Report

A Study on the Saraswati Bachao Andolon at Andul, Howrah in

West Bengal

M. Sc (Semester-II)
2nd Internal Assessment- 2016
Subject- Anthropology
Course Code: ANT/201
Course Name- Research Methodology

Submitted by

Debjyoti Patra

Vidyasagar University
 This is a brief report specially made for the purpose of Internal
Assessment of the semester examination. Concerned individuals and
interested persons are requested to contact via email address
(patradebjyoti640@gmail.com) for more queries on this research topic.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Field work is the means by which most anthropological information is obtained. In this
concern, I conducted a field work at village Andul in Howrah district, West Bengal on
January to May of 2016 and collected useful information. Many people have helped me in
many ways in my field work and in preparation of my field report. Some of them have
directly helped me, while some people have helped me indirectly also. I convey my heartiest
gratitude to all the villagers of Andul for extending their help and cooperation to conduct
the present work. Then I like to express my regards on the Panchayat of Mashila, Andul.
They helped me a lot in the collection of data on the village Kurebakra. After that I want to
acknowledge Samar Koley, Shasanka Das, and Socrates Kanrar, Amit Dasgupta etc. They all
helped me to establish rapport with villagers and gave me some important historical data on
Saraswati Bachao Andolon. Special thanks to Samar Koley for cooperating with enormous
number of archival data and his precious personal experiences. After that, I convey my great
regard and thanks to my teacher professor Dr. Abhijit Guha, Department of Anthropology,
Vidyasagar University, who has guided and advised me in every steps of this fieldwork and in
making field report. I am also thankful to all the teachers and scholars of our Department for
helping me in making the field report with well advices. I am grateful to the Department of
Anthropology, Vidyasagar University for giving the opportunity to conduct this fieldwork at
Andul in Howrah district.

Date- 16.06.16

(Signature)
A Study on the Saraswati Bachao Andolon at Andul,
Howrah in West Bengal

Introduction

Saraswati refers to a river that was a

distributary of Bhagirathi and is now
almost dried up there but was active
till around the 16th century AD. The
course and condition of the Saraswati
has played an important role in the
development and decline of river
port towns in Bengal. Initially the
major port town was Tamralipta,
after the decline of which Saptagram
rose and declined and finally Kolkata
came up.

Branching off from the

Bhagirathi at Tribeni, near Bandel in
Hooghly district in the Indian state of
West Bengal the Saraswati flowed
south-west beyond Saptagram. It is
believed that the Saraswati flowed
into an estuary near present-day
Tamluk and received the water of not
only the Rupnarayan and the
Damodar but several other smaller
streams.

This river Saraswati passes

through Andul beside the campass of
renowned Prabhu Jagatbandhu College of Howrah. In the course of time, the upper
Saraswati dried up but Bhagirathi or Hooghly has abandoned the old Adi Ganga channel and
flows through the lower course of the Saraswati below Sankrail.

Andul is my birthplace, and it is very populated area situated in Howrah district. For
being my permanent resident from my very consciousness I had an opportunity to notice
the river Saraswati, from my childhood, passing through the heart of Andul beside the
Andul Rajbari. There is a sloppy bridge named Rajpole is crossing over the river near
Prabhu Jagatbandhu College perpendicularly. I can remember from my past memories of
childhood that I used to notice the river breadth wider than I notice the river breadth now,
when I move aside the Rajpole.
 Because of misusing by the local people and by fulfilling with the garbage breadth of
this river was becoming narrower day by day, and that have turned the Saraswati into a
canal. Not only that, with the flowing time the alluvial deposits had been collected and it
formed the hard alluvial soil and the canal became more insufficient. With these, population
of Andul area increased gradually and some people also built their houses on that land
formed with alluvium or silt; some clubs and few many shops were also built.

