From The Times Of India
Subhro Niyogi & Ashis Poddar, TNN
Apr 18, 2011
HUDA DIGAMBAPUR (NADIA): At first sight, Huda Digambapur with its graffiti walls, green paddy fields, party flags and festoons is like any other village under siege of elections. Men sit on the porch, smoking bidi and discussing politics. Children run after livestock while women go about their household chores. This is the story of the western edge.
Right across on the eastern end is a picture of contrast. Dry patches with dead bamboo and banana trees break the barren landscape. Deserted houses border a dry canal. Men idle under a huge banyan tree but conversation is absent as is poll graffiti. Children run around here, too, but there`s no livestock to play with. A woman with scars cooks a sparse meal in a barren courtyard.
Huda Digambarpur, once a homogenous village located at the farthest edge of Nadia district along the India-Bangladesh border, is divided today. While a large part of it has metalled roads, electricity and other markers of development, its eastern section has been long forgotten, devoid of civic amenities and also civil liberties.
It isn`t any khap panchayat or a Maoist kangaroo court that has punished the 45-odd families settled along the eastern side. It is the Indian state that chose to turn them into pariahs by erecting a barbed wire fence through the village. It is some 500 m away from the international border and well into Indian territory.
Those who had houses and farmlands beyond the fence were shut out by the state. The inhabitants have become prisoners in their own land, trapped between gun-toting Border Security Force (BSF) jawans and an impregnable metal fence on one side and marauding night raiders on the other.
"Our life is regulated by BSF jawans. They open the gate at dawn so we can cross the fence and enter the other Huda Digambarpur. It is shut at dusk so that there is no cross-border illegal migration or activity. From 5pm to 6am, we are confined to a patch of land that, despite being in India, is left to the mercy of Bangladeshi dacoits and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel," rued Dolu Mondal.
With no electricity or roads, life here halts after sunset. With villagers asleep by 7-7.30pm, dacoits from Bangladesh strike under the cover of darkness. Earlier, they would steal an entire crop ready for harvest. Then, they got bolder and began attacking houses and robbing inhabitants of their live stock, valuables, utensils and even clothes.
The constant threat of dacoits forced Dolu to abandon his house on the eastern bank of the canal that acts as a natural border between the two countries. His house was looted six times in the past four years. His mother Moumena Biwi received a deep gash in her forehead, his seven-year-old daughter Jasmine Khatoon`s left thigh was slashed, and his sister-in-law Minu Biwi, was hacked in the face and right arm, disfiguring her face and debilitating her hand. "So I shifted to a piece of farmland that we owned a little further from the border," said Dolu.
On each occasion, the dacoits fled with the loot by the time the BSF patrol team arrived. Even in medical emergencies after dusk, it takes a lot of time to get things moving.
"When we approach the fence, the BSF men accuse us of trying to cut the wire to smuggle away cattle to Bangladesh. When we go to Dr Mujibur and Dr Sahidul for medical help across the canal, we run the risk of being caught by BDR men and accused of spying for India," said Nazrul Mondal.
Such is their plight that young men of the fenced eastern Huda Digambar don`t find Indian girls to marry. Many, therefore, marry Bangladeshi women from across the canal. Malka Biwi, who hails from Sarberi village in Bangladesh, got married to Huda Digambarpur`s Mofizul Mollah seven years ago. But she hasn`t stopped ruing her fate. "There is electricity in my home and everyone lives a free life out there. Here, we live like a prisoner," she said.
Shehnaz Khatoon and her friends, who go to a madrasa in Bora Boldi village in Bangladesh`s Kushtia district just across the canal to learn Arabic, are on the alert while returning. "We hide behind trees to avoid the BSF jawans. If we are caught, there won`t be an end to our woes," Shehnaz said.
With no newspaper reaching the village, the radios having been robbed and no TV sets without power, they haven`t heard of the `winds of change` blowing across the state. Bengal may be on the cusp of a historic change but the fenced-off villagers of Huda Digambarpur are caught in a time warp.
"All parties come to us before each election. They hear our problems and promise solutions if voted to power. But once the elections are over, they disappear. In the 50s, 60s and early 70s, I voted for the Congress. In the next three decades, I voted for CPM. Now, I am voting for Trinamool Congress," said Zolin Mondal.
So why do they vote at all? "We do so to prove our nationality. Others are always casting aspersions on our allegiance. So we vote to prove that we believe in the Indian democracy, even if the rest of India does not believe in our existence," said Amir Mondal.
PS: The men from Huda Digambarpur trekked down to Bora Boldi village across the canal in Bangladesh`s Kushtia district to watch the ICC World Cup opener (India vs Bangladesh), semi-final (India vs Pakistan) and final (India vs Sri Lanka). They were delighted when India beat all of them to lift the cup but could not celebrate lest BDR men put them behind bars for infiltrating and BSF men accuse them of terrorism.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Border-village-on-the-brink-of-hopelessness/articleshow/8012728.cms
Subhro Niyogi & Ashis Poddar, TNN
Apr 18, 2011
HUDA DIGAMBAPUR (NADIA): At first sight, Huda Digambapur with its graffiti walls, green paddy fields, party flags and festoons is like any other village under siege of elections. Men sit on the porch, smoking bidi and discussing politics. Children run after livestock while women go about their household chores. This is the story of the western edge.
