domestic violence scenario, the chapter looks at the continuity of the cycle of violence spread a... more domestic violence scenario, the chapter looks at the continuity of the cycle of violence spread across the colonial and the post-colonial periods through personal narratives, survey reports and government data, highlights the measures adopted to combat the menace and prescribes the need for more pro-active roles by all sections of the society to promote equality as enshrined in the Constitution of India.
ndispensable for the student or researcher studying women\u27s history, this book draws upon a wi... more ndispensable for the student or researcher studying women\u27s history, this book draws upon a wide array of cultural settings and time periods in which women displayed agency by carrying out their daily economic, familial, artistic, and religious obligations. Since record keeping began, history has been written by a relatively few elite men. Insights into women\u27s history are left to be gleaned by scholars who undertake careful readings of ancient literature, examine archaeological artifacts, and study popular culture, such as folktales, musical traditions, and art. For some historical periods and geographic regions, this is the only way to develop some sense of what daily life might have been like for women in a particular time and place. This reference explores the daily life of women across civilizations. The work is organized in sections on different civilizations from around the world, arranged chronologically. Within each society, the encyclopedia highlights the roles of wo...
The 1947 Partition in The East Trends and Trajectories Edited by Subhasri Ghosh, 2022
My paper explores the role of the dominant pro-establishment vernacular press in the western half... more My paper explores the role of the dominant pro-establishment vernacular press in the western half of divided Bengal in reflecting opinion, shaping attitude and tenors of debate on issues of displacement and rehabilitation following the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. I argue that West Bengal's mainstream vernacular press actively participated in communal and sectarian discourses. It pitted the demands of the incoming Hindu refugees from East Bengal against the Muslim minorities inside the state, and also incentivized a kind of linguistic and cultural 'othering' of the inhabitants of West Bengal's neighbouring states, particularly of Bihar and Orissa. While ardent nationalist posturing proved dominant in the press deliberations on partition, migration and refugee rehabilitation, over time opinion gradually turned against accommodating the ever increasing number of poorer sections of refugees. The influential vernacular press failed to provide a critical debating space, which could accommodate marginal voices and hold the state accountable on the crucial issue of redistribution of land and resources in favour of the East Bengali migrants along with other socially disadvantaged groups.
Continuing the discussion on Partition in the Eastern Region from volume 1 (Stree, 2006), the edi... more Continuing the discussion on Partition in the Eastern Region from volume 1 (Stree, 2006), the editors present in volume 2, a deepening portrait through literature, interviews, surveys and documents. As is evident, there has been more published on the partition of the Punjab in western India than on the partition in eastern India and so in many ways both volumes are a pioneering venture. Much of the material has been translated for the first time from Bengali. What is particularly interesting is that contributions, whether in fiction, interviews, or memoirs, are from both sides of the border so that the full force of what Partition wrought, the way women dealt with its mindless havoc, how new lives were built, offering insights on displacement, loss, abduction and rape. The documents throw light on political and communal violence; the British Inspector-General of Polices comments on Direct Action Day, 1946 and the violence at Noakhali and the ineffectiveness of Gandhi; Renuka Rays sp...
Conserveries Memorielles Revue Transdisciplinaire De Jeunes Chercheurs, Mar 10, 2013
The paper wishes to address one of the key themes of the volume—the representation of the self an... more The paper wishes to address one of the key themes of the volume—the representation of the self and the other. The theme will be studied in the backdrop of the forced migration from East Bengal (present Bangladesh) to West Bengal (in India) following the vivisection of British India into two nation-states—India and Pakistan—in 1947. The event triggered off large-scale cross-border migration on the Bengal and Punjab sector in India, with as the surging tide of uprooted mass lashing the shores of these two states. Concentrating on the Bengal side, the paper will try to capture the many-faceted representations of the migrants through the lens of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’; the guest and the host, i.e. the local people of West Bengal and the migrants from across the border. Culling information from Government documents, autobiographies, oral interviews and memoirs, the paper will focus on how each perceived the other and whether more than half a century and subsequent generations later such perceptions have undergone any change.The representation of the ‘Bangals’, as the Bengali Hindus from East Pakistan are popularly referred to as by the ‘Ghatis’ (Bengali Hindus of West Bengal), in the latter’s psyche, too, is multi-faceted—sympathy towards the migrants, at being uprooted from their ancestral home, antagonism at being ‘the Government’s favored son’ in terms of job reservations and financial help which in turn fostered the feeling of ‘outsiders infringing on our rights, occupying our lands and making life miserable for us.’ Coming towards the other end of the spectrum—how did the migrants view themselves? Did they, too, consider themselves as unjust victims of the political power-play? Did they, too, view the Government as the benevolent patriarch and accept the help offered to them without so much of a whimper? Did they view the local people as cold and indifferent? In other words did they subscribe to the representations of the Government and the locals or did they construct an identity of their own? These are some of the aspects of representation of forced displacement of the Bengali Hindus from across the international border, which have been dealt with in the course of this paper.
