camp during that time came into the narrative vividly and the journey of refugees to build a life in an unknown city begins. The relentless thrive of refugees to make a survival by building colonies has been excellently portrayed in the novel.

“...Who is going to write their stories when no one even cares whether they exist or not?”

Manas Dutta, Diary Entry, September 1949 (Page 77)

“...Who is going to write their stories when no one even cares whether they exist or not?”

Manas Dutta, Diary Entry, September 1949 (Page 77)

Apart from Amala, another protagonist of the novel is Manas Dutta who was a part of the volunteer team. He witnessed the tumultuous time and watched the refugees gather and piled up in the city. He watched the depleting situations of the refugee camps and how people there reside in miseries. The government was quite indifferent regarding their development. The watery brackish rice gruel was all they got in the camps; women were exploited, and immune diseases became fatal and life-threatening among children, and people delved into the workforce, including women. Aside from everything in the camp and the scattered life refugees lived, a sense of optimism still managed to creep throughout the tale.

Bhaswati Ghosh, author of Victory Colony 1950 (Image Source: edesinews.com)

Though there are miseries, heartbreaks, and losses, Victory Colony 1950 is a narrative of how a person despite every downfall manages to fight and survive if they are accompanied by a group of supportive pillars. Characters like Chitra, Malati, Nimai, Minoti, Mrinmoyee, Manik, Snehalata, Manas’s grandfather, and many more were the pillars in Amala and Manas’s lives. In spite of the socio-economic differences, Amala and Manas fell in love with each other and their feelings were selflessly pure and passionate as well. The establishment of Bijoy Nagar or Victory colony is another common scenario portrayed by the author, which showcased the establishment of several colonies that happened in Calcutta and adjoining areas of the city during that time. The name of the colony metaphors a chant or a slogan of how they strived to lead a life of their own despite every resistance they faced from the upper segment of the society. The colony is a trophy of their own achievement.

When it comes to storytelling, Bhaswati Ghosh did it with a lot of care and subtlety. The description of the food in the narrative from both Bengal provinces is another separate character in the story because when everything fails to establish somehow, it is the food and love for the food that kept everyone alive, literally. Victory Colony 1950 is the first English novel that narrates the tale of the Bengal partition in 1947 and is a relenting storyline of losses, despair, optimism, strength, love, sustenance, bereavement, and resilience altogether.