In the last article of the series about Direct Action Day, we discussed how Muslim leaders decoded the resolution of the Direct Action Day before the common Muslims, inciting them to violence against innocent Hindus by providing declared and undeclared agenda for the Direct Action Day. We also discussed the similarities between the Islamists of the pre-independence era and the Islamists in contemporary India. In this article, we will see the various editorials, leaflets, and posters published before Direct Action Day. We will also see what were the reactions of the Congress to this Hindu massacre, and what MK Gandhi – who did not like violence at all – said about this bloodshed.
The Urdu editorials, posters and leaflets confirmed the theological basis of the Direct Action Day
The fanaticism in Muslim religious sentiment was thus ignited by the political developments, direct action resolution, decoding of the resolution by various Muslim leaders, declared plan of action, and the undeclared plan of action. While everything definitely had a religious basis, the posters and leaflets distributed among Muslims and the editorials of certain Urdu newspapers made sure that the religious sentiments do not cool down in any case, rather they get triggered even more with repeated mentions of theological references.
On 1st August 1946, an Urdu newspaper ‘Asre Jadid’ published an editorial titled ‘Direct Action’. In this article, it blamed the British rule for the Direct Action. It said, “These Britishers who do not exercise their votes in the Constituent Assembly Election are responsible for the present state of affairs.” It blamed the Britishers for appeasing the Congress and conspiring by putting Hindus against Muslim interests. It said, “Direct Action should be taken against them. To the Muslims, Direct Action means a fight and a fight implies violence. Direct Action may not be civil disobedience but will be in the nature of revolt. There are many instances of British ingratitude to the Muslims and hence the decision of the British to hand over the power to Congress is not surprising.“
An Urdu pamphlet was issued by the Calcutta District Muslim League Secretary SM Usman a few days before the Direct Action Day. It said, “In this holy month of Ramadan, Mecca was conquered from the infidels and in this month again a Jehad (Crusade) for the establishment of Pakistan has been declared. It has been directed by the All India Muslim League Council at its Bombay session that Jumma, the 18th Ramadan 1365, Hijri, i.e. the 16th August 1946, will be observed as a day for All-India Hartal. Let the blind see, the deaf hear and the dumb speak out that the Muslims are a living nation and will not rest till freedom is achieved.“
It added, “Muslims, unite under the Banner of the League. Let this circular be explained to Muslims in every mosque on Friday (16th August 1946) and everybody is directed to assemble at the foot of the Ochterlony Monument in their tens and thousands at 3 p. m. on that date. The assemblage by its vastness and grandeur must proclaim to the world at large that the Muslims are awake, that they are brave people and that they are determined to secure their freedom.“
Another leaflet was widely circulated by the Muslim League Organisation a few days before 16th August 1946. It said, “Brethren of Islam, let it be remembered that in this holy month of Ramadan, the Holy Koran revealed itself, and Ummat Mohammed appeared as the Prophet. In this month, the Kaffirs (non-believers) were annihilated in the great battle of Badr and Mecca was wrested from their hands. The holy Koran was freed from the hands of the infidels and the foundation of Islam was laid. It is by the grace of God that the All India Muslim League has selected this very month during which the holy Koran revealed itself. Mecca was conquered and the battle of Badr was won, for a crusade for the establishment of Pakistan and has resolved that 16th of the August should be observed as an All-India Hartal day. This will be direct Action Day and will be the signal for the beginning of All India fight for the establishment of Pakistan.“
While these leaflets bolstered the Islamic resolve of the Muslim League followers, they also reminded Muslims of the Islamic butchers like Tipu Sultan who massacred Hindus in the past. It should, therefore, be noted that anyone in India who idolises Aurangzeb, Tipu Sultan, Syed Ahmed Barelavi and other Islamic tyrants, is essentially a supporter of the two-nation theory of the Muslim League willing to implement the declared and undeclared agendas of this Direct Action Day again whenever he gets an appropriate opportunity.
