India’s forgotten refugees

KimB 27 August 2008, 09:35AM

In a remote forest in West Bengal is one of the oldest and most forgotten refugee camps in India. It is home to thousands of people, but few Indians even know it exists.

Coopers Camp, which is about 160km from Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, was set up more than 60 years ago for those fleeing violence during the 1947 partitioning of India.

France24 has posted a report about the camp on YouTube. It includes an interview with one of the camp’s oldest residents, 112-year-old Joggerswar Gosh:

" …After the partition Muslims threatened to kill us, I had to flee with my family. You can't know how hard it is to have to give everything up – I had land back there. I had a lot of hope when we first got to India, but the government never helped us…"

Horrors of the partition

Coopers Camp's residents descend from those who fled Pakistan during the horrors of the partitioning of British India, out of which came the states of Muslim West and East Pakistan and mainly Hindu India, wrote the UK's Guardian in a story last year.

They interviewed then 85-year-old refugee Kajal Roy:

" …. 'India was a dream for us when we left everything behind during partition in 1947,' says Kajal. 'I was 15. We had lands near present-day Dhaka [in East Pakistan, which after a civil war became Bangladesh in 1971]. But as Hindus, my parents were threatened unless they handed over their home to Muslims. So we escaped.

" We hoped for a new life, for land, for homes. But 60 years on India has given us nothing, not even a nationality. My parents, like I will, died here in the same temporary camp they fled to. I sit here before you a refugee now as I was when I crossed the Bay of Bengal …"

Six decades on

Later in the story, the Guardian quote Lakshmi Venkat, who runs an adult education program for Coopers Camp residents:

" … 'Sixty years on, trapped by circumstance, a lack of education and prejudice against them, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original refugees still have no faith in India and nowhere else to go. There is no longer any excuse for ignoring them.' …"

About the Author

This blog entry was created by KimB and does not necessarily represent the position or opinion of Amnesty International Australia.

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Photo by flickr user HKmPUA

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