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Agitations, Riots and the Transitional State in Calcutta, 1945-50

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Agitations, Riots and the Transitional State in Calcutta, 1945-50 AGITATIONS, RIOTS AND THE TRANSITIONAL STATE IN CALCUTTA, 1945-50 ISHAN MUKHERJEE TRINITY COLLEGE This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge March 2017 Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically declared in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution. This thesis is 74,816 words in length, including the Table of Contents but excluding front matter, footnotes, references and bibliography, as specified by the Degree Committee. Tables and graphs are counted as 150 words each. It does not exceed the prescribed word limit. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Thesis summary iv List of abbreviations vi Glossary viii Introduction 1-43 Chapter 1: Post-War Dilemmas and the Indian National Army: Agitations in Calcutta against the First Red Fort Trial 44-90 Chapter 2: Aftermath of the First Red Fort Trial: The Rashid Ali Agitations in Calcutta 91-142 Chapter 3: Communal Antagonism Beyond the Great Calcutta Killing 143-194 Chapter 4: Towards Independence with Partition of Bengal 195-243 Chapter 5: The Nation-State and the Muslim Minority in Calcutta 244-305 Conclusion 306-312 Bibliography 313-336 iii PhD Thesis Summary – Ishan Mukherjee AGITATIONS, RIOTS AND THE TRANSITIONAL STATE IN CALCUTTA, 1945-50 The thesis examines the agitations and riots that broke out in Calcutta in the aftermath of the Second World War. Through a close analysis of local outbreaks of urban violence, it hopes to contribute to the understanding of decolonization in the subcontinent. It interrogates existing chronological and conceptual frameworks through which decolonization has been understood in the historiography of the region. At the same time, the study analyses the continuities and changes in the practices of the local state apparatus, especially the police, through the transition ‘from the colonial to the post-colonial’ regime in South Asia. The scope of the study is limited to incidents and experiences in Calcutta, although it attempts to take into account relevant issues at the regional and all-India level wherever possible. The historiography of popular politics in South Asia is fairly unanimous in concluding that the immediate aftermath of the Second World War saw widespread ‘anti-imperialist’ ‘cross-communal’ protests throughout the subcontinent. In this period, many argue, people of all religions came together for the last time to fight the colonial regime. However, this moment of communal unity was quickly lost as the subcontinent plunged into communal violence on an unprecedented scale. Incidents in Calcutta are believed to exhibit this pattern very clearly. In February 1946 the city witnessed large-scale protests against the conviction of Captain Rashid Ali of the Indian National Army. However, just six months later, Calcutta witnessed massive iv communal riots. The Great Calcutta Killing of August 1946 set off the chain of communal violence across the subcontinent that ultimately precipitated the partition of British India into two mutually hostile post-colonial states of India and Pakistan. This thesis hopes to challenge some of these assumptions in the historiography of decolonization. It seeks to complicate this linear narrative by questioning the ‘cross- communal’ dimension of the anti-colonial protests. It also argues that the outbreak of communal violence was not as sudden as has been assumed. Rather, communal tension often co-existed with periods of united anti-colonial agitations. The thesis will also examine inter-community relations in the city in the very first years after independence. It will study how new minorities produced by the Indian nation state grappled with, and were affected by, the changed circumstances in Calcutta. v Abbreviations ABMSL All-Bengal Muslim Students League AICC All India Congress Committee AIHM All India Hindu Mahasabha AITU All India Telegraph Union AITUC All India Trade Union Congress BPCC Bengal Provincial Congress Committee BPSC Bengal Provincial Students Congress BPSF Bengal Provincial Students Federation CIO Central Intelligence Officer CPI Communist Party of India CSP Congress Socialist Party DC Deputy Commissioner GOB Government of Bengal IB, GB, WBSA Intelligence Bureau, Government of Bengal, West Bengal State Archives INA Indian National Army IOR India Office Records KPM Kolkata Police Museum MIO Military Intelligence Officer NAI National Archives of India OC Officer-in-charge PM Political Miscellaneous RSPI Revolutionary Socialist Party of India SB Special Branch vi SBR, CP Special Branch Records, Calcutta Police SRPSB Secret Report on the Political Situation in Bengal SPI Socialist Party of India TP Transfer of Power UP United Provinces WBLAP West Bengal Legislative Assembly Proceedings WBSA West Bengal