Memoirs of Homeland: Refugees of 1947 Bengal Partition in India -- Book

Dear Friend:

            Greetings!

I am pleased to inform you that our book, Memoirs of Homeland: Refugees of 1947 Bengal Partition in India, authored by Shefali and me has recently been released by Firma KLM Publishers of Kolkata. It is a 320 page soft-cover book. Attached is a copy of the front and back covers.

Here is a bit of explanation from the book, “Between 1982 and 1986, for no particular reason, we decided to interview [in the U.S.] some of the refugees – Hindu and Muslim – as many of their stories were riveting to us, and now socializing with individuals from the “other” groups from whom they fled earlier. How are they able to do so? How do they feel about their homeland? Not so surprisingly, all the refugees remembers in minute detail how and when their families fled, or what made them to choose a different nationality leaving their home of their ancestors, especially for Hindus for whom the village water and soil, flower and fish, are sacred and needed for religious services. Majority of refugees were Hindus who fled from East Pakistan/East Bengal to India…..….Altogether there are 22 stories; 16 men and 6 women; Hindu 18 and Muslim 4. This was an unscientific sample. In real life Hindu Bengali displacement is enormous compared to Muslim displacement. So number of Muslims in the sample is proportionally a bit higher; whereas the number of refugee women is certainly much lower.” (p 14)

The book is priced Rs. 500 (five hundred) Indian rupees. If anyone you know might be interested in obtaining a copy, one can do so from Firma KLM www.firmaklm.net. One can also get a copy from our friend (to whom the book is dedicated) Sri Tapan Kumar Das of Baghbazar, in north Kolkata for RS. 425 or Rs. 450 by mail. You may contact him in his cell phone # 9051-350-796 or in his land line at (33) 2530-4557 for his address, and also from ISPaD: The (Indian Subcontinent) Partition Documentation Center, New York City, www.ispad1947.org, phone # 917-524-0035, for $15 dollars..

If you have further queries, please let me know. Please share with others.

Sincerely,

Sachi (Sabyasachi) Ghosh Dastidar

A few of the comments since announcement of the release in November 2015:

Dear Sachi Da,  
                Congratulation on the publication of your book.  
                 Regards
                Jatinder Singh, India November 18

            Thanks, a very good attempt to aware world about the crisis.

            Sachin Karmakar, Bangladesh, Nov 18

            Dear Sabyasachi

          Congratulations for yet another book. Meanwhile a new edition of  'My People                      Uprooted has come out (Synergy books, Delhi).

          I shall buy a copy. 

          Best wishes

          Tathagata Roy, India, Nov 19

          Congratulations Sachi. I will order it.

           Sucheta Mahajan, India, Nov 19

            Congrats. Look forward to read it.
            Warm regds
            Saradindu Mukherji, India, Nov 19

            

            Yours in Prayer.

            Bharti Taylor, U.K.  Nov 22