Calcutta Hindu-Muslim Riot of August 1946 and its Impact on East Bengal

[Aka123]

Who are the jack*** here questioning about Bengali contribution in Independence ?

 

[bronxbull]

First of all my state doesn't control the Border, BSF do, and very few of BSF troopers, who let the smuggling and illegal immigration to carry on without any resistance if they get their share of moolah in form of bribery, are Bengalis. It's more like my state is suffering because of corrupt BSF personnel of other states. mostly Bihar, UP and Assam rifles.

Secondly, please don't insult Indian Bengali Muslims, they are as much Indian as you are and probably have done for the country more than you ever will. Indian Bengalis irrespective of their religion tend to put their ethnicity before religion, don't make up your mind watching the Jamatis here.



It matters when a Khaki chaddi questions contribution of Bengalis to independence struggle.



Indeed it is and quite deserving considering I was replying the post below.





You are misinformed and don't know what you are talking about. There was no RSS during Calcutta riot to begin with. Your post sound like usual script Sanghis post in 1984 Sikh riot threads.

Sangh was there in Delhi during 84. You go ask anyone.

 

[Bong]

Calcutta Riot (1946) a dreadful event (16 August 1946) with its tremendous negative impact on Hindu-Muslim relations. The violence, highly organised in character, resulted from the hatred and distrust between the two major communities.

16th August 1946 was selected as the direct action day when Muslims throughout the subcontinent were to 'suspend all business' to support the Muslim League demand for Pakistan. On the other hand, the Hindu popular opinion rallied round the anti-Pakistan slogan. Bengal's Congress leaders were not necessarily Hindu communalists. But since most of the party's support came from the Hindus, a section of Congressmen developed a strong sense of Hindu identity in view of the perceived threat from the Pakistan movement. Their campaign certainly served to inflame the Hindu mind against the Direct Action Day, which was likely to be particularly successful in Bengal, since it had a League ministry in power.

Troubles started on the morning of the 16th August when League volunteers forced Hindu shopkeepers in North Calcutta to close their shops and Hindus retaliated by obstructing the passage of League's processions. The League's rally at Ochterloney Monument on that day was considered as the 'largest ever Muslim assembly'. The Muslim League Chief Minister in his address reportedly assured the audience that the military and police had been 'restrained'. This was interpreted by the gathering as an open invitation to commit violence on its rival community. The region most affected by the violence was the densely populated sector of the metropolis bounded by Bowbazar Street on the south, Upper Circular Road on the east, Vivekananda Road on the north and Strand Road on the west. Official estimate put the casualties at 4,000 dead and 100,000 injured in the riot. Only on the 22nd Calcutta became quiet except for some isolated killings.

The 1946 outbreak was unequivocally communal. During Calcutta's earlier Hindu-Muslim clashes - notably in 1918 and 1926 - the targets of collective violence were essentially symbols of class and colonial oppression. But the 1946 crowd hardly demonstrated hostility against the government, police or Europeans. While in earlier riots shops dealing with immediate consumer goods or items whose price had just risen were mostly looted, in the riot of 1946 any shop was an object of attack, the only discriminatory feature being Muslims exclusively pillaging Hindu shops and vice versa. Religious symbols of the rival community were another victim of crowd violence. Unlike preceding riots, the women faced assaults in 1946. Another novelty of the 1946 killing was attacks and murders committed by small groups. The emphasis here was on revenge and control over the physical body of the enemy; the aim was to cause the greatest possible humiliation, pain and suffering.

What most distinguished the 1946 riot from previous outbreaks was its highly organised nature. The League mobilised all its frontal organisations to make the 'Day' a success. Special coupons for gallons of petrol were issued in the names of League ministers to be used by their party functionaries. One month's food ration for 10,000 people was allegedly drawn in advance to feed the League activists. Once the riot began the Chief Minister huseyn shaheed suhrawardy, accompanied by his political aids, spent considerable time in the Police Control Room to allegedly shield Muslims from police operations. On the other hand, Marwari merchants reportedly purchased arms and ammunitions from American soldiers, which were later used during the riot. Acid bombs were manufactured and stored in Hindu-owned factories long before the outbreak. Calcutta's Hindu blacksmiths were mobilised to prepare spearheads and other weapons.

