Right Word | The Great Calcutta Killings: Hindu genocide and the road to India’s Partition

The unabated political violence in the state of West Bengal brings back the horrific memories of many such gory incidents spread over almost a century, one of the most prominent among them being 'The Great Calcutta Killings'. This is also a relatively lesser talked about chapter of Indian history which needs to be remembered so that we do not repeat our earlier mistakes.

Thousands of Hindus were killed in different parts of Bengal during August 1946 when violence broke out after Muslim League targeted its political opponents.

The Muslim League had demanded, since its 1940 Lahore Resolution, that the Muslim-majority areas of India in the northwest and the east, should be constituted as 'independent states'. The resolution passed on 23 March 1940 said, “…it is the considered view of this session of the All-India Muslim League that no constitutional plan would be workable in this country or acceptable to Muslims unless it is designed on the following basic principle, namely, that geographically contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted, with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary, that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority, as in the North-Western and Eastern Zones of India, should be grouped to constitute ‘Independent States’ in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign.”

The divide between Congress and the Muslim League continued to widen between 1940 and 1946. The 1946 Cabinet Mission to India for planning of the transfer of power from the British Raj to the Indian leadership proposed a three-tier structure: A centre, groups of provinces, and provinces. The "groups of provinces" were meant to accommodate the Muslim League demand. Both the Muslim League and Congress in principle accepted the Cabinet Mission's plan. However, Muslim League later withdrew its consent to the plan in July 1946 and decided to launch ‘Direct Action’ to achieve Pakistan and ‘to organize the Muslims for the coming struggle to be launched as and when necessary.’

The Muslim League passed a resolution on 29 July 1946 declaring 16 August as a ‘Direct Action Day,’ to be observed all over India as a day of protest. Immediately after the adoption of this resolution, Jinnah, in the concluding session of the Council of Muslim League, declared, “Today we bid goodbye to constitutional methods… We have also forged a pistol and are in a position to use it.”

In a press conference on 31 July, Jinnah said that while both the British and the Congress were armed in their own way, one with weapons and the others with a threat of mass struggle, the Muslim league felt the need to forge its own methods and be prepared for a struggle to enforce its demand for Pakistan. He declined to discuss the details of the proposed Direct Action saying, “I am not prepared to tell you that now.”

Bengal being the only province in India under Muslim League’s rule was apparently chosen by the Muslim League leadership as the suitable place for “demonstrating” Direct Action. The general public was vaguely apprehensive but nobody had any idea what-so-ever about what was going to happen on the Direct Action Day of 16 August 1946.

However, the stage had been apparently set when in pursuance of their resolution of 29 July, the Muslim League had set up a Council of Action. It met behind closed doors but the programme of action which it drew up was subsequently elaborated by the Muslim League press was clear enough. A leaflet containing a special prayer for this Direct Action announced that “ten crores of Indian Muslims who through bad luck had become salves of Hindus and the British would be starting a jihad in the very month of Ramzan”. Another leaflet bearing a picture of Jinnah with sword in hand said: “We Muslims have had the crown and have ruled. Be ready and take your swords…O Kafer!... your doom is not far and the general massacre will come!”

A Muslim League government with Saheed Suharawardy as the Chief Minister was then power in Bengal. After this rupture between the League and the Cabinet Mission, Suhrawardy had already declared that if the Congress were put in power at the Centre, Bengal would rebel and send up an independent state owing no allegiance to the Central government.

The Great Calcutta Killings

The Direct Action Programme triggered what has come to be known as ‘The Great Calcutta Killings’. From the midnight of 15 August up to 19 August 1946, massive anti-Hindu riots took place in the city of Calcutta. The death toll in these riots was estimated to be between 5,000 and10,000, and around 15,000 persons were wounded. These riots are probably the most notorious single massacre of the 1946-47 period, during which large-scale violence occurred in many parts of India.

These riots that started in Calcutta with the observance of Direct Action Day, spread like a chain reaction, rapidly transferring contagion from Calcutta to the rest of East Bengal. One of the worst riots took place in Noakhali, where almost every Hindu house was destroyed. The place was later visited by Mahatma Gandhi himself. The communal riots in the aftermath of Direct Action Day also ravaged Bihar, United Provinces (modern Uttar Pradesh), Punjab, and the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP).

These events had a significant impact on Indian polity especially when it came to the decision of partitioning India. Due to the massive communal violence triggered by the ‘Direct Action Day’, several leaders of the Congress Party, who had initially opposed Partition, started thinking that the only way to get rid of Jinnah and his Muslim League, which they found troublesome, was to go for partition of India. The British also felt that they had lost any remaining vestiges of control so they started speeding up their exit strategy.

The Viceroy Lord Wavell, after returning from Calcutta, met Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru. The official records of the British indicate that his attitude had changed in wake of these riots and he pushed for Gandhi-Nehru to concede to Muslim League’s demands. Wavell wrote on 27 August 1946 in an entry in Viceroy’s Journal, “I am determined to make an attempt to induce the Congress to state clearly their intentions about Grouping the Constituent Assembly, since this was obviously one of the main obstacles to cooperation by the League.”

In the aftermath of Calcutta Killings and other communal riots triggered by Direct Action Day observance, Gandhi and Jinnah met again where what has come to be known as ‘Gandhi-Jinnah’ formula was put together that resulted in Congress conceding major ground to Muslim League on the principle issue of not considering it to be the sole representative of Muslims in India. This formula stated: “The Congress does not challenge and accepts that the Muslim League is now the authoritative representative of an overwhelming majority of the Muslims of India. As such and in accordance with democratic principles, they alone have an unquestionable right to represent the Muslims of India.”

This was a major shift in the Congress’ stand on Muslims that it had stuck to throughout the freedom struggle. This formula formed the bases of Nehru-Jinnah talks in October 1947 that failed to reach a peaceful solution. This was followed by the Attlee-Wavell-Jinnah-Nehru Conference on 3-6 December 1946 in London which again failed. The impact of violence instigated by ‘Direct Action Day’ was quite apparent in this context also as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel wrote to Sir Stafford Cripps on 15 December 1946, “You called the League delegation there to (London, December 1946) at a time when there was some realization that violence is a game at which both parties can play and the mild Hindu also, when driven to desperation can retaliate as brutally as a fanatic Muslim. Just when the time for settlement was reached Jinnah got the invitation, and he was able to convince Muslims once again that he had… (got) more concessions by creating trouble and violence… but I will only say that if strong action had been allowed to taken here, when ‘Direct Action Day’ was fixed by the Muslim League and when 16 August was fixed as the day of demonstration in Calcutta, all this colossal loss of life and property and bloodcurdling events would not have happened.

The Viceroy here took the contrary view, and every action of his since the great Calcutta killings has been in the direction of encouraging the Muslim League and putting pressure on us towards appeasement.”

It is clear that the tide couldn’t be turned after the communal riots of 1946 which were an outcome of the ‘Direct Action Day’. British Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, announced on the afternoon of 20 February 1947, before Parliament that British rule would end on “a date not later than June, 1948”. If Nehru and Jinnah could be reconciled by then, power would be transferred to “some form of central Government for British India.” If not, they would hand over authority “in such other way as may seem most reasonable and in the best interests of the Indian people.” This was followed by the partition of India.

The writer, an author and columnist, has written several books. Views expressed are personal.

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Arun Anand