Doctor of Philosophy in History
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COMMUNAL STRIFE IN BIHAR 1946-1992 ABSTRACT SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy In History BY GHAUSIA PARVEEN UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF DR. MOHAMMAD SAJJAD (ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR) CENTER OF ADVANCED STUDY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH, INDIA (202002) 2015 Abstract Communal Strife in Bihar 1946-1992 The occurrences of communal riots went side by side with the Indian National Movement and frequently occurred even after independence. Communalism and communal riots in India is essentially a modern phenomenon which was fomented by the British through their “divide and rule” policy. Communal riots in large measure sprang from elite conflicts over jobs, business, political powers etc. In Bihar communal riots frequently occurred even long before the independence i.e. communal disturbances reached their climax in Bihar between the 1888 and the 1893, the districts worst affected being Arrah, Saran, Gaya and Patna. By 1880s and 1890s there were two major issues, over which communal riots were erupted, were the cow-protection movements and Devnagari-Urdu (Hindi-Urdu) controversy. On the one hand Hindu activists not only speak of the protection of cow even the Gau Rakshini Sabha courts punished sale of cow to butchers by imposing fine or social boycott. On the other hand the Muslim revivalists insisting on the necessity of cow-slaughter on Bakr-Eid which resulted in large scale riots between June to July, 1893 in Saran, Gaya and Patna. The 1920s made for a new conjuncture in the world of Indian politics. The masses entered the organized national movement on an unprecedented scale. At the same time, however the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation movements acted as a catalyst in certain other ways to participate those compounds in Indian politics that had handed down to us as nationalism and communalