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By; Dpt; *** Ext; **** Rdy; 00:00 blurb Jun 05 11:08
Title; PARTITION: Tape 83 Dur'n: 15:11 Lang: R*
TAPE 83
SHEILA SEN GUPTA
(interviewed for second time; at my home in Delhi, 1st April 1998:
first on tape 74)
was involved in relief work among women in the aftermath of
Noakhali in 46, and later with Mridula Sarabhai in Delhi
niece of Subhas Bose, and sister of Pradeep Bose (her father was
Suresh Chandra Bose); her sister-in-law, Suraiya Hassan from
Hyderabad, also involved in relief work among women
intends to write a book
Side A
5 > (memories of Gt Calcutta Killing) at 10.30, lorryloads
of Muslims passed the house, shouting slogans; after
12.30, truckloads of Sikhs coming in, 'each truck
stopping at our gate, and they were coming inside
the house, coming upstairs, to my uncle's room [ie
Netaji] and there was a picture of his, and they were
saying that whatever your dreams were, it is not
fulfilled, but we are going to retaliate now; they
were making a pledge, sort of thing, in front of my
uncle Subhas Bose's picture'
39 - reports of Ms killing Hs, then heard of a spot where
water was turned absolutely red; after 3 o'clock, the
death toll was more Ms than Hs [mistakenly gives date
as 15th August, and says CM was Dr B.C. Ray]
58 - 'the next morning we became volunteers, and we started
going door-to-door collecting rice and clothes ...
there used to be convoys organised UCRW, United Councils
of Relief and Welfare; we used to go, 50/60 trucks, go
to the pockets, get Hs from M pocket, and Ms from H
pocket, things like that'
81 - 'one thing I must say that during this period there were
no abductions at all, atrocities of course, but no
abduction at all ... during those 10/12 days, no
abduction and no rape [cf Punjab and Noakhali] ... cos
their mind was fixed to kill them, and one thing I will
say in Bengal, they respect women much more than any
other place, not like Punjab; they wd think 1,001 times
to rape a woman in Bengal; that's my feeling; I may be
wrong, but that's my feeling'
NOAKHALI
100 - 'trainloads of women and children were coming from
Noakhali to Calcutta; there we found they were raped,
menfolk were all slaughtered, some of them became
pregnant, ... I was a v young person, rape and this and
that, I didn't know much about it ... the Cal riot,
there was no rape, that much I can tell you'
114 - contrasts Hindu and Muslim outlook on women
123 - 'Noak dialect absolutely different from the dialect
we speak, so they couldn't u'stand what we were |
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