This leaflet further said, “Explain the importance of the two resolutions of the All India Muslim League Council which were adopted at its Bombay session on the 29th July, so that men and women, the aged and the young, adult and children all may make themselves ready for the supreme sacrifice to be offered in a crusade for the attainment of Pakistan. Let them exhibit by their action that they are ready to sacrifice themselves like the great martyrs Serajddoulla, Syed Ahmed Barelavi, and Tipu Sultan and that they are all prepared to be annihilated rather than be slaves of the British and the Hindus, and that they will not rest until India is freed from British domination and the Brahmin-Bania grip.“
Another leaflet in the name of Calcutta’s mayor SM Usman was widely circulated. It said, “We are starting a Jehad in Your (Allah) name. We promise before You that we entirely depend on You. Make us victorious over the Kafirs (read Hindus), enable us to establish the Kingdom of Islam in India.” This leaflet was titled ‘Munajat For The Jehad‘.
S Sen in his book ‘Muslim Politics in Bengal’ quotes a pamphlet that warned Hindus. That pamphlet had a photograph of Jinnah with a dagger in his hand. It read, “Oh! Kafirs, your doom is not far and the general massacre will come. We shall show our glory and shall have extraordinary victory.“
Suranjan Das in his book ‘Communal Riots in Bengal’ (published in 1993 by the Oxford University Press) quoted another leaflet titled ‘Qaumi Jung Ka Tabl-e-baz Aaya‘ which means ‘The Drum Announcing the War for the Community has been Clarioned‘. It called for ‘opening training centres at all places for the Muslim youths and wait for Jinnah’s orders‘.
Suranjan Das also quoted another leaflet which urged that rivers of blood should flow. It said, ‘We shall have the sword in our hands and the noise of Zikr. Tomorrow will be doom’s day.‘ It is notable that Zikr means repeating phrases such as “Subhan Allah” (Allah is Sublime), “Al-Hamdulillah” (all praise to Allah) and “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is Greatest).
On 15th and 16th August 1946, the Muslim League circulated another leaflet that said, “The call to the revolt comes to us from the Quaid-e-Azam of the Muslim leaders. Brave, this is what we want. This is the policy for the nation of heroes. For so long we have been acting like beggars. We are glad from the core of our hearts to hear this magnificent news. This is what we have been eagerly waiting for. God has granted to the Muslims in the month of Ramzan what they have been clamouring for. The day for an open fight which is the greatest desire of the Muslim nation has arrived.” This leaflet also contained slogans like – ‘Larke Lenge Pakistan‘ meaning ‘we will fight to get Pakistan’, ‘Marke Lenge Pakistan‘ meaning ‘we will die to get Pakistan’, and ‘Sala Hindu Lok Ko Mar Dalo‘ meaning ‘kill Hindu people’.
A day before Direct Action Day, Muslim League also distributed invitation leaflets to all Muslims. It read, “Muslims unite under the Banner of the League. Let this circular be explained to Muslims in every mosque on Friday 16th August 1946 and everybody is directed to assemble at the foot of the Ochterlony Monument in their tens and thousands at 3 p. m. on that date. The assemblage by its vastness and grandeur must proclaim to the world at large that the Muslims are awake, that they are brave people and that they are determined to secure their freedom. Let the blind see, the deaf hear and the dumb speak out that the Muslims are a living nation and will not rest till freedom is achieved.“
Another pamphlet read, “Oh Kafir, your doom is not far and the general massacre will come. We shall show our Glory. Will have a special victory. The day for an open fight which is the great desire of the Muslim nation has arrived. Come those who are simple, wanting peace of mind and who are in distress. Come those who want to rise to heaven. By fighting you will go to heaven in this holy war. Those who are thieves, goondas, those without the strength of character and those who do not say their prayers – all come. The Shining Gates of Heaven have been opened. Let us enter by thousands. Let us all cry out victory to Pakistan, victory to the Muslim nation and victory to the army which has declared a ‘Jihad’.“
Preparations for the bloodshed
The Calcutta Disturbances Commission of Inquiry was set up in 1946. It worked extensively in the month from 14th October 1946 to 14th November 1946. In the first volume of its report, the commission noted that the preparations made for executing the violence on the Direct Action Day. The preparations made by Muslims for the Great Calcutta Killings are as follows –
