NAGPUR: A 150km radius of Nagpur is the crucible of refuge for millions of Partition victims from the erstwhile twin flanks of Pakistan(east and west). Strategically located in the heart of India and less than 1,500km away from Karachi or Dhaka, the nation’s zero-mile city, Nagpur, has been the last-mile destination of refugees that paints a poignant story of at least three generations wrapped in nostalgia, many struggling for citizenship and land ownership.CAA was only a flicker of hope. From Jaripatka to Gadchiroliuprooted Sindhis, Punjabis and East Bengalis have found succour and safety.
Ensconced in his Jaripatka home, Govindram Ratanani, 90, struggles with failing eyesight, yet clearly remembers the tumultuous night, when his family crossed over to India during Partition. They settled in Nagpur, where the government allotted them a house at Jaripatka Colony, he says.
A meeting with state revenue minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil at Mantralaya in Mumbai, rekindled hopes of legal ownership of homes for tens of thousands like Rantani, who have been living here for generations. Refugees reaching India after Partition were allotted open plots or homes, yet the properties were officially not in their names. An earlier attempt in 2018 helped less than half of these refugees to bag ownership. Many of Ratnani’s generation have passed away and only their descendants may get the benefit now.
Fast forward July 2013: Rakesh Kumar (name changed) came to India from the same Ghotki town in Pakistan’s Sindh province, which was also Ratnani’s ancestral home. He was barely nineteen then. Rakesh rejoiced when the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed in Parliament in December 2019, enabling many non-Muslims like him from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to get citizenship through an eased procedure. A dejected Kumar says he has no choice but to wait for two more years to apply for Indian citizenship in the normal course. CAA was supposed to shorten the period, but now he will need at least 12 years in India to become a citizen, a decade has already gone by. In the family which includes his parents and a sister, only the mother has got Indian citizenship so far. “My sister has become a chartered accountant, but it’s tough to get a job without citizenship,” he says.
If the second or third generation families who came soon after Partition finally get property ownership, the wait for implementation of CAA appears endless for new immigrants.
CAA was passed in Parliament, but rules are yet to be framed for the law to come into force. More than three years after the law was passed, the ministry of home affairs sought several extensions before Parliament’s subordinate legislation committee to frame rules.
At Mulchera tehsil — deep inside Maoist-hit Gadchiroli — Ranjit Mandal, the leader of migrants from East Pakistan says he has lost hope for his people.
“We spent days hiding in waterlogged paddy fields, endured crab bites and fought shoulder to shoulder with the Mukti Bahini militia against the ruthless Pakistani soldiers. Later, our family managed to reach India on a boat,” says Amar Mandal.
Many like Amar and Ranjit came to India in the Sixties and Seventies, when Bangladesh was still East Pakistan. The government settled them in the interiors. One lot came to Gadchiroli, apart from Chandrapur and Gondia districts of Maharashtra. The families were allotted five acres to till, which haven’t been transferred in their names.
Land was allotted for subsistence, but they were not made owners. Protests were held in 2015 and a meeting was held with then home minister Rajnath Singh, who assured help, says Ranjit. There are around 5,000 East Bengali families in Gadchiroli alone, he says.
If Partition led to huge influx of refugees from Sindh and Punjab, a large number Bengalis didn’t migrate till the Sixties. The infamous East Pakistan riots in 1964 triggered a flood of refugees.
Many from East Pakistan still depend on agriculture, but since land records continue to show the plots as government land, East Bengalis cannot avail of schemes. Tillers didn’t get yearly crop loans, which other farmers avail. If there is a natural calamity, local farmers get compensation, but not the Bengalis,” says Ranjit.
The meeting at Mantralaya was held after an initiative by senior BJP leader Virendra Kukreja and MLA from Gadchiroli Krishna Gajbhiye, but it covered refugees from West Pakistan, not from the East.
The first attempt for West Pakistanis happened in 1982, when the state government issued a notification to legalise land occupied by them on payment of a small fee. This was only for Jaripatka in Nagpur. In 2018, another notification was issued under the initiative of Devendra Fadnavis, who was then chief minister, says Kukreja
“Around 40% families could get properties in their name in 2018, but many were left out. This was because the others could not produce papers to prove allotment. Now, the process would be eased and all may get land rights. A formal order is expected and not just Jaripatka, but at least 1 lakh plots across Maharashtra will be freed,” he says.
