The General Langfitt Story
Chapter 5 - Dispersal (continued)
The Polish Settlements in India
A select group of women and children arrived in India after travelling overland, through Iran in at least two different transports. Bogdan Harbuz vividly remembered their first taste of Indian food, which was 'so spicy, the tears were running down our faces'. He also recalled being taught to sing 'God Save the King' for the children's meeting with the British Viceroy of India, who greeted them on arrival in Delhi. Eventually, and by different routes, these two groups were settled into the Polish Children's Camp Balachadi, near Jamnagar on the Kathiawar Peninsula.
Maharaja Jam Saheb with Polish children, Balachadi,
India, 1943
(Courtesy of Tadeusz Dobrostanski)
Tadeusz Dobrostanski, whose mother, Janina, 'took over responsibilities for the kindergarten and cultural matters' at the camp and kept substantial records throughout this period, supplied a photocopy of an article from the Times of India (New Delhi, 1942). This report observed that the Camp Balachadi had been built by the Indian government, with school rooms donated by the Maharaja of Nawanagar State, Jam Saheb. About 600 Polish children, aged between 3 and 15 years, had 'found a safe haven' at Balachadi. Most were orphans, some had fathers in the Polish army and a few, like Tadeusz and Jerzy Dobrostanski, were accompanied by their mothers. The Times of India report commented on how happy the children were, despite 'war experiences ... which have left their mark', and praised the focus on education. It also quoted one worker who drew attention to the 'pathos behind the happy lives the children are now leading. In spite of the plentiful food at this camp, the kiddies remember poignantly the war-palled days when they were starving and even now have a haunting fear that there won't be enough food for them in the morning -we often find them now taking bread and fruit to bed with them and putting it under their pillows'.
Tadeusz Dobrostanski also emphasised the poor physical health and severe psychological demoralisation of many of these children after their years in the Soviet Union, especially those who had been orphaned or separated from their families. For many of them, stealing had become a matter of survival and the adults at Camp Balachadi were faced with the onerous responsibility of providing appropriate food and medical care as well as 'trying to retrain the children in Christian and Polish ways'. This could not have been an easy task, especially for adults who had sustained their own losses during the war and were also adapting to yet another new environment. Under the circumstances, they provided a 'magnificent service' to these children but it is perhaps inevitable that some people have unhappy memories associated with this time. Bogdan Harbuz recalled how each group of children had an adult, normally a woman, to care for them. One or two of them showed 'a lot of compassion for the children' but in general his memories of Balachadi are 'not very pleasing':
I remember hunger again, and discipline was very strict. We kids thought that no-one cared about us any more. We were asked to serve at the table and we saw the difference in food between the group of older people who were looking after us and what we were getting. We used to go to the rubbish bins behind the kitchen to get some things out of it to eat. The Commandant was always dressed in an army officer's uniform, with a baton that quite often used to land on somebody's backside. He was very strict with us. That is the way I remember it. That is where I first had an attack of malaria and every month after that I had a recurrence so I spent a lot of time in hospital. There was better food in hospital and after coming out you would be given fruit to eat between meals so it was nice to go to hospital. Then one day I was told that I would be moved from Jamnagar to a new camp in the south of India in Kolhapur State called Valivade, where I finally joined my mother and sisters.
The fate of Camp Balachadi and the majority of its residents is unclear as members of the 'General Langfitt Group' who participated in this project all appear to have been transferred to Valivade within two years. There they joined a community of between 3500 and 40005 other Poles, again, mostly women and children. This refuge, provided by the government of India in support of the Legation of the Ministry of Labour and Social Services of the Polish government in London, welcomed an advance party of Poles on 11 June 1943. Their task was to create tolerable living conditions 'within this Indian wilderness' (Polak w Indiach, No. 18-19, 15 Sept.-1 Oct. 1944).
