Memorials at Treblinka Death Camp, Poland

 

Memorials at Treblinka Death Camp, Poland

Sachi G. Dastidar

 During a 2015 summer trip to Poland we visited the infamous Nazi Treblinka (Extermination) Camp in Poland, a short distance from beautiful Warsaw, the capital of Poland.  At the Treblinka Museum we met a Roma employee who presented us with copies of Polish Roma journal. Roma are also known as Gypsy. Roma’s were also targeted for extermination by Nazis for their Indian ancestry. 

 

Interestingly many Roma in Europe are increasingly identifying with India and Indian culture, teaching Hindi in Roma schools, adapting Indian outfit on joyous occasions, and for Polish Roma flag it has resemblance with Indian tricolor  and chakra [a spiked-wheel] in the center as with Indian flag’s Ashok Chakra.

 

Picture 1: Treblinka Memorial field

       The infamous Treblinka Nazi Death Camp is a 2-plus hour drive northwest of the capital Warsaw. In the midst of the sorrowful atrocity we witnessed several examples of hope and generosity. Busloads of Jews – young and old – from faraway places were walking miles after miles though the remains of the sprawling camp. They were placing flowers and stones at memorials to the families with whom they share only their faith. Gauging the suffering in Treblinka is impossible. Yet it is praiseworthy for the visitors' sincere efforts. One visiting Jewish couple who was spending three weeks going from village to village where large numbers of Polish Jews lived before Holocaust. Seeing us in our Indian outfit that couple asked, “Are you Indian?” “Hindu?”

     We replied yes to both.

     Then they asked, “What are you doing here?”

     We replied, “Like you we too have come to pay respect to the fallen and ask the Mother Goddess for nirvana of their soul. Now we are also praying for return of Black Mother Kali, the demon killer, on Earth to destroy the demons forever.” We added “weren’t there Indians called Roma or Gypsy who were murdered here too?”

  They replied, “Of course. Please go to that area for more memorials,” pointing towards an area. 

Picture 2: Sachi and Shefali Dastidar at Treblinka Memorial

We walked for hours through the camp, which in size is like a small town, in that 100+F hot summer day, finally entering the Museum. We were inspired by the museum as we are trying to establish a Indian Subcontinent Partition Documentation Museum on the effects of British-inspired, Muslim League Party-proposed and Congress Party-agreed Indian partition of 1947 resulting in the creation of the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with millions killed because of partition and tens of millions were cleansed. The Subcontinent was further partitioned in 1971 when the majority of Muslim Pakistan, the Bengali, who revolted against oppression by the minority Punjabi of then West Pakistan. Three million Bengalis – mostly from the minority Hindu community and the rest secular Muslims – were killed in nine months by the Army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its Bengali Islamist allies giving birth to Bangladesh. As we were going through Roma items at the Treblinka Museum one Roma lady handed us a copies of “Romano Atmo” journal. Hesitatingly we picked up a journal of which the pictures attracted our eyes as we didn’t understand Polish language. Soon we picked up a second and a third issue. We were exceedingly impressed by the small, oppressed, poor, minority Roma in its effort to preserve their Indian heritage and stories of Nazi killing. It was reveling to us, even the Roma flag had symbolism of the tricolor Indian National Flag, along with the wheel of Buddhist King Asoka.

 

Picture 3: Model of the Extermination Camp 

      Onslaught on linguistic and religious minorities continued for centuries with the dreadful culmination of Nazism with attempts of complete annihilation of Jewish and Roma identities.

Picture 4: Objects found at the Camp

      We were told that Treblinka was one of the few Death Camps that the Nazis were able to destroy before Allied Forces liberated it. Thus mostly the fields remained, not buildings. Here is a foundation of a building.

 Picture 5: Building site

        At the Museum the Roma lady presented us several copies of Roma journals Romano Atmo to us. Here is the cover of one of those. (Through that connection President of the Polish Roma Association wrote an article for the 2016 Partition Center Journal of the Indian Subcontinent Partition Documentation Project: ISPaD. See https://empireslastcasualty.blogspot.com/2017/07/partition-center-journal.html.)  Here is the cover of one of the journals.)

