Special Issue: Part 2  

 (Un)Common Landscapes and Ruptured Memories: Autoethnographies of North Bengal

 The Quaint Little Town of Malbazar…

                                                                   by Medha Ghosh

A quaint little town set amidst the Himalayan ranges of Sikkim, Darjeeling and Bhutan is where I was born to. Surrounded by tea gardens (fig 1.2) this town is known for its picturesque view. With very little infrastructure at disposal, this rural-townscape seemed stagnant during my growing up days. These juxtaposing terms might look threatening but that’s how our Indian spaces are. Malbazar was a town because it had a municipality, a thana, educational institutes of various levels and a railway junction of its own. Subhasini Balika Vidyalaya (a girls' high school) came up in the fifties. A Government hospital was also set up. Soon the police station was shifted to Malbazar from nearby Kranti. In the 70s Malbazar got its Fire Service Station. But it lacked the speed of a rushing city and easy connectivity with frequent ‘link-failures’ (internet connectivity) at all the government offices when one needed to access it the most. 

Despite all its shortcomings, Mal has always been special to me. It is the birth place of three generation of ours. Our linkage to Mal dates back to the time when my great grandfather came to Samsingh, a nearby tea garden, in search of work from erstwhile East Bengal. However, he later shifted to making his own vulcanizing workshop.

Fig: 1.1 A view of Himalayas from Malbazar

Fig: 1.2 Raja tea estate near Malbazar

Before 1947 Malbazar was a very small place, mainly known for its tea gardens mostly owned by Britishers. Those tea gardens had a few Bengali white collar employees and the work force consisted of tribal people. After independence of India as well as partition of Bengal, refugees from the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) started to settle here and there by cut down forests. This was also the high period of British supremacy in India and Malbazar, as the name suggests was the central business district (CBD) for the nearby tea gardens. The area was called Mal i.e. a market place which was Indianized with the suffix of bazaar. Malbazar had a cantonment on its fringes which had a couple of Bengali army officials and doctors. They were quite acquainted with our family. It was on the request and demand for an entertainment factor in Malbazaar that Mr. Sarat Chandra Ghosh (my great grandfather) decided to set up a cinema hall here. Lack of immediate funds caused him to set up travelling cinemas, what in those days were called ‘bioscopes’. It toured from Malbazar to all the nearby tea gardens in Dooars. This was gradually followed by a concrete structure in the main bazaar road by the name of Sadhana Talkies in the year 1957. This little structure built to facilitate entertainment; not only catered to the Bengali populace in the army and the native tribal laborers of the tea gardens but also to the British population living in Dooars. Hence Sundays were specifically reserved for showcasing English movies.

Fig. 1.3: The ongoing construction and expansion of the Sadhana cinema hall, 1964

Fig. 1.4: The audience in the 1980s

A railway line passed through the town parting it into the daily market area and a residential area. The land of the residential area was called Panwar basti (Basti, derived from the word basati, is a typical residential area). This plot of land belonged to a lady called Pano Puri. Legends have it that she was a harlot of a British officer posted in a tea garden here, who in return of her services had given this plot of land to her. Adjacent to my house in Anandapally (as Panwar basti was rechristened), was a huge golf course and a polo ground with a club exclusively for the British.

My grandfather succeeded my great grandfather in the management of the cinema hall. Prior to taking up the authority of the cinema hall, he went to Calcutta to study radio engineering. Mr. Amalendu Ghosh or Buro Ghosh (as he was popularly known as) was also keenly interested in politics. He was twice elected as the Congress president of the Malbazaar block. It was during his hey days that political honchos like Jyoti Basu (erstwhile chief minister of Bengal), Maya Roy; wife of Siddharth Shankar Roy visited our house. My dadu’s consistent efforts led to the formation of Adarsha Bidya Bhawan (a boys’ High School) in an abandoned club of the Chinese. Students were collected from the local tea gardens with consistent effort. A teacher was brought in from Dohomoni a district town bordering Bangladesh. He stayed at our house. On further demands of the people of Mal, a girl’s school was opened by the name of Subhashini Girls High School. Since then, this has been the alma mater for my grandfather’s seven sisters. My father, Tapash Ghosh assisted my dadu in the business. He too was born and brought up here. My mother started living here since 1980s, after her marriage. She joined in Caesar School as an assistant teacher in 1985 and has rendered 27 years of service, which is till date the only English medium school in Malbazar. This school was set up by Rev. John Thawayats, a British, who fell so much in love with the town that he stayed back forever.

Malbazar, today, is one of the most important towns in Dooars. The town is strategically located in the western part of the Dooars region and due to its strategic location on the national highway, one can halt at Malbazar and visit the tourist destination of Western Dooars. There is a government tourist lodge in Malbazar apart from a few private accommodations. Like all other cities in India, Malbazar, too is undergoing an urban sprawl. The town is gradually growing in area and will continue to do so.

The bazaar has out grown its character from being a mere daily market for perishable items during the British period to a combination of both perishable and durable items. The station road (although lost its character after formation of New Mal Junction) has been extended to join the Subhash More as a market area which extends upto Kaltex More. Whether 50% of Malbazar turns urban or not, Malbazar has carefully retained its character of serenity and tranquility even almost after a century of its existence.

Author’s Bio- Note:

Medha Ghosh is an ex-student of the Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. She was born and brought up in Dooars and holds this as her favourite subject of introspection.