Immigrants from Myanmar[Burma] to India – talks with an
eye witness
(By Muktipada Behera)
It was the time of Second
World War [1939-1945]. Burma[Myanmar]
was under British rule and granted independence on 4 January 1948. At that time
Japanese army was trying to capture British occupied Myanmar. Out of insecurity
British Govt declared evacuation of resident Indian and own British people. And
asked them immediately migrate into India. It wanted to evacuate all Indians from
that place, so that they won’t be able to join Japanese military. Subhas Chandra
Bose [1897 -1945] was fighting against British taking the help of
German and Japan. In the fear of Indian from Myanmar might join Japanese
military, British Govt declared evacuation immediately from that place and move
them to India. There were few
instances of bomb-strike in Kolkata and Manipur by Japanese military also. So
people were really scared.
Lakhs and lakhs of people without any option
had to leave their property and moved towards Indian through walking. British
administration had identified two routes – one for black Indian and another for
white British. There was no facility for transportation, food, water, medicine
on the road meant for black Indian. Whereas British had arranged proper care
including food, water, medicines throughout the way on which white people were
moving. Even British did not take-care of the Gorkhas in its army. They were
treated in an Indian way. Nobody was there to take-care of Indian immigrants
from Myanman. Ramakrishna mission decided to provide some facility to those neglected
Indian victims.
Below
is the situation as described by Ramakrishna mission relief documents [Book Pariprasna,
said by Swami Bhuteshananada, 12th spiritual Guru, He was an eye
witness of this relief]
With
a lot of request, Mission got the permission from British govt, to help
migrated Indian. Nobody was allowed to work with British soldier other than few
monks from RKM. At that time British govt was not able to trust Indian because Subhas Chandra
Bose was with Japanese military power against British. And that area was a very
sensitive area. So Indians were not allowed to enter. Ramakrishna Mission
started to work with a camp at Dimapur, the largest city in Nagaland, India. This charity work was done with the
help of British military. British used to give money for food and train ticket
of immigrants. The mission job was to give temporary shelter in a school
building for few days. Cook and feed people after they reached camp and give
them free train ticket to reach natives in India. British govt had arranged
special train. Mission also used to distribute dress, milk packet and medicines
from own fund. Mission had dug many big holes to protect people because that
was an air-strike [bombing] zone. So it was a joint charity program with
British.
Many Indian even did not know where to settle
in India because they were completely new to India. Based on their language,
mission used to give them railway ticket to different states. Sometime whole family got scattered into
different places while migration. Mother in one place, Son and daughter in
another place. Mission helped them to unite in the camp by keeping the
separated family members quite some days. People were of Punjabi, Gujarati,
South Indian, Bengali, Gorkha etc. They had settled in Myanmar for generations.
Many people used to die due to cholera, malaria diseases
attacked because of to heavy rain and lack of sanitary system. There was no
facility to burn those dead bodies, causing rotten smell. Mass burying of dead
bodies were done. There was no electricity at that time and military did not
allow much light [lamps] at night due to fear of getting targeted from
Japanese. Mission monks were not able to take proper food and good water due to
pollution. Finally some of them also fall in fever and had to leave that place except
two enthusiastic monks [one of them was Swami Bhuteshananda and Other was
Gangadhara Maharaj] working till the completion of charity.
British govt had arranged truck to carry people after some
location inside India border. There were cases out of 1200 people in a truck arrived
in camp, 900 used to die. Mission used to treat them. People [including rich]
used to walk in bare feet all along from Burma to India. And many died during
travelling without food, water and medicine. Many family lost their babies,
husband, wife, father, mother during the journey. Surprisingly Indian native
villagers took it as an advantage and used to sell a glass of water at the cost
of Rs 5-10/- to victims. Mission book mentions how the cooks in canteen used to
cheat both mission and British Govt by mentioning bigger numbers than people had
taken food in a day. The canteen manager used tamper the people count calculated
by mission by adding digits on left hand side – if 5 is written in token; they
used to modify it into 15. Mission was not able to get help from native Indian,
because people used to leave that place in the fear of bombing. So workers and volunteers
were not easily available for cleaning, sweeping, helping the victims. Mission
monks used to manage all these in this unfavorable condition. They used to
carry relief materials on their back due to lack of vehicle. Even there are
cases where one victim was not ready to help another diseased victim - lack of compassion
among victims were noticed.
Ramakrishna
mission closed its branch in Myanmar during this time. Swami
Ranganathananda[later 13th RKM head], Swami Punyananda also walked down
all the way with fellow Indians. They also witnessed many sufferings and deaths
while travelling. Those events are described in their books. Indians should not
ignore such a tremendous experience and history made by these great, but silent ramakrishna mission workers.
Reference --
1. Book Pariprasna [part 1], Talks with Swami Bhuteshananda, edited by Swami Ritananda, published by Ramakrishna Mission.
