There is no doubt
that, Chuni’s death symbolized the Brahmin dominated characteristics of a
country. Chuni’s death identified Brahmanism as a brutal system of intoxicating
hate, discrimination and killing. I am attaching here the write-up
of renowned writer, activist Mahasweta Devi for relooking of a SUNSET committed
in 16th of August, 1992.
Story of Chuni Kotal
Mahasveta Devi
Chuni Kotal’s suicide has ripped the mask off
the face of West Bengal under Left Front rule: the caste prejudice and
persecution and the government callous indifference
Chuni Kotal, a girl of
27, from the denotified Lodha tribe, the first graduate woman among the Lodha
Savara and Kheria Savara of West Bengal, hanged herself on August 16, at her
husband’s one room residence in Kharagpur, a railway town.
The reasons that led Chuni, a unique woman, to
take her own life, are palpable ones and she “became a victim of sheer
injustice and callousness of the university authorities and the West Bengal
government” (The Statesman, 23/08/1992)
Chuni was appointed a Lodha social worker in 1983
at Jhargram ITDP office. From childhood she had starved , worked in the fields,
had had no money to purchase books, yet doggedly she continued to study.
As a social worker she cycled 20-25 kms a day and
made extensive surveys of the Lodha villages. In 1985, she graduated. In 1987,
she was appointed suprintendent of Rani Shiromani SC and ST girls’ hostel at
Medinapur.
Her working hours were 24 hours a day and working
days were 365. No holidays, no break. If she had to leave the hostel for a few
hours or a day, she had to take prior permission from the office which was very
unsympathetic to her.
On one occasion her ailing father came from the
village and had to stay in her room for one or two days as a hospital bed was
not available. An officer of the district office accused her of entertaining
men in her room.
Chuni felt suffocated in the job. Countless times
she had come to Calcutta to Writer’s Building pleading for (a) transfer to her
original job, or (b) better working conditions. The department remained
brutally indifferent.
Matters became worse when Chuni enrolled her name
with the local Vidyasagar University as an MA student in Anthropology.
Falguni Chakravarty, a male professor, from the
very first day started abusing her as one coming from a criminal tribe, a
low-born, who had no ‘right’ to study MA. The university authorities, the head
of the department, did nothing about it.
This man was allowed to mark her ‘absent’
though she was present for days. And Chuni was debarred from sitting for
examination for ‘irregular attendance’. She lost one year. The
district office made life hell for her for ‘leaving the hostel’ and going to
study.
In West Bengal, after so many years of Left Front
rule, the first woman graduate from a very backward tribe was openly abused
because of her low-caste and birth and nothing was done about it. No one was
ashamed. Only Chuni suffered.
The second time Chuni sat for exam. The
professor gave her low marks. Thus she lost two years. In desperation,
she complained and complained and, in 1991, the education minister ordered an
enquiry commission which constituted of three principals from three district
colleges.
All through this man was allowed to refer to the
criminal nature of her tribe, abuse her. The commission just went to sleep.
On August 13 (just 3 days prior to her suicide),
there was a seminar in the university. By that time Chuni knew where she stood.
She had no hope that the enquiry commission would do justice to her and punish
the ‘bhadra log’, the babu, who pointed to her low birth and low-caste
relentlessly. She went to the university.
Thereafter, she weepingly told a few co-students,
” today in the seminar Falguni babu, quite off the context, refered to
the Lodhas as thieves and robbers. In the corridor, he threatened me, I’ll
see that you don’t sit for the examination in September. I am
a Lodha. So I shouldn’t have dreamt of higher studies. I complained
against the offenders, but they remain untouched. Unnecessarily I wasted two
years, attended classes but was not allowed to sit for the examination” (Letter
to the editor, Daily Bartoman, August 25, 1992)
By August 13, she had made up her mind. Death was
the only way to escape the hunters. On 14th she went to her husband. They had
married in a court in 1990, but due to her job had not been able to stay
together.
Her husband is a Lodha youth who is a High School
and works in the railways workshop. That Chuni was a graduate and he was not
had never created any friction. They had been in love with each other from
1981. They were to leave for Chuni’s village, Gohaldohi, on the 16th to talk
about formal reception, a community feast after marriage.
On the 16th he left for the workshop at 6.15 am.
He returned at 10.45 am and found Chuni hanging.
Chuni’s death has revealed what West Bengal truly
is. Brutal caste and class hostility and persecution has been allowed to
continue. The government allowed the district babu to abuse her. The
university authorities did nothing to throw out the caste-baiter.
And the commission appointed by the government
submitted its report three days after her death.
