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SONARANG – THE VILLAGE THAT WE LOST

Prafulla Nath Sen

            Sonarang is a village in East Bengal, now in Bangladesh, where our ancestors lived before partition of Bengal in 1947.  Well before partition, we, the Baidya Hindu community who settled in the village since ages, started moving out and after partition completely abandoned our homes and hearth, leaving behind only a sentiment, a feeling of rootlessness and loss.  My father, who was posted as Shipping Master of Calcutta Port in 1940, somehow sensed that we are to lost Sonarang given the political situation and the rise of the Muslim League, wanted to give his children a feel of the village and hence a holiday in Sonarang.  Another reason to go was that his grand uncle, the doyen of Sonarang, Rai Sahib Bhuvan Chandra Sen, who retired as Superintendent Home Department, Government of India in 1919 and was still living in the village, wanted to see us.  Known locally as Bhuvan Bhuiya (or landlord) a grand old Buddha sitting on his taktaposh ordering his servants, tenants and grand children about, he could not be taken lightly.  He was the last of the Civil Servants to settle in the village after return.  So great was his reputation, that his chief servant Bhima with me as an eight year old boy, his inseparable companion, went to buy potatoes “Potatoes! Potatoes, how lucky you are to go to Bhuvan Bhuiya’s house.”  Today, after 65 years, we may be the few survivors who can recollect the village as it was.  It is still there.  Dr. Mrs. Jharna Gourlay, who made a documentary on Sonarang for BBC Channel 4, recollects the reception she got from the new residents, mostly Muslims who, wonder of wonders, appropriated the title of Bhuiyas, the prominent Hindu family of Sonarang.

             In Hindu folklore and legend, Sonarang is in Bikrampur, the ancient seat of Hindu kings.  The English were more prosaic: they placed the village in Munshigunge sub-division in the district of Dhaka.  By 1940 Dhaka had already achieved the proud position of being Bengal’s second biggest city and was the seat of a distinct Hindu bhadralok culture of East Bengal.  This culture was spread all over East Bengal, nestled within a cluster of villages, nurtured by a fairly prosperous Hindu middle class.  The tenants and peasants of East Bengal were however mostly muslims.  In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the lower classes of East Bengal, who felt oppressed and discriminated against by the tantric Brahminism practiced by the upper castes, converted en masse to Islam, influenced by traveling fakirs, who sang ballads about brotherhood of man.  One such example is that of Lallan Fakir.  The scheduled castes like Kaybartas (fishermen), sonar (goldsmiths), and lohars (blacksmiths), etc., did not convert due to strong ties but lived within their communities.  So each village was a mix of communities but usually as Elphinstone has pointed out, one community was dominant.  So we have Brahmin villages, Vaidya villages, and Kayastha villages.  It stands to reason that the dominant caste was closely interlinked and related.  Interestingly, however, due to genetic reasons (i.e., gotra, etc.) marriages were mostly with outside girls from linked villages.  This is important to understand the culture and ethos of Sonarang.

             Sonarang was settled and dominated by a caste of Hindus known as Vaidyas, peculiar only to Bengal.  Vaidyas community, a very minute (2% of Hindu Bengalis), has somehow made its presence felt in Bengal through erudite scholarship and intellectual excellence.  This community today boasts about people like Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and Miss Universe and actor Sushmita Sen --  a wide spectrum indeed.  Sonarang itself has produced one Central cabinet minister, four Indian Civil Service members, about twelve justices, scores of teachers, doctors and scientists – all from Sonarang School.  The community owes its pre-eminence to Raja Raj Ballabh Sen, the Dewan of Serajuddaula, who conspired to overthrow the nawab with the help of Robert Clive and bring in the English in 1757.  He arranged a conclave of Vaidya leaders in Murshidabad and declared “Henceforth we will call ourselves Vaidya Brahmins and wear the sacred thread”.  The practice is still carrying on.  The writer’s grand aunt once told him that for all his treachery Raj Ballabh’s palace with all its gold was washed away by the Kirtinasha, a tributary of Brahmaputra.  Later in the Raj era, eminent Vaidyas included Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, V. Sengupta, Acharya Kshitmohan Sen and many others prospered.  So prominent was Sonarang in the national movement that Judge Rowlatt in his famous Rowlatt report mentions Sonarang 18 times as the home of Bengal sedition against the  Raj.  Many Vaidyas have wondered where we have come from because there are unusual features like better looks than the average Bengali.

