A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF BALURGHAT


- PINAKI ROY
(7 November 2012)


The history of Balurghat dates back to the period of the Mauryas (321 B.C. – 185 B.C.). Later, the Gupta king, Kumaragupta II (period of rule: c. A.D. 473-74), a descendant of Chandragupta II (period of rule: c. A.D.380-c.A.D. 413), is known to have founded the town of Kumarganj, approximately 24 kilometres from the district headquarters of Dakshin Dinajpur (West Bengal, India). During the rule of the Palas (mid-8th century A.D. – 12th century A.D.), a time-span when the regions round the present-day Balurghat came to achieve prominence, King Mahipala II (period of rule: A.D. 1070 – A.D. 1075) was assassinated during the 11th century by the Kaibartyas who rose in rebellion and ousted the Palas. The Kaibartyas united together to drive away the Palas, and areas around Mouradi Bar, 27 kilometres south-west from Balurghat, witnessed sectarian rulings by such rebel leaders as Dibboka, Rudaka, and Bhima, until Emperor Ramapala (period of rule: A.D. 1077 – A.D. 1030) ruthlessly suppressed the Varendra/Kaibartya rebellion, incarcerated or executed the rebellious chieftains, and re-annexed the region to his own kingdom.

Ruins recovered and analysed by historians over the ages have revealed that around 10th century A.D., the present areas of Balurghat and Gungarampur (located at a distance of 45 kilometres from Balurghat) were included under ‘Kotibarshya’, whose capital Devkote was located near the present-day Gungarampur municipal area. The entire area ‘Pundravardhana’ was home to the Pundras, a group of people speaking languages of the Indo-Aryan family. ‘Devkote’ was also referred to as ‘Bangarh’. The earliest mention of the ‘Kotibarshya’ region is in ‘Vayu Purana’, which was written well before A.D. 600.

Primitive areas around the present-day Balurghat witnessed bloody battles in 12th century A.D. between the military personnel loyal to King Lakshman Sen (period-of-rule: A.D. 1178-A.D.1206) and the forces of Ikhtiyar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji (sometimes referred to simply as ‘Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji’) (d. 1206), the Turkic military general of Qutb-ud-din Aybak. Stiff resistance from the Sena soldiers notwithstanding, Afghan rule was established in Bengal around A.D. 1204. The kingdom was called ‘Lakhnauti’ after its capital, which was often shifted to ‘Devkote’. Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji was probably murdered at Devkote around A.D. 1206 by Ali Mardan Khilji and buried near Gungarampur.

Ancient villages and hamlets around Balurghat were improved and dense forests were cleared under the supervision of the medieval Bengal sultans Shamsuddin Muzaffar Shah (period of rule: A.D. 1490-94), his assassin-and-successor Alauddin Husain Shah (period of rule: A.D. 1494-1519) (whose name has been commemorated in modern Balurghat’s ‘Hoseinpur’), and Husain Shah’s son Nasiruddin Nasrat Shah (period of rule: A.D. 1519-1533). The sixteenth-century Hindu king and collaborator of Mughal Emperor Akbar (1542-1605), Kashinath Roy, established one of his citadels near modern-day-Balurghat, on the banks of the Atreyee. When the Bargi plunderings took place in Bengal between 1741 and 1751, the the-then Maharaja of Dinajpur, Ramnath Roy (1722-63), took adequate fortification-measures against them, strategically aided by the Bengal Nawab Alivardi Khan (1671-1746). By the time Raja Radhanath Roy (1778-1800) formally assumed power, Dinajpur had become a part of India under the rule of the East India Company.

