From the mid-1920s to 1947, undivided Bengal passed through rising communal tension, a world war, a famine and Partition. In each crisis, women and girls went missing. Yet old newspaper files often carry only a few lines, or nothing at all. Historians still piece the story together from surveys, memoirs and court reports.
The Famine Years
The 1943 famine pushed families to breaking point. Women and children walked to Calcutta in search of relief, and many met exploitation instead. Anthropologist Tarak Chandra Das suggested that a large share of girls aged 15 and younger who reached the city disappeared into brothels. Late in 1943, boatloads of girls for sale were reported at East Bengal ports. Accounts of the period say the number of women in Calcutta’s brothels doubled. The women’s group Mahila Atma Raksha Samiti, formed in 1942, had already marched against food price hikes that March.
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The Violence Of 1946
After the Great Calcutta Killings in August 1946, violence erupted in Noakhali in October. A telegram that reached the Bengal Congress office on October 15 spoke of girls being forcibly married and abducted. Women volunteers such as Ashoka Gupta led search parties to trace the missing. Researchers note that survivors rarely spoke openly about what they had suffered, which made rescue and recovery harder.
Why The Columns Stayed Quiet
Shame, fear and stigma kept many families silent. Wartime pressure on the press and a government accused of indifference left further gaps. Even in July 1947, the Anandabazar Patrika reported a court case about an abducted woman traced to Uttar Pradesh. It shows how such cases dragged on long after the violence ended.
Reading The Gaps
There is no reliable count of the missing. Famine hit every community, and the violence of 1946 left grief on many sides. The empty spaces in the newspaper columns are part of the record, a reminder that many of these girls never made it into the history books.