domestic violence scenario, the chapter looks at the continuity of the cycle of violence spread a... more domestic violence scenario, the chapter looks at the continuity of the cycle of violence spread across the colonial and the post-colonial periods through personal narratives, survey reports and government data, highlights the measures adopted to combat the menace and prescribes the need for more pro-active roles by all sections of the society to promote equality as enshrined in the Constitution of India.
ndispensable for the student or researcher studying women\u27s history, this book draws upon a wi... more ndispensable for the student or researcher studying women\u27s history, this book draws upon a wide array of cultural settings and time periods in which women displayed agency by carrying out their daily economic, familial, artistic, and religious obligations. Since record keeping began, history has been written by a relatively few elite men. Insights into women\u27s history are left to be gleaned by scholars who undertake careful readings of ancient literature, examine archaeological artifacts, and study popular culture, such as folktales, musical traditions, and art. For some historical periods and geographic regions, this is the only way to develop some sense of what daily life might have been like for women in a particular time and place. This reference explores the daily life of women across civilizations. The work is organized in sections on different civilizations from around the world, arranged chronologically. Within each society, the encyclopedia highlights the roles of wo...
The 1947 Partition in The East Trends and Trajectories Edited by Subhasri Ghosh, 2022
My paper explores the role of the dominant pro-establishment vernacular press in the western half... more My paper explores the role of the dominant pro-establishment vernacular press in the western half of divided Bengal in reflecting opinion, shaping attitude and tenors of debate on issues of displacement and rehabilitation following the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. I argue that West Bengal's mainstream vernacular press actively participated in communal and sectarian discourses. It pitted the demands of the incoming Hindu refugees from East Bengal against the Muslim minorities inside the state, and also incentivized a kind of linguistic and cultural 'othering' of the inhabitants of West Bengal's neighbouring states, particularly of Bihar and Orissa. While ardent nationalist posturing proved dominant in the press deliberations on partition, migration and refugee rehabilitation, over time opinion gradually turned against accommodating the ever increasing number of poorer sections of refugees. The influential vernacular press failed to provide a critical debating space, which could accommodate marginal voices and hold the state accountable on the crucial issue of redistribution of land and resources in favour of the East Bengali migrants along with other socially disadvantaged groups.
Continuing the discussion on Partition in the Eastern Region from volume 1 (Stree, 2006), the edi... more Continuing the discussion on Partition in the Eastern Region from volume 1 (Stree, 2006), the editors present in volume 2, a deepening portrait through literature, interviews, surveys and documents. As is evident, there has been more published on the partition of the Punjab in western India than on the partition in eastern India and so in many ways both volumes are a pioneering venture. Much of the material has been translated for the first time from Bengali. What is particularly interesting is that contributions, whether in fiction, interviews, or memoirs, are from both sides of the border so that the full force of what Partition wrought, the way women dealt with its mindless havoc, how new lives were built, offering insights on displacement, loss, abduction and rape. The documents throw light on political and communal violence; the British Inspector-General of Polices comments on Direct Action Day, 1946 and the violence at Noakhali and the ineffectiveness of Gandhi; Renuka Rays sp...
Conserveries Memorielles Revue Transdisciplinaire De Jeunes Chercheurs, Mar 10, 2013
The paper wishes to address one of the key themes of the volume—the representation of the self an... more The paper wishes to address one of the key themes of the volume—the representation of the self and the other. The theme will be studied in the backdrop of the forced migration from East Bengal (present Bangladesh) to West Bengal (in India) following the vivisection of British India into two nation-states—India and Pakistan—in 1947. The event triggered off large-scale cross-border migration on the Bengal and Punjab sector in India, with as the surging tide of uprooted mass lashing the shores of these two states. Concentrating on the Bengal side, the paper will try to capture the many-faceted representations of the migrants through the lens of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’; the guest and the host, i.e. the local people of West Bengal and the migrants from across the border. Culling information from Government documents, autobiographies, oral interviews and memoirs, the paper will focus on how each perceived the other and whether more than half a century and subsequent generations later such perceptions have undergone any change.The representation of the ‘Bangals’, as the Bengali Hindus from East Pakistan are popularly referred to as by the ‘Ghatis’ (Bengali Hindus of West Bengal), in the latter’s psyche, too, is multi-faceted—sympathy towards the migrants, at being uprooted from their ancestral home, antagonism at being ‘the Government’s favored son’ in terms of job reservations and financial help which in turn fostered the feeling of ‘outsiders infringing on our rights, occupying our lands and making life miserable for us.’ Coming towards the other end of the spectrum—how did the migrants view themselves? Did they, too, consider themselves as unjust victims of the political power-play? Did they, too, view the Government as the benevolent patriarch and accept the help offered to them without so much of a whimper? Did they view the local people as cold and indifferent? In other words did they subscribe to the representations of the Government and the locals or did they construct an identity of their own? These are some of the aspects of representation of forced displacement of the Bengali Hindus from across the international border, which have been dealt with in the course of this paper.
Uploads
Papers by Subhasri Ghosh