History attests to the fact that the usually-peace-loving people of Balurghat and its suburbs have always had displayed an aggressive mentality whenever the issues of loss of independence and imperialistic aggressions became prominent, affecting them. They heartily welcomed the Sannyasi rebels during the Monks’ Rebellion (1771-1802) and offered them refuge while they fought against the English colonisers. Rebel leaders like Majnu Shah (originally from the region of modern-day Kishangunge in Bihar) and Bhabani Pathak (from Rangpur) temporarily supervised their anti-imperialistic guerrilla attacks from regions around the present-day town of Balurghat. No wonder central-Balurghat would be named ‘Chakbhabani’ in memory of the rebellious Bhabani Pathak, the mere mention of whose very name spelt terror in hearts of the East India Company-protected exploitative Bengali landlords.
Apart from documented history, certain regions adjacent to Balurghat that are channelled by River Atreyee have been made famous in Aryan legends especially because of the presence of two mythological figures – Lord Parashurama, and Maharshi Bhrigu, the latter being the first compiler of predictive astrology. While the anti-Kshatriya military leader Parashurama choose the banks of the Atreyee as to spot where he would absolving himself of different sins, the sage Bhrigu is supposed to have had temporarily meditated in the area known these days as ‘Chakvrigu’. The Atreyee, over the years, became a dangerous river, severely inundating the town in grievous floods in 1987, 1988, 1991, and in 1997-98.

There are three major hypotheses regarding why Balurghat came to be called as ‘Balurghat’. A group of nomenclaturists believe that the medieval hamlet of ‘Balhargahtta’ has had gradually transformed itself into the present-day town. Another group believes that even in mid-19th-century, Balurghat was known as ‘Kantanagar’, which, because of its nearness to the Atreyee and its vast sand-covered banks, assumed the name of ‘Balurghat’. The name was officially used by the English administrators in their documents after the establishment of a police outpost in Chakbhabani-area around 1886 (Balurghat was created a subdivision in 1904, and the Patiram-based police station was formally shifted to the town).Yet the third group believes that in late-10th century A.D., ‘Balurghatgunge’ was a resting point for prosperous merchants dealing usually in bronze-and-brass-made utensils, coconuts, and food-items who used the place to repose themselves especially in the area known in the 21st-century as ‘Ghatkalipara’. Incidentally, Dinajpur became a district in 1786. The English rulers would have originally created Patiram as the subdivision town had not Landlord Ranen Tagore refused to give up the required land or had not Rajen Sanyal and intellectuals like Nalini Chakroborty, Yadupati Roy, Mahesh Bagchi, Bhabani Kar, among several others clamoured for the recognition of Balurghat as the coveted spot instead of Patiram.

In end-19th century, a benevolent but powerful landlord Rajendra Sanyal established his manor-like headquarters in the area now known as ‘Saheb Kachhari’. The name ‘Saheb Kachhari’ was most probably coined by inquisitive local people who tried to understand the administrative measures being taken by Rickett, an English estate-manager appointed by Sanyal. At ‘Kuthi Kachhari’, Dhanpat Singh, another landlord hailing from Murshidabad, had his office. Later, the landlordship was transferred by the Sanyals to Bahadur Singh and Purnendu Roy, both residents of Dinajpur. In 1897, with the arrival of Kalidas Chakroborty as the first Sub-Registrar on Commission of the subdivision, different social developments gained momentum. Chakroborty popularised the habits of cycling and drinking of tea as a pastime beverage, and the playing of lawn-tennis. At Saheb Kachharipara, the first ever post office of Balurghat was inaugurated, while the first charitable infirmary was opened at Congresspara, which continued to function until a small-sized hospital was built at the present-day Dak-Bungalowpara. It is widely believed that the present-day building of the District Hospital of Dakshin Dinajpur at Raghunathpur was originally built to accommodate different faculties of the ‘North Bengal Medical College and Hospital’, which is now located near Shibmandir, District: Darjeeling.

In the early-20th century, especially before 1920, different banks were established at Balurghat in order to save peasants from being exploited by usurers. Among the early banks of Balurghat, which were founded but mostly failed to operate successfully, were Balurghat Town Commercial Bank Company Limited, Central Calcutta Bank, Santosh Bank Limited, and (the still-operating)Central Cooperative Bank, founded in a colonial building in 1915.

