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Media Coverage

Success Brings Relief, Doubts Remain

16 DECEMBER 2006, HINDUSTAN TIMES CORRESPONDENT, PATNA.

The arrest of the criminals involved in the killing of Patna University (PU) Professor Papiya Ghosh, and her elderly maid, and the recovery of articles that were looted by the killers, has brought a sigh of relief to the teaching fraternity of Patna University (PU) and Magadh University. The Teachers are all praise for the role of the Patna Police in nabbing a number of those involved in the murder but also want the Police to take the case to its logical conclusion.

Dr U K Sinha, Patna University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) President- thanked the Chancellor and the Chief Minister for mobilizing the Police and Administration in this regard. PUTA General Secretary, Dr. Randhir Kumar Singh, however, urged the Police to take the case to its logical conclusion. He also urged the University Administration to institute a Chair named after Papiya, in tribute to her brilliance as a historian.

President of the Magadh University Teachers’ Association (MUTA) Dr Avnindra Kumar Singh Thakur, said that the arrest of a number of those involved in the double murders and recovery of the looted property belonging of Papiya should not be taken to be the end of the matter. The police should unravel the conspiracy behind Papiya’s murder and find out who plotted the gruesome killing. MUTA General Secretary Dr Vibhuti Kumar added that the State Government must ensure safety of life and property to Teachers, as every such incident weakened the morale of the teaching fraternity.

Dr Nihar Nandan Prasad Singh, Head of Patna University’s History Department and former Vice Chancellor of Bihar University, was not satisfied with the latest development in the investigation of Prof Papiya Ghosh and her elderly maid. He said the police had not yet, unveiled the conspiracy behind the murders. He, however, said the Departmental Council had resolved to rename the History Seminar Hall after Papiya. A few days back, the Patna Police had taken into its possession the books and magazines that lay in Papiya’s cupboard at the History Department, he said.

Dr Daisy Narain, another senior Teacher of Patna University did not see the arrest of some suspects as a major breakthrough. She said it was too early to say anything with finality. The Police should trace the mastermind behind the murders besides booking the persons who actually executed the heinous crime, she said.

Dr Dilip Kumar Sinha, President, Bihar Bengalee Association, said, “The Police claim that Papiya was killed by burglars while committing theft in her house does not sound convincing at all. No sensible person can accept this theory. There are lots of contradictions. Like, why for all reasons did the burglars take another vehicle to her house to commit the crime and also took away the victims car? If the Police claims are true, I feel we should be proud that burglars in the state have really improved. I also wonder, why the Police took so much time to catch simple burglars.

Obviously, we will continue our agitation for the real truth to come out. We will also have to wait for the arrested persons to reveal more facts. But, I feel all educated persons in the State share a feeling that Papiya’s murder was not for all such simple reasons.”

Categories
Media Coverage

‘Scuffle Led To Papiya Killing’

GYAN PRAKASH
18 DECEMBER 2006, TIMES NEWS NETWORK, PATNA.

Little did slain PU Professor Papiya Ghosh know that her own kitchen knife would one day end her life. On the fateful night, Papiya’s septuagenarian maid Malti had herself handed over the knife to the Professor to take on the intruders.

Fate, apparently, had some portentous design in store. One of the intruders snatched the long blade from Papiya’s hand and brutally stabbed her and her maid for resisting the loot bid, a Police Officer said.

After a marathon interrogation of the four criminals arrested in Papiya murder case, police have ascertained that Shankar Sao, the driver of a schoolteacher, had, in fact, inflicted stab injuries to Papiya and Malti, which caused their death.

“When we intruded into her house on December 2 around 9.30 pm, Papiya started screaming for help. When I asked for money, she not only posed a stiff resistance, but also scuffled with me. In the meantime, the maid appeared with a knife and handed it over to the Professor to take us on,” Shankar told the interrogators. “In fact, we had no option other than pinning her (Papiya) down and finishing her off,” he said.

The Police confirmed that Shankar’s injury in one of his arms, which he received during his scuffle with Papiya, corroborated his statement. Shankar had got his injured arm bandaged in a private nursing home later, they added.

