In my last blog I spoke of Narrative therapy for historical trauma. I will take a specific case, the case of Noakhali Hindu genocide that is slowly coming out. Here is an excerpt from the book Noakhali (Author: Sandip Mukherjee, translation, Rinita Mazumdar).
“…..They attacked the Sahapur bazaar and started looting stuff. Their attack was conducted on Hindu fish sellers, betel leaf sellers, and gur sellers and the temples (mostly Kali and Shitala temples) were destroyed. After this, the hooligans divided into branches and went in three directions. One of the branches went northwest near Ramgarh bazar. One of the three parties went to Dasgharia bazar and looted shop after shop belonging to Hindus. After looting they set fire to the shops. The third party went to the Kachari Courthouse (Kachari) of the Zamindar (landlords) in Narayanpur under the leadership of Kasem and Akbar, the two assistants of Sarwar. They had lethal weapons in their hands. At that time Zamindar Surendranarayan Basu was present with some of his employees. Suddenly they heard a commotion. Surendranath was startled. Quickly he closed the front gate and went upstairs. He took his double-barrel gun. He peered and saw a huge crowd like a swarm of black locusts running on the red stones. All of them had white caps on. They had batons, spears, butcher’s knives by which cows are slaughtered, swords, and were shouting, “Allahu Akbar, we will take Pakistan by force, Quaid e Azam Zindabad”. Lokesh, an employee of Surendranath Basu, Ahricharan, and Bhudar, and his cook Jatin Oja were scared and hid under a four-legged wooden bed downstairs. The commotion outside was increasing. The crazy crowd went quickly near the courthouse. They tried to break the main door. But as the door was heavy it would not break easily. Surendranath Basu fired two shots at the sky. But that did not scare anyone. The agitated crowd roared, “Allahu Akbar, kill the bastard Malaun”. Quickly Surendranath loaded his gun. He fired aiming at the crowd, it hit the shoulder of one man, and the feet of another. The crowd shouted, “Careful Brothers, that bastard is firing.”
The gang started gathering hay in front of the main door. There was a heap in front of the door in a couple of minutes. They poured gasoline and lit it on fire by Kashem’s army. Surendranath decided that he would first kill a couple of these barbarians before he died. The fire was burning, and Surendranath leaped into the haystack. Unfortunately, however, the gun slipped from his hand as he was hit by someone’s lethal axe; then another person hit him on his forehead hard with a baton. Surendranath’s vision blackened as several jumped on him and put a knife through his heart. After he was killed, his severed head was presented to Sarwar. Lokesh, Arjun, Haricharan, Bhudhar, and Jatin Oja were gruesomely killed, and their corpses were thrown in the fire.
When the crazy crowd was setting fire to Surendranath’s house, Golam Sarwar was proceeding towards his own house in a Jeep. On his right was Gaffar. Others were following him. On the way, there was Debnath’s house. Nishkanta Debnath was a weaver by trade. There was an idol of Radha Madhav inside a hut with a thatched roof. The hooligans focused their attention on the idol. Seeing the crowd, Debnath’s family had fled to the forest and taken refuge. The crowd entered their house and occupied it. The mob threw the murti of Radha Madhav on the floor. They looted all the copper and bronze cutlery used for the Divine food. They set fire to the roof. Then started attacking and looting from the main house. Then the house was on fire. The thatched roof of the hut was burning.
On October 11, Friday Gaffar’s army attacked the village of the weavers. First, they attacked old Balai Basak’s house. Then Anil Mahajan was assaulted. They inflicted severe torture on his wife and widowed sister. Then Satyen Saha’s house was attacked. Shouting “Allahu Akbar” the Gaffer gang entered the house of Satyen from behind. At that time Satyen Saha was in the Kali Temple. He came forward and said, “We will give whatever money or other things, do not break the idol.” Gaffar gave the following directions: “Take the murti down from the pavilion. Break it, break it, and urinate”. A small crowd went up to the temple pavilion. Then started dancing on it. The murti broke from its framework and only the frame remained. All the time there was looting from Satyen Saha’s house. Abasher Ali aged 60 tortured Satyen Saha’s wife. In the weaver’s village, nearly 10 houses were looted by the Gaffar gang. In every house, they were fed beef and forced to read the kalima…” (Noakhali, Sandip Mukherjee, translated Rinita Mazumdar).
Now let us apply Narrative therapy as these stories are coming out. Narrative therapy was developed in the 1980‘s by Michael White from Adelaide Australia and David Epston from Auckland New Zealand. Today narrative therapy is considered to be a mainstream modality in many contexts around the world (https://narrativetherapycentre.com/about/). Narrative therapy is a collaborative and non-pathologizing approach to counselling and community work which centres people as the experts of their own lives. A narrative approach views problems as separate from people and assumes people as having many skills, abilities, values, commitments, beliefs and competencies that will assist them to change their relationship with the problems influencing their lives. It is a way of working that considers the broader context of people’s lives particularly in the various dimensions of diversity including class, race, gender, sexual orientation and ability (https://narrativetherapycentre.com/). The central point of Narrative therapy are stories and one develops in one’s life and carries with them throughout their lives.
As human beings, we do not merely experience events and happenings, we interpret and give meaning to our experience. Narrative therapy helps successive generations to process the pent-up trauma and create a sense of identity and face the loss of their previous generation in a some integrated way.
- Betel leaf business is a big business in Bengal, both East and West.
2. I have described what gur is in a previous footnote.
3. Shitala is the Goddess of healing, especially from small and chicken pox in Spring. “Shital” in Sanskrit is “cool”, the idea is that cools the effect of the disease.
4. The administrative part of the landowner or landlord’s house, where the peasants and other subjects of the landlord came for justice and to resolve disputes.
5. The landlord or landowner, somewhat similar to the feudal landlords of Europe.
6. This is sign is being a Muslim.
7. “Krishna” here is referring to the Hindu Avatar ‘Krishna” an incarnation of the God Vishnu and his Divine consort, Radha.
8. Loosely translated murti is an idol. But the significance is different. A murti is considered a living object having energy, whereas an idol is not. After the murti is carved out, there is a prolonged ritual to give it life and energy.
9. This is the murti of Sri Krishna, the avatar of Vishnu, and his Divine consort Radha.
10. Murti is usually translated as idol of a deity, but it is not a correct translation. After the murti is made from clay or metal or wood, there is a complex ritual to breath prana or the life breath into the murti to make it a living being. I will use the term murti throughout this book instead of the term idol.