Balurghat-dwellers had played an active role in the anti-imperialist struggle. The rebellious ballad-singer Mukunda Das (that is, Yajneshwar Dey, 1878-1934) and litterateur Kaji Najrul Islam (1899-1976) visited the region in 1925 to inspire the prospective patriots. Subhas Chandra Bose (1897 - ?) himself came to Balurghat in 1928 and inaugurated a Congress-Party-office near the Atreyee. The freedom-struggle was further advanced by member-activists of the Revolutionary Socialist Party after its formation out of the occult rebellious organisation Anushilan Samiti in March 1940. Among the early patriots from the R.S.P. were Dhirendranath Bandyopadhyay (1905-79), Satyen Munshi, Khagen Dey, Kali Sanyal, Haribhajan Mukhopadhyay (d. 1967), and Probodh Talapatra. As the 1942 ‘Quit India Movement’ against the English colonisers gained momentum, freedom-fighting sons and daughters of Balurghat began to play active roles. On 14 September 1942, different English-supervised offices, treasury, court, post-offices, and other establishments were burnt by the agitators, and all throughout the day, the town remained virtually free from the imperial rule, with all its telegraphic-communication lines having had been cut off. Different activists of freedom-fighting congregations like the Anushilan and Yugantar Samiti-s and Hitsadhan Mandali operated from this tiny northern Bengal-town. Prior to this, on 24 October 1933, rebels from Balurghat and Hili – Prankrishna Chakroborty, Hrishikesh Bhattacharyya (1915-67), Satyabrata Chakroborty, Saroj Bose, and Madhav Roy being among them – looted the Darjeeling Mail stranded at the Hili Railway Station, and participated in a fatal shoot-out in which at least one person was killed. After the independence-fighting activists were captured at Samjhia, four of them were initially condemned to death but were later imprisoned until 1947. In end-1934, freedom fighters attacked administrative facilities at Bolla, destroying them. On 18 September 1942, the imperial police forces engaged armed revolutionaries in a shootout at Parilahat, near Tapan, in which four activists were killed. When malicious English administrators tried to create a rift among the Hindus and the Muslims, Balurghat-intellectuals were quick to see into their ploy and though numerous incidents of rioting ravaged India and Pakistan, not a single confrontation could be noticed at Balurghat. Other freedom fighters from Balurghat were Suresh Ranjan Chattopadhyay (1889-1951), Abdul Jobber Miah (1893-1972), Sushil Ranjan Chattopadhyay (1896-1969), Saroj Ranjan Chattopadhyay (1900-58), Satindranath Basu (1903-77), Paresh Guha (d. 1989), Nripati Chattopadhyay (1904-87), Jamini Majumdar (1909-80), Abinash Basu (d. 1982), Tarakeshwar Guha, Jyotishwar Sarkar, and (the lately-deceased) Pulin Behari Dasgupta.

Balurghat came into prominence during the ‘Tebhaga Movement’. It was a militant campaign initiated in Bengal by the ‘Kishan Shabha’, a farmers’ front of the ‘Communist Party of India’ (C.P.I.), in 1946. Prior to 1946, share-cropping peasants had to give half of their harvest to the owners of the land. The demand of the ‘Tebhagha’ (sharing by thirds) activists was to reduce the share given to landlords to one third. As the C.P.I. activists grew more and more aggressive, the English forces, aided by the local landlords, increased several oppressive measures against the campaigners, who violently retaliated. On 21 February 1947, only half-a-year away from Indian independence, the English forces found themselves lacking every form of communication as they went to the village of Khapur (not Amritakhanda’s ‘Khanpur’), located only 18 kilometres away from Balurghat, to arrest Chiarshai Sheikh, one of the firebrand ‘Tebhaga’ leaders. Having had failed to locate him, they nevertheless managed to arrest Jashoda Rajbanshi, the wife of the the-then party secretary, and four other rebels, Gopesh Das Mohanta, Sashi Burman, Ghutui Kolkamar, and Md. Gajimuddin. Infuriated C.P.I. activists snatched these captives from the English forces, who fired over 120 rounds on the ‘attackers’, killing twenty-two farmer-activists – Hindus and Muslims alike. Among the twenty-two rebels killed by the imperialist policemen were Chiarshai Sheikh himself, Kaushalya Kamarni, Kailash Bhuimalee, Dukhan Kolmakaar, Majhi Soren, Hopon Mardee, Bholanath Kolmakar, Bhuvan Burman, Bhavani Burman, Narayan Murmu, Gohonua Mahato, Nagen Burman, Shyamacharan Burman, Yoshodaranee Sarkar, Gurucharan Burman, Purna Kolmakar, Fahua Kolmakar, and Khato Burman. A statue erected on the main entrance-road to Balurghat, just before the ‘Balurghat Children’s Park’, commemorates these slain activists.