• Picture 6: Romano Atmo

 

 

 

Mukti: Free to be Born Again – Partitions of Indian Subcontinent, Islamism, Hinduism, Leftism and Liberation of the Faithful -- Book

Dear Friend:

            I am pleased to inform you that my book, Mukti: Free to be Born Again – Partitions of Indian Subcontinent, Islamism, Hinduism, Leftism and Liberation of the Faithful, has been released in the U.S. by Author House. It is a 684 page book available on hard cover, soft cover and as eBook. In the US it is available in bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Author House, ISPaD: Partition Center Office in Jamaica, Queens, NYC and more. Attached is a copy of the front and back covers.

Here is a bit from the book’s Preface, “Mukti is a product of love and pain of at least three decades. It is a byproduct of over three decades of field work, social work and travel in the 1947 Partition-affected Bengal –Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), West Bengal State of India – as well in the neighboring states…….During my travel in Muslim-majority Bangladesh I have come across the term ‘mukti’ from many, especially indigenous pre-Islamic Hindu, and lately Buddhist, families as they pray for liberation from their suffering….The book is directed towards Western readers many of whom may have heard of India, yet very little is known about post-partition Muslim-majority Bangladesh and Hindu-majority West Bengal, the effects of Indian Partition on the people of the Bengali-speaking region, the former mixed Hindu-Muslim Bengal Province of Colonial British India……Yet the privileged-caste Hindu-refugee elites quickly rose to power in two Hindu Bengali-majority states in India: West Bengal and Tripura. They would champion liberal, left and Marxist ideologies but refused to show solidarity with the oppressed, mostly belonging to Hindu oppressed castes [whom they left behind]… Seeds of Mukti was first sown in early 1990s when many of my friends and associates asked for translation of my Ai Bangla, Oi Bangla (This Bengal, That Bengal.)…..The Bengal of British India was known to be a relatively-tolerant mixed Hindu-Muslim society where both Hindu and Muslim nationalism played significant role. In a surprise twist of history after Partition of Bengal and India in 1947 both Bengals took stride towards intolerant politics, one…Islamism, the other….Leftism, led by Bangladeshi (East Pakistani) Muslims and Bangladeshi (East Pakistani) Hindu, albeit refugee. The book delves into that ethos and contradiction, although politically incorrect and, at times, impolite…..I have no power to protect individuals and families who have shared their deepest feelings to my family. I have no power to protect their villages either. As a result I have not used the real names of individuals, villages and neighborhoods….”

Here are some sites on the Internet where the book is listed: 

Price of the book: $35/$30/$5 for hardcover/paperback/eBook; (At Partition Center Office in NY only paperback is available.)

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mukti-Partitions-Subcontinent-Islamism-Liberation-ebook/dp/B0178DD6BG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448802232&sr=8-1&keywords=mukti%3A+free+to+be+born+again

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mukti-sachi-dastidar/1122834558?ean=9781496944832

Other book sellers,
Ispad: Indian Subcontinent Partition Center Office, Jamaica, Queens, New York City, www.ispad1947.org and Phone: 917-524-0035.

 Sachi G. Dastidar

Radio Interviews in the U.S.:

With Cheryl Nason: http://webtalkradio.net/?s=INSIDE+THE+WRITER%27S+CAFE

With Stu Taylor: https://www.dropbox.com/s/blp2967jcuncsok/663916_mp3.mp3?dl=0 

With J. Douglas Barker https://www.dropbox.com/s/xrpttxpayoirj4o/663916.mp3?dl=0 

TV  Interviews in the U.S.
With Ashok Vyas of ITV of New York https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOFyuoEa2K8&t=136s   
  

Here are a few of the comments:

Dr. Dastidar: 

Have a great Thanksgiving, Sankaranti, Pongal and all clustered festival. A safe one. My warmest congratulation on a magnum opus. I had some ideas on Bangladesh Issues (as one deep rooted in Anthropology for many years) but have become intensely sensitive (after learning from conversations and review of Prafulla Mukerji's efforts in this area). 