After a long time when years gone away, I listened about the news that a movement
named Saraswati Bachao Andolon has been evolved by a group of people and their main
motives were the emancipation of the river Saraswati by anyhow, and then turning the
canal in its actual river form. The group of more than hundred people was protesting by long
and preoccupied walking processions against the unconsciousness of the then Central
Government. The prolonged processions were starting from Andul beside the Sankrail
Mashila railway bridge towards Hooghly Chanditala through Domjur. That was a time when
from the very dawn countless people from many clubs, voluntary committees used to start
their whole days walk from the Sankrail Police Station up to Mashila, Ramchandrapur,
Banipur, Jhorehat, Andul, Duilya and Mouri. Irrespectively young to aged and male to
female agitators used to raise their voice with the then former president of the agitation,
Timir Banerjee and executive secretary, Samar Koley. But then I did not know that, that
movement would be a concerned topic of my study. As I was then in class six or seven very
ordinarily I just listened about the news without having any extra action.

Objectives of the Study

I had listed out 11 questions around the case-

1. First of all to know the actual cause for what the affected people built their houses in
the Governmental space and to collect data on the process behind the construction
of houses in Governmental land.
2. To know what the affected people actually do and how did they react when they
faced with the incident that their houses were being demolished by the
Governmental contractors.
3. To collect data about the formation of the committee.
4. To know how the agitation spread over.
5. To know how the agitators made people known about their protest and demands.
6. To know about the difficulties they had to face during that movement.
7. To know about their getting over of those difficulties.
8. To find out any political issues and political involvements behind their protest.
9. To collect data about the present condition of the movement.
10. To know about the helping involvements and steps of the Government.
11. To find out if there is any mythical or mythological background or if there is any
religious catalyzer behind the agitation. (Because, in the Rig-veda and many other
sacred collections of vedic period we already traced the name of Saraswati as well as
river and Goddess; and now-a-days the name is well known to all as Hindu Goddess
of Learning)
 Significance of the river and influence in media

. Here I want to address the Saraswati River at first with some past records. Many
websites and blogs have published many writings around the river. Indrani Mazumdar, a
journalist is one of them who are involved with those blogs. A blog named -
th
silent spectator uploaded by her on 26 July of 2015 has described broadly about the
history that in the context of growth of our Indian civilization how river Saraswati has played
a pivotal role. The headline of that writing was River Saraswati- Missing Link of Medieval
Bengal.

Drying up of the Saraswati River was one of the major reasons of flourishing of
Kolkata as correctly stated by Historian H.E.A. Cotton (Sir Harry Evan Auguste Cotton). In a
community development journal Prof. Sujay Ghosh, a reader in political science of Uluberia
College shared a paper as an abstract about this and there he is strictly confessing, once a
vibrant water body, The Saraswati river in West Bengal has decayed due to both natural and
human factors.

In a stanza of Silent Spectator journalist Indrani Mazumdar is mentioning that in

this riverbed one of the most prominent habitat of Howrah, Andul emerged. Many pundits,
physician, fisherman, merchant influenced this land. Many Baishnab pundits came here
through this river from Nabadwip and it was addressed as Dakshin Nabadwip. Andul Rajbari
was established after that beside this river.

In one place Dattachowdhury Chronicles mentioned that Mughal prince Shah Jehan
happened to be travelling by boat along the Saraswati River through Andul while returning
from a visit to Odisha in around the year of 1624, when he was fighting with his own father
emperor Jahangirs forces in order to stake his claim to the Mughal throne.

Archaeologist Rakhal Das Bandyopadhyaya published his findings in 1909 about

Saptagram and riverbed of Saraswati.

Such as there are so many records about the Saraswati river as a historical water
source and having many valuable importance. Today we have almost forgotten the
importance of river Saraswati which was the tributary of Hooghly, but in the 16 th century,
not only Howrah and Hooghly gained economical resources owing to this river but also it
served as an important route for maritime trade and connected some parts of Orissa.

But these are not the actual sakes of my study, because I want to find out the base of
a particular movement around the emancipation of this historical Saraswati River; yet that
information were very effective and significant in this context to draw a different picture of
this river in our mind. So this description was verily contextual according to me.

My topic is directly related to the agitation around river Saraswati of Andul cum Howrah. So
many newspapers such as Anandabazar patrika, Telegraph, Times of India etc. had published
many articles about the gradual progress of this agitation. One of them is available in the
website of Telegraph (www.telegraphindia.com), namely the heading was Resurrecting
the Saraswati.
 The Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society also published a course of writings in
their journals about that. I want to mention the name of Stephen Knapp, the famous
Christian philosopher who is researching on the vedic Saraswati River still now.