Balurghat was included in Pakistan as the Indian independence was declared on 15 August 1947. For three days, the Pakistani flag was flown over the ‘Balurghat Boys’ High School’-building. Balurghat became a part of India on 18 August 1947, and the the-then District Magistrate Bipul Kumar Acharya, I.A.S. (the first District Magistrate of West Dinajpur) hoisted the tricolour before an administrative-office-building. On the same day, too, the district of West Dinajpur, with administrative headquarters at Balurghat, was officially formed. At the independence-celebration gathering at Balurghat Boys’ High School playground, the two hitherto self-concealing freedom-fighters Saroj Ranjan Chattopadhyay (after whom the 1978-inaugurated bridge on the Atreyee was named) and Sailen Das presented themselves publicly, to countless congratulations. Balurghat Municipality was established four years after the Indian independence – on 18 June 1951. Kalidas Sanyal (of Indian National Congress) (period in office: 1954-55) was the first democratically-elected Chairman of Balurghat Municipality. Sushil Ranjan Chattopadhyay (of Indian National Congress) was the first Member of Parliament from the region, while Saroj Ranjan Chattopadhyay (also of Indian National Congress) was the first Member of Legislative Assembly. Nanigopal Roy and Ronen Sarkar, respectively of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and R.S.P., were the first Sabhadhipati-s of West Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur Zilla Parishads.

As communal riots ravaged East Pakistan (the erstwhile Bangladesh) soon after the independence – the Shantahar Riots of 1950 being among the more fatal ones – thousands of Bangladeshi residents, most of them from the Rajsahi district, crossed the international border and settled down in the town. These were trying times for the tiny provisional town, but the residents gallantly faced the challenges. Even these days, crime rate at Balurghat is quite low. In fact, the crime-rate in the whole district of Dakshin Dinajpur is quite low when compared to the national-level or even state-level situations. For example, in A.D. 2009, there were 28 murders in the district, 49 cases of rapes, 56 cases of abduction, and no case of dacoity (Source: http://ncrb.nic.in/CII-2009-NEW/Statistics2009.pdf). The national situation was comparatively grimmer. But the residents protested spontaneously and even violently against some of the arbitrary and draconian measures about to be taken by the Congress-Chief Minister of West Bengal, Bidhan Chandra Ray (1882-1962). First, when he decided to unite Bengal and Bihar in 1956 (during his chief-minister-ship between 1948 and 1962), hundreds of Balurghat-dwellers courted arrests while staging demonstrations. A year later, the state-government decided to shift the administrative headquarters of the district of West Dinajpur from Balurghat to Raiganj – a proposal which so irritated the Balurghat-citizens and galvanised them into protestations that it had to be abandoned.

During the Food Movement (‘Kshadya Andolon’) that began in 1959, Balurghat town witnessed several demonstrations by the leftists, especially the R.S.P. members. In 1959, (the erstwhile Left Front government’s P.W.D.-minister) Kshiti Goswami demonstrated rather violently against the ‘anti-people policies’ of the Congress-led state government, leading a group of ‘famished people’ inside the Balurghat Court-premises and ransacking properties. The Balurghat-chapter of the ‘Food Movement’, which gained momentum during the food-crisis of 1966, was especially directed against the alleged ‘mismanagement’ of Prafulla Chandra Sen (1897-1990), who was the Chief Minister of Bengal between 1962 and 1967. When Sen and the Janata Party-M.L.A. Abha Maiti (b. 1925) came to Balurghat to address the town-dwellers and party members on 8 March 1966, irate commoners began demonstrating against the Chief Minister inside the present-day ‘Natya Mandir’ proscenium-theatre-house, which ‘invited’ police lathi-charges. Scores of people were grievously injured, and young leftist leaders like Debashish Chakroborty and Benoy Chakroborty were arrested and temporarily incarcerated.