The decision will help refugees from West Pakistan sell properties and even raise finance. Their settlements straddle Mumbai to Wadsa Desaiganj in Gadchiroli. A little away at Mulchera, Bengalis from East Pakistan wait for their case to be taken up.
Ensconced in his Jaripatka home, Govindram Ratanani, 90, struggles with failing eyesight, yet clearly remembers the tumultuous night, when his family crossed over to India during Partition. They settled in Nagpur, where the government allotted them a house at Jaripatka Colony, he says.
A meeting with state revenue minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil at Mantralaya in Mumbai, rekindled hopes of legal ownership of homes for tens of thousands like Rantani, who have been living here for generations. Refugees reaching India after Partition were allotted open plots or homes, yet the properties were officially not in their names. An earlier attempt in 2018 helped less than half of these refugees to bag ownership. Many of Ratnani’s generation have passed away and only their descendants may get the benefit now.
Fast forward July 2013: Rakesh Kumar (name changed) came to India from the same Ghotki town in Pakistan’s Sindh province, which was also Ratnani’s ancestral home. He was barely nineteen then. Rakesh rejoiced when the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed in Parliament in December 2019, enabling many non-Muslims like him from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to get citizenship through an eased procedure. A dejected Kumar says he has no choice but to wait for two more years to apply for Indian citizenship in the normal course. CAA was supposed to shorten the period, but now he will need at least 12 years in India to become a citizen, a decade has already gone by. In the family which includes his parents and a sister, only the mother has got Indian citizenship so far. “My sister has become a chartered accountant, but it’s tough to get a job without citizenship,” he says.
If the second or third generation families who came soon after Partition finally get property ownership, the wait for implementation of CAA appears endless for new immigrants.
CAA was passed in Parliament, but rules are yet to be framed for the law to come into force. More than three years after the law was passed, the ministry of home affairs sought several extensions before Parliament’s subordinate legislation committee to frame rules.
At Mulchera tehsil — deep inside Maoist-hit Gadchiroli — Ranjit Mandal, the leader of migrants from East Pakistan says he has lost hope for his people.
“We spent days hiding in waterlogged paddy fields, endured crab bites and fought shoulder to shoulder with the Mukti Bahini militia against the ruthless Pakistani soldiers. Later, our family managed to reach India on a boat,” says Amar Mandal.
Many like Amar and Ranjit came to India in the Sixties and Seventies, when Bangladesh was still East Pakistan. The government settled them in the interiors. One lot came to Gadchiroli, apart from Chandrapur and Gondia districts of Maharashtra. The families were allotted five acres to till, which haven’t been transferred in their names.
Land was allotted for subsistence, but they were not made owners. Protests were held in 2015 and a meeting was held with then home minister Rajnath Singh, who assured help, says Ranjit. There are around 5,000 East Bengali families in Gadchiroli alone, he says.
If Partition led to huge influx of refugees from Sindh and Punjab, a large number Bengalis didn’t migrate till the Sixties. The infamous East Pakistan riots in 1964 triggered a flood of refugees.
Many from East Pakistan still depend on agriculture, but since land records continue to show the plots as government land, East Bengalis cannot avail of schemes. Tillers didn’t get yearly crop loans, which other farmers avail. If there is a natural calamity, local farmers get compensation, but not the Bengalis,” says Ranjit.
The meeting at Mantralaya was held after an initiative by senior BJP leader Virendra Kukreja and MLA from Gadchiroli Krishna Gajbhiye, but it covered refugees from West Pakistan, not from the East.
The first attempt for West Pakistanis happened in 1982, when the state government issued a notification to legalise land occupied by them on payment of a small fee. This was only for Jaripatka in Nagpur. In 2018, another notification was issued under the initiative of Devendra Fadnavis, who was then chief minister, says Kukreja
“Around 40% families could get properties in their name in 2018, but many were left out. This was because the others could not produce papers to prove allotment. Now, the process would be eased and all may get land rights. A formal order is expected and not just Jaripatka, but at least 1 lakh plots across Maharashtra will be freed,” he says.
The decision will help refugees from West Pakistan sell properties and even raise finance. Their settlements straddle Mumbai to Wadsa Desaiganj in Gadchiroli. A little away at Mulchera, Bengalis from East Pakistan wait for their case to be taken up.