The Strangest of Moments: a Dispatch from Fieldwork

A criticism of research in our digital age is that you can find exactly what you are looking for too easily; there are fewer “chance” discoveries, of the kind where you would go to a library stack looking for one thing, and find something else entirely by accident that you never knew you needed.

An event a few weeks ago showed me that in this age of the search engine optimisation, there is still room for serendipity. I was sat at our research den in Jamalpur, googling “Tajpur” for news of recent events. One of the few results that came up was a report written by a commission of Indian jurists in 1965, based on an investigation into communal attacks on minority groups in what was then East Pakistan. “Tajpur” had brought it up because the area had a substantial Hindu population, many of whom fled to India in 1964 and 1965 as a result of the attacks.

Looking through the Index of the report, I found that it was comprehensive. As well as Hindus, it addressed the plight of the Garo, Hajong, Koch, Dalu and Bormon Indigenous communities who inhabit Greater Mymensingh, including the northern border belt dividing Mymensingh from the Indian state of Meghalaya (then part of undivided Assam). Scanning down a list of first-hand reports by witnesses and survivors of the attacks, I noted a reference to Jayramkura. I know this village, because it is Parag’s village and I visited his home two years ago.

I called him over to show him what I’d found. He started reading over my shoulder and we found a name “Gonendra Rechil (sic)”.

“I think that is my relative,” said Parag, before disappearing into his room.

He came back five minutes later.

“Yes, he was my grandmother’s brother. I just spoke to my mother. I remembered many stories about ‘Gonendra-master’ when I was a child at home. Where did you get this?”

“I just googled it,” I said, adding sheepishly “I wasn’t even looking for it. Didn’t even know it existed.”

“It is beyond imagination”.

Together we read Gonendra’s testimony to the Commission, and the understatement makes the horror it describes even more chilling.

“[they] burnt many houses in this village belonging to Dalus. [They] used to extort money from the minority communities in this village.”

We had changed places, and Parag was scrolling down descriptions of incident after incident across Haluaghat, Durgapur, Kalmakanda, while I stood mute at his shoulder. It was the strangest of moments.

Parag stopped scrolling, and asked quietly:

“Can you send this to me?”

The report, “Recurrent Exodus of Minorities from East Pakistan and Disturbances in India” is available at:

https://www.icj.org/recurrent-exodus-of-minorities-from-east-pakistan-and-disturbances-in-india/.