During the period of Naxalite Revolution (1967-72), Balurghat town remained tense. Though there were scarcely any incident of large-scale violence and arson, Naxalite activists were supposed to have had annihilated a businessman, Kali Saha, and two police personnel. During this time, R.S.P. cadres inspired peasants to vociferously protest against various injustices supposedly perpetrated on them. During the turbulent late-1960s and early-1970s, the successive Chairmen of Balurghat Municipality were Ranajit Basu (of Indian National Congress) (period in office: 1964-69) and Dilip Dhar (of R.S.P.) (period in office: 1969-73).

From November to early-December 1971, aggressive military forces of East Pakistan resorted to indiscriminate shelling of the town especially from Farsipara (in Naogaon, East Pakistan) on suspicion that Bangladeshi ‘Mukti Bahini’ personnel, inimical to Pakistani soldiers, were being trained there. Actually, Mukti Bahini cadres were stationed at Teor and Balurghat. Several innocent Balurghat residents were killed in the indiscriminate shelling, especially on 25 and 26 November 1971 Thursday and Friday, in areas of the present-day ‘Balurghat Municipal Bus-stand’ and ‘Balurghat Telephone Exchange’. The region would later witness severe fighting between the Indian and Pakistani forces during the 24 November-11 December 1971 Indo-Pak War. The ‘20th Mountain Division’ of the Indian Army, under the Commanding Officer Major General Lakshman Singh, had set up their headquarters at Balurghat. As pitched battles were fought, at least 10 officers and over 400 general soldiers of the Indian Army laid down their lives at Hili, 25 kilometres away from Balurghat. The ‘Battle of Hili’ (23 November-11 December 1971), in which at least 2100 Pakistani soldiers were killed, remained one of the grimmer engagements of the 1971 international belligerence. During the battle, numerous Balurghat-residents suffered from conjunctivitis-like syndrome, popularly called as ‘Jai Bangla’, which later-days’-physicians conjectured to have had arose of the pollution of air by gunpowder and the powdered-form of different other poisonous explosive materials.

From 1947 until 31 March 1992, Balurghat was the district headquarters of erstwhile ‘West Dinajpur’. The district was bifurcated into Uttar and Dakshin Dinajpurs (with the town becoming the district headquarters of the latter) on 1 April 1992 Wednesday when Debashish Som, I.A.S., was the West Dinajpur District Magistrate. After his transference in November 1993, D.C. Sarkar, I.A.S., became the first fully-serving District Magistrate of Dakshin Dinajpur (period in office: 1993-94). The bifurcation occurred when Deepankar Bandyopadhyay (of the R.S.P.) was the Chairman of Balurghat Municipality (period in office: 1981-93). In November 2003, the first medium-scale industry of Dakshin Dinajpur was established not far from Balurghat. Railway connection to Balurghat was formally declared open on 30 December 2004. In the 1950s, there was regular air-transport to and from Balurghat, and aeroplanes took off and landed at the Mahinagar-based aerodrome. Three private organisations “Balurghat Air Transport”, “Surekha Transport”, and “Sky Players Transport” regularly operated flights to and from the town until early-1960. In 1987, a “Vayudoot” air-service was started thrice-a-week at Balurghat, but due to steep airfares and consequently a very few passengers, the service was grounded by the end of the year. The 11th and present-days’ Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Bandyopadhyay (b. 1955) (since 20 May 2011), has been sincerely trying to resume air-services to Balurghat.

