1946 - East Bengal

1 1946 : THE GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGSANDNOAKHALI GENOCIDE1946 : THE GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGSANDNOAKHALI GENOCIDEDINESH CHANDRA SINHA : ASHOK DASGUPTAA HISTORICAL STUDYNo part of this publication can be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in anyform or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording or otherwise without theprior permission of the author and the bySri Himansu Maity3B, Dinabandhu LaneKolkata-700006 EditionFirst, 2011 Price` (Rupees Five Hundred Only)US $25 (US Dollars Twenty Five Only) ReservedPrinted atMahamaya Press & Binding, KolkataAvailable atTuhina Prakashani12/C, Bankim Chatterjee StreetKolkata-700073 DedicationIn memory of those insatiate souls who hadfallen victims to the swords and bullets ofthe protagonist of partition and Pakistan.

2 And also those who had to undergounparalleled brutality and humility andthen forcibly uprooted from ancestralhearth and prompted us in writing this the saying goes, truth is the first casualty of war; so is true history, thefirst casualty of India s struggle for , the Hindus of Bengal happen to be one of the worst victims of Islamicintolerance in the world. Bengal , which had been under Islamic attack forcenturies, beginning with the invasion of the Turkish marauder Bakhtiyar Khiljieight hundred years back. We had a respite from Islamic rule for about twohundred years after the English East India Company defeated the Muslim rulerof Bengal . Siraj-ud-daulah in 1757. But gradually, Bengal had been turned intoa Muslim majority province. Freedom of India at the midnight, on 15th August1947, came as a curse in our life.

3 We lost our ancestral homeland, honour,identity, dignity and liberty. Moreover, it is because of the growing strength ofsuch forces, which had led to this disaster and colossal human tragedy, thateven sixty three years after the religion-based partition, our very existence is atstake was in the 1940s when the movement for the partition of India gainedmomentum, two serious developments occurred, which clearly exposed thevulnerable position of the Hindus in Bengal , Unprecedented cruelty and barbaritywere committed on the Hindus of Bengal -first in Calcutta, and then in Noakhali(now in Bangladesh), and thereafter throughout eastern Bengal , whichsubsequently became East Pakistan, and then pogroms were organized by the Muslim League governmentand their fanatical , the Hindus of East Bengal , lost everything.

4 Our fathers and brotherswere butchered and converted to Islam; mothers, sisters and daughters raped,kidnapped and very often converted to Islam, and then forced into marriagewith the Muslims. Our temples and idols were desecrated and destroyed. Manyof our people were forced to eat beef, a taboo for us. Our shops and otherestablishments were burnt. Every form of humiliation, harassment and denialwere tried on this hapless Hindus. Finally, millions of them were compelled toabandon their hearth and home and flee to India as destitute refugees. Wewere told that this ethno-religious cleansing was necessary to establish a Pure Islamic state of such a traumatic on-going human tragedy has been deliberatelymarginalised in all contemporary accounts. The post-partition literature, media,historians and the political class, exceptions apart, have pushed it under thecarpet.

5 Instead, they go on concocting false stories on of love and fraternitybetween the two communities. Bengal , once famous for its capacity to tell thetruth and lead the country, has no intellectual, worth his or her name who woulddare to tell the grim story-the systematic elimination of the Hindus in four years have passed since the Great Calcutta Killings and theNoakhali carnage. Almost all authentic records, documents and materialsregarding these carefully orchestrated Muslim attacks on an unprepared Hinducommunity had been destroyed and removed by the then Muslim Leaguegovernment in Bengal , and other interested parties. Consequently, there is notrace of thousands of memoranda, appeals and petitions from the Hindu victimsof those genocidal an idea of the unprecedented loss sustained by the Hindus of Calcutta canbe had from the statements, depositions and the records of cross-examinations ofthe police officers belonging to the Calcutta police force submitted before theCalcutta Disturbances Enquiry Commission, reminiscences of eminent persons,various appeals and petitions submitted before the Indian National Congress, theHindu Mahasabha - many of which are still available in their records, museumsand the archives in Calcutta and New regards Noakhali, a host of political leaders of all-India fame, socialworkers, journalists and volunteers who accompanied Gandhiji in his peacemission following the pogrom.

6 Have recorded their observations of thatdevastation, murder, arson, abduction, conversion, forced marriages of Hinduwomen etc in their reports, diaries and above all, thanks to late Prof. Nirmal Kumar Basu, who served asGandhiji s Secretary during his stay in Noakhali, some of the petitions of theHindus submitted to Gandhiji describing their heart-rending stories havebeen papers along with Prof Basil s diary covering that turbulent period,were under the custody of Sri Rabindra Kumar Basu, nephew of Prof Basuand were made available to Sri Abhik De for proper editing before publication,who has done his duty extremely well. Then Sri Sandip Nayak, proprietor of Punascha - renowned publisher of Calcutta, came forward and spared nopains to bring out the voluminous book under the caption Satchallisher Diary.

