“I would conclude that, the merger was indeed the bloodiest and most violent merger in History of Odisha. It should never have happened ……………”
Apart from all noise, on this point we agree. As for the numbers killed, it ranges from few hundreds to 10,000(according to folks in the district). Everybody knew the number was huge but no reporters were present to see it for themselves. All reports were based upon what was told to them by locals.
Here is a description by one Mr.Murmu,
“On 6 February, 1949, a massive rally was organised in village Gunduria, located at a distance of about 10 km south of Rairangpur. The common people from the Santal community assembled with their traditional musical instruments like Drum, Mridung and weapons like Bow, Arrow and Poleaxe.
When other leading Santal leaders addressed the meeting in the absence of Sunaram, who the Government of Odisha arrested to quell the rebellion, suddenly, Amar Singh Sardar, who was deployed as SDO, Rairangpur, arrived with a large police force and started firing at the assembly.
Within a moment, the people dispersed hither and thither and within a blink, about 2,000 Santals were killed and many sustained severe injuries. It is looked upon as a Black Day in the history of Indian Santals, which is so far known as the Gunduria Massacre.
Though it happened within a few days after the formation of the UNO and in violation of humanity and humankind, it did not attract much attention from political thinkers, historians or philanthropists with National or International importance.”
Here is Mardi, a local, who describes the event comparable to Jalianabag:
‘’ Asked how old he is, Mardi squints into the distance and says, “Eighty. Maybe ninety.” Then he mentions an event from the Jharkhand Movement: the massacre at Gunduria. On February 6, 1949, the government of Odisha had the police open fire on a gathering of Santhals at Gunduria village. It is still not known how many Santhals lost their lives in that masscare.
“I must have been five years old at that time,” Mardi says.
He also remembers the massacre at Kharsawan on January 1, 1948, another blood-soaked event from the Jharkhand Movement. Under instructions from the government of Bihar, the police opened fire on a gathering of Adivasis. The massacre in Kharsawan is often called the Jallianwala Bagh of the Jharkhand Movement.”
And so it seems both Odisha and Bihar had blood in their hand.
I went through all the history books on Odisha (five of them) in my very old and scant library, and looked for any mention of this massacre, and found none. The nearest hint was in Nabin/Jagna Sahu’s book referring to tarnished image of Mahatab because of Kharswan and Sadheikela before he quit Odisha for central cabinet post ! Thus our kids will never know about this event. Acknowledgement and atonement are important for national integrity. Not to do so is a flaw in our national character. Inconvenient truth hurts but to push out of awareness will only make it more toxic. This mess will rise like a phoenix.
But did the tribals forget and forgive ? They are calling Gurundia village pilligrimage destination and observing Sahid Dibasa on Bebruary 6 ! Watch this video clip of the last event.
Arjun Purohit
Sent from my iPad