As per the census and other relevant data complied by the Government of India in A.D. 2011, Balurghat is the 20th largest town in West Bengal, and was declared the cleanest city of the state consecutively for two years in 2007 and 2008 (U.R.L. http://www.changekolkata.org/clean-city-competition.html). According to the 2011-census-related data, the average literacy rate for Balurghat is 91.66 percent, which is the third-most literate town in West Bengal, only after Darjeeling (93.17 %) and Coochbehar (91.75 %) (U.R.L.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_West_Bengal, updated 5 September 2012, and http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/paper2/data_files/India2/Table_3_PR_UA_Citiees_1Lakh_and_Above.pdf). In spite of its comparatively small size, Balurghat has continued to make its presence felt in the national and state arenas through its sizable educated luminaries and a thriving theatre-culture, contributed to mainly the former and present activists of such theatrical conglomerations like “Tuneer”, “Balurghat Natya Tirtha Karmibrindo” and “Tritirtho Natya Sanstha”. The latter group has its specific proscenium theatre house at ‘Gobindangan’ in the Tridhara-Club-para, North Chakbhabani, Balurghat. The town’s theatre-culture has long attracted international attention. Also, a large number of little magazines are regularly published from the town, among which ‘Ashokban’ (since 1975, quarterly), ‘Dadhichi’ (since 1992, quarterly), ‘Madhuparni’ (since 1965, quarterly), ‘Suryabeej’ (since 1982; quarterly), and ‘Ei Path’ (quarterly) have had enjoyed wide readership. ‘Natyachinta’, a quarterly magazine on dramatic performances and art, is also published on a quarterly basis. The noted dramatist Manmatha Roy (1899-1988) wrote most of his famous works while serving as a lawyer at the Balurghat Court. The town has dedicated its Rathtala-art-gallery to him. Litterateur Abhijit Sen (b. 1945) wrote his award-winning “Raghuchandaler Haar” (1985) based on his experiences of living in the town.

The literacy campaign for the provisional town of Balurghat began in 1901, with the establishment of what, in March 1907, would be formally founded as ‘Balurghat Boys’ High School’. In 1903, the coloniser-established school was gutted in fire, but did not stop functioning. In 1926, the ‘Balurghat Girls’ High School’ was established with active encouragement from the English colonisers. The town is supposed to be the first place in West Bengal where co-educational system was initiated. ‘Balurghat Lalit Mohon Adarsha Uchchha Vidyalaya’ was established two years after the Indian independence. In June 1948, Balurghat (co-educational) College was founded as an intermediate liberal arts college, recognised by the ‘University Grants’ Commission’ (‘U.G.C.’) two years later. ‘Balurghat Mahila Mahavidyalaya’ (also called ‘Balurghat Women’s College) was established in August 1970. The co-educational English-medium-school ‘The Atreyee English Medium School’ (affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education) was established in 1976. In early 21st-century, there are at least 18 state-government-sponsored high schools in the town and its suburbs, one central school, and one privately-managed high school, and two private schools deemed to become high schools. ‘Balurghat Law College’, affiliated to the University of Gour Banga, was established in 2001, while ‘Balurghat B. Ed. College’ was established in July 2004. In 1996, the Balurghat Industrial Training Institute became functional. The private-engineering college ‘Techno Global Balurghat’ became operational in 2009.

This brief history of Balurghat has been written more as a profile of the town. Every Balurghat-resident feels that the clean and lush-green town has the potential to claim its seat of importance and eminence more and more as years pass. The different W.B.C.H.S.E.-conducted ‘Higher Secondary Examination’ and ‘Madhyamik Pariksha’-toppers in late-20th and early-21st centuries have already contributed to making the town a renowned one, and people are striving to become even better on every scale.


References:

Ray, Nihar Ranjan. History of the Bengali People: Early Period. Vols. I and II. Kolkata: Saksharata Prakashan, 1980.

Sarkar, Shib Shankar. The Role of Balurghat-Residents and Indians in the Bangladesh Liberation War. Kolkata: M.P. Publishers, 2012.

Sengupta, Nitish. A Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal from Mahabharata to Mujib. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2011.

Uttaradhikar Balurghat: Dadhichi – Special Issue. Ed. Chakroborty, Mrinal. 6, December 2000.






((C)2012: Copyright rests with the author/compiler Pinaki Roy, except for the cited and referred portions. No part of this writing can be reproduced without prior permission from the author/compiler).