Over the next few years, Valivade grew into a remarkable community which is remembered fondly by those who lived there. Rows of indistinguishable barracks, made of metre-high stone walls topped by matting and tiled roofs, were transformed into picturesque homes surrounded by flower gardens, banana trees and ivy-covered walls which separated living quarters from the streets. Woven mats covered the earth floors and window curtains soon added both privacy and an individual touch to the anonymity of each family's allotted space. Most families had two rooms and a kitchenette where they prepared their own meals from supplies they were able to purchase for themselves from the allowance they received. Some adults were able to supplement this income with paid employment around the settlement, either in administrative capacities, as teachers, health workers or in one of the various workshops. Urszula Paszkowska, who finished high school and gained a diploma of basic nursing with the Red Cross while living in Valivade, recalled that:
It was a good life materially. Everybody was fed. We were given money not provisions, so we could buy our own food. As my mother was working as a teacher her salary doubled our income so it was quite adequate for our needs. There was a good supply of shops in the centre of the settlement, there were markets just outside where vegetables could be bought and we were able to travel to Kolhàpur to get anything else that wasn't available. I was involved in the Girl Guide movement and we had some lovely camps and excursions. There were very few older boys because when they reached seventeen they were all taken to the cadet army camps in Palestine.
Valivade, 1944: main street on a Sunday morning
(Courtesy of Boguslaw Trella)
Other adults undertook voluntary work or educational and creative courses but life was undoubtedly easier for those who were able to get paid work in the community. For those like Wieslawa Paskiewicz, a teenager when she arrived in Valivade, the experience of living off basic camp rations left an enduring mark:
We had a small allowance of about forty rupees per month, enough for food and clothes. Mother did not work in the camp so we did not have any money to go to the cinema. If we wanted to go on Scouts' camps we had to pay. It was not easy if you did not have any extra money - really demeaning - so I used to help other younger children with their homework and they would pay me a little. When I finished high school I did a Red Cross course at the hospital and I promised myself that when I married I would work very hard to make sure my kids have everything.
Despite these differences, the overriding impression of the Valivade Polish settlement is one of incredible energy, organisation, achievement, and remarkable harmony. Each 'block' of barracks had a 'leader' who represented their interests on one of the five 'regional councils' which administered the whole community. Each regional council was composed of a deputy manager, health officer, chief of security service and a fire service who were responsible to their regional manager, who was in turn responsible to the settlement's manager in the main administration. The settlement manager was also the external representative for the community in its dealings with the British authorities. The central administration had several departments dealing with finance and supplies, building and engineering, culture and education, permanent and voluntary fire service, security, postal service, servicemen's family bureau, records, physical education and health.
Within a year, the settlement became a thriving town, complete with administration buildings, a regular Settlement Chronicle, a church, a hospital, an orphanage, eight community centres, a theatre, and a cooperative which established a barber's shop, workshops for the manufacture of clothes, woven rugs, dolls and handicrafts, shoe repairs, and a settlement canteen and restaurant. The cooperative also ran a 'Bata' Footwear Shop on a contract basis, with the cooperative taking 25 per cent of the sales but bearing the cost of running the shop. A cabinet-making workshop supplied furniture for the schools and administration, and took private orders. An engineering workshop undertook repairs of equipment. A bricklaying and concrete section helped construct new buildings and up-grade and maintain existing buildings. As Bogdan Harbuz summarised it:
The whole system was very idealistically and patriotically based. We had good contact with what was happening during the war on different fronts, with special communiquès and our own newspapers. We could listen to the BBC radio programs which were broadcast in Polish in one of the five regional library-cultural centres where young people could also play chess, cards, or other games. There were also choirs and the central administration would organise large concerts and plays for the whole camp. We also had a cinema run by an Indian. It was like a little town of its own. Five thousand Polish people. A little Poland in India.
In 1943-44, when the Valivade settlement was first taken over by the Poles, the intention was to provide their young people with the knowledge and skills which would ensure they could contribute to the rebuilding of post-war Poland. Formal education was a high priority. At a more informal level, but with the same educational and patriotic intent, a strong Scouting Movement grew up. This focus on education characterised all the Polish refugee settlements.
By February 1946, there were three kindergartens, four primary schools and four secondary schools, staffed by 100 teachers, catering for 1977 pupils (Polak w Indiach, April 1946). All of these schools operated under the supervision of a school inspector who liaised with 'the Legation of the Ministry of Education and Religious Belief' in Bombay. These schools utilised teaching programs which had been adopted in pre-war Poland and school was compulsory for all healthy children. The secondary schools were divided into four major categories: a general education high school or Gimnazjum, and a senior secondary school or Liceum, a commercial school, and a school for instructors of rural management, which included a school farm for practical experience. Instruction was in Polish but, after 1945, when it became increasingly apparent that a return to Poland was unlikely, English became part of the syllabus. This was to stand many of the children in good stead in later years.