Bijon Setu massacre

The Bijon Setu massacre (Bengali: বিজন সেতু হত্যাকাণ্ড) refers to the killing of 16 sadhus and a sadhvi of the Ananda Marga, at Bijon Setu, West Bengal, India, on 30 April 1982. The killings remain unresolved, with no convictions, and continue to be the subject of political controversy.

Background

Ananda Marga, is an ultra-right wing socio-religious organization. Critics have alleged the cult-like organization maintained paramilitary tendencies and political aspirations, while supporters describe it as a socio-spiritual movement engaged in education and welfare. The organization engaged in public processions carrying skulls and swords, and were also reported to charge police officers with swords.[1][2]

The organisation had earlier been linked both by state authorities and international authorities to incidents of violence and conspiracy, including assassination of Railway Minister L.N. Mishra in 1975,[3] the Sidney Hilton Hotel bombing in 1978.[4]

Residents of Ballygunge and Kasba reported that, in the weeks preceding the incident, rumours related to child abduction had been widely circulating in the area.[5]

Incident

On 30 April 1982, members of Ananda Marga were travelling to an educational conference in Tiljala when they were stopped at three points at Bondel Gate, Bijon Setu and Ballygunge railway station in Kolkata. They were forcibly removed from vehicles, assaulted by crowds, and set on fire. It was reported that the murders took place in broad daylight and were witnessed by many people.[6]

Press coverage

A week after the incident, The Statesman Weekly, a leading Calcutta newspaper in 1982, reported that "[s]eventeen Ananda Margis, two of them women, were killed on April 30 morning by frenzied mobs at three places in South Calcutta on the suspicion that they were child-lifters".[7]

The story sent out by United Press International added that two of the nuns who were killed were "seen carrying a child near a railway station".[8]

As part of its initial coverage, The Statesman Weekly reported the state's chief minister's suspicions that the attack had been staged to embarrass the party in power before the upcoming election.[9]: 4  Ananda Marga blamed the attack on the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)).[10]: 257  While this accusation was repeated for many years,[11][12] recent Ananda Marga scholarship assumes the mob was motivated by unfounded allegations of child kidnapping.[13]: 20 

Investigation and aftermath

Initial reports said that more than 106 people were arrested in the first week after the incident.[5] On 4th May, Jyoti Basu, Chief Minister of West Bengal at the time formed the Deb Commission to investigate the murders. But the Ananda Margis rejected the state enquiry commission and demanded Central Govt to form an enquiry commission. The Central govt rejected this demand.[14]

The National Human Rights Commission took up the investigation in 1996, but did not make much progress.[15] On 30 April 1999, the Ananda Marga Pracharaka Samgha (AMPS) demanded a high-level judicial probe led by a working Supreme Court judge into the killing of Ananda Margis.[16][14] On 30 April 2004, Ananda Marga held the first rally in Calcutta commemorating the massacre without the need to acquire a court order for permission.[17] The group continues to block the bridge and surrounding areas on 30 April every year with a procession.[18]

Ananda Marga were also involved in the Purulia Arms Drop Case, in a conspiracy to overthrow the Left Front govt of West Bengal in 1995.[19]

After the Trinamool Congress came to power, the Amitabh Lala Commission of Inquiry, a single-member judicial commission under the supervision of Amitabh Lala, a former judge of the Calcutta High Court, was formed in March 2012 to investigate the killings after repeated appeals for a formal judicial inquiry.[15][14] The Commission has not submitted any report till date.

References

  1. ^ "Explained: Ananda Marga, a controversial road". The Indian Express. 11 December 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  2. ^ "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Amritsar PLUS". www.tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  3. ^ "Former Union Minister LN Mishra Gets Justice 39 Years After His Murder". www.ndtv.com. Archived from the original on 16 June 2025. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  4. ^ "Hilton Hotel Bombing - 09/12/1991 - NSW Parliament". www.parliament.nsw.gov.au. Archived from the original on 23 September 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  5. ^ a b "Calcutta police arrested 106 people in their investigation of... - UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  6. ^ Namboodiri, Udayan (2 May 1997). "Basu Govt still suppressing facts on Margi massacre". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 12 March 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  7. ^ "?", The Statesman Weekly, pp. 1, 7, 8 May 1982 – via cited in Sil (1988), pp. 3–4.
  8. ^ United Press International (1 May 1982), "Mobs in Calcutta Burn 5 Monks Alive, Stab 12", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, United Press International, archived from the original on 6 May 2021, retrieved 7 October 2016
  9. ^ Sil, Narasingha (1988), "The Troubled World of the Ananda Marga: An Examination", The Quarterly Review of Historical Studies, 27 (4)
  10. ^ Crovetto, Helen (2011), "Ananda Marga, Prout, and the Use of Force", in Lewis, James R. (ed.), Violence and New Religious Movements, Oxford University Press, pp. 249–274, ISBN 978-0-19-973561-7
  11. ^ "Controversial Movement Survives Years of Conflict, Emerges Stronger Than Ever". Hinduism Today. May 1989. Archived from the original on 23 March 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  12. ^ "CPI-M's allegation against us baseless, malicious: AMPS". PTI. 30 April 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  13. ^ Inayatullah, Sohail (2002). Understanding Sarkar: The Indian Episteme Macrohistory and Transformative Knowledge. Brill. ISBN 9004121935.
  14. ^ a b c "নতুন সরকারের কাছে বিজন সেতু নারকীয় হত্যাকাণ্ডে দোষীদের শাস্তির দাবি আনন্দমার্গ সন্ন্যাসীদের". 30 April 2021. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  15. ^ a b "Judicial probe into killings of Margis". The Statesman. 7 March 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  16. ^ "Proof into killings of Ananda Margis sought", The Indian Express, 1 May 1999, archived from the original on 17 January 2008
  17. ^ "Police nod for Marga rally". The Telegraph. 28 April 2004. Retrieved 17 February 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  18. ^ "Procession for 'slain' Ananda Margis today", The Indian Express, 1 May 2015, archived from the original on 3 May 2015, retrieved 1 May 2015
  19. ^ Rajgarhia, Mahak. "Purulia arms drop case resurfaces with new set of revelations". DNA India. Retrieved 18 March 2026.

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.