Congratulations again,

            Hari Om,

            Dr. Akkaraju Sarma, U.S.A.; November 26

            Congratulation. As you know I am working very much in this area. Let us keep in touch.                     Manasda

            Prof. Dr. Manas Chatterji, U.S.A.; Nov 26

            Dear Sachi,

            Happy Rush Purnima and Thanksgiving to you too. And congratulations on the release of your book. I will most certainly look into it.
            Namaskar,
            Sunil
            Prof. Dr. Sunil Kukreja; U.S.A. Nov 26

            Sachi da

            Can I buy 5 copies of the book? 

            Milita Chanda, U.S.A.; Nov 26

            Dear Dastidar, 

            Pl accept our heartiest congratulations on the new publication, May GOD bless you all, With fond regards, 

           Verma

            Brig. Gen. S. Verma, U.S.A.; Nov 26

           Congratulations, Sachi for the fulfillment of your four decades of work in bringing this book     out for the Westerners, especially.

           Hope you are doing well.

           Sincerely,

           T.K.Mani, U.S.A.; Nov 26

           Dear Mesho Uncle,

           Congratulations on the book. I just downloaded on Amazon and look
forward to reading it.
            Best regards,
            Udayan 

            Udayan Chattopadhyay, U.K.; Nov 26

            Dear Sachi

            Glad to note that you have wrote a book on such an important subject.

            When an opportunity arises I will certainly go through the book.

            Congratulations.

            Vaskarda

            Partha Roy, India; Nov 26

           Congrats Sachi 

           Looks and sounds interesting. It's a life time of good work by you.

           Tom

           Prof. Dr. Tom DelGuidice, U.S.A.; Nov 27

           Congratulations dada ! 

           It is a remarkable achievement of your dedication to our community. I will collect one copy for myself. 

           Enjoy your upcoming holidays with your family and friends. 

          With the best 

          Selima Ashraf, U.S.A.; Nov 27

          Thank you Dada. 

           I like to buy one of your book with soft cover. Also you can share this in Facebook may be more people will be interested. Should I email to other people who will be interested to have as they are in other countries?

           Thanks again.

           Mousume Sarker, U.S.A.; Nov 27

           Hello Sachi,

           Happy Thanksgiving.

           It is wonderful that you and Shefali could find time from your busy schedule to write two books regarding the partition. It seems "Memoirs of Homeland" is available in Kolkata only.

           Thank you and congratulations.

           Regards,

          Amitabhada 

          Amitabha Chatterjee, U.S.A.; Nov 28

          Congratulations dada.!!!

          Dr. Helen Roy, U.S.A.; Nov 28

          Congratulations!

          I too am one of those who knows almost nothing about this.

          Best regards,

          Edi

          Prof. Dr. Edlslav Manetovic, U.S.A.; Nov 29

           Dear Sir,

            Thank you. Preface of the book is very much interesting of historical perspective. How can I collect one copy?

            Regards,

            Ajoy Kumar Bose, Bangladesh; Nov 28

            Dear friend Sachi:

          Congratulations.  I am sure your publication will be received eagerly by research scholars  all over the world .  

           Best wishes.  

           V. Subramanian, Nov 29

           Dear Sabyasachi

          Congratulation for  the publication of your new book-Mukti. We shall look forward more contribution from your hand.
          Chittada
          Prof. Dr. C. R. Pathak, India; Nov 29

           Dear Sachi,

           Congratulations on this great accomplishment!

            Best,

            Rita

            Prof. Dr. Rita Colon-Urban

           Friends

           This book is an eye witness account of my friend, Dr. Sachi Dastidar, a Bangladeshi Hindu refugee.

          You might be interested in reading what happened to Hindus of Bangladesh.

          Bal K. Gupta, U.S.A.; Nov 29

          Congratulations!!!!!

          Khusi

          Dipika Basu, U.S.A.; Nov 29

          

         Dear Dr. Dastidar,

         Namaskaar.
         Congratulations on the new book !

         Would like to know if this would be available in India payable in INR? If so, when? Kindly let me know at your utmost convenience.

         Thank you sir.

         Best regards,

         Rajiv

         Rajiv Verma, Nov 29

         Congratulations!

         Judy

         Prof. Dr. Judith Walsh, U.S.A.; Nov 30

         Congratulations!

           Prof. Dr. Santanu Datta, U.S.A.; Nov 30

           Dear Sachida,

         Have you considered sending this blurb to the online (and print) magazine Swarajya (www.swarajyamag.com), which is an ideal outlet for the promotion of your ground-breaking work?