In the other hand many local newspapers like esamay patrika and osomoye esamay
released their writings in about 2001 to 2003 when the movement on its culmination stage
or climax condition.

The Times of India also published much news. One of them I got with the headline
of Modi Scripts Saraswati rebirth. It was pressed out on the date of 25 th August of 2005.
It was the time when Medha Patekar was fighting for Narmada Bachao Andolon
simultaneously.

Owing to Internet I come to know recently that four governmental projects are also ongoing
now to develop the Saraswati River basin. Namely-

1. Salicornia farms (which yield edible soil)

2. Sub-surface drainage system
3. Afforestation
4. Improving the drainage system in North West India to combat salinity and
desertification

In the year of 2000 one book was published from Andul by Diamond Printers named Fire
Asbe Saraswati Nadir Harano Srot ( ).The book
was published by the hand of late GobinKarar, the founder president of Saraswati Nadi
Bachao Committee.

After that, from the year of 2006 to 2008 a local newspaper was being published by the
members of that Saraswati Nadi Bachao Committee. The name of that newspaper was
Prachesta () and in that newspaper all the activities done by the agitators, the
gradual progress of the movement and all the results were being published.

At the end I want to mention the name of Dr. Ashish Mukherjee. Ashish Mukherjee,
a renowned scholar in the field of Geography, completed his Ph. D from the University of
Calcutta on 1985 and he worked on the changing landing pattern with the special emphasis
of changing socio-economic condition around the Saraswati River. The name of his thesis
was Changing Landing Pattern in the Saraswati Basin, West Bengal. This thesis was later
published in 1988 from Saraswati Bachao Committee of Andul.

Formation of the committee

The year was 1999. The formation of the Saraswati Nadi Bachao Committee was started
with six or seven eager people to draw the attention of the administrative cum Government
and local people for the emancipation of this historical river. Late Gobin Karar was the
founder president of the committee. Initially the committee was formed at the ground floor
of his own house. Later there was no any specific landmarked place of their meetings.
Generally all the members used to allow the whole committee in their own houses one by
one.

In this context I have to share that late Gobin Karar was a leader in C.P.I before
establishing the committee. The reason behind the formation of the committee was almost
clear with a case study of some active members namely Samar Koley etc. According to the
taken case studies of Samar Koley and Socrates Karar, son of Gobin Karar it becomes clear
that Gobin Karar felt that because of misusing by the local people and by fulfilling with the
garbage breadth of this river was becoming narrower day by day, and that have turned the
Saraswati into a canal. Not only that, with the flowing time the alluvial deposits had been
collected and it formed the hard alluvial soil and the canal became narrower. With these,
population of Andul area increased gradually and some people also built their houses on
that land formed with alluvium or silt; some clubs and few many shops were also built. As
the members of the Saraswati Nadi Bachao committee were not in the unfamiliar
consciousness about the historical significance of the river Saraswati they felt a necessity to
draw an effective attraction of all, towards the emancipation of the river they met one
evening at Gobin Karars house with an invitation of him and decided to form a committee
which would be engaged in gathering more people and protesting against the
unconsciousness of the Government and turning the river in its actual form. That was a time
when from the very dawn countless people from many clubs, voluntary committees used to
start their whole days walk from the Sankrail Police Station up to Mashila, Ramchandrapur,
Banipur, Jhorehat, Andul, Duilya and Mouri. Irrespectivelyyoung to aged and male to female
agitators used to raise their voice with the then former presidents of the
agitation,GobinKarar,Timir Banerjee and executive secretary, Samar Koley etc.

Activities and spreading over of the movement

Spreading over of the agitation happened rapidly in the contemporary circumstances

of Andul. But outside West Bengal there are very few people who know about the agitation
properly, though mass media such as many famous Bengali and English newspapers and the
local magazines had made an outstanding role in the spreading over of this movement.

