Reiterating the Eastern Theatre of Partition: Religion, Class, Caste, and Gender in Tanvir Mokammel’s Chitra Nodir Pare (1999)

Abstract

Whereas the western theatre of India’s Partition seems to have its physical closure in the voluntary exodus and sanctifying attempts of relocation and rehabilitation by both the nation-states – India and Pakistan; the eastern theatre tended to be more dramatic as the population transfer on both the sides of Bengal was an unorganised and a prolonged, intermittent affair. This paper is an attempt to reiterate the prolonged and intermittent mass migration and displacement in the wake of the partitions of India and Pakistan in 1947 and 1971 on its eastern frontier via the critically acclaimed Bangladeshi film, Chitra Nodir Pare (1999). Tanvir Mokammel, the veteran filmmaker behind the film who has always observed a continuum from 1947 (division of subcontinent into India and Pakistan  – West and East)  through 1971 (liberation war and subsequent creation of Bangladesh as an independent nation-state) in his cinematic and literary oeuvres, strongly contends in Chitra Nodir Pare, that the shifting power dynamics in the eastern wing of the Pakistani nation-state since 1947 increasingly polarised the Muslim community as either sectarian or pro Hindu, and forced the Hindu minorities to leave their home and homeland behind to seek refuge in India. The paper cogently argues that the film, Chitra Nodir Pare brilliantly etches out how the intertwined rubrics of religion, class, caste, and gender became collectively responsible for the prolonged movement and colossal displacement of the Hindu minorities. The paper will specifically focus on the gendered angle to Partitions’ migrancy and displacement vis-à-vis the film’s chief protagonists – Shashikanta Sengupta and Minu. Additionally, the paper will also stress on the role of the persistently contesting power dynamics and identity politics in independent Bangladesh to contextualise the film within the independent auteur industry.

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