May I forward it to them? (I think it is better that you do so yourself. I believe they will be honoured to hear from you.)

          Dileep

          Prof. Dr. Dileep Karanth; U.S.A.; Dec 3

          Great News. Congrats

          Jaydeep Biswas, U.S.A.; Dec 8, 2016

           Sachida,
           Great work; on this subject. How we can listen to that? Can I get an
original Bangla book 'Ai Bangla, Oi Bangla'?
           Make a Book publishing ceremony in  ISPaD: Partition Center Office in Jamaica,
           Sincerely,
           Khourshed

           Khourshedul Islam, U.S.A.; Nov 27, 2016

Dear Dr. Dastidar

We wish you and your family a Very Happy, Healthy, Safe and Prosperous New Year 2016! 

We were in California with our son Dr. Rajesh Gupta and his family. 

They gave me your book "Mukti" as a Christmas gift. We came back to-day and will start reading it from to-morrow. 

Kusum and Bal Krishan Gupta

Dear
Hare Krishna!

"Apart from his eight principal wives, Krishna is described to have married several junior women, he rescued from the demon Narakasura. The Bhagavata Purana and the Harivamsa (appendix of Mahabharata) state that 16,000 women were rescued. (Ref. Wikipedia)

Demon Narkasur had forcibly married all the kidnapped girls. When Lord Krishna killed Narkasur,they became widows. But Lord Krishna married them all with Hindu rituals and took them to Dwarika.

Lessons: Lord Krishna started widow marriage and marriage of kidnapped girls. ISKCON and other Hindu sects, should follow Lord Krishna and start marriages of  Hindu widows and that of kidnapped Hindu girls in Bangladesh. I am sure they can achieve a target of 16,000 by Krishna Janamshtmi. (Hindu and Sikh refugees from of Pakistan in 1947, performed hundreds of thousands [lakhs] of such marriages.)

You may forward it to Hindu leaders in Bangladesh and ISKCON devotees worldwide. May Lord Krishna bless you in rescuing Bangladeshi Hindu women!

Bal Krishan Gupta, USA

February 29, 2016

************************
I am reading your book now. It's an absolute masterpiece.

Dr. Arvind Chandrakantan
April 3, 2017

         

************************

Sachida,

I meant to ask you this question for a while - just did not know what you would think so I did not ask you earlier. Will you please consider making the book available online in PDF format? I think that book will be an eye opener for lot of people, as it was for me. Your writing changed my perception 100% - and I am  sure it will affect others also. Please consider this request - people need to read this book. You can have it on ISPAD site or FB or we can create a new website for you as an author (sachighoshdastidar.com). I want to show your site and work to people and make them aware of your work. 

Please let me know what you think - I can help in any way I can

Thanks,
Milita

October 3, 2017

*************************************************

Hi:

I am a slow reader and it will take a while, but  enjoying it so far.

Saumya
Chicago
8/25/2018

**************************************************
Dear Professor Ghosh-Dastidar:

I am Rudranath's mother. I read your book and was really impressed. I will be happy if you could please discuss the book with me whenever you are free.

Best wishes,
Monica Talukdar, Uttarkhand, India
January 25, 2020

***********************************************

Hi,

This is I wrote Amazon reviewing your book.

Dr. Sachi Dastidar's monumental work - Mukti: Free To Be Born Again - is an intensely personal but extraordinarily researched book and one integrating an amazing range of knowledge of post-1947 India with his own family's history. It is simultaneously both informative and horrifying, documenting a tragedy ignored almost equally by the world as well as most of his fellow Indians. Mukti focusses, in particular, on Dastidar's native Bengal, a part of pre-partition India ripped apart twice, once after Britain relinquished power in the late '40's and again in 1971 when the area, then known as East Pakistan, was attacked by West Pakistani forces as the new nation of Bangladesh struggled to achieve independence. 

     It's subsequent history is an appalling saga of the ongoing effort to eradicate the Hindu population of Bangladeshi Bengal by forced removal, massacres, and continuous persecution by Islamist elements. The age-old Bengali culture one that had both Hindu and Moslem

features, is being slowly eradicated.

