Caught between ' khela hobe' (the game is on) and ' abki baar 400 paar '(this time we shall cross the 400 mark), our home state is a miniature India, a curious mix of sarkari yojanas , syndicate mafias, government doles and discordant agitations.
Here we have homeless migrants trapped in jobs and jobless youth in a hopeless homeland, commoners caught in centre-vs-state crossfire, farmers crippled by climate change, and minorities fighting fundamentalist rhetoric. Nerves are fraying, bodies are breaking down. Caste, class, gender, language, ethnicity, religion, all are making a hullabaloo at the intersections.
As
we drift across this madness, we hear voices, utterly confused, helpless,
delirious, as well as those no-longer-fooled-by-the-who's-who-of-power. From
Sandeshkhali to the Himalayan tea gardens, from Kolkata to the forgotten tracts
of Rarh, we roam, a reporter and a bard. We hear, we gather, we click, we
speak.
We begin with Sandeshkhali, an otherwise obscure island at the Sundarban delta region of West Bengal, that often gets caught in political battles over the control of land and women’s bodies.
Shatranj
Veni
vici vidi
Here
comes the ED.
There
in the village of Sandeshkhali –
the
night just yawned,
the
women, all pawned,
TV
anchors moaned, “Ram Ram, Ali Ali!”
‘Khela hobe’ (the game is on) says a Trinamool Congress graffiti in Murshidabad
Political graffiti on
a wall in Murshidabad: ‘You gobbled up the coal, you stole all the cows, we
can understand that. But you didn't even leave sand from river beds, or our
wives and daughters unharmed – thus says Sandeshkhali’
Left: Puja pandal in north Kolkata gives voice to the violence against women: fandi kore bandi karo , it says (You tricked me into bondage) . Right: An exhibition poster by a primary school student in Bali Island at Sundarbans speaks of violence against women. Amra naari, amra naari-nirjataan bandho korte pari (We are women. We can end the violence against women)
*****
Traversing through Bankura, Puruliya (also spelt Purulia), West Midnapore and Jhargram, districts from a region popularly known as Jungle Mahal, we meet women farmers and migrant agricultural labourers.
Jhumur
Migrant
labourers
buried
in the sand,
Such
is the story of our terracotta land.
'Paani'
is a blasphemy,
you
must say
'jal'!
Such
is the thirst of Jungle Mahal.
Women farmers in Purulia struggle to survive in the midst of acute water scarcity, decline in agriculture, problems of livelihood
*****
Darjeeling may be the ‘Queen of the hills’ for the world, but not for Adivasi women toiling in the seemingly idyllic gardens, who don’t have toilets to relieve themselves. The inequality and struggle for survival of women in the area means that as far as their future is concerned, the writing is on the wall!
Bloody Mary
Would
you care for a cuppa tea?
White
peony, oolong?
Roasted,
toasted, upper class bong.
Would
you care for a cuppa blood
or
an Adivasi gal?
Toiling,
boiling, “We shall! We shall!"
You cannot miss this graffiti in Darjeeling that speaks of the harsh realities of the lives of women in the district
*****
Murshidabad is not just at the heart of Bengal but also in the eye of another kind of storm, the one that landed with the cash-for-school-job. A high court order invalidating a large number of fraudulent appointments of teachers and non-teaching staff by the state's School Service Commission (SSC) in state-run and state-aided schools has left young minds in doubt. The young boys, not even 18, working in beedi -making units, have little faith in education and its ability to bring good fortune. They would rather join the workforce early and migrate for better opportunities.
Eligible candidates
They
sat in a
dharna,
'tanashahi ar naa!'
The
cops came down with military boots –
sarkari naukri,
Damn,
they're not free!
The
stick and the carrot are all in cahoots.
Dropouts, many of them teenagers work in a beedi unit in Murshidabad. ‘The people who had big-big degree are sitting idle. Those who got selected never got the posts and are now sitting on the streets demanding the jobs they were supposed to get under the SSC. So, what would we do with education? '
*****
No matter what time of the year it is, we need to jostle our way through the crowded streets of Kolkata, where protesting women are seen in large numbers. People are flowing in from all corners of the state to raise their hands in protest unjust laws and values.
Citizenship
Here
comes the paper-man,
run,
run, if you can,
Bangladeshi!
Bangladeshi! Off with your head!
Down
with your CAA;
we'll
never run away,
Bangladeshi!
Bangladeshi! Cake over bread?
Cutouts made for the Women's March in 2019, Kolkata, called by various women’s organisations
Women’s March 2019, Kolkata: Women from different social backgrounds took to the streets with a call to defeat hatred and discrimination based on religion, caste and gender
A sit-in demonstration by Muslim women at Park Circus Maidan, Kolkata, during the nation-wide protests
against CAA-NRC movement
*****
In the villages dependent on agriculture in Bhirbum we came face to face with landless Adivasi women at work. A few women with family land also had little say in it.
Shudrani
O
babu, here's my muddy ol'
patta
–
ruddy
and torn like a scarlet
dupatta
.
Give
me a morsel, hand me a life,
I
am a farmer, not a farmer's wife.
Gone
is my land babu,
gone
with the drought...
am
I still a farmer, or a
sarkari
doubt?
‘No land of our own. We work on the farms but beg for a fistful of grains,’ says a Santali farm worker harvesting paddy in Birbhum, West Bengal
*****
The ordinary people here do not wait for election time to make those in power accountable. Women and farmers from Murshidabad, Hooghly, Nadia have come out time and again, to support nationwide movements.
Hammers
Dear
dear teargas
triggered
in a whim —
factories
close down, landsharks swim.
Black
black barricades.
Minimum
wage —
NREGA
trapped in a saffron rage.
Left : All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) Mahila Kisan Divas rally January 18, 2021 Right: ‘They don’t come to us. So, we come here to tell them what we want!’ say the protesting farmers in AIKS rally on September 19, 2023