Police sources said that after eliminating Papiya and her maid, Shankar and his accomplices stashed Papiya’s car parked on the rear side of the house with the looted articles and dumped them at their hideout in Kurji. In fact, the criminals had to make two trips to ferry the looted articles, a Police Officer said.

According to the Police, Shankar played the lead role and was assisted by his accomplices Ashish Kumar Rai, Anil Kumar Oraon and Manohar Thakur.

The Police said that apart from the four arrested persons, two more persons had intruded into the house. The police are on the lookout of the duo, who seem to be absconding. Meanwhile, all the looted articles as mentioned in the FIR have been recovered.

Ironically, the Police have not yet identified the criminal, who had made threatening calls to Papiya’s Delhi-based publisher and dared IG (Patna zone) Rajvardhan Sharma to catch him if he could.

“The caller is one among the four arrested persons. But we will have to conduct a voice test to identify him,” the IG told TOI.

Meanwhile, the Police have arrested an Ashiananagar-based advocate, Ramchandra Mahto, under Section 412 of the IPC (possessing articles looted in dacoity). A washing machine looted from Papiya’s house was recovered from Mahto’s house, a police officer said.

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Tributes

My Historian Friend


Though married to a family of historians, I had tried to keep my distance from History, with a typical Technocrat’s arrogance, which held that History dealt only with past.

It was Papiya, who successfully changed that over the years as she discussed her riveting research work with me, especially her work on Partition. Her passionate involvement and commitment to academics made me very proud of her. Her last book will tell the story of millions of displaced lives, but will not tell the story of the dedicated person who was always game to negotiate the uncharted course, unescorted!

Cruel hands of destiny have taken away my favourite sister in the prime of her life through an unspeakably terrifying ordeal. I have lost a caring friend and one who made me feel good just by being around.

Friends, Papiya’s mission will not remain unfulfilled and I am confident that Papiya will remain in our hearts forever!

MANAS – (BROTHER-IN-LAW)
CAIRO

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Tributes

Bumble

I don’t have words to express how much Papiya – our dearest ‘Bumble’ – meant to me and how much I will miss her. From feeding me Farex on the window-sill of her room, to indulging my amateurish efforts at scholarly discussion, to the subtle ways in which she exposed and corrected my prejudices, and of course the innumerable disputed games of Scrabble and in the way in which she came up with some of the best nicknames I have ever had, she is always going to be in my fondest memories. She was a confidante and a true teacher. Her praise was true and her criticisms fair. She wanted me to really be all that I could-encouraging me to develop what she called ‘real’ interests beyond the Science and Maths that were my daily bread. In her vast Library I could always find something new and interesting to immerse myself in. Literature, Music, History, Politics – everything I know about these and several other more eclectic subjects can be traced back to her inexhaustible collection in Patna. I never ceased to be amazed by the depth and breadth of her knowledge, but more importantly, how humble she was and how lightly she wore all her accomplishments. Her professional achievements are well known, but to me her love, warmth, sheer selflessness and the pure resolve by which she maintained our house in Patna as a real sanctuary was truly remarkable. She really was noble and lived by her principles, qualities that are to be cherished because they are too rare in our world. The manner of her death could not have been less befitting of the way in which she lived her life. I pray she is at peace now. Whatever I am and whatever I may become will be owed in no small part to her. After all, as she would say ‘aakhir tumko Farex kisne khilaya hai?'  

SAURAV, (NEPHEW
LONDON
Categories
Tributes

Bumble used to call me “son”

Bumble used to call me “son”. How fortunate I was all those years, and I did not know it. I had a second mother in Bumble Mashi. She knew it and every interaction she had with me reflected this maternal sense. Virtually every phone call and e mail, as well as those precious personal visits, began with a simple salutation: Hello, son! Hearing those words always cheered me up….

Bumble’s love and encouragement made her one of the most giving individuals I will ever encounter in my lifetime. I regret that I never returned to Bumble the sum total of the love and affection she gifted to me. I suspect I am not alone in this sentiment. And while words fail to adequately address her loss to me, I am proud to carry on a small part of her legacy.

GAURAB BANSAL , Papiya’s nephew.
(Excerpts from, Son, in ” Toast to Papiya”, 2008.)

