Studies in the History of Prostitution in North Bengal : Colonial and Post - Colonial Perspective
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STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION IN NORTH BENGAL : COLONIAL AND POST - COLONIAL PERSPECTIVE A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL FOR THE AWARD OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY TAMALI MUSTAFI Under the Supervision of PROFESSOR ANITA BAGCHI DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL RAJA RAMMOHUNPUR DARJEELING, PIN - 734013 WEST BENGAL SEPTEMBER, 2016 DECLARATION I declare that the thesis entitled ‘STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION IN NORTH BENGAL : COLONIAL AND POST - COLONIAL PERSPECTIVE’ has been prepared by me under the guidance of Professor Anita Bagchi, Department of History, University of North Bengal. No part of this thesis has formed the basis for the award of any degree or fellowship previously. Date: 19.09.2016 Department of History University of North Bengal Raja Rammohunpur Darjeeling, Pin - 734013 West Bengal CERTIFICATE I certify that Tamali Mustafi has prepared the thesis entitled ‘STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION IN NORTH BENGAL : COLONIAL AND POST – COLONIAL PERSPECTIVE’, of the award of Ph.D. degree of the University of North Bengal, under my guidance. She has carried out the work at the Department of History, University of North Bengal. Date: 19.09.2016 Department of History University of North Bengal Raja Rammohunpur Darjeeling, Pin - 734013 West Bengal ABSTRACT Prostitution is the most primitive practice in every society and nobody can deny this established truth. Recently women history is being given importance. Writing the history of prostitution in Bengal had already been started. But the trend of those writings does not make any interest to cover the northern part of Bengal which is popularly called Uttarbanga i.e. North Bengal. An overview of the scholarly works makes it evident that there is not a single work which has dealt with this issue of prostitution in North Bengal in historical outline. North Bengal is popularly called the second capital of West Bengal, playing an important role in the international market of money making. A large section of women in this region involve in sex trade and directly or indirectly they have taken part in this process of money making. Through this research work a humble attempt has been made to focus on the history of prostitution in North Bengal. The first chapter of this thesis dealing with the definition, ingredients, origin and morality of prostitution. The chapter second attempts to understand the history of prostitution in ancient, medieval and modern India. It also refers to the varieties of prostitution. The third chapter namely ‘Socio - Historical Situation of North Bengal’ minutely analyses the causes and background in this part of Bengal for patronizing sex business. The fourth chapter provides the references of prostitution in different districts of North Bengal. It also brings to light on the sources of recruitment in this profession, role of pimps and categories of clients. There are various laws and regulations being made since the ancient time. Law givers are trying to control the sex business, chapter five has focused on those laws and their implementation as well as reaction. i Role of the Government, non - governmental organizations (NGOs), several individuals are trying to mitigate the problems of this marginalized class. They have taken lots of welfare missions for the sake of these women. It is described in chapter six. Not only the organizations doing benevolent jobs for the sex workers, but also the women of this trade have become more conscious about their rights and demands. Their contribution, sacrifices to any kind of crisis of the country has been mentioned in chapter seventh. In the conclusion the antiquity of this profession, anthropological concept about prostitution and contradictory issues of prostitution have been mentioned. An attempt of comparative discussion between the nature of prostitution in South Bengal and in North Bengal have also been made in conclusion. ii PREFACE We are living in such a period when we talk about the eradication of all commercialized vices. We are trying to save our humanity from those vices, which are very active in blackening our human feelings. Prostitution is one of such vices or social diseases. State, Government, Administration as well as some social reformers are very much worried about this and are striving hard to eradicate this evil. But they are confronted with many difficulties and problems in their way, among which paucity of earnest co-operation of the individual as well as of the society is to be counted foremost. Prostitution has been in existence in every society of the world from the long past, as history speaks us. From this point of view it can be regarded as the ancient evil. When I attained my adolescence, I asked myself why prostitution did exist? Why is this existing still now? Sukumari Bhattacharya seeks to trace its origin in the desire of the male’s to satisfy