More Byapari in my blog

It’s been a day since I read him, but I am still thinking about Manoranjan Byapari. His history is fascinating and so is the history of his caste, the Namashudras. Originally from East Bengal, now Bangladesh, they suffered the most during the Partition. Leaving behind their land and their livelihood, the Namashudras migrated to the other side, only to be humiliated and humbled all over again. Some were packed off to Dandakaranya, others sent to the uninhabited Sunderbans. What happened to them there forms the background of Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide. It exposes the sheer hypocrisy of the communists in Bengal, who proclaim to champion the cause of the downtrodden and the diminished. I wrote on the subject before, but a lot more research needs to be done on the Morijhappi carnage, one of the grossest human rights violations post independence.