Homeland
Homeland, the meaning of homeland in the dictionary, is a person’s or a people’s native land. But again the question arises whether you should be born there or it is the place where your ancestors were born?
The question of the homeland has become an important topic of debates these days. With an ever-rising population and global influences, every tribe and community want to hold on to every bit of land to save their identity and secure their future. Good or bad I have no answer to that but most of the clashes seem to originate from the idea of homeland.
For a person like me, it’s quite confusing. But I have begun to believe that home is where your heart i.e. your family is. What makes me think that way? Ok, let me see how I can answer this. For that, I need to tell you a bit about my family.
Both sets of my grandparents were born in East Bengal (now Bangladesh). My maternal, as well as paternal grandfathers, moved out of their villages after school for higher education. My maternal grandfather did his school in Port Blair and later joined Ashutosh College in Kolkata. After finishing his masters he joined the Royal Air force and was posted in various towns and cities across the country. Later he settled in Kolkata after his retirement. My paternal grandfather moved to Sylhet (in now Bangladesh) to complete his higher education and thereon joined Assam government as an accountant in the office of AG. He was posted to Shillong which was then the capital of undivided Assam. After marriage, he bought a piece of land and built a home for his family.
My maternal grandmother was a feisty young lady who grew up in Mymensingh district in East Bengal (now Bangladesh). She got married to my grandfather right after her IA exam (equivalent to 12th) and travelled with her husband wherever he was posted. Her family left their home and moved to Kolkata when the idea of partition was doing rounds. The entire family left their home for good except few extended family members who felt they would rather die than move anywhere else. My grandmother was in touch with them until she got sick and passed on. Dida as I would lovingly call her was always passionate about her “homeland” which she called DESH. Whenever she would get an audience she would love speaking about her desh and her childhood spent there. Her love made her visit her desh not once but twice. She was disappointed that her house was occupied by others but she beamed with pride describing how cordially they treated her.
I don’t know much about my paternal grandmother as she died when my father was 11. Her father was the zamindar in a village called Mirashi, Sylhet (now in Bangladesh). She was married to my grandfather at a very young age and made Shillong her home. Her brothers moved out of the village for higher education and never went back as partition was inevitable by then. Only the youngest brother stayed on with his family stubbornly wanting to hold on to his father’s legacy but then 1971 proved to be not safe for his young daughters. So he sent them to India and he stayed back until his death.
My father was born and raised in Shillong along with his siblings. He had hardly visited his ancestral homes in Bangladesh. Shillong was home to him, well he thought so until the anti-Bengali agitations started in Shillong. He worked there until his retirement but could not make it his home as we were considered ‘dkhars -outsiders’ by the indigenous people there. Well, with a heavy heart he settled on Kolkata though he missed his friends and acquaintances who were more than family.
Born in St Thomas Mount Hospital in Madras (now known as Chennai) my mother had spent most of her childhood in Madras and Bangalore. Later my grandfather got transferred to Jorhat and Shillong, little did she know that she will form a lifelong bond with Shillong. When she was in high school my strong-headed grandmother refused to relocate from place to place every two years and decided to settle down for the education of her growing kids. Since most of her family was in Kolkata, she made Kolkata her home. After finishing her graduation she got married and moved to Shillong. Shillong was home for her for 30+ years. She finished her higher education and taught in reputed schools in Shillong. She loved coming back to Kolkata for vacations, but Shillong was home. After moving back to Kolkata after retirement she is happy to be near her relatives but misses her friends and home in Shillong.
My maternal aunts are settled in Canada. And I’m sure that’s home to them. Their children feel the same way about India the way I feel about Sylhet. That there is a connection but it’s not home.
Now let’s talk about me. I was born and raised in Shillong and like most of my friends moved out after my 12th to Mumbai. In college, I met people from all corners of the country. One question that struck me and stays with me till today is “Where are you from?” My new friends wanted to know where I was from or where do I belong. That’s an easy question for someone who was born and raised in their ancestral village/town. But it’s quite confusing for me. Do I belong to Shillong?? I was born there but I’m not a son/daughter of the soil. Do I belong to Kolkata since I’m a Bengali? Or do I belong to Sylhet, Bangladesh since my ancestors lived there? I’m was never too fond of Mumbai so never tried calling myself a mumbaite. But later when I moved to Delhi for work I loved the place and wanted to make it home.
But because of my father’s health issues, I had to be by his side in our home in Kolkata. Though I have many relatives I never quite felt at home here though I love the city. But after the 1st lockdown, I feel that home is where your family is. During the lockdown it didn’t matter where I am, the only thing that mattered was I was home with my family.
While I was reading the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, I realized over millions of years ago Homo sapiens migrated from one place to the other. The natives or indigenous people too migrated to the particular region at some point of time in history. Be it the aborigines of Australia or Native Indians or even Jarawas of Andaman. Even in the middle ages people moved and made faraway land their home. Millions migrated after the world wars and made new homes across oceans.
So my homeland is India and home is where my family is. That’s less complicated, right?