             Jogendranath Gupta, the historian of Bikrampur, surmises that when Ballal Sen conquered Bengal in the ninth century AD, he imported about 13 families of Brahmins from Ujjain to oust Buddhism – Bikrampur was then the fulcrum of Buddhism.  Dipankar Atish from Bajrajogini, the adjacent Brahmin village from Sonarang, was summoned by the Tibetan king to convert his tribal subjects to Buddhism.  The Buddhist elite converted to Hinduism by force but retained their double barreled name like Sen Gupta, Das Gupta.  Any way, this is conjecture.  From the end of Buddhism the religion and practices that dominated East Bengal now was tantric Brahminism with all its esoteric practices and rituals.  One of the eminent practitioners in the 13^th century AD was one Surya Sen, who founded the village of Sonarang.  Politically, there had been a change in East Bengal in the 11^th century when Bakhtyar Khilyi ousted Lakshman Sen, the last Hindu king and established Muslim rule in Dhaka.  One of the families of Sonarang had the sanad from the nawab as land grant, but now they are so dispersed that it is difficult to lay one’s hand on this document.  Our parents were aware that such a document existed.  There are other records of public works on Sonarang mostly public spirited like Bisheshwar Sen lost his entire wealth in digging the canal that gives access to the village or the king who dug the lake (dighi) but faced the curse of his mother, who said he could not finish it.  A very senior scientist in Iowa USA narrated this tale preserved in a ballad when he heard we were from Sonarang.  Therefore we can surmise that people of Sonarang were wealthy and progressive.

             The Gangetic delta has been a most prosperous area since ages immemorial.  Dhaka has been the focal point and gateway for trade in eastern India because two major rives, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, join together to flow into the Bay of Bengal, creating immense riverine routes.  Vincent Smith has pointedly stated that the immense wealth of Bengal fuelled the British expansion.  Munshigunge sub-division is actually on the confluence of the two mighty rivers and this area is like a huge sea.  When the writer saw this area it was absolutely jam packed with steamers and boats.  Commerce was huge.  Barges from Assam carrying tea from the gardens, high rise boats moving in a line carrying jute, the golden fibre grown in the area, opium, indigo coming from upstream, huge timber barges carrying mainly teak from Burma and Assam and finally Dhaka muslin (thin silk) all moved along the rivers to the sea ports of Calcutta and Chittagong.  Roads were a rarity, even people moved by boats which had a life and rhythm of its own.

             The terrain of North East India is uneven; mounds and ravines dominate and Sonarang is no exception.  Sonarang was earlier known as Sonartong or the mound of gold.  Dhaka museum has a number of gold artifacts recovered from this hill feature pointing to a rich past, probably the capital of Senbhoomi a legendary Camelot of East Bengal.  That it was prominent is evident from the fact that Bhiku Dipankar Atish came from the neighbouring Brahmin village Bajrajogini.  But obviously during Ballal Sen’s conquest of Bengal in the 9^th century, Sonarang fell into bad days as Surya Sen, founder of the village, settled it completely afresh.  Although some legends say he was an orphan found in a mela and raised by a Brahmin family, he was a man of giant intellect, a learned tantric practitioner who regularly meditated on the mound, left a large progeny and all the Vaidyas in the village are his descendants.  Some of his descendants tried to meditate on the mound but were found unconscious next day.  There is a prophesy that one of his descendants, most probably the 14^th step, will be a world figure.

             Within a short period, despite Bakhtiyar Khilyi’s conquest and establishing the Nawab’s rule in Dhaka, Sonarang prospered into what Elphinstone has commented  as “the insular, self-contained caste village”.  Surya Sen’s descendants split into twelve clans initially.  Later they split further.  They were called Varsya Bhuiya bari, Bisharod (lawyer) bari and Munshi bari (accountants) and so on.  In the outskirts we had the Brahmanpara or priests’ family, the kaybarta para (fishermen) and mussalman para (muslim area) and many others.  Community leaders built temples like “joradenl” (joint temple with tall twin towers), schools for boys and girls and medical clinics and in 1940 was almost like a small town.  As we have already stated, access was by canal, internal roads were non existent, only dirt tracks impassable during the rains, were used.  State aid during Raj period was negligible and what was achieved was by the people themselves, yet there were many gaps like medical facilities.

             What amazes one is the lack of sanitary facilities as late as 1940.  When I mentioned this to Didima, she promptly marched me to Munshibari where they were installing sanitary toilets with sewage tanks.  She said, “Wait, this will soon come”, but famine, riots, disease and death would sooner engulf the area due to war and political turmoil.  The urgent problem then was employment for the youth.  Due to lack of development there was no employment for the youth and migration for the West was becoming a flood.  Even then, the growth of Sonarang in earlier days of the Raj was impressive, the Sonarang High School and the Middle Girls’ School came as early as 1880.  But sad to say, the concentration was on creation of the Babu class.  Sonarang school, despite being in a village and under thatched roof, boasted of an excellent library, which had a complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica.  The Headmaster was a extremely dedicated man devoted to education.  But the need of the hour was funds, the educational institutions needed buildings and equipment.  With such a glittering alumni, the school was struggling.