But I want to refer such activities of the members in this specific movement which
were responsible in the popularity of the movement among the locals-

1. With the formation of the committee in 1999 the local people responded very fast
by intending to join the community and publishing essays and letters in the
newspapers.
2. The group of more than hundred people was protesting by long and preoccupied
walking processions against the unconsciousness of the then Central Government.
The prolonged processions were starting from Andul beside the Sankrail Mashila
railway bridge towards Hooghly Chanditala through Domjur. The movement got full
support of the local people.
3. Leaflets and handbills were being distributed in all over the area.
4. The name of Bapi Thakur Chakroborty seeks mentioning in this context who is a
political person till now residing at domjur of Howrah district and actively
participated in the movement in 2005. He was then editor of the Saraswati Bachao
 Committee. He sent an OPEN LETTER ( ) to the then Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the then Irrigation Minister Ganesh Chandra Mondal and
the then Cental Water-Resource Minister Priyoranjan Dasmunsi in a combined
manner seeking money or another kinds of help of the Government for the
renovation of the river. The OPEN LETTER had been distributed in a leaflet format
irrespectively among the public of all approachable places in Howrah district
including Sankrail, Domjur up to Singur and such places.
5. Rampant road corner meetings had taken a crucial role in the popularity of the
movement within Howrah.
6. The participation in the National conferences outside West Bengal such as in Goa,
Uttrakhand etc. brought fame to the agitation.

Difficulties and drawbacks faced

1. Government was not concerned from the very first. So the agitation had to see the
tough conditions.
2. Internal problems among the members such as competition in leadership made the
movement harder.
3. In the year of 2004 a planned project passed from Irrigation Department of West
Bengal worth 17 crore rupees had been announced full of faults by the G.F.C.C and
then they postponed the plan. The famous newspaper namely Ananda Bazar Patrika
published the news in 3rd June of that year.
4. The local people gradually felt an obvious disturbance losing the patience of
expectation from the Government.

Governments involvement

After formation of the Saraswati Nadi Bachao committee in 1999 and launching the
tight agitation everywhere the committee had made a great role in the public awareness by
forming public opinion, signature campaigns, deputation to all concerned, posters,
handbills street corner meetings, propagandas, processions, road blockages etc. In the print
media their movement was being highlighted; TV, radios covered their activities. As a result
of which Government had taken some meaningful steps in the purpose of resurrecting the
dying river, such as-

In the year of 2000 the Irrigation Department of West Bengal was compelled to
survey the river. Then it was the time to face the Ganga Flood Contol Commission
(G.F.C.C).

Ganga Flood Control Commission (G.F.C.C), a subordinate office of Ministry of water

resources, with its headquarters at Patna, was created in 1972 to deal with flood and its
management in Ganga Basin States vide Government of India Resolution No. F.C.47 (3)/72
dated on 18th April in that year, as secretariat and executive wing of Ganga Flood Control
Board (G.F.C.B), headed by Honorable Union Ministry of Water Resources, Chief Ministers
of Basin States or their representatives and members, Planning Commission are the
members of the Board, Chairman of the Ganga Flood Control Commission acts as the
Member-Secretary of the Board.
The commission is headed by that chairman who is assisted by two full time members, four
Directors and 94 supporting staffs. In addition there are 19 sanctioned posts of work-
charged staff. The representatives of the concerned Central Ministers as well as Chief
Engineers of the Basin States are either part time members or permanent invitees of the
Commission.

Ganga Flood Control Commission carries out several activities as outlined below:

1. Preparation and updating of comprehensive plan of flood management.

2. Techno-Economic Appraisal of Flood Management Schemes.
3. Assessment of adequacy of waterways under roads and rail bridges.
4. Programming of implementation of flood management works.
5. Framing of guidelines for quality control and maintenance
6. Monitoring of all flood management schemes funded by Central Government.
7. Documentation and Dissemination of recommendation of special studies.
8. Performance evaluation of completed Flood Management Schemes.

Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, NCT of Delhi,
Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Utter
Pradesh and West Bengal are
the Ganga Basin States.

In 2001 a fully fledged

plan of Rs. 11 crore came into
being. But at that time Ganga
Flood Contol Commission
(G.F.C.C) did not give the
approval. But the reason behind
that is still unknown to me. As
such the plan was shelved.
After that from 2001 to
2006 their continuous movement
was going on but yielded no result.
After that in 2006 the Saraswati Nadi Bachao committee went to the honorable High
Court of Kolkata in 20th March for public interest. Then in pursuance of the High
Court order the unauthorized occupations of the river were demolished. G.F.C.C
sanctioned the plan.
Then in 2007 the on 26th September the plan was sanctioned in Delhi for an
estimate of 32.10 crore. On the 5th April of 2008 the Irrigation Department of the
Government of West Bengal inaugurated the scheme. But still the work was not up
to their satisfaction. It was to be mentioned that for excavation from Sankrail,
Howrah to Singur Nasibpur nearly 43 K.M length had been sanctioned against the
approved plan. But it had been said by the administration that the rest of the area
was under the D.V.C plan.

