Three Days in the Enclaves

First Arrival in Karala Chhit with Sahidul, November 2009

When Sanchayan and I arrive in Karala Chhit on a wintry afternoon, the people are at work in the fields; it is the reaping season for rice, and sowing time for fresh vegetables and maize. Soon they start gathering around us, we talk and generally ask about the local situation. They want to know from us if the situation will improve or not.

I respond, vaguely, that since dialogues are on between the two countries, they will probably yield result in time. The more informed elders in the gathering immediately retort that there have been several dialogues in the past between different leaders – leaving them hopeful everytime – but no solution has resulted.

The youngsters also show signs of frustration. Nevertheless, people gather on calling, as they see this interaction with ‘outsiders’ as an opportunity. Subsequent meetings have also shown this strategic willingness in the residents of the enclaves to engage with visitors, since it is through these meetings that they can connect with the world of information. The frustration comes out in different voices in different forms; elderly people are more tolerant and less belligerent than the younger ones. The younger generations are difficult to make conversation with. The absence of access, the barred aspects trouble them more acutely.(ILL.1.13)

On enquiring about the health and education situation, I get a bitter out-pouring.

I am told, there is no access to health care; the people have to rely on local quacks who substitute for doctors.^(ILL.1.11) For access to education the chhit residents have to fake parental identities and addresses. With their real identities, they would not be allowed to enroll in the Indian schools and colleges, which are the only ones within their physical reach. At my request, a boy called Mahabub shows me his school leaving certificate, dated 2006.

123 We shift our location to another part of the enclave, generally used as the meeting spot. Sahidul introduces me to a new group and we converse:

[KER= Karala Enclave Residents (with names in brackets wherever known); Mansoor Mia/ Bhai= MM]

KER: So, what do you think will happen to us? Do you visualise any changes?

ADG: I can only state what is dear to my heart, that I wish it had happened about 60 years ago, nonetheless, it should happen at some point soon. We can only demand, dream and wish.

KER (Mustaq): We have also had hopes, several times since 1958, Nehru signed a pact then it didn’t materialise, war broke out. [He is referring to the India-Pakistan War of 1965]

Then there was a silence; again after 1971 there was hope, Indira Gandhi signed a pact with Mujib and then it broke down. So what will happen now? We are sitting hopelessly! ^(ILL.1.7)

KERs: [Desperate chorus] We are stuck here like some animals; even animals have more dignity than us. Even animals live a better life, and are taken care of, in the zoo they feed the animals; there are doctors in the jail too! We don’t have any jurisdiction. Anybody can come and harm us, we can’t complain.

SG: Why can’t you complain to the local police?

KER: They won’t take our complaint, we don’t have any rights. We are not citizens.

[This kind of talk continues throughout on the way back, with more complaints pouring in about unavailability of electricity, clean water, doctors, medicine, access road etc. A man in his early sixties, who was working in the field, comes up onto the road suddenly from the field, turns towards us and says]

124 KER: If you are reporting to the paper, please say that we are a bunch of bastards!

ADG: Why do you say that?

KER: [angrily] Because, our children cannot get admission in schools without faking their identities. They can’t mention us as parents.

ADG: Why is that?

KER: For then they have to provide the proof of address, which involves, a valid voter ID card or a ration card, a valid proof of citizenship. And we don’t have that, so our children are bastards, passed off as somebody else’s offsprings.

Visit to Karala Chhit in January 2011

Sanchayan and I are visiting the enclaves. I have come after a gap of eight to nine months; I had last come in summer and it is now January. We have arranged to meet with Sahidul Bhai, he is at home today; it is Sunday.

The mood is unusually happy in the enclaves, since, throughout the last few months, the news or rumour has been doing the rounds that India is going to exchange its enclaves with Bangladesh; an MoU has already been signed at the secretarial level and the issue is now reaching the ministerial level, prior to the Parliament for legislation.