 

     In some ways, the worst aspect of this decades long tragedy is how most of the expatriate Hindu population, refugees from East Pakistan/Bangladesh, many of them now secularized members of Calcutta's elite, have abandoned any concern for their poorer, rural Hindu relatives left behind in the mass immigrations since 1947.

 

     Dr. Dastidar passionately defends the integrity of the traditional Bengali culture, praising it's reverence for nature and the environment, while criticizing it's negative characteristics, such as the

vestiges of the caste system and the ahistorical nature of the Hindu faith. He  laments the failure of late 19th and early 20th Century reform movements like those of Aurobindo and Gandhi to forge

 

     Dr. Dastidar's work is epically long (668 pages), requiring a dedicated perseverance to travel it's length. And, as a personal journey taken with numerous family and friends, it can be confusing at

times in terms of the frequent change of characters, with their Indian names necessitating concentrated attention. Nevertheless, the account with it's remarkable record of a decades long pilgrimage, along with much colorful detailing of places, cuisine, costumes and. customs,

and the dreadful history it so vividly documents, makes reading Mukti a compelling but disturbing experience.

                                             

Lorne

Long Island, New York, U.S.A.

March 28, 2020

         
*********************************************

Identity Crisis of Bengali Muslims: Arabisation of Bangladesh

http://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/arabisation-bangladesh-112009

Daily Star July 14, 2015

12:00 AM, July 14, 2015 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:00 AM, July 14, 2015

STRANGER THAN FICTION

Arabisation of Bangladesh

An Asset, Liability or Threat?

Taj Hashmi

Visitors to Bangladesh, who enter the country for the first time through the Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport in Dhaka, might get the wrong impression about the major languages spoken in the country. Even before disembarking the aircraft, the first thing they notice is the name of the airport in bold Arabic letters on top of the airport building, along with Bengali and English on two sides. There was no Arabic sign on public buildings and thoroughfares until the late 1970s, when religion was inserted in the Constitution by General Ziaur Rahman. The introduction of Islam as the “State Religion” by General Ershad in 1988 was a big step towards further Islamisation of the polity.

However, these steps towards Arabisation and Islamisation were at best nothing more than symbolic gestures, in a country afflicted with tremendous identity crisis; and at worst politically motivated, opportunistic, and hypocritical. 

Nevertheless, playing with people's religious sentiment for the sake of legitimacy by the rulers, and their appeasing the Islamist parties and individuals with Islamic symbols like Arabic signs, and Islam as “State Religion” have already backfired. Unabated cultural Arabisation and Islamisation in the long run could drag the country towards religious extremism.

Arabisation is a generic term. I define it as a process of adopting elements of Arabian culture by non-Arab Muslims and non-Muslims, in historical and contemporary perspectives. One may mention all areas of acquired habits by human beings, including religion, language, politics, law, social customs, food habit, art, attire, and music in this regard. This happened after the phenomenal rise of Islamic empires. Awe-stricken Europeans learnt Arabic and indigenised Arabic/Islamic culture – art, architecture, philosophy, music, medicine and science –in the 9th and 13th centuries during the heydays of Arab/Islamic empires. Historians are unanimous about Arabic/Islamic contributions to European Renaissance.

We need to understand the Arabisation of Bangladesh in historical as well as in the contemporary socio-political, psychological and geo-political perspectives. Overwhelming majorities of people in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia adopted Islam and Arabised their language and culture soon after the expansion of Islam by sword, trade and other means; what is Bangladesh today is no exception in this regard. However, as Islam came here through Persianised Turco-Afghan-Iranian conquerors and Sufis, Bangali Muslims' religious beliefs, vocabulary and rituals – very similar to elsewhere in the subcontinent – have been predominantly Turco-Afghan-Iranian rather than Arabian.

However, Bangali Muslims retained their language, script and many other aspects of the indigenous Bengali culture in the wake of mass conversion. Some of them are still unwilling to give up certain indigenous/Turco-Persian rituals and beliefs – such as showing reverence to dead Sufis/Pirs, and believing in certain cults, including the Satya Pir, the Bangali Muslim version of the Hindu Satya Narayan. In sum, a syncretistic Islam evolved in Bengal, which ultra-orthodox Wahhabi-Faraizi-Deobandi-Salafi Muslims have been trying to supplant with orthodoxy, at least for the last 200 years. Their success is partial.