D.V.C or Damodar Valley Corporation is a public company which operates several power
stations in the Damodar River area of West Bengal and Jharkhand states of India. The
 company operates both thermal power station and hydel power stations under the
Ministry of Power Government of India. D.V.C is headquartered in the city of Kolkata.

According to the lecture of a National Conference in 2009 Samar Koley stated that
the irrigation department of West Bengal got the sanction from the Union Government by
showing a fake map. As a result of this a serious problem loomed large on the way.
According to Samar Koley more land of the river had been shown in the mauja map, but
there was no mention of acquisition of that land in the plan. Practically school, colleges,
roads, shops had occupied the riverbed in an unauthorized manner. So the revised plan was
to be sanctioned by the union Government before doing the work afresh. In the meeting of
7th September in 2009 The Irrigation Department of the Government of west Bengal
admitted their mistake. Under such circumstances Saraswati Nadi Bachao committee had
demanded that the excavation work of the river would be completed within the scheduled
time with the available land and their demand had been accepted by all who were attended
in that meeting including the M.L.As.
 Case study

Name- Samar Koley

Age-62

Sex- Male

My photo with one of my informants, Samar Koley (An active member of Saraswati
Bachao Committee)

First of all he paid due homage to the pioneer of their movement Gobin Karar and their
advocate Anupam Chatterjee who were no more with them. Irrespective of any caste, creed
or party affiliation they made an organization and had been making movement for long
seventeen years and had made considerable success till 2009. He said that he was linked
with the committee from the time of formation. He participated actively in the movement
by making organization, forming public opinion, launching agitation, deputation to all
concerned, distributing posters, handbills, organizing street corner meetings, propaganda,
procession, road blockages etc.

Political involvement

Anthropologist Carol R. Ember stated that the degree of political participation seems to
be high in small-scale societies, as well as in modern democratic nation-states, but not in
between i.e. feudal states and preindustrial empires. Actually in small scale societies,
leaders do not have the power to force people to act; thus a high degree of political
participation may be the only way to get people to go along with decisions. In modern
democracies, which have many powerful groups outside the Government- corporations,
unions and other associations are the examples- the central authorities may only
theoretically have the power to force people to go along in reality the rely mostly on
voluntary compliance.
 As I confessed earlier that the founder president of the Saraswati Nadi Bachao
committee was a leader of C.P.I mainly some of his familiar party members and people
eager to work for public such as Nandalal Dhara, Prasanta Rakshit etc. first joined the
committee in 1999 in the preamble stage. But in that time the indication of political
involvements in that agitation was not so clear because according to the statements(in case
study) of Mr. Koley and Socrates Karar(s/o- late Gobin Karar), then committee used to allow
to join all the interested people from any political party irrespectively. That is why in that
committee within few days we could trace the name of some T.M.C.P and C.P.I.M leaders
and active supporters of Andul.

Days gone away; under the leadership of whom the committee was formed, that
Gobin Karar passed away in 2005. All the responsibilities came to Samar Koleys shoulders.
He tried to control the committee and took many remarkable steps and gave the committee
a meaningful company upto the distance of Government and High Court at last, but in
between those times an internal competition had come into existence in the Saraswati Nadi
Bachao Committee. Some of the members tried to divert the goal of the committee and by
this they tried to turn the local peoples enigmatic focus on their own leadership. But they
did not succeed and out of the result of which some of them rejected the membership and
few of them distinguished themselves from the main stream of the committee forming
another group with the name of Oikyo distinctively, which is now protesting against
plastic use and their goal is now to make a plastic free environment. Thus the committee
broke.

Many political leaders, belonging from the Saraswati Nadi Bachao committee from
the very beginning, after establishing themselves on the particular political stages holding
the precious chairs started to avoid in cooperating the Saraswati Nadi Bachao committee in
a leisurely manner, which was strictly stated by Samar Koley.

