THE BHOWANIPORE CEMETERY, KOLKATA

VISIT TO THE BHOWANIPORE CEMETERY, KOLKATA

It was Sunday, the 1st of November 2015. I was relaxing after a hectic week that involves travelling about 40 kms back & forth and about 8 hours in the office. I got a call from My friend Subhadip Mukherjee, an avid photographer and a very good blogger. He just told me to tag along. Today our aim is to cover the two cemeteries, one at Bhowanipur and the other at Kidderpur.

Looking at the sky and the clouds, we decided to take a dig at Bhowanipur which was nearer. This cemetery is about a  kilometer from the southern end of the Calcutta Maidan and is enclosed by a high perimeter wall. The war graves are at the rear end of the civilian cemetery, about 100 meters from the main entrance of the cemetery. The cemetery is at no 15 Debendra Lal Khan Road,, Kolkata 700027.

We met in front of the command Hospital at Alipore and proceeded in Subhadip’s vehicle.It was a short trip around the National Library. The area doesn’t have much of a crowd except for cars passing by. The war cemetery is at the South-West corner of the civilian cemetery. Because of the “All Saints’ Day” festival, one can see people coming into the cemetery with flowers and candles. Flowers are sprinkled, headstones or headboards are freshly painted, candles are lit and silent prayers are made so that the dead and buried can rest in peace till the judgement day. It is said that God will judge each person according to their sins, allowing only those deemed worthy to remain with him in heaven. Every person, including every single person who has ever lived and died, will be rejoined with his/her physical body. It is this physical body that goes to heaven, if worthy. The rest would go to a literal “Hell” or a figurative “Hell on Earth”.

Walking along the pathway, we reached the War cemetery. The war cemetery lies in a fenced enclosure and is maintained by the Common Wealth War Graves Commission, which maintains war cemeteries in about 146 countries in the world. This cemetery had about 95 First World burials and about 617 Second World War burials.

The War Graveyards of Bhowanipur Cemetery has an area of approx 1.5 acres of land with grave plots of 200 meters. It is  an old European Military Cemetery that has some burials dating back to late 1800’s. The headstones of the WW-1 are 1” thick and those of the WW-2 are 3” thick. The maintenance of the graveyards is taken care of by the Ministry of Defense, Government of India in collaboration with the CWGC.The CWGC maintains 1 cemetery each in Kolkata, Ranchi, Delhi, Guwahati, Digbuoy, Kohima, Manipur and few grounds in Chennai and Imphal. The entire task is managed by 2 managers – one from Imphal, who takes care of the North East and the other from Delhi, who takes care of the remaining.

While we were moving along, taking an occasional snap to get a feel of the place, we could feel the history coming alive. Here we have some young soldier from the Scottish highlands lying buried thousands of miles away in India.

It is understood that the dead in the battle were cremated in the battlefield and the ashes were brought in urns and buried here. Many of the buried were too young to die. Take the case of Corporal HL Barter, aged 26, died in the WW-1, or take the case of 2nd Lieutenant Robin N Foster, aged 21, died in WW-2, whose ashes are buried thousands of miles away in India.

Most of the dead and buried were young men drafted into the army to fight either the Austro-Hungarian Empire & Germany combined Axis forces in WW-1 or to fight the Germany-Italy-Japan Axis in WW-2.

The graves have been marked with head stones depicting the brigade, place of posting or the category.

The graves have been laid out in lines, the way they stand when they are alive and active. The ground is well manicured and maintained clean. One can see a lot of workmen busy in cleaning or mowing the lawns or making fresh masonry work for laying out the head stones properly again.

We had been walking for quite some time now. While walking, we were bending down and watching the headstones for variations. The decorations made in headstones probably matched with the decorations that were made in their regulation dress or stationary or in their brigade flags.

It is said that the military in some countries have no religion. We know about the Indian Military. No religions exist there. The Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians mostly have a common prayer hall where everyone prays for the well being of the others.

This was once again proven today. It may have been done in the last century, but it exists as a truth that will never die. We have seen two Hindu burials from India and one Muslim burial from Africa with full honors.

With these, we concluded our visit to the war cemetery part.

I have completed by first blog after a lot of encouragement from my friend Subhadip. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to him.

I wish to come back to you all again with another story, another day. Till then….!!