Right across on the eastern end is a picture of contrast. Dry patches with dead bamboo and banana trees break the barren landscape. Deserted houses border a dry canal. Men idle under a huge banyan tree but conversation is absent as is poll graffiti. Children run around here, too, but there`s no livestock to play with. A woman with scars cooks a sparse meal in a barren courtyard.
Huda Digambarpur, once a homogenous village located at the farthest edge of Nadia district along the India-Bangladesh border, is divided today. While a large part of it has metalled roads, electricity and other markers of development, its eastern section has been long forgotten, devoid of civic amenities and also civil liberties.
It isn`t any khap panchayat or a Maoist kangaroo court that has punished the 45-odd families settled along the eastern side. It is the Indian state that chose to turn them into pariahs by erecting a barbed wire fence through the village. It is some 500 m away from the international border and well into Indian territory.
Those who had houses and farmlands beyond the fence were shut out by the state. The inhabitants have become prisoners in their own land, trapped between gun-toting Border Security Force (BSF) jawans and an impregnable metal fence on one side and marauding night raiders on the other.
"Our life is regulated by BSF jawans. They open the gate at dawn so we can cross the fence and enter the other Huda Digambarpur. It is shut at dusk so that there is no cross-border illegal migration or activity. From 5pm to 6am, we are confined to a patch of land that, despite being in India, is left to the mercy of Bangladeshi dacoits and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel," rued Dolu Mondal.
With no electricity or roads, life here halts after sunset. With villagers asleep by 7-7.30pm, dacoits from Bangladesh strike under the cover of darkness. Earlier, they would steal an entire crop ready for harvest. Then, they got bolder and began attacking houses and robbing inhabitants of their live stock, valuables, utensils and even clothes.
The constant threat of dacoits forced Dolu to abandon his house on the eastern bank of the canal that acts as a natural border between the two countries. His house was looted six times in the past four years. His mother Moumena Biwi received a deep gash in her forehead, his seven-year-old daughter Jasmine Khatoon`s left thigh was slashed, and his sister-in-law Minu Biwi, was hacked in the face and right arm, disfiguring her face and debilitating her hand. "So I shifted to a piece of farmland that we owned a little further from the border," said Dolu.
On each occasion, the dacoits fled with the loot by the time the BSF patrol team arrived. Even in medical emergencies after dusk, it takes a lot of time to get things moving.
"When we approach the fence, the BSF men accuse us of trying to cut the wire to smuggle away cattle to Bangladesh. When we go to Dr Mujibur and Dr Sahidul for medical help across the canal, we run the risk of being caught by BDR men and accused of spying for India," said Nazrul Mondal.
Such is their plight that young men of the fenced eastern Huda Digambar don`t find Indian girls to marry. Many, therefore, marry Bangladeshi women from across the canal. Malka Biwi, who hails from Sarberi village in Bangladesh, got married to Huda Digambarpur`s Mofizul Mollah seven years ago. But she hasn`t stopped ruing her fate. "There is electricity in my home and everyone lives a free life out there. Here, we live like a prisoner," she said.
Shehnaz Khatoon and her friends, who go to a madrasa in Bora Boldi village in Bangladesh`s Kushtia district just across the canal to learn Arabic, are on the alert while returning. "We hide behind trees to avoid the BSF jawans. If we are caught, there won`t be an end to our woes," Shehnaz said.
With no newspaper reaching the village, the radios having been robbed and no TV sets without power, they haven`t heard of the `winds of change` blowing across the state. Bengal may be on the cusp of a historic change but the fenced-off villagers of Huda Digambarpur are caught in a time warp.
"All parties come to us before each election. They hear our problems and promise solutions if voted to power. But once the elections are over, they disappear. In the 50s, 60s and early 70s, I voted for the Congress. In the next three decades, I voted for CPM. Now, I am voting for Trinamool Congress," said Zolin Mondal.
So why do they vote at all? "We do so to prove our nationality. Others are always casting aspersions on our allegiance. So we vote to prove that we believe in the Indian democracy, even if the rest of India does not believe in our existence," said Amir Mondal.
PS: The men from Huda Digambarpur trekked down to Bora Boldi village across the canal in Bangladesh`s Kushtia district to watch the ICC World Cup opener (India vs Bangladesh), semi-final (India vs Pakistan) and final (India vs Sri Lanka). They were delighted when India beat all of them to lift the cup but could not celebrate lest BDR men put them behind bars for infiltrating and BSF men accuse them of terrorism.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Border-village-on-the-brink-of-hopelessness/articleshow/8012728.cms
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