People Without History: India's Muslim Ghettos

273 Pages·2011·2.66 MB·English

by  Jeremy Seabrook

People Without History
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People Without
History
India’s Muslim Ghettos
Jeremy Seabrook and
Imran Ahmed Siddiqui
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First published 2011 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
www.plutobooks.com
Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by
Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Copyright © Jeremy Seabrook and Imran Ahmed Siddiqui 2011
The right of Jeremy Seabrook and Imran Ahmed Siddiqui to be identified as
the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3114 0 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3113 3 Paperback
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Introduction 1
1. Topsia 9
2. Injustice 77
3. Beniapukur 89
4. Defining Slums 117
5. Tiljala Road 122
6. Victimisation 196
7. Tangra 200
8. Postscript: A Servant’s Story 250
Notes 255
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Acknowledgements
This book is about life in the inner-city areas of Kolkata’s
poor, mainly Muslim settlements. The reason for this focus
is twofold: the growing separation of Muslims in India from
the Hindu mainstream; and the isolation of the poor from
the image of contemporary India, which has successfully
been projected to the world, embodied in cliches about
the ‘powerhouse of tomorrow’, ‘waking giant’ and ‘future
superpower.’ The rulers of India have become complacent
as a result of the flattery they have received, much of it from
their erstwhile imperial masters, and the fate of the poor in
the euphoria of high economic growth figures has become
a marginal concern. No longer responsive to injustice and
inequality, the government of India appears content to
attribute gratuitous malevolence to those who resist; and
although the Maoists are currently the principal public enemy,
Muslims are rarely far behind, since it is believed that they will
not hesitate to use violence and terror as means of securing
their aim – an aim which the Hindu Right sees, absurdly,
distortedly, as dominance. The Muslim minority – some 150
million people – is perceived by many in India as a population
of doubtful belonging and uncertain allegiance to the state.
This book is the result of an effort in which many people
have participated and, although Imran Ahmed Siddiqui and
Jeremy Seabrook are acknowledged as the principal authors
and collaborators, it reflects the contribution of many
people living and working in some of the city’s most forlorn
vi
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Acknowledgements vii
communities. It deals predominantly – though not exclusively
– with areas covered by Tiljala-SHED, an organisation which
has worked with the urban poor for almost three decades.1
It does not reflect the opinions of those associated with this
non-government organisation, but evokes the atmosphere of
the poorest places in the city – the vulnerability, the poverty
and the hopes of a majority of Kolkata’s Muslims, who
make up 25 per cent of the city population. Tiljala-SHED
reflects both the possibilities and the limitations of what can
be achieved within existing power-relationships, without
changing the structural division between rich and poor.
Welfare, reform and mitigation, certainly – and these mean
dramatic improvements in the experience of poor people – but
against the great movements of globalism and geo-political
polarisation, against corruption and power, the voices of
humanity and tolerance are easily drowned out.
We are grateful to Mohammad Alamgir of Tiljala-SHED,
who was intermittently part of the ‘we’ referred to in the
text. Also part of this first person plural was Haider Ali, who
also grew up and has spent his 35 years in the area; Jabeen
Arif, who has worked in the most wretched part of Topsia
for over a decade; and Imran Ahmed Siddiqui who, like
many of the residents of the inner city areas, comes from an
Urdu-speaking background in Uttar Pradesh and now works
with the Telegraph newspaper in Kolkata. We would also like
to acknowledge the support of all at Tiljala-SHED, especially
Salma Khatoon, Rubina Hussein and the other Haider Ali
(no relation). We would like to express thanks for financial
help from the Network for Social Change in producing this
book, which is part of a wider project on ‘Cities of Hunger’.
We are also grateful to Kamini Adhikari, Dr A. K. M.
Siddiqui in Kolkata, Rifat Faridi of the Calcutta Muslim
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viii People Without History
Orphanage, Murtaza Shibli in London, and especially to
the people of Topsia, Tangra, Tiljala, Beniapukur and other
Muslim communities, for their generosity in sharing with us
their stories of life and labour in Kolkata in 2010, their sense
of distance from those who govern and, not infrequently,
harass and abuse them. Theirs is indeed a life apart, largely
uncelebrated and for the most part, unrecorded; which is a
pity, for it illuminates the condition of those about whose lives
the rich and powerful weave their cruel fantasies of terror
and violence, but who, overwhelmingly, struggle, like poor
people everywhere, simply to live and to survive another day.
Note
1. Tiljala-SHED (Tiljala Society for Human and Educational
Development) was established in 1987 and registered in 1993 under
the West Bengal Societies Registration Act of 1961. Its primary purpose
was the improvement of the slums of Tiljala, but it has since extended
its reach to a wide arc of mainly Muslim settlements in central Kolkata
and its activities include slum, squatter and pavement dwellers. It has
been funded by a number of European agencies including MISEREOR
(Germany), which finances improvements in the conditions of
rag-pickers and their families. This includes setting up a link between
the corporate sector and collection of recyclable solid waste at source.
There is a sponsorship programme for the education of poor girls
(supported by AIDOS from Italy – see below). The project aims at
the education of girls, since this is the surest way to ensure a wider
dissemination of progressive ideas in society, as well as providing
protection for some of the most vulnerable in fighting exploitation,
early marriage and exposure to harmful environments.
There are in addition micro-finance programmes (Trickle-Up
Program), an Integrated Programme for Street Children (supported by
the Indian Government Ministry of Women and Child Development),
which is designed for children living on the street, beside railway lines
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Acknowledgements ix
and the banks of canals; the objective being the integration of such
children into the formal education system.
Tiljala-SHED also participates in Shikshalaya Prakalpa, a
government initiative to bring destitute children of primary school
age into education; while the Kolkata National Child Labour Project,
supported by the Ministry of Labour is to withdraw child workers
from hazardous enterprises and to work towards their inclusion in the
educational system. A cultural unit of T-SHED helps poor children to
display their singing, acting and dancing talent.
All offers of support and help are welcome. Please contact:
TILJALA SHED
6C and 6D Rifle Range Road
Kolkata 700019
India
Tel. [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
[email protected]
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