7 The Hindus of Bengal , specially erstwhile inhabitants of Noakhali and theirposterity will remain ever grateful and indebted to Late Prof. Nirmal KumarBasu, his nephew Sri Rabindra Kumar Basu, Sri Abhik De, the compiler andeditor, as well as Sri Sandip Nayak of Punascha fame, for accomplishing anational duty by bringing out this historic must also be made of Pyarela s Mahatma Gandhi - The Last Phase,wherein also some of the dastardly events were vividly , two friends, when we were in our boyhood in the late forties of the lastcentury, all on a sudden came face to face with some unknown and unheard ofwords and events, viz. ferocious riots, mass murders, forcible conversion toIslam, gang raping, abduction of women, looting, destruction of properties, burningof temples and breaking of idols worshipped by the sorts of tortures and atrocities compelled our guardians to runawayfrom East Bengal and seek shelter as displaced and destitute persons in India,specially in Hindu-dominated West Bengal - which ultimately remained withIndia as a separate State after partition due to mass agitation launched by DnSyamaprasad Mookerjee and the Hindu Mahasabha.

8 Coming at the fag-end of our life, we felt it an obligation to the posterity tobring to light the darkest period of History in the life of the Hindus of Bengal -1946 to be specific - based on materials collected from libraries, archives,museums and other started our work in right earnest. Fortunately some benevolent personsalso took interest in the matter and inspired and encouraged us to finalise theplan. Mention must be made in this connection of Mr. Ronen Dam, Dr. BijayBasu, Dr. Dipak Ray, Dr. Biswanath Das, Mr. Ambica Datta and Mr, & and Aruna Sen - all from London and Dr. Saradindu Mukherji, AssociateProfessor of History, Hansraj College, University of Delhi. Words are inadequateto express our heart-felt thanks and gratitude for their help and co-operation inbringing out the co-operation extended by Prof.

9 Gobinda Baksi, Mr. KaliprasadMukherjee, eminent author and feature writer, Dr. Sanghamitra Dasgupta, SriSomen Das and Sri Mainak Datta is also gratefully acknowledged. Our closerelation with all of them prevents us from offering any formal thanks for theself-less service they have rendered towards completion of the also offer our sincere thanks to Sri Rabindranath Datta, Sri LoknathBhowmik, Sri Badal Sen, Sri Basudeb Pal and Sri Shibu Ghosh for providing uswith some rare must also thank Sri Himanshu Maity and his staff of the MahamayaPress and Binding for undertaking the onerous task of this ,Dinesh Chandra Sinha26 January, 2011 Ashok DasguptaCONTENTSPART ITHE GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGSPREFACEINTRODUCTIONCHAPTERIELECT ION OF 1945-46 : PRELUDE TOPOGROMS AND PARTITIONCHAPTERIITHE CABINET MISSION PLAN : COMMUNALDIVISIONCHAPTERIIIMUSLIM LEAGUE CALLS FOR DIRECTACTION CHAPTERIVHOW COMES 16TH AUGUST.

10 LOOT,MURDER, ARSON, RAPE, ABDUCTION &CONVERSIONCHAPTERVTHE GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGS IN PRESSREPORTSCHAPTERVITHE GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGS : ON THEFLOOR OF THE Bengal LEGISLATIVEASSEMBLYCHAPTERVIIDEPOSITION OF THE POLICE COMMISSIONERAND THE ARMY COMMANDER BEFORE THECALCUTTA DISTURBANCES COMMISSION , EMOTIVE APPEALS OF CITIZENSPERSECUTED, LOOTED AND BUTCHEREDCHAPTERIXGREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGS : IN THE EYESOF THE COMMUNIST LEADERSCHAPTERXSUHRAWARDY THREATENED TO DESTROYCALCUTTA : NEHRU EXPRESSED HISCONCERN TO MOUNTBATTENCHAPTERXIWHY CALCUTTA WAS SINGLED OUT FORTHE HOLOCAUST?CHAPTERXIIWHERE AND HOW THE CORPSES WEREDISPOSED OF : MAY THEIR SOULS REST IINOAKHALI GENOCIDENOAKHALI : A PICTURESQUE LAND OF PEACE AND HAPPINESSCHAPTERICOMING EVENTS CAST THEIR SHADOWSCHAPTERIIGATHERING STORM BURST OUT :HOLOCAUST AT KARPARA CHAUDHURYHOUSE : THE HINDU KARBALACHAPTERIIIANNIHILATION OF SOME OTHERPROMINENT HINDU FAMILIES AND PERSONSCHAPTERIVPLIGHT OF WOMENCHAPTERVCONVERSION UNDER COERCIONCHAPTERVIHELPLESS HINDU LEADERS : NEWS OFNOAKHALI RIOT REACHED DELHICHAPTERVIITHE RAPE OF NOAKHALI AND TIPPERA :REPORTS AND REFLECTIONS IN THE PRESSCHAPTERVIIISTATEMENTS OF HINDU LEADERS ONACTUAL HAPPENINGSCHAPTERIXDEBATE ON THE FLOOR OF BENGALLEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLYCHAPTERXENQUIRY REPORTS BY GOVERNMENTOFFICIALSCHAPTERXIBEASTLY BEHAVIOUR OF MUSLIMNEIGHBOURS.