The locals: agitators and the affected people

The agitation got a full support of all the local people because all know the value of this
historical river. But the affection enters the scene when Government started to take certain
steps. I have collected a typed paper by the then founder president of Saraswati Bachao
Committee late Gobin Karar before death. In that archive he wrote that some people
belonging to self and vested interest took full opportunity of the indifferent, callous attitude
of the state and central Governments. There he headlined it as Inevitable consequences.
There he mentioned some then inevitable situations of Andul related to their movement.
Such as:

1. Grabbing land of both sides of the river under Irrigation Department illegally,
2. Building and construction of houses, shops, market places, rooms of political
parties, clubs, medical dispensaries, unauthorized bridges, khatals, pantile, brick-
fields without any obstructions from Panchayet and Government
Administrations.
 3. Rather Zila Parishads directly or indirectly approved such random illegal
constrictions of land-grabbers.
4. Even in spite of lodging complaints to the authorities concerned by various
sections of the people and organizations nothing happened to check illegal
encroachments were adopted by the administrations.
5. Demand of the corrupt personnels of the administrations were not paid hood to
by Zila Parishad.

So it is clear at all that all the faults were not of the unconscious local people that
turned the river to a canal like dead condition, unconcerned Government also made a huge
role behind this. So the fulfilling was to be done by the government too. By this when they
faced the fatal movement and strict right steps of the agitators, engaged some contractors
to cut the river in some kind of its actual form, the illegally encroached constructions were
to be demolished and thus some of local people affected gradually.

I have also met some affected people and taken case study. Few of them were not
aware from before with needful times about the demolishing of their shops. Some of them
said that they knew their shops and clubs would be broken away in a time, nothing could be
done for this.

Conferences outside West Bengal

Many conferences had been organized inside West Bengal in many places including
Andul, Mouri, Sankrail to Singur etc. But with these SaraswatiBachao Committee had
participated in some National Conferences outside the state. It is to be mentioned that on
6th November of 2009 this committee participated in the National Conference of in
Uttrakhand. It was their 4th National Conference; namely River conservation: Vision and
Mission. The venues were Tapavan, Birahi, Chamoli in Uttrakhand. Peaceful Society, an
organization of Kundai from Goa district organized the conference. Not only Saraswati in
West Bengal, movement was on to save such rivers like Ichhamati, Damodar, Gandheswari,
Ganga, Bhagirathi etc. Then efforts were on to unite all the movements under one banner,
Sara Bangla Nad-Nadi Bachao Committee. Samar Koley had been invited by that
organization in that conference as a representative of Saraswati Nadi Bachao committee.

Mythological backgrounds

According to the sacred Vedic texts, the Saraswati River was so powerful and majestic
that it inspired the Rig Veda to be composed on its banks. It was even elevated to the level
of a goddess. Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, arts, wisdom and nature.
She is a part of the trinity of Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati. All the three forms help the
trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in the creation, maintenance and destruction of the
Universe. In the Rig Veda, Saraswati, a name meaning having many pools, is also the
goddess of the river Saraswati, and she is nearly always depicted sitting on the banks of a
flowing river.
The Rig Veda offers up a few clues about the location of the Saraswati River. According to
the ancient text, the majestic river was situated between the Yamuna and Sutlej rivers, and
the Drishadvati and Apaya were its tributaries. In addition, the Rig Veda clearly mentions
that the Saraswati flowed all the way from the mountains to the sea.

According to Dr. Mayank Vahia, a scientist working at the Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research, who has written a report in DNA India , there is only one river that lies between
the Yamuna and Sutlej rivers; in India it is called the Ghaggar, and as it moves into Pakistan,
it becomes the Hakra. Although its river bed stands dry today, the ground surveys and
satellite clearly indicates that it was once a huge river.

Michael Danino's book The Lost River: On the trail of the Saraswati, presents numerous
pieces of evidence from topographic exploration, geological and climatological studies,
satellite imagery, and isotope analyses, to support the view that the dried up riverbed of the
Ghaggar Hakra was indeed the legendary Saraswati River, and that this river once sustained
the great Indus Valley / Harappan civilization, which flourished between 3500 and 1900 BC.

