Direct Action Day
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Direct Action Day , also known as the Affirmative Action Plan, the Calcutta Riots, the Great Calcutta killings, and "The Week of the Long Knives" (as a comparison with the "Night of the Long Knives" in Nazi Germany)[1][2], started on on August 16, 1946 was a day when the Muslim League planned to protest and voice the Muslim demand for the Islamic State of Pakistan during the Indian Freedom Struggle against the British Raj. This protest was followed by massive riots in Calcutta instigated by the Muslim League and led to further riots and pogroms in the surrounding regions of Bengal and Bihar by Muslims against Hindus and Sikhs, followed by retaliatory attacks on Muslims.
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[edit] Background
In 1946, the Indian independence movement against the British Raj had reached a pivotal stage when the British Cabinet sent a Mission to India aimed to discuss and finalize plans for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership, providing India with independence under Dominion status in the Commonwealth of Nations. The Mission held talks with the representatives of the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League, the two largest political parties in the Constituent Assembly of India. After initial dialogue, the Mission proposed plans over the composition of the new government.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League was angry at the proposals of the Cabinet Mission that were largely endorsed by the Indian National Congress. He denounced the British cabinet Mission and decided to try to put pressure on Congress and the British.
On July 1946, Jinnah held a press conference at his home in Bombay where he declared his intent to create the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Margaret Bourke-White, a LIFE magazine correspondent, wrote extensively about the meeting. Jinnah proclaimed that the Muslim league was "preparing to launch a struggle" and that they "have chalked a plan" [3]. He had decided to boycott the Constituent Assembly. He rejected the British plan for transfer of power to an interim government which would combine both the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress. He attacked the Congress and called it "Hindu Dominated". He said that if the Muslims were not granted an Islamic state in Pakistan then he would launch "Direct Action". When asked to specify Jinnah retorted:
| Go to the Congress and ask them their plans. When they take you into their confidence I will take you into mine[3]. |
He further declared:
| Why do you expect me alone to sit with folded hands? I also am going to make trouble[3]. |
On the next day, Jinnah proclaimed August 16, 1946, "Direct Action Day" for the purpose of winning the separate Muslim state:
| We shall have India divided or we shall have India destroyed[4] |
In terms of a resolution of the Muslim League Council Meeting held during the period 27 July – 29 July 1946, the Direct Action Day was intended to unfold “direct action for the achievement of Pakistan.”
[edit] Riots in Calcutta
[edit] Causes and prelude
The riots, instigated by members of the Muslim League in the city, were the consequence of the declaration by the Muslim League that Muslims throughout the subcontinent were to 'suspend all business' to support their demand for an independent Pakistan.
In April 1946, following a period of direct rule by the governor, new provincial elections returned another Muslim League ministry in Calcutta. It was headed by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. Following the Muslim League's condemnation of the Cabinet Mission, Suhrawardy heeded Jinnah's call for "Direct Action Day" in August, and demanded a "public holiday", claiming that even the police would "take the day off". Muslims in Calcutta took that to indicate that they were free to riot [5]. The Statesman, a newspaper that was generally sympathetic to the Muslim league, wrote about the ensuing riots:
| The origin of the appalling carnage- we believe the worst communal riot in India's history- was a political demonstration by the Muslim League[6] |
Following the protests against the British on I.N.A day and Abdul Rashid Day, the British decided to prioritize protests against them over communal violence in their "Emergency Action Scheme". British high officials such as Sixsmith and Walker vehemently opposed any intervention in Muslim-Hindu matters by the police[7].
The absence of the police during the riots in Calcutta during "Direct Action Day" is the best illustration of this posture[7] .
[edit] Riots and massacres
The violence started on the morning of the day when Muslim League volunteers forced Hindu shopkeepers in North Calcutta to close their shops and Hindus retaliated by obstructing the passage of League's processions[8]. The League organized a rally at Ochterloney Monument. 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 the Hindus. Subsequently, there were reports of lorries (trucks) that came thundering down Harrison Road in Calcutta, carrying Muslim men armed with brickbats and bottles as weapons and attacking Hindu shops[3].
Noted Indian Historian Sita Ram Goel, his wife and first son were witnesses to the riots. He writes in his autobiographical work "How I became a Hindu" that he "would have been killed by a Muslim mob" but his fluent Urdu and his Western dress saved him. And he writes that on the evening of the 17th he and his wife and son "had to vacate that house and scale a wall at the back to escape murderous Muslim mobs advancing with firearms."[9]
The riots became heavier on the fourth day.The weapons shifted from bottles to iron staves. The military brought tanks into the city and gunned down the mobs, and the police made a belated appearance.
Jugal Chandra Ghosh, a local Hindu, said the following at the time of the riots:
| I saw four trucks standing, all with dead bodies piled at least three feet high; like molasses in a sack, they were stacked on the trucks, blood and brain oozing out… that sight had a tremendous effect on me[2]. |
The region most affected by the violence was the densely populated sector of the city 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.Other sources put the death toll at 6,000[10].Most of the victims were Hindus[8]. The rioting reduced on the 22nd of the same month[11].
[edit] Comparison with earlier riots
While in earlier riots in Calcutta 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.
