After reading a few books on India's partition on the western front, I was curious about stories of the east, the bengal that was partitioned three times. (in 1905 under British rule, in 1947 and again the east for partitioned and liberated itself from Pakistan). First it was in 1905 by Lord Curzon, the British viceroy on the basis of religion (under divide and rule principle) that failed after huge protests and got reversed when King George V announced the unification in 1911. The second time around Bengal was partitioned when India got partitioned on religious line when British put a stamp that permanently ensured that the two religious communities hate each other for the several centuries that follows their decision to withdraw the occupation that was started by the "smart traders" of East India Company in the 18th Century. One still wonders how a large country that had an established rule under powerful rulers got fooled so easily by a handful of cunning invaders came under the garb of traders.
My quest for the history of the second Bengal partition in 1947 brought me to the book "Purbo Paschim" originally written in Bangla by the well known laureate Sunil Gangopadhyay and translated in english by Enakshi Chaterjee, mother of my friend Subhamay Chattopadhyay.
I first read two epic novels on Bengal's Renaissance period written by Sunil Gangopadhyay about two years back. In quick succession I read Pratham Alo (gifted to me by a friend Abhijit Bhaduri ) and Sei Samay which are the classical novels in which history and fiction were woven so beautifully as if you were sitting in the drawing rooms of Rabindranath Thakur, Ramkrishna, Vivekanand or Arbindo and listening to the conversations these stalwarts had with one another and several others.. line Gandhi, Tilak etc.
Reading 1112 pages of Purbo Paschim (East West) part 1 was an arduous task and took me over 3 months to complete. But it was a joy to discover many historical events weaved in the form of a fiction. It was almost like a sequel to Pratham Alo in terms of the period. However, this was only a beginning, there is a genuine sequel to this, a 706 page Purbo paschim Part 2. That I intend to read after a little gap.
Sunil Gangopadhyay has a magnetic art of writing that binds you to him.I wish I could read bangla to get to his writings deeper. It's absolutely true that the true feelings cannot be expressed in translation and often something is lost. Some grammatical errors, some typos are unavoidable too and that irritates you while you read, you do get the meaning but...
the pre-partition story goes on till the naxalbari movement in the early seventies and you get the gist of the goings on of east and west bengal during several important phases of history including three wars with Pakistan.
It may be an effort but if you could read this book it will surely be an enlightening experience. For now, I am curious as to what stories are covered in the Purbo Paschim Part II.
August 08, 2026.