Collective violence on either side also displayed features of organisation. The looted booty was carried to waiting lorries for transportation to a central place, shops were marked carefully with signs so that the crowd left untouched the establishments of their co-religionists. Houses of a particular community were attacked simultaneously. Both League and Congress volunteers used Red Cross badges to evade police detection. Perhaps at the height of antagonism the Hindu and Muslim crowd were impregnated with cross-fertilisation of ideas on collective conduct wherein one was copying the acts of others - a trend noticeable during the 16th century Catholic-Protestant riots in France.

Anatomy of the crowd Predominance of upcountrymen amongst the 1946 rioting crowd represented a broad pattern of similarity with Calcutta's preceding communal outbreaks. Amongst the Muslims the butchers, factory workers, masons, dock workers and other inhabitants of slums of central Calcutta were active. Muslim students, including females, joined the 16th August rally. Within the Hindus the volatile section included milkmen, sweepers, rickshawpullers, darwans (guards) of government offices and business establishments and personal retainers of the city's prominent persons. However, in the history of Calcutta's communal riots the Bengalis - Hindus and Muslims - joined the rioting crowd for the first time in 1946. They included potters, scavengers, petty shopkeepers, goldsmiths and Kalwars (artisans dealing with scrap metals), students and other middle-class groups.

In the1946 riot contemporary accounts also emphasise the prominence of Hindu and Muslim gundas (a term denoting a broad spectrum of social groups ranging from various marginalised elements to habitual criminals). Linkage of these gundas with the world of organised politics was clear and the riot witnessed communal solidarity across class lines.

Provocation While the Congress and Hindu Mahasabha put the entire blame on the League, the Muslim League argued that the Congress fomented the trouble to create a situation which would force the dismissal of the League government and imposition of Governor's rule. But what needs to be emphasised is the role of British officials during the 1946 riot. The Bengal Governor's ratification of the League ministry's decision to declare a public holiday for the 16th contradicted sharply with his counterpart's action in Sind, the only other province where the League held political power. Again, in sharp contrast to the anti-imperialist disturbances of November 1945 and February 1946, the army was not summoned until 24 hours after the outbreak of the hooliganism. Curfew orders were not strictly enforced on the first few nights. The conduct of the Bengal Governor and European officials was 'culpable' in so far as a timely intervention might have averted the violence.

Aftermath The riots completely disorganised the city's life. Food was scarce, hyperinflation prevailed, and epidemics threatened the metropolis. Calcutta came to be divided into 'communal zones', Hindus and Muslims avoiding each other's areas. For one whole year Calcutta remained a scene of constant communal clashes. Indeed a nexus could rightly be traced between communal outbreaks in Calcutta and Bihar. The circle was completed when the Punjab exploded in March 1947.

Communalism at the popular level provided a new turn to India's institutional politics. The Muslim League warned that civil wars on the Calcutta scale would occur in other parts of the country unless its brief for the Partition was accepted and the Congress suffered a setback and its leadership, except Gandhi and Badshah Khan, accepted Partition of the country along religious lines as the 'only alternative'. The turn that events had taken afterwards made a peaceful solution through an agreement between the Congress and the Muslim League a far cry. [Suranjan Das]

Bibliography Harun-or Rashid, The Foreshadowing of Bangladesh: Bengal Muslim League and Muslim Politics, 1936-1947, Dhaka, 1987; Suranjan Das, Communal Riots in Bengal 1905 - 1947, Delhi, 1991 & 1993.

Why our history books dont teach about these events broadly?
These are the events why we separated and shows who we are. Whole Bengal belonged to Muslims but congress engineered this massacre by bringing shikhs and Marwaris to attack us.

Yes we Muslim Bengalis created United Pakistan a separate land for Muslims. But that was the mistake we made. Our duty was to think only for ourselves. We should have tried all for greater Bangladesh. Other Muslims could think for themselves in their own regions.

BTW what was the real causalities of Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta and other parts of WB?

 

[Md Akmal]

Why our history books dont teach about these events broadly?
These are the events why we separated and shows who we are. Whole Bengal belonged to Muslims but congress engineered this massacre by bringing shikhs and Marwaris to attack us.

Yes we Muslim Bengalis created United Pakistan a separate land for Muslims. But that was the mistake we made. Our duty was to think only for ourselves. We should have tried all for greater Bangladesh. Other Muslims could think for themselves in their own regions.

BTW what was the real causalities of Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta and other parts of WB?

@ In our official history books both during Pakistan times and in Bangladesh the figure is estimated around 10,000 in and around Calcutta for 07 days. This I found in Banglapedia published during Zis's period. Now-a-days I did not found it. It is said that each and every person of Noakhali those used to work in Calcutta port were killed in mass. That was the reaso why riot took place in Noakhali ?

 

[Bong]

@ In our official history books both during Pakistan times and in Bangladesh the figure is estimated around 10,000 in and around Calcutta for 07 days. This I found in Banglapedia published during Zis's period. Now-a-days I did not found it. It is said that each and every person of Noakhali those used to work in Calcutta port were killed in mass. That was the reaso why riot took place in Noakhali ?

You can see today Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj these cities are mostly dominated by people of Noakhali. Its obvious that in those time also calcutta was populated by those people.
I mean our text books, media. They dont teach us about this incident. People broadly dont have any idea about it. Only Muslim Hindu love thing. But they pushed us from WB. Some minister say we are same. But this is the incident which shows us we arent same.
Some Pakistanis have no basic idea that we first started this separate land movement and they joined later.

 

[scorpionx]

What is left there to glorify or teach in school syllabus when a riot was engineered by Calcutta underworld volunteers and professional butchers?

 

[punit]

Why our history books dont teach about these events broadly?
These are the events why we separated and shows who we are. Whole Bengal belonged to Muslims but congress engineered this massacre by bringing shikhs and Marwaris to attack us.

why only Bengal ! take rest of India as well !

 

[Bong]

why only Bengal ! take rest of India as well !

That some funny thing Pakistanis say. They want their flag on top of delhi fort.
But fail to understand that they could easily raise their own flag by not creating a separate land for themselves.
We feel Bengal is separate from rest of India.

What is left there to glorify or teach in school syllabus when a riot was engineered by Calcutta underworld volunteers and professional butchers?

Where your history glorifies the re unification movement of Bengal 1905-1911. Our History books teach us opposite.
That teaches us how Hindus never wanted Muslims to dominate. But 1946 riot is very much unknown today.
1971 history has taken over all. It seems like world started from there.

 

[punit]

That some funny thing Pakistanis say. They want their flag on top of delhi fort.
But fail to understand that they could easily raise their own flag by not creating a separate land for themselves.
We feel Bengal is separate from rest of India.



Where your history glorifies the re unification movement of Bengal 1905-1911. Our History books teach us opposite.
That teaches us how Hindus never wanted Muslims to dominate. But 1946 riot is very much unknown today.
1971 history has taken over all. It seems like world started from there.

and i feel you need some grey matter inside your brain.

 

[scorpionx]

That some funny thing Pakistanis say. They want their flag on top of delhi fort.
But fail to understand that they could easily raise their own flag by not creating a separate land for themselves.
We feel Bengal is separate from rest of India.



Where your history glorifies the re unification movement of Bengal 1905-1911. Our History books teach us opposite.
That teaches us how Hindus never wanted Muslims to dominate. But 1946 riot is very much unknown today.
1971 history has taken over all. It seems like world started from there.

There are materials available on 1946 great Calcutta killings and who ever interested in it will find the materials to read. There is nothing to glorify either Hindus or Muslims in it, least one could find any motivation to separate from the other community from this unfortunate event.

 

[Md Akmal]

You can see today Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj these cities are mostly dominated by people of Noakhali. Its obvious that in those time also calcutta was populated by those people.
I mean our text books, media. They dont teach us about this incident. People broadly dont have any idea about it. Only Muslim Hindu love thing. But they pushed us from WB. Some minister say we are same. But this is the incident which shows us we arent same.
Some Pakistanis have no basic idea that we first started this separate land movement and they joined later.

@ Actually, why the Noakhali people were in great number in Calcutta Port ? The reason behind is greater Noakhali and Chittagong was out of Bengal for more than a century. Dutch pirates used to control these parts of land. It was during Akbar's time these parts of Bengal came under his control. During the occupation period of Dutch many Noakhalias joined as "Khalasies & Sharen " in the Dutch ships. Many went to Europe. By this time a considerable number of Noakhali people were well trained in the shipping lines. Now,once East India Company came to Calcutta they quickly picked up the Noakhali people and employed them. Most of these Noakhali people became the victim of this riot of 1946.