1946 GENOCIDE
by RATAN GHOSH
Poetry
•
Published 2025
About the book
The Second and Extended edition of this poetry book entitled 1946 Genocide is a book of painful poems of Dr. Ratan Ghosh, defining the brutal history of ethnic cleansing of Noakhali and Calcutta. It’s a documentary of the pathetic state of sufferings of the innumerable ill- fated Hindus of East Bengal. It unveils the history of an untold brutality that ravished the dignity of an ancient nation like Bharat, blooded innocent humble lives and violated women deracinating the livelihood of the Hindus of Noakhali, Dhaka, Cumilla and Barisal. The brutality that blooded villages and towns alike, the brutality that looted the homeland of millions and the brutality that uprooted millions from their home land is indescribable. This poetry book tries to reflect upon the atrociousness of East Bengal. The key issue of this book is to speak about the untold sufferings of the refugees who had to leave their homeland during, before and after the partition Bengal. The poems of this book are the painful tales of the poet’s lost ancestral homeland. The poet has incorporated folks, images, symbols, irony and metaphors in his verse narrating and signifying the plight of communal violence in both sides of the river Padma. The 16th of August, 1946 and the Tenth (10) of October of 1946 are the witness of an untold curse that befell upon the Hindus of East Pakistan now Bangladesh. The blood bath defining the killer and the killed and its history is as painful as the history of Jews genocide in Europe. This is a collective and organized crime rooted in religion.
The Holocaust of East Bengal is chronicled in every line of this book. The poet recalls the fate of his forefathers who had undergone perpetual sufferings due to the atrocities. The poet has carefully portrayed a canvas of a piercing past through his poetic craftsmanship to heal the wounds of millions; to revisit the past and to reinterpret them anew. He has recorded the heinous brutality in the form of verse so far overlooked in the field of Geo-political, Geo-cultural and Historical study...! The unforgettable brutality of Noakhali and Calcutta especially of the then East Pakistan needs a fresh scientific study and research to record the Facts in order... The book is a novel initiative and definitely readers will get the footprints of a living History of the Genocide of East Bengal in every line of the book...The readers of all times can read the history of "Death, Displacement, Banishment, Border, and the fate of the Refugees..."
In his poem ‘Noakhali: (1946, October 10)’ the poet narrates—
‘Still I see the skulls singing the songs of pains...!
While sounding, sounding, sounding and resounding in my ears the tales of blood rains...
In a land of blood drops and indelible stain!
The nineteen forty six of October Ten!
Still I listen to the weeping of those skulls and bones!
Weaving, weaving, weaving the tales of those forlorn!’
Oh what a fantastic monologue it is!
The poet further expresses…
"Dropping, dropping and dropping down all for years from the soil of Noakhali...!
Yea, dropping, dropping and dropping down all for years from the soil of Noakhali...!"
The poet can’t forget that he is the inheritor of glorious past. He recalls this through these lovely lines of his poem –‘Genocide-1946’
‘Still I can see the footprints of my forefathers' past
Once they had the fertile pieces of land, rivers and ponds
Every second still I can listen to the stories of their lively bonds
But listening to the stories of blood vessels and merciless overthrown’
The poet again touches the local flavor while saying in his last poem titled ‘Flood’
‘The streets of Faridpur Barisal, Khulna, Rajshahi, Dhaka still seeing those strolling painful steps
Lost lost lost beyond the border lines of the East!
Beanibazar, Barlekha Bhandaria Cumilla heard the streams of shrieks!
While flooding houses, fields, markets and stalls with the flames of lusty teeth!’
Having gone through the lovely poems of the book entitled 1946 Genocide, I do feel that the poetry lovers of the globe undoubtedly will get a different flavor of poetry walking in the History of untold pains and sufferings in the poems of Ratan Ghosh.
Antje Stehn, Germany
Prolific writer, visual Artist and Editor
