(UNI SPECIAL)
Jayanta Roy Chowdhury
Kolkata, Jun 12 (UNI) As India's High Commissioner-designate Dinesh Trivedi travels by road from Kolkata to Dhaka via Jessore to take up his new assignment on Friday, he will be traversing a route that carries the weight of more than half a century of shared history of the two nations.
Jessore occupies a special place in the collective memory of both India and Bangladesh. On December 6, 1971, the combined forces of the Indian Army and the Mukti Bahini defeated Pakistani troops defending the sector, opening one of the principal routes to Dhaka.
The fall of Jessore marked a decisive turning point in the Liberation War and coincided with India's recognition of Bangladesh, with the then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi announcing in Parliament that India was formally recognising Bangladesh as an independent nation after "careful evaluation of existing and future circumstances".
The recognition was met by loud thumping of desks and shouts of "Joy Bangla" by Indian lawmakers.
However, the significance of the route extends way beyond military history. The road linking Kolkata to Jessore became one of the principal escape corridors during the dark months of March to November 1971, when millions of Bangladeshis fled the Pakistan Army's brutal crackdown in East Pakistan.
Men, women, and children streamed across the border seeking refuge from a genocide with few parallels, in camps in eastern India, carrying little more than their memories and hopes of survival.
The refugee crisis would become one of the largest human displacements of the 20th century, profoundly shaping India's response to the conflict and its diplomatic outreach.
The suffering witnessed along this route was immortalised by American poet and singer-songwriter Allen Ginsberg in his celebrated poem 'September on Jessore Road'. The poem, which later became a song, was written after he visited refugee camps in Bongaon on the border between India and the then East Pakistan, along with the famous Indian writer and poet Sunil Gangopadhyay.
The words of the song "…Millions of souls nineteen seventy one/homeless on Jessore road under grey sun/A million are dead, the million who can/Walk toward Calcutta from East Pakistan …" haunted the West, which at that point of time politically supported the Pakistani military dictatorship.
For many around the world, Jessore Road became synonymous with the suffering, resilience, and determination of the refugees of 1971.
The city of Jessore also bears witness to a much older chapter of history. More than four centuries ago, Raja Pratapaditya of Jessore, one of the most powerful among Bengal's 'Baro-Bhuiyans' (Twelve lords) ruled over southern and central Bengal from this seat of power.
Today, as India and Bangladesh seek to recalibrate relations amid evolving political and strategic realities, Trivedi's journey follows a corridor that has witnessed empire, resistance, war, migration, and liberation.
Few roads in South Asia connect so many layers of shared history. From the Mughal campaigns of the 17th century to the refugee columns and liberation fighters of 1971, and now to the diplomacy of the 21st century, the road through Jessore remains a powerful symbol of the enduring ties between the peoples of India and Bangladesh.
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