Thanks to the Persian influence, Bangali Muslims (very similar to Indian and Pakistani ones) often use the Farsi khuda and paighambar to denote Arabic Allah and rasul (messenger or prophet), respectively. Despite the ongoing Arabisation process, Farsi not Arabic is still widely used as the “Islamic language” in Bangladesh. Thus Farsi namaz for prayer (not Arabic salat); roza for fasting (not Arabic  saum); Ramzan  for the fasting month (not Arabic Ramadan); and jaynamaz for prayer mat (not Arabic musalla) are integral parts of Bangali Muslim vocabulary.

However, due to the patronage of ultra-conservative Arab Muslims and their local adherents in Bangladesh, sections of Bangladeshi Muslims are fast indigenising ultra-orthodox Wahhabi-Salafi ideologies, practices and vocabulary. Meanwhile, many Bangladeshi Muslim women have adopted the previously unknown, the Middle Eastern hijab, which is a variant of the Lebanese Catholic nuns' habit. Muslim men and women in the country are fast adopting some weird and hitherto unfamiliar Arabic expressions and Arabian practices in the name of purifying their faith.

Now many Bangladeshi Muslim children have unique (often difficult to pronounce and remember) Arabic names. Many Bangali Muslims have discarded certain old rituals during milad in commemoration of the birth of the Prophet. They have introduced new ones from the Arab World. Bangladeshi Muslims at home and abroad organise halaqa, religious gatherings for learning about Islamic theology from one or more speakers, followed by intense question-answer sessions, prayers, supplications and food; mostly in segregations, Muslim brothers and sisters sitting in separate chambers.

Of late, the hitherto unheard of Arabic expression, “Allah Hafiz” (introduced by General Zia ul-Haq in Pakistan) to bid good-bye to someone, is gradually replacing the Farsi “Khuda Hafiz” (May God protect you) in Bangladesh. 

Appraising the Arabisation process in Bangladesh is difficult. The phenomenon is as strange as the stories of The Arabian Nights. One is not always alert enough to notice the changes that have already crept into the psyche of the nation – and the ongoing undercurrents of the process – in the realms of Islamic religion, rituals, and popular culture in the country since the 1970s. Sometimes the government, but mostly adherents of “Islam-loving” political parties, cultural organisations and Islamic scholars flaunt, push and glorify Arabian culture in the name of one religion. Bangladeshi Muslim workers in the Gulf countries – labourers to professionals – have also been Arabising the popular culture in the country. Due to inadequate knowledge of Islam, neither these workers nor their relatives, neighbours and friends differentiate between Islam and Arabisation.

As Badruddin Umar has brilliantly explained in his writings, many disempowered Bangali Muslims during the British period nurtured a romantic extra-territorial loyalty towards Afghan-Arab-Iranian-Turkish lands, their language, rituals, and attire and food habit, and identified themselves as descendants of “original Muslims” from outside India. Tracing one's origin to the Middle East and Central Asia or to some aristocratic families is still fashionable in Bangladesh. It indicates Bangladeshi Muslims' identity crisis and inferiority complex. Many of them still fail to identify which one is their primary identity, Muslim or Bangali.

The quest for Arabisation has some similarities with a section of the Hindu population's quest for upward mobility through the Sanskritisation process, by indigenising Brahmin culture, food habit, attire and gods in South Asian history. Although Arabisation has elements of non-Arab Muslims' quest for upward mobility, it is also an elite plan of action to politically hegemonise mass consciousness.

In sum, since the late 1970s, Muslims of Bangladesh have failed to distinguish between what is Islamic and what is Arab. Arabisation of the popular culture has become synonymous with the Islamisation process in Bangladesh. This synonymy is ominous. It has long-drawn implications for the country. Moderate Muslims, liberal/secular Bangladeshis, and the friends of Bangladesh need to understand the long-term consequences of this slow and steady transformation of the popular culture of Bangali Muslims. Cultural transformation of people is a major step towards their political orientation and makeover. 

The writer teaches security studies at Austin Peay State University. Sage has recently published his latest book, Global Jihad and America: The Hundred-Year War Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.