“In Razabazar Muslim youths were found sharpening weapons. In Lalabagan bustee youths found sharpening daggers and Knives on the 15th of August 1946. A number of houses on Dharmatolla Street were reserved for goondas. On a search in the Belgachia area, a large number of swords, lathis and daggers were recovered (after the riot). In the Kidderpore area, a large number of swords and daggers were recovered (after the riot). Muslim shops were marked ‘Pakistan”. League people in the lorry used swords, knives, daggers and lathis. Instruction had been issued to several Muslim hostels to make preparation to set fire to tram cars and military lorries on the 16th of August 1946. During 16th-18th or 19th August, Muslim lorries with lathis and weapons and brickbats were found on Barrackpur Trunk Road. Weapons were stored in 8, Zakaria Street and Nakhoda Mosque. All the railings which were surrounding Ripon Square had been uprooted and turned into sharp weapons. Muslim goondas were found sharpening weapons on the 15th of August 1946 in Belgachia. On 16th August and on the next days Jihadis pressed on roads many trucks to carry rioters. Prime Minister Suhrawardy of the United Bengal province and Mr Osman, Mayor, Calcutta issued coupons for petrol lavishly to organise Jihadis from 15th to 18th August 1946 though petrol was rationed then.“
Direct Action Day
The violence started on Direct Action Day from as early as 7 am. It continued to spread across the city of Calcutta and other parts of Bengal for the next 3 to 4 days. Hindu shops were looted. Hindu women and girls were raped and killed. Hindu men were stabbed, chopped, strangled to death, or burnt alive. Many of them who survived were dismembered and lost their limbs. Havocs played on the streets of the Bengal capital. Hindu corpses were found everywhere. The city was shocked by various jihadi slogans being raised for the whole day and the whole night. The numbers of casualties and injured ones differ from account to account. The quoted numbers vary from 3000 to 10000, almost all of them Hindus. An eyewitness description of the riots can be read here. In this article, we will not go deeper into the details of the ways of killing, modes of attacks and other heinous actions committed by the rioters. Also, we will not discuss the guiding documents followed like a ‘User Manual’ for that violence at all.
Reactions from Congress and MK Gandhi
The Congress leadership, which staunchly advocated for the “Freedom for Undivided India” cause, found themselves in a state of panic following the distressing events of “The Great Calcutta Killing.” Despite MK Gandhi’s resolute proclamation that India’s division would only transpire over his lifeless body, he maintained silence and refrained from issuing any response to the unprecedented Calcutta massacre of Hindus. Meanwhile, Jawaharlal Nehru was engrossed in the establishment of the Interim Government at the Centre in September 1946, in collaboration with the Muslim League. Regrettably, neither Gandhi nor Nehru took the initiative to visit Calcutta and witness firsthand the aftermath of the catastrophic events of August 1946 that had befallen the city’s inhabitants.
MK Gandhi visited Chandpur of East Bengal on 7th November 1946 which is almost three months after the direct action day. In this meeting at Chandpur, he addressed the Hindu minority living in the middle of the Muslim majority and asked them not to leave the place. He asked them to be brave.
While being brave, he suggested, they shall not use weapons. If they feel it a must to use any weapon, he advised them to use them wisely. Some of the gems of his discourse show how futile was his idealistic approach. when rioters were breaking all the norms of humanity, he was asking victim Hindus to follow certain moral rules of fighting.
Gandhi advised not to attack kids, women, or old men – in case using weapons was a must there. Gandhi ignored the fact that on the appeal by the Muslim League, Muslims of all age groups and gender identities resorted to violence in direct action.
Had Gandhi been alive today – as there is a popular demand by Gandhians, liberals, progressives, seculars, and even Islamists of contemporary India that we need a Gandhi today – he would see adolescent children and teenagers being a part of the Muslim mobs pelting stones at Hindu processions because they are Hindu processions and he would also see Muslim teenagers concealing their identity to lure a Hindu girl into a sexual relationship and convert her to Islam after marriage because she is a Hindu girl.
Gandhi’s confused idealistic reactions after the Great Calcutta Killings also included the following parts –
What goes against my grain is that a single individual can be converted or a single woman can be kidnapped or raped. So long as we feel we can be subjected to these indignities, we shall continue to be so subjected. If we say we cannot do without police or military protection, we really confess defeat even before the battle has begun. No police or military in the world can protect people who are cowards.
Today you say thousands of people are terrorising a mere handful, so what can the latter do? But even a few individuals are enough to terrorise the whole mass if the latter feel helpless. Your trouble is not numerical inferiority but the feeling of helplessness that has seized you and the habit of depending on others. The remedy lies with you. That is why I am opposed to the idea of your evacuating East Bengal en masse. It is no cure for impotence or helplessness.
They should not leave. 20,000 able-bodied men prepared to die like brave men non-violently might today be regarded as a fairy tale, but it would be no fairy tale for every able-bodied man in a population of 20,000 to die like stalwart soldiers in the open fight…I will proclaim from the housetops that it is the only condition under which you can live in East Bengal.