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Tributes

I Miss you

I am like you in so many ways.
There’s no better way to remember you than to see so much of you in me.
Thank you for all you did for us .
Thank you for being the jaan of the family.
Thank you for being you.
Bumble, you’re ‘ my immortal’.
I miss you!!

JAGRITI  KUMAR ,  Papiya’s  niece 

(Excerpts  from  , Bumble- Sadabahaar, in  ” Toast  to  Papiya”, 2008).

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Tributes

Bumble

BUMBLE
Goodbye my friend
May you ever grow in our hearts,
You were the grace that blessed us all.
You used to captivate me
By your resonating life
Now you belong to heaven
And the stars spell out your name

And it seems to me
You lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset,
When the rains set in.

Loveliness we’ve lost
These empty days, without your smile, without your laugh!
And even though we try, the truth brings us to tears
All our words cannot express, all the joy you brought us through the years

From us, who are lost without your soul
And who miss the wings of your compassion,
More than you will ever know.

And it seems to me,
You lived you life,
Like a candle in the wind…..
Never fading with the sunset, when the rains set in

Your footsteps will always fall here…..
Your candles burned out long before, your legend ever will.
 

SINGDHA (NIECE)
SINGAPORE
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Uncategorized

Purnujjal

Purnujjal Papiya Memorial Trust released a book in memory of

Read the Book

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Publications & Papers

Academic Achievements

Papiya’s academic achievements have been path breaking in many respects. Her focus on Bihar in pre-Independence India, etching the role of lesser known socio-political strands and drawing global links to them right up to contemporary times, has drawn well deserved acclaim, opening up new vistas of enquiry and public debates.

Books

Partition and the South Asian Diaspora – Extending the Subcontinent, Routledge, New Delhi, 2007. (Review in Economic and Political Weekly,

Unfinished Work

Unpublished Article Left Communitarian Feminism : The Tehreek – e- Niswan Unfinished Books Community and Nation : Bihar in the

Book Reviews

Mushirul Hasan, Nationalism and Communal Politics in India, 1885-1930, Manohar, New Delhi, 1991 in Indian Economic and Social History Review,

Articles / Research Papers

The Civil Disobedience Movement in Bihar, M.Phil, Dissertation, University of Delhi, 1979.The Civil Disobedience Movement in Bihar, 1930-34 – Ph.d

Conferences / Seminars / Workshops

The Swaraj of 1932 in Palamau, Bihar, 48th Session of the Indian History Congress, 5-7 November, 1987, Goa.Champaran in 1917

Research Supervision

Supervised the Ph. D Thesis, “Situtating the Triveni Sangh Shahabad, 1930s – 1940s” by Ms. Shikha Sinha, of Patna University
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About

The Wire : Remembering the Unfinished Work of Papiya Ghosh

Article Published in The Wire dated 26th Sept 2017

Whenever one hears the famous historian E.H. Carr’s remark about history being an ‘unending dialogue between the past and the present’, one is reminded of an untiring historian, Papiya Ghosh (1953-2006), who did not live to see the traction her works could potentially generate. Her nuanced understanding of the past, and how the past interacted with the present, together with her socially-relevant research canvas – Bihar, Muslims, Partition, communalism, diaspora, nationhood, refugees, citizenship – continues to keep her alive in so many ways.

The making of a historian

Why did Papiya choose such areas of research? The answer perhaps mostly lies in her negotiations with the world of her parents and their experiences. Born on October 8, 1953, in Dumka, Santhal Parganas (a tribal area now in Jharkhand), in a family of bureaucrats, she grew up listening to real-life stories of wars, violence, nation building, Partition, and of the marginalised, dispossessed and minorities. Her father, Ujjal Kumar Ghosh, who had also studied history at Patna University, did a short stint in the army during the Second World War (1939-45), which saw him in action in Quetta, Pakistan, and Myanmar. He would share with Papiya insights related to the brutalities of hostilities and their impact on the ongoing nationalist movement. Thereafter, he joined the Indian Administrative Service and was allotted the Bihar cadre. He worked tirelessly to build the newly-independent nation from the grassroots up, always seeking to bring together strands within communities – especially the minority and marginalised. Tragically, he fell victim to a sinister political plot and was taken away very early in life. His unfinished work inspired Papiya immensely and she vowed to get back to providing a strong, academically-bolstered voice to the less heard, misunderstood and the voiceless as a befitting and enduring tribute to his memory.