their sexual hunger going beyond the limits of marital fidelity. This conclusion of Professor Bhattacharya has been attained on the basis of literary evidences of the past. This is the one side of the coin. On the other, chill penury in fact may be regarded as a compelling force leading the women to accept such a deplorable profession as means of livelihood. Poverty forces them to enter in this flesh trade. In many areas of our country girls are being forced into prostitution in the name of religion, culture and others. Whenever I use to pass through the road beside Khalpara (Red Light Area in Siliguri, which is my home town), I feel bewilder and frustrated. This feeling gives birth to so many questions in my mind – Why is this area called Nisiddhapally (prohibited zone)? Why are these girls forced into this profession? What do they think about themselves? Do they have any dreams or aspirations in their life? What is about their parents? What is their family background? What are the views and role of the society towards these poor women? How society can come to their help and bring a shift in the traditional apathetic concept regarding this profession? iii In this humble effort I have tried to investigate these questions and make a documentation as well as a socio – historical analysis of this issue. I have visited several red light areas in North Bengal, tried to make an intimate relation with them to make out my queries. I have also met some old citizens, some renowned persons, writers, some intellectuals as well as some administrative peoples who are all aware of this dark side of our society and even expressed their anxiety for this inhuman profession. In the local literatures, writings, most of the issues of North Bengal are covered, but nothing is mentioned of this vital problem in this region. What indifference still persists in the society with the problems of a considerable section of the whole population in this area! In this article, the present writer is willing to delineate the whole transaction of women for trafficking in purpose of prostitution. How local women are made victim and what were the main factors behind such immoral activities carried out by the local brokers. For carrying out this research I have taken the help from the ancient scriptures, epics, archival documents, news papers, magazines, pamphlets, journals as well as several reference books, electronic media etc. I have used a few archival materials directly from Sumanta Banerjee’s book, which were dislocated and destroyed during shifting from the State Archive in Writers Building (Kolkata) to Shakespeare Sarani (Kolkata) and some of the documents could not be prvided by the State Archive authority due to the renovation of State Archive at Bhawani Dutta Lane in Kolkata when I searched for in May, 2014. For the scarcity of primary sources, I had to take help from several non- conventional sources like folk songs, folk tales etc. to reconstruct the history of prostitution in North Bengal. From all those sources we get the indication of prostitution and its changing condition in this part of Bengal. And the transformation of the attitude of this profession and the concerned women are the content of my thesis. More sources are available in three districts (Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar) comparatively Malda and Dinajpur. iv I have tried to investigate the problem of prostitution situating it in its proper historical perspective and to attain a hypothetical conclusion after a thorough analysis. Though this is a very difficult job to make survey in the area and get real picture from the ladies engaged in such profession, which requires much of secrecy and privacy. Consequently gaps and incompleteness are obvious. So faults remains with me. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The task of preparing my Ph.D. thesis on the theme ‘Studies in the History of Prostitution in North Bengal : Colonial and Post - Colonial Perspective’ is made easy by the painstaking care, help and guidelines generously rendered by Dr. Anita Bagchi (Professor in History, University of North Bengal). I am very thankful to all my teachers, colleagues, friends who supported and encouraged me to do work on this topic. Special thanks to Professor Debesh Chandra Deb (Retd., Department of Zoology, University of North Bengal) for his invaluable suggestion. I am also grateful to Durbar Mahila Samanway Committee and the other NGOs, the sex workers of different red light areas, the authorities of local police stations, municipalities, courts, hospitals, libraries of different districts in North Bengal; without their help I could not complete my thesis. I also acknowledge the help and services that I received from the staffs of the State Archives in Kolkata, National Library in Kolkata, Social Science Centre in Kolkata, Library of University of North Bengal, Centre for Himalayan Studies at University of North Bengal, Centre for Women Studies at University of North Bengal, Cooch Behar State Library, Darjeeling District Library, Jalpaiguri District Library, Durbar Mahila Samanway Committee at Sonaganchi in Kolkata.