State Archives vii Glossary akhand undivided anna one-sixteenth of an Indian rupee ashram hermitage badmash ruffian bhadralok gentlefolk bidi hand-rolled cigarettes usually produced in household bases workshops bustee tenement, slum cutcheri office, usually of a zamindari or an indigenous business firm darga Sufi shrine ghats river-bank goonda ruffian, thug gully (narrow) lane hartal strike julum/zulm oppression kafir infidel lathi bamboo stave laukik rashtra people’s government mohalla neighbourhood narak hell parda veil pir Sufi saint pugree head-dress made of cloth viii sadhu Hindu saint saheb foreigner, European tamasha entertainment thana police station zamindar landlord ix Introduction Bhanu Bose was a notorious member of Calcutta’s underworld – a goonda.1 He and his brother, Jagabandhu Bose, both loosely affiliated with the Congress Socialist Party, led a criminal gang in the jurisdiction of Muchipara thana2 in central Calcutta. During the agitation in February 1946 against the conviction of Rashid Ali of the In- dian National Army (INA), he allegedly advised his men to kill police sergeants and sahebs. This, he explained, would ‘help us free India’. Armed with the confession of one of Bhanu’s followers, who had testified against him during interrogation, the po- lice arrested him on 5 April 1946. Well-connected as Bhanu was, the police had to set him free in a matter of weeks.3 When Calcutta plunged into communal mayhem in August 1946, Bhanu’s name surfaced again in police records.4 He had allegedly struck up an alliance with other powerful goondas of the city to join the murderous spree against Muslims. He disap- peared from official discussions soon thereafter, and it remains uncertain whether the police ever brought him to book for communal rioting. But he reappeared in police files immediately after India’s independence. In September 1947, Gandhi undertook a fast to bring an end to communal violence in Calcutta, urging the city’s underworld 1 For a definition of what colonial officials meant by the term ‘goonda’ in the 1940s, see India and Burma Committee – Indian Political Situation: Memorandum by the Secretary of State for India, 15 August 1945, Nicholas Mansergh and Penderel Moon (eds.), The Transfer of Power, 1942-47: Constitutional Relations between Britain and India, vol. VI, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1976, no. 28, pp. 70-71. Also see Suranjan Das and J.K. Ray, The Goondas: Towards a Reconstruction of the Calcutta Underworld, Calcutta: Firma K.L.M., 1996. 2 A ‘thana’ is a police station. Derived from Indian vernaculars (both Hindusthani and Ben- gali), it was incorporated within colonial English vocabulary. 3 K.P.M. No. 01699/05, S.B. File No. 868 (D/7), P.M. (1946), Special Branch Records, Cal- cutta Police. 4 Ibid. 1 operators to surrender their arms. The Muchipara gang split. Jagabandhu Bose sub- mitted himself to the Mahatma’s wishes; but Bhanu led a rebel faction and decided to defy Gandhi’s call.5 Figures like Bhanu Bose sit uncomfortably within Indian historiography, which continues to operate within a ‘nationalism’ versus ‘communalism’ binary. This re- mains the case, despite many examples of individuals like Bhanu Bose who partici- pated in a range of street actions that defy neat separation into either of these catego- ries. This has serious consequences for how historians of popular politics have hith- erto understood processes of decolonization in the subcontinent. A consensus continues to exist among historians that the immediate aftermath of the Second World War generated ‘cross-communal’ ‘anti-colonial’ fervour among the public at large. Sumit Sarkar has held that popular mobilization against the INA trials and the rebellion in the Royal Indian Navy were expressions of a post-war anti- imperialist spirit. 6 Gautam Chattopadhyay has gone so far as to suggest that the Rashid Ali agitations, in which Bhanu Bose participated, constituted an ‘almost revo- lution’.7 For Chattopadhyay, the mass enthusiasm evident in the agitation held out alternative possibilities of India’s post-colonial future, which, if taken to its logical conclusion, could have avoided the tragedy of partition. 5 K.P.M. No. 01488/05, S.B. File No. 506/48, P.M. (1947), Special Branch Records, Calcutta Police. 6 Sumit Sarkar, ‘Popular Movements and National Leadership, 1945-47’, Economic and Po- litical Weekly, vol. 17, no. 14/16, Annual Number, April, 1982, pp. 677-689. This article has been reprinted in Sumit Sarkar, A Critique of Colonial India, Calcutta: Papyrus, 1985. 7 Gautam Chattopadhyay, ‘An Almost Revolution (A Case Study of India in February 1946)’ in Barun De (ed.), Essays in Honour of Prof. S.C. Sarkar, New Delhi: People’s Publishing House, 1976. Also see Gautam Chattopadhyay, ‘Bengal Students in Revolt against the Raj, 1945-46’ in Amit Kumar Gupta (ed.), Myth and Reality: The Struggle for Freedom in India, 1945-46, New Delhi: Manohar, 1987.
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