Papiya’s mother, Purnima Ghosh, shared with her the tragic stories of Partition. Hailing from undivided East Bengal, Purnima was separated from her family and forced to leave all she knew as her own behind, never to go back again. Partition and its violence had left an indelible scar on her consciousness and imagination. Her interactions with Papiya centred around dark narratives of pain and destruction. However, the budding historian wanted to dig deeper – she was determined to understand the historic event in its myriad complexities. Soon, Papiya began to question popular and stereotypical constructions of the minority community. In fact, this was a recurring point of divergence in her discussions with her mother and perhaps, the only substantive one.

While academic pursuits brought her to Delhi – where she did her post-graduation and doctorate, followed by a teaching career at Daulat Ram College and Hindu College – Papiya’s research interests saw an efflorescence once she was back again in her field Patna, this time as a trained historian and a restless thinker. Her academic and research skills got further sharpened, thanks to stints with some national and international institutions including Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and universities in the US and the UK. She began to better understand and articulate the larger dynamics behind historical processes and the connections between the margins and the mainstream – more specifically, how events could have ramifications beyond immediate social and geographical locales.

Region and nation

Papiya was a cosmopolitan intellectual whose research seamlessly and continuously transcended geo-cultural boundaries – she was in Bihar at one moment and out of it in the other. An unabashed Bihar enthusiast, her enduring legacy was to foreground the region’s complex interactions with the past and how they impacted a much-larger world. As historian Kumkum Sangari points out, her work moved ‘both outwards from and inwards to Bihar’. It examined the ‘articulation of nationalist struggles with the political history of Bihar as well as the regional recasting of nationalist politics.’ It had ‘the depth, immersion and inwardness that characterised the best of regional historiography’ but ‘none of the parochialness associated with regional history.’ Papiya’s Bihar was different in other ways as well. It was an intricate amalgam of various elements – community, class, caste and regional politics – and how these intersected with wider nationalist and communal politics. Herein lay the historian’s craft as she dexterously peeled off layers of a complex being, completely mindful of their specificities and interdependencies. The fragments were important to her – as were their inter-connections and their relationship with the wider socio-political contexts. In the process of understanding the fragments, she consistently questioned stereotypes or categories considered monolithic.

Papiya Ghosh (right) and Malti Devi (left).
Muslims and the Pakistan movement

Papiya’s research on community-oriented formations and politics – anchored in her books, Muhajirs and the Nation & Community and Nation – departed from the existing scholarship in more ways than one. Unlike Punjab and Bengal, where Muslims were in a majority, her research pivoted around Bihar – an area where Muslims remained a minority. She strongly questioned the foundational role of religion in communitarian politics and her canvas highlighted the regional, class, caste and gender dynamics. She also argued against, as late historian Biswamoy Pati points, “the construction of a homogenous and exclusive ‘Muslim identity’ based on pure and unadulterated Muslim/Islamic consciousness”; instead, she revealed the diversities and pluralities within Islam and Muslims. One manifestation of this was the contestation of the Pakistan movement from within different Muslim groups, particularly the Imarat-e- Shariah and the Momin Conference (MC). Jamiyat al Ulama, for instance, developed a framework of Islamic nationalism directed against imperialism and later against Muslim League’s communalism. Her work also brought out the differences and interactions between ‘high’ and ‘low’ politics – the Congress and Muslim League vis-à-vis others. Within the Muslims, as the MC argued, this got reflected in the politics of the sharif (upper sections) – best represented by the Muslim League – as opposed to that of razil (labouring men) – whose aspirations were best articulated by the MC. Papiya juxtaposed different kind of politics – those of qaum, mazhab, biradari as well as Hindutva – to interrogate the colonial classification of the putative ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ communities into communitarian identities.

