Title PARTITION: Tape 67 Writer 255MODEM Mod Date & Time 255MODEM Apr 21 16:|3 TAPE 67 Side A More recordings at Gopalpur Mrinal Krishna MAJUMDAR - tall, thoughtful and pleasant school teacher, Hindu, 64, related to previous Majumdar and interviewed in same part of dilapidated zamindar's house; in Noakhali in Oct 46, part of Cong volunteer team - BENGALI, 20/4/97 14 > this was all pol mobilised and organised, the MLA, Ghulam Sarwar, had been with Suhrawardy and participated in Cal riots, and he came back here and started it up in N'li and it was a v brutal riot, they went to people's houses, burnt down the houses ... and there were lootings ... many 'people jumped itno ponds and tried to hide under water hyacinth plants, but you know those long, spear like things with which you catch fish, well the attackers went and killed people with those things; this area was soOrt of saved, cos there was a huge zamindar family where G stayed afterwards, they were strong Cong people, they had seven firearms, they protected this area; the rioters were v organsied, they were divided into several groups, there was G S group, there was Kashmi gp and a few others like this 90 > (story of neighbouring MLA helping people then in the house for puja); 'meanwhile another gp of rioters known as the Akbar Fauj, they ahd come to the hse and tried to loot it and some money was given and negotiations concluded'; family on boat looted in spite of MLA 150 > I myself saw, there is this huge field which floods at monsoon time, many women were taken their by boats and tortured there, I saw it myself; there is this big zamindar family ... their men and women all stayed on the rooftop and save themselves, but when the rioters started attacking they put coconut trees aagainst the roof and asked the people to come down, and as they were coming down they simply hacked at them; I was then working as part of a Cong volunteer team and I later went to that hse and saw marks of blood on the chairs and the building 185 > many people were killed there [in the zam'r's hse], the attackers took the tin rooves from the bazaar in front of the hse and used it to attack, and many people were slaughtered there 207 > [Hs more prosperous than Ms in Noakhali] this is true, in bus, in landed property, in education, in every sector, the Hs were far, far ahead of the Ms in this area; there were some pockets where Ms prospered but in general Hs were predominant; this changed when the land ... reforms came and when the estates were taken over 230 > in this area the rule of law had always been v good; we cdn't imagine that somebody cd get away with any crime; it's unimaginable that in such a place such killing went on, such rioting, such looting, ... (and story of local M politics saying: now you are