The Harappan or Indus Valley Civilisation - the world's largest civilization of the time -
covered vast areas of modern day Pakistan and Western India from Kashmir to Gujarat,
writes Dr. Vahia. Its cities were spread across what appears to be a waterless desert in the
western part of the Indian subcontinent. A careful plot of these sites suggests they lie along
the path of a dried riverbed, and the river, if filled up, would rival the Indus in size. It could
have arisen in the upper reaches of the Shivalik Hills in the foothills of the Himalayas, and
then flowed west.

S.R.N. Murthy, a researcher who conducted a geological survey, published in the Indian
Journal of History of Science, supports this view. The Vedic river Saraswati is not a myth. It
was a live river in the Vedic time, and irrigated large areas supporting the Vedic Culture to a
considerable extent, he writes, its extinction is due to geological changes in the
subcontinent.

But I have not found anything during the movement that may be said as the
mythological catalyzer of this particular movement.

Present condition of the committee

Government took some fundamental steps. An essay of a magazine published from

Saraswati Bachao Committee Samar Koley wrote that some bridges were being
constructed with the development of the river in Hooghly district though in Howrah was in
no work at all. He expressed regret for remaining the Rose Bridge at Sankrail under
construction. In this context the works done in Hooghly district came to the discussion. It
was reported that in Hooghly district also works had not been done properly. In some places
bamboos and slabs were being used as the initiation of the future development works but
no use later.

Lastly according to concrete information I come to know that now General Secretary
of the Saraswati Bachao Committee Samar Koley has sent a mail to Rajib Bandyopadhyay,
the respected Irrigation Minister of West Bengal on 16 th Nay of 2015 and that mail also has
been tagged to the respected Chief Minister Mamata Bandypadhyay.

Today the committee is also dying like the dead river.

In some places of Andul today some Governmental works are going on which are not
as expectations because after the renovation, the river have been turned to a drainage
system in some places by plastering the river bank and the river basin with bricks and
cement. Now in the middle of 2016 the question of the local people of Andul-Sankrail area is
why the resurrection of this historical river has been remaining postponed till now after
movements, appealing to Honourable High Court and collecting the money from Delhi. Who
will take the responsibility of this river?
 Case Study:

Name- Shasanka Das

Age- 58

Sex- Male

Occupation- Selling of oil-fried preparation

One of my informants, Shasanka Das with me

He was one of the affected people in the concerned area, Andul. First when the
Governmental contractors came to demolish his shop after the movement he came to a
conversation with them and asked that why they were trying to demolish that construction.
He then tried to convince them that if there were any wrong measurements done for he had
thewritten evidential documents. Actually he was not the owner of that land; he had made
a shop on that land by giving rent to the owner with written documents. That day they
returned and came back on the next day. That day they changed the measurements and
decided to start their work. Shasanka Das was then fully having no antipathy to that
incident. He called the owner of the land and requested to face the contractors. The owner
was also a serviceman of settlement office. He failed to convince them too.

Then Shasanka Das said to me that the main problem was hidden behind the
construction of PrabhuJagatbandhu College which is an affiliated college from Calcutta
University, just situated at the opposite bank of the river. I asked to say him clearly. He
made me known about a different thing which he witnessed with his own naked eyes day by
day. Actually he was residing at Andul from his childhood and used to see how the college
authority occupied the land of the river. He said that the college was not in that place
 earlier; there was a cultivation land and that land was owned by a doctor named Tinkari.
That doctor hired some people and engaged them in cultivation of jute and banana. In their
off times those people used to through the dug soil of the land to the river bank and the
river was becoming narrower in that part gradually. They also planted some coconut trees
by the permission of that Tinkari doctor. Thus the governmental land had been occupied
and after that the college had been constructed. It was not the end. After the establishment
of the college the authority again succeeded in a plan for acquiring more land. They engaged
some of their pupils in planting flower saplings and then acquired the area separating the
land by some iron nets. Now the area is into the boundary of the college authority.

