Partition (1947) and the Empowerment of Bengali women

The second partition of Bengal in 1947 had a tremendous impact on the Bengali women. They were certainly the worst sufferer of the event of partition. They were raped, abducted, forcibly married in a large scale. However, the partition brought about some positive impacts on their lives and attitudes as well. Forced by the circumstances, Bengali women, mainly those from refugee background, had to take up various jobs to support their families. This exposure to the outer world brought about some fundamental changes in the attitudes of the Bengali women. Economic independence made them self-conscious and confident enough to fight against patriarchy. The patriarchal control over women’s education and employment was relaxed to a great extent and the process of women’s empowerment got a momentum in the post-Independence/partition Bengali society. The refugee women acted as a catalyst in this process. However, it was not confined within them. The non-refugee Bengali women were also influenced by this process of change as a whole and became a part of this process.

The refugee women had to bear the main burden of displacement in their day to day life. Driven by the circumstances the refugee women had to take up some vocations to support their families economically. Those who had no formal education capitalized their household training for commercial purpose in preparing verities of pickles, papad, badi, and other culinary articles. Some engaged in making paper packets and rolling bidi in their off-times along with their other normal household duties.

Those who had some formal education set out in search for jobs in educational institutions, govt. and semi-govt. offices and private firms. Yong refugee girls took up varities of jobs whatever they could manage-jobs of telephone operators(vide Narandranath Mitra’s story Durabhashini), sales girls(vide Mitra’s story Abataranika which was later rendered into a film by Satyajit Ray), venders on trains(Samaresh Basu’s Pasarini) etc. Some even joined massage clinics, which was not always a very respectable jobs. Recall that powerful urge of Neeta of Megha Dhaka Tara to live—her pathetic shout-‘ami bancha chai’. A large number of refugee girls obviously took to prostitution to earn their living. Some of them tried their lack in the male-dominated Bengal film industry. A few among them succeeded such as Sabitri Chattopadhyay and Madhabi Mukhapadhyay. However others had to waste their careers as ‘extras’. They were ill-paid and ill-treated in the film industry as a whole.

In this situation Bengali women felt the need for education in their struggle for existence. Same thing happened in the case of the Punjabi women. Certainly that consciousness was to be found initially among the refugee women and was gradually transmitted among their host counterparts. Professor A.N. Bose showed that the tendency had been reflected in the examinations of the University of Calcutta. He observed, “It is one of the signs of the times that women’s education advanced at a faster rate than men’s”(Hundred Years of the University of Calcuta). Simultaneously refugee women showed tremendous enthusiasm in educating their children which has been reflected in a short story of Narendranath Mirta named ‘Mulya’(value). Nirmala, a refugee mother failed to pay the tuition fees of her children’s tutor. She tried to compensate it by any means even by washing the dishes in the tutor’s house. Refugee women’s urge for education and employment certainly encouraged others.

The mainstream middle class Bengali families were no longer willing to allow their women folk to take up jobs even if they were in distress. The refugee women broke the taboo and their growing presence in the job market influenced the other sectors of the Bengali society. So there emerged a new class in Bengali society i.e. the working women who was composed of both refugee and non-refugee women. The Bengali women came out of their private domain of domesticity and child-rearing and took up various public duties, driven mainly by the economic motive. Whatever the motive was, it meant more freedom from domestic chores and some command over money which they could now claim as their own. Women were caught between private and public world and underwent through tremendous role-conflict. Anyway, the patriarchal control was relaxed to some extent. At least the traditional association between women’s confinement to home with the idea of their respectability was now challenged. The working women emerged as a subject of representation in fictions and cinemas. Satyajit Ray’s “Mahanagar”, based on a short story of Narendranath Mitra may be cited as an example.

As Bengali women became more and more economically independent, the process of their empowerment within family and outside became a feasible phenomenon. It was reflected in their active participation in the decision making process within their respective families as well as public affairs. The refugee women largely participated in active politics particularly in the UCRC movement. Bengali women waking through a michil along with their men folk was initially shocking to the mainstream Bengali society. However, it became a common feature in the new political culture of West Bengal that emerged after partition. The partition created immense suffering as well as some opportunities which produced some positive results in regards to the life and attitude of the Bengali women in the post-Independence period that ultimately strengthened the process of their empowerment. It is needless to say that the process is still going on and yet to be completed.