             The plus point of Sonarang was the closeness of relationships.  In sadness or sorrow, in pleasure or enjoyment, human support and help were maximum.  Two simple examples will illustrate this.  My grandfather, an expatriate in Assam, suddenly died at a young age.  My father was only 4 years old.  My grandmother with six children moved back to the village for shelter.  She could bring up the children only with the help of other villagers.  Another example after Independence was that of Late Rabi Sen, the President Emeritus of Price Waterhouse Cooper (the first Indian to do so), my father’s cousin and senior most Bhunyan from Sonarang, on hearing of my retirement from the Army wanted to know if he could help.  As I was joining Union Bank, I did not need it but I was grateful for his support.

            But this closeness had also some negative impacts.  Revolt was frowned upon.  Acquiescence to common norms was always desired.  Yet people did resist the straightjacket.  Nibaron Kaka had a mistress and Didima strictly told us not to cross the courtyard but the lady was so nice, she offered sweets on the sly.  The religion, the animal sacrifices, festivals, rituals and its commercialization revolted many, who became Brahmos or Christians.  They found it difficult to stay.  One example is Kalipada whose descendants struck out on their own in the spread of education.

            Even though we were small, three things were evident during our visit which we now realize led to the decline of the middle class Hindu society and ultimate destruction due to partition.  In no way can one claim a revival of East Bengal Hindu culture in relocation in India.  The first was the utter lack of any development and next tackling the fury of nature in disease, famine and calamities.  This led to continuous migration.  The last was the political chaos engineered by the declining Raj.  This has been brought out in great relief by the scholar Suranjan Das.  In 1940 itself there was an element of fear in the villages, hints of dark foreboding.  The maulavis encouraged by the Raj administration preached jihad against the gentry.  Das brings out the Raj propaganda to encourage lower class muslims, that agitation for independence was actually anti muslim conspiracy by the upper class Hindu, which led to a chain of riots in Dhaka starting from 1904.  Therefore what we can claim today is nostalgia.  This inevitability of destiny led our parents to pay a last visit to Sonarang with their children.

            Kolkata to Dhaka today by air takes 20 minutes and by bus about 12 hours.  In 1940, though Bengal was politically one state, it took 24 hours to reach Sonarang.  We took the night train from Sealdah to Goalondo, the steamer station on Padma.  It took the better part of the day to reach Narayangunje, the jute jetty, by huge paddle steamers with names like Kiwi and Emu.  From Narayangunje a smaller ferry took us to Munshigunje, where servants from Bhuvan Bhuiya’s household awaited us.  Lazily we were taken by boat propelled by huge bamboo sticks called logi with which the boatmen pushed the boat forward.  By evening (dusk comes early in the East) we reached Sonarang to a very warm welcome.  We were not alone, a large body of expatriates was coming by the steamer to visit the villages on winter vacation.  Later, I recollected the same feeling of nostalgia from expatriates on the boat from Bombay to Goa, but what I remember most is the exquisite lunch on the boat either curry (the haldi or turmeric is rare) or hilsa and rice.  Rest of the days we spent in visiting almost all the houses turn by turn.  On the night before departure my father invited all the tenants to a sumptuous feast.  Didima insisted that the tenants pay the necessary obeisance to us (a feudal rite).  Next morning we left after sad farewells and Bhima and others were literally in tears when the steamer cast off at Munshigunge.  We never went back.

            In 1943, due to the Japanese invasion of Burma, all boats were destroyed in east Bengal, akin to all lorries carrying food in a metropolis.  In addition, the rice crop failed.  Three million, mainly landless people died of hunger and that included Bhima and others.  It was devastation without a parallel.  A family friend, Kalidas Roy, was editing “Sainik Samachar” in 1977.  He asked me to write something for his paper.  I wrote the “Death of a Village”.  Roy who was from East Bengal later told me he could not sleep for the whole night while reading the piece.  Much later in 1987, I chanced to see an article in Economic and Political Weekly by Ashok Mitra, ex Indian Civil Service and later a noted demographer who was Munshigunje’s Sub-divisional officer during the famine, who describes the utter devastation of a rural heartland in 1943.  Sitting in Delhi, we could do nothing.  Absentee landlordism was meaningless.  We had lost Sonarang.  The partition of 1947 was a formality only.

Rajballabh (Raja)