Illegal acquiring of the river bank by the college authority

Todays picture of the river basin

On the other hand Shasanka

Dass small shop had been broken away
by the Governmental contractors. But
interestingly he confessed a thing that many other shops had not been demolished that way
though those shops were in the same line with his own. So he thought some game of
corruption was going on among some shop-keepers and the contractors. The dugout
alluvium soil had been left there openly and now the river basin had been again changed
into a garbage land of the Andul market.
 Conclusion: Causes behind the postponement of the agitation-

Depending on my findings analyzing all the data I have come to some conclusions which
are really contextual to my intended objectives mentioned before. I come to the realization
that all of my intended objectives are interlinked to each other and thus the causes behind
the stopping of the movement established. If I try to find out the causes behind the
postponement of the agitation it will be better to write with points to be understood in
proper way.

1. Lack of well leadership- After the death of founder president Gobin Karar the unity
started to decrease in the committee and the then leader Samar Koley was not able
to hold the density of the committee. He failed to show the right ways with better
leadership than Gobin Karars to the members. It is one of the causes behind the
postponement of the agitation.

2. Competition in leadership and division of the committee- After the death of Gobin
Karar another problem started in the scene that is the competition in the leadership
among the members of the committee; and thus caused the division of the group
and dispersed a distinct group separating from the main stream.

3. Unconsciousness of the Government- Unconsciousness, unconcerned and irregular

behavior of the Government causes the fail in holding the patience of the local
people; thus the movement loses its continuity.

4. Political involvement- According to me political involvement was one of the causes

behind the stopping of the movement. Because the committee was formed with
different supporters from the various political parties, which causes an internal
competition in the leadership. Thus the mass lost its unity.

5. Governmental steps and the affection- Government showed an attempt to renovate

the river by demolishing the encroached constructions at first and then postponed
for few years; the local people affected in the first chance and then got busy in
reconstructing them legally. The number of the supporters decreased in one
manner.
6. Involvement of the other agencies- Involvements of the other agencies such as
committees doing movements for other rivers such as Ganga, Gandheswari,
Ichhamati etc. may be the cause. Because overlapping of the effects of the
movements might divert the essence of the movement for the society.

7. Conference without work-Some of my informants expressed that the conferences

were useless and without work by which Samar Koley used to visit many places
outside Bengal but no outcomes had been found; and without the absence of the
leader cum president the members became dispersed; thus the mass had lost its
central energy.
8. Notion of corruption- Some people accuses that there was a smell of corruption;
because many people had made construction in many Governmental places illegally
but during the time of renovation Government should keep the breadth of the river
same in all places which had not been done in some places. So some people think
that there may be a story of corruption among the Governmental contractors and
this notion made the movement weak.
 References

Bhattacharya, Madan and Koley, Samar 2000 Fire Asbe Saraswati Nadir Harano Srot
( ), Andul, Howrah: Diamond Printers.

Majumdar,.R.C. First published 1971, Reprint 2005,History of Ancient Bengal,

Kolkata: TulshiPrakashani, ISBN 81-89118-01-3.

Ray, Aniruddha2012, Satgaon

Encyclopedia of Bangladesh(Second Edition), Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.

Roy, Niharranjan First published 1972, Reprint 2005 BangalirItihas: Adi Parba
(Bengali), Kolkarta: 13 Bankim Chatterjee Street, Deys Publishing.

Ghosh, Sujay, Protecting Natural Resources: Course of A River Movement,

Community Development Journal, Vol. 46(4).Page no 542-557.

Conference Lecture, Samar Koley, Saraswati Nadi Bachao Committee organized by

Peaceful Society.

Newspapers reviwed
(Prachesta), published from Andul-Mouri, Howrah
Published on these dates-4th Nov, 2006/10th Feb, 2007/31st Mar, 2007/2nd June,
2007/28th July, 2007/29th Sep, 2007/24th Nov, 2007/5th Jan, 2008/26th Apr, 2008/12th July,
2008.
Other bengali newspapers follwed such as Ananda Bazar Patrika (
), Bartaman ( ), Ganashakti (), Ajkal (), Pratidin
()and english newpaper like Statesman.

Accessed websites
www.indranimazumdar.blogspot.in, Mazumdar, Indrani, Silent Spectator, 26th July,
2015, accessed on 20.02.2016
www.telegraphindia.com, accessed on 20.02.2016
www.timesofindia.com, accessed on 23.02.2016
archive.org, accessed on04.03.2016
indianexpress.com, accessed on 23.02.2016
cdj.oxfordjournals.org, accessed on 02.03.2016
(E-mail Address: patradebjyoti640@gmail.com)