Diaspora, refugees and the making of South Asia

Papiya’s work on the Bihari diaspora (The Partition and the South Asian Diaspora) reflected her deeper engagement with ideas of nation-ness, nationhood, denominational homelands and citizenship. The deep-rootedness of partition and diaspora exemplifies the brilliant play of history across time and space. Partition persisted not just across the Indian subcontinent, but at several diaspora sites across the globe, and way beyond 1947 into the recent decades. Her book, however, also delineated how ‘partition’s refugee histories and two Muhajir formation in East and West Pakistan had their roots in the aftermath of killings of Muslims in Bihar in 1946’, several months before the great divide. ‘The emergence of Bangladesh’, she wrote, ‘interrupted this homeland and mapped out huge number of Biharis into the sixty-six refugee camps, where they still languish, awaiting repatriation to Pakistan.’ This long wait saw the refugees appeal to the United Nations for refugee status under categories like ‘Muslim refugees’ or ‘Stranded Pakistanis’ for the purposes of funds. Such refugees received support from Bihari diaspora in London, New York and Chicago and the subcontinental Jamaat-I-Islami. Many Bihari migrants later deployed their diasporic sites for their redefined and ethnic politics. She showed how, between 1992 and 2002 (Gujarat riots), Muslims and Dalits organisations in the UK and the US contested the idea of Hindu Rashtra based on stereotyping of Muslims around the making of Pakistan. After 2002, many such organisations tried to broadbase their support by forging connections with the Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, feminist and liberal and progressive groups as well as with subcontinental organisations dealing in human rights, peace and democracy.

Diasporic sites, networks and activisms, she argued, were also important at other levels – Partition’s minorities including ‘Indian Muslims and Pakistani and Bangadeshi Hindus facing subcontinental majoritarianisms’ and the ‘Hindutva formation aiming at a Hindu Rashtra and/or Akhand Bharat by bonding a Hindu diaspora.’ The long-distance remaking of South Asia formed an integral part of the diasporic politics.

Negotiating barriers

Papiya continuously and creatively negotiated barriers in other ways as well – whether it was the disciplinary boundaries or questions regarding periodisation or evidence base, to name a few. She was a historian by primary training but always worked at the intersections of history, sociology, anthropology, politics and what now constitutes migration and diaspora studies. Such an approach naturally widened her evidence base. Books and archives would always be supplemented with field visits, interviews, conversations and solid empirical work. Her research on diaspora also included refugee reports, family histories, archives of diasporic repatriation activists, camp narratives, web exchanges and accounts of asylum-seekers. And, the stories that came out had to be told convincingly but also interestingly. As scholar Jyotirmaya Sharma says: “She needed every detail about colour, texture, smell and sound to be a part of the narration.” The idea of periodisation in history made her uncomfortable. She loved the aftermath just as she loved the incident. Her canvas went beyond events/milestones considered sacrosanct by most historians. Should modern history end at 1947? For her, the answer was mostly, perhaps always, no.

Tragically, Papiya was brutally murdered on December 2, 2006 in her home at the dead of night by six armed assailants. Eerily, her father had met his end on the same day, in the same city, 50 years back. Though 11 excruciating years have gone by, justice has still not been delivered. The academic fraternity and others are yet to know why such an intensely committed intellectual had to be silenced in such a macabre manner. With her death, ended a great intellectual journey – a voyage which needs to be adequately mapped in mainstream academic research. Her works remained unfinished, as did her quest. The third book in her planned trilogy will wait forever; in addition to Muhajirs and the Nation and The Partition and the South Asian Diaspora, she was also working on a third book on Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Dalit Muslims. Her incisive work on gender – particularly how women and their bodies became signifiers of communitarian conflicts – had huge potential. Her forays into popular culture, particularly Bhojpuri cinema and songs, were also nipped in the bud.

Papiya now mostly dwells in footnotes and references; memories of family, friends and well-wishers; and, in the intellectual initiatives of the Papiya Ghosh Memorial Trust. However, her works remain relevant, perhaps more than ever, as India and South Asia grapple with issues of communitarian and identity politics, refugees, hangovers of Partition and conflicting ideas of nationhood and belonging. Had she been alive, her advice would have remained the same – look deeper and holistically; question monolithic assumptions; see the layers and their interconnections; understand the wider socio-political contexts; and, engage creatively.

Shashank S. Sinha has taught history in undergraduate colleges at the University of Delhi. He does independent research on tribes, gender, violence, culture and heritage. Tuktuk Ghosh is a retired IAS officer with a deep interest in modern Indian history. She also comments on and analyses contemporary governance-related issues.