Karala Chhit, which we are visiting first, welcomes us. [Sahidul is saying that they are happy, I don’t know]. People are absent from the village because of the sowing season. The fields are nearby and it is with an amazing quickness that they congregate. But Sahidul takes us to the house of Irfan, who is a distant relative of his. He introduces us and makes us sit in a room on one side of a courtyard. They seem to be slightly better off, they have four rooms, including kitchen, distributed on the four sides of the yard. They also have electric connection. When I ask Sahidul how an enclave dweller can access electricity, the answer is very puzzling for me. He says that though this is just next to the

125 enclave, and all the other houses nearby are within the enclave, this particular house falls within the Indian territory, which gives it access to electricity.

Just then, a new entrant to the room – an enclave dweller, catching this last part of the exchange, breaks into the conversation. Endorsing Sahidul’s view, he says, “We are so close and yet so far from each other.”

In Poaturkuthi Enclave, Jan 2011

Yesterday, I fixed a meeting with Mansoor Bhai for today, but now he seems to be in doubt, he needs to go to a religious conference. Without wanting to offend any religious sentiments, I protest mildly that he had agreed to this meeting.

Finally he decides to meet me, but I have a tyre puncture and arrive late at his house. Mansoor Bhai has met us on several occasions before; he is always open and generous in his gestures. In his conversations though, he lets out his anxiety about the future of the enclaves in general and in particular, his own, Poaturkuthi enclave.

MM: What will happen to us? Do you have a clue?

ADG: We have been following the newspapers and the television. Though television is silent about it, the print media is reporting quite frequently about the enclaves these days. You must be following them… What are your leaders saying?

MM: Yes, I am following the local newspapers everyday. Some are talking positive… The only leader who has been consistently in support is the Forward Block leader Dipak Sengupta, who stays in Dinhata. He has been fighting for us, a long time now; He made the local MLAs raise the issue in the assembly.²¹⁶ ADG: Assembly won’t do. Since it is a subject for the Centre, for the Home and Foreign Ministry. So may be a Member of Parliament or a central minister can help.

216 MLA- Member of Legislative Assembly.

126 MM: Yes, Pranab Mukherjee (the Finance Minister) and the PM seem to be showing interest, the Secretary is to visit Bangladesh in connection, it seems.

Now, it all depends on whether they agree. Earlier also there were several attempts, which just didn’t work out. This time it seems a bit positive.

ADG: Have they conducted any census survey or made any maps yet?

MM: Here they haven’t come. On the Bangladesh side it seems they are taking initiatives in remapping and also taking census data.

In the car, conversation continues on the future of the enclaves. (ILL.1.14) I have a suggestion to make; while travelling together to Dinhata town – to the house of the Sengupta’s, the activists – I tell Mansoor, “When you merge with the Indian citizenry, you merge as equals, and in the process give a special space to the gendered relations – women should enjoy all priorities too, in education, health and control of the society. Only then can one develop from a clogged minority to the social mainstream.”²¹⁷

217 This was meant to be an ethical suggestion, considering that the enclave people are the most wretched of the minority communities. To begin with, there is a tradtion of conservatism, which would be difficult to break if the enclave people were a settled community. Here, the residents have the possibility and could reorganise their public social life, I felt, because they are confined and struggling for freedom – for transition from community to society. My suggestion had some consequences it seems, because Mansoor Bhai and the others pitched a woman from the enclaves as candidate for election (though this seemed an ambiguity at the time, since enclave people were not part of the electorate. But, it turned out, the lady was part citizen because she had married someone from mainland India.

127

1.13 Coochbehar, Poaturkuthi: Gathering in Front of Masoor Bhai’s House, Nov. 2009.

(Sahidul Bhai sitting on the right, Mansoor in the Centre).

1.14 Coochbehar: With Mansoor Bhai in a Taxi, Leaving Poaturkuthi, Jan. 2011.

128 1.2 Through the Passages: The Rites of Border Crossing

1.2.1 Location: The Teen Bigha Corridor