On Women’s day this year, Shapno Ekhon, as part of its Oral History project on CR Park, ‘Neighbourhood Diaries’, organised a gathering of women residents of the locality, in order to generate a conversation around its history as seen and understood by the women residents of the area. The participants, having lived and nurtured CR park as their home for decades, enthusiastically shared anecdotes, memories, reflections, observations of how they saw the locality grow from being an unsure neighbourhood of early 70s, to a well established posh locality, known across the country as ‘mini Bengal’ for Bengalis living outside the state.
CR Park came into being in 1960s when Department of Rehabilitation announced the creation of a neighbourhood specifically for families which were displaced from East Bengal during partition. It was found that a large population of Delhi’s already existing Bengali population was found eligible for land allotment there. Discussion with the group highlighted that while several of the families living in different localities of Delhi, did agree to take allotment of the land in the area, the decision did not come easily and was a mix of scepticism and mistrust. Majority of the families living in Delhi that time were clear that they would return to Bengal once their responsibilities linked to work and family were accomplished. So taking on land for building a house in a locality which was newly created and was still emerging did not seem to be the right step for most families. Also, since most of the families lived in more established and posh localities of Delhi like Kashmiri gate, they were sceptical about leaving those areas and shifting to a less known area, where everyday life could be very different from what they were used to. It was a challenging decision. However, as families started moving in, CR park started getting its shape of being the social, cultural hub, that it became over the years.
Discussions around this transition of CR Park with the group highlighted that women living in the locality made a significant contribution in not only building its institutions but also giving it a special place on Delhi map for exhibiting the Bengali culture through its festival celebrations, literature, eateries, markets and cultural groups.
From the initial years itself, women were found to be involved in all aspects of development in the area. While Durga Puja celebration provided them with a huge platform to showcase their talent for art, music, dance, plays etc; other festivals such as Rabindra Jayanti, Poila Baishakh, Saraswati Pujo, Kali Pujo, also helped them in bonding and coming together all year round on notions of art and culture. Food also played an important part in this as women made and shared traditional Bengali cuisines such as Peethe and Payesh through such occasions. Bijoya Dashami was also celebrated in a big way. The group nostalgically shared that in those early years, learning a new art form was more of a ‘neighbourhood affair…a family affair’ and not like recent years, where it has become more class oriented commercial practice. Mostly children would go to a neighbourhood ‘mashi’ or a ‘kaku’, who would lovingly and sometimes, if required, even with some scolding, would teach an art form only for the pure joy of sharing what they know. Participants were of the view that in current times, the ‘mashis and kakus’ were replaced by ‘uncles’ and ‘aunties’ and had brought in distances between generations making it difficult to form similar camaraderie that existed before.
In Durga Puja celebrations, women contributed in big way. The group shared that since 1971, all puja committees had atleast 40 percent women who participated in all aspects of the festival i.e. from bhog, to puja to organising cultural programme. Though the culture of Durga Puja celebration has gone through major change in the locality, both in terms of appearance as well as scale, women’s participation in all aspects of its celebration remains a continuing trend from the initial years.
Women also contributed in creating organisational platform for providing charitable and welfare services to those families living inside and around the locality who were less privileged. Mahila Samiti, the only all women institution of CR park, came into existence in 1974. It did numerous kind of activities which included running a Balwadi centre, charitable clinic, embroidery and stitching classes, marriage bureau and physio therapy unit. Women in those years, would finish their house work and come to Samiti office to contribute in numerous ways. At some point, the Samiti also had an Action Committee which actively worked to resolve neighbourhood conflicts, domestic violence and dowry issues in the locality. Though everyone in the Samiti worked on voluntary basis, there was never a problem in getting women to look into its everyday matters. The group however, felt that the Samiti was running out of its steam mainly because the younger generation was no longer keen to devote its time for Samiti work.
It was also felt that with changing times, the culture and composition of CR Park had changed and thus it was important to make it more inclusive of other cultures and ideas. For one, the institutions of CR Park need to become more inclusive and should be open to take people of other cultures (non-Bengalis) as their members. Also, they need to work towards introducing Bengali culture to those who live here but are non-Bengali or those who do not live here. It was felt that food could be the easiest way to bring in this inclusion in the everyday culture of CR Park but even inclusion in other aspects needs to be looked into.
Participants for the adda:
1.Kum Kum Roy
2.Sreemati Chakraborty
3.Manju Moitra
4.Rajeshwari Choudhury
5.Sharmila Sinha
6.Ruma Ghosh
7.Sushmita Chakravarti
8.Shipra Das
No comments:
Post a Comment