You have asked for Hindu officers, Hindu police and Hindu military in the place of Muslims. It is a false cry. You forget that Hindu officers, Hindu police and Hindu military have in the past done all these things – looting, arson, abduction, rape. I come from Kathiawar – the land of petty principalities. I cannot describe to you to what depths of depravity human nature can go. No woman’s honour is safe in some principalities and the chief is no hooligan but a duly anointed one.
Instead of addressing looting, arson, abduction, rape, and murders committed by Muslim mobs on the streets of Calcutta and in other parts of Bengal on direct action day, MK Gandhi was telling Hindus not to demand Hindu law enforcement officers in their localities because Hindus also have done those things in the past. MK Gandhi comfortably ignored the concrete theological base of the very incident.
When the locals pointed out that they are individual incidents and that what happened in Calcutta was an organised mass movement, Gandhi said that the Hindu individual committing a crime was not alone and that he was also backed by the state machinery. When the locals pointed out that even his community condemned him but here in Bengal, no Muslim condemned the act of violence that took place on 16th August 1946, Gandhi said that HS Suhrawardy has condemned the violence.
Gandhi said, “I have heard nothing but condemnation of these acts from Shaheed Suhrawardy [the Chief Minister of Bengal] downwards since I have come here. Words of condemnation may tickle your ears, but they are no consolation to the unfortunate women whose houses have been laid desolate or who have been abducted, forcibly converted and forcibly married. What a shame for Hindus, what a disgrace for Islam!“
It is notable that it is the same Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy who fanned the violence and gave the clean chit to the rioters in advance 11 days before the direct action day as he wrote an article in ‘The Statesman’ on 5th August 1946 that said, “Bloodshed and disorder are not a necessary evil in themselves if resorted to for a noble cause. Among Muslims today, no cause is dearer or nobler than Pakistan.“
This HS Suhrawardy later said that he considers himself responsible for the violence in Bengal. He said so when he met Gandhi who was fasting in Bengal at the time of India’s partition. Gandhi also made him apologise before a crowd of Hindus. Gandhians claim that it was the turning point and then the violence was pacified. Tushar Gandhi has categorically mentioned in his blog saying that Gandhi said so.
Tushar Gandhi wrote, “Suhrawardy’s admission of responsibility for the Great Calcutta Killing and expression of regret about it had a profound effect on the crowd. ‘It was the turning point,’ Bapu remarked later. ‘It had a cleansing effect; I could sense it’.“
It is notable that in May 2022, an edited clip of BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma had gone viral wherein she was seen making some allegedly insulting remarks about the Prophet Muhammad in a TV debate. She issued an apology after that incident. What Muslim Mobs in India resorted to after this apology was a direct action in contemporary times. Fortunately, it was contained by law enforcement authorities. 6 innocent Hindus were beheaded after this apology because they supported the freedom of speech of Nupur Sharma. No Muslim among the mobs on the streets accepted this apology of Nupur Sharma like that of HS Suhrawardy was accepted by Hindus in 1946. For example, actor Farhan Akhtar tweeted, “A forced apology is never from the heart.”
While it is very difficult to conclude whether HS Suhrawardy’s apology was half-hearted or full-hearted, there is credible evidence to say that it was forced by MK Gandhi. For all practical purposes, SH Suhrawardy should only be known as the Butcher of Bengal – the architect who engineered the Great Calcutta Killings.
Conclusion
In these three articles, we have seen the political developments before the Muslim League passed a resolution of Direct Action Day, what it meant for Muslims, its declared and undeclared agenda, how Muslims prepared for the violence, how the administration gave them a free pass, how the leaflets, pamphlets etc. escalated the fanaticism, and most importantly the theological Islamic basis for the direct action day as told by the Muslim League. We also saw the reactions of Congress and MK Gandhi on the Great Calcutta Killings.
It is seen in the whole discussion that there are grave similarities between the All-India Muslim League and present-day terrorist organisations like the PFI. It is also established through various examples that the Muslim League leaders of 1946 and the Tukde Tukde Gang and Islamists of 2023 share the same line of thought. It is, therefore, imperative for every Hindu and other non-Muslim of the country to know how it all happened in 1946 and how it is still being followed knowingly or unknowingly even in 2023.