What most distinguished the 1946 riots from previous outbreaks was its highly organised nature. The Muslim League mobilised all its frontal organisations to make the 'Day' a success. Special coupons for gallons of petrol (gasoline) were issued in the names of League ministers to be used by their party functionaries to incinerate Hindu businesses. One month's food ration for 10,000 people was allegedly drawn in advance to feed the League activists. Once the riots 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" while Muslims executed the riots. 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 before the outbreak. Calcutta's Hindu blacksmiths were mobilised to prepare spearheads and other weapons [11].
[edit] Aftermath
After the riots died down, thousands began fleeing Calcutta. For several days the Howrah Bridge over the Hooghly river was crowded with evacuees headed for the railway station on the Howrah side of the bridge. Many of them would not escape the violence that spread out into the region from Calcutta [3].
Members of the Indian National Congress, including Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru responded negatively to the riots and expressed shock. The riots would lead to further rioting and pogroms against Hindus and Sikhs by Muslims, together with retaliatory attacks against Muslims. These events sowed the seeds for the eventual Partition of India.[5]
[edit] Noakhali massacre
An important incident following Direct Action Day was the Noakhali district massacre on October 1946. Noakhali, a district in what is now the Nation of Bangladesh, had a Muslim majority. About three-fourth of the land belonged to the Hindu landlords and the tenants were mostly Muslims. The Direct Action Day riots in Calcutta spread to other regions, reaching this district where a massive pogrom was organized against the Hindu minority. The death toll is estimated to be in the thousands, with 50-75 thousand Hindus ethnically cleansed from the region [12].
[edit] The riots and massacres
During the massacre, the Hindu minority were killed and beaten, and their properties were destroyed. Many Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam and Hindu women were abducted and raped. Often, members of the Muslim mob who slaughtered the Hindus would forcibly marry the widows after converting them to Islam at point of weapon[13].Many Hindu temples were looted and destroyed. Hindus were forced to throw deities into the Ganges river and Muslim mobs forced them to consume beef, which is disallowed in Hinduism[3]
[edit] Involvement of the Muslim League Government
The Muslim League Government in Bengal aided the murderers. Ex-servicemen in Bengal joined in committing the atrocities [14]. There were reports of rioters chanting slogans like ‘League Zindabad’ (long live the Muslim league), ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ (long live Pakistan), ‘Larke Lenge Pakistan’ (we will create Pakistan by fighting), ‘Marke Lenge Pakistan’ (we will create Pakistan by killing)[15].It is believed that the Muslim League chose this district specifically for it's Muslim majority and the ease by which Hindus could be targeted for extermination. Noted investigative journalist Subodh Ghosh of the Ananda Bazar Patrika was a witness to the pogroms[12]. He confirmed the nature of the massacres as planned by the Muslim league, quoting:
| It is false to suggest that the perpetrators were a gang of hooligans or that they mostly consisted of outsiders.The local people were the perpetrators in many cases and there was a general mass sympathy for what happened[12] |
He concluded that there was a deliberate delay in disseminating news of the masscre (4 days), pointing to a "criminal inefficiency" of the Muslim League administration. It took 10 additional days for the Army to arrive in the region and another month to "comb the interior of the devastated countryside". he went on to quote that the objective of the Noakhali carnage was "mass conversion to Islam, accompanied by loot, arson and wholesale devastation":
| The demand for subscriptions for the Muslim League and for other purposes, including conversion ceremonies, showed that mass attackers, and their leaders were inspired by the League ideology.[12] |
[edit] Mediation by Gandhi
Mohandas Gandhi, upon the request of his associate Muriel Lester [13], attempted to mediate the consequences of the rioting by visiting Noakhali on 6 November , 1946. He tried to reason with both Muslim and Hindu communities. However, he advised Hindus "not to resist Muslim attacks" as per his philosophy of non-violent resistance. The Muslim League retaliated against Gandhi by spreading propaganda against him [14] [16]. Similar anti-Hindu pogroms took place in the Comilla cantonment in Bengal.
[edit] Further rioting in the Indian subcontinent
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The Direct Action Day riots sparked off several riots between Muslims and Hindus/Sikhs in Bihar, Punjab, and the North Western Frontier Province in that year.
[edit] References
- ^ L/I/1/425. The British Library Archives, London.
- ^ a b A City Feeding on Itself
- ^ a b c d e f Bourke-White, Margaret (1949). Halfway to Freedom: A Report on the New India. Simon and Schuster, New York.
- ^ Prelude to Partition by P.N. Benjamin Deccan Herald
- ^ a b Keay, John (2000). India: A history. Grove Press, 505.
- ^ Gandhi, Rajmohan (1985). Eight Lives: A Study of the Hindu-Muslim Encounter. SUNY Press.
- ^ a b Tsugitaka, Sato (2000). Muslim societies. Routledge, 129.
- ^ a b Batabyal, Rakesh (2005). Communalism in Bengal : From Famine to Noakhali, 1943-47. Sage Publishers, New-Delhi.
- ^ Goel, How I became a Hindu
- ^ Deccan Herald
- ^ a b Rashid, Harun (1987). The Foreshadowing of Bangladesh: Bengal Muslim League and Muslim Politics, 1936-1947,. Dhaka Publshers, 1987.
- ^ a b c d S.L Ghosh, Ananda Bazar Patrika 1946
- ^ a b Wolpert, Stanley (2001). The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, Chpt 1 (online version). Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b mkgandhi.org autobio
- ^ Muslim League Attack on Sikhs and Hindus in the Punjab 1947, S. Gurbachan Singh Talib,VOI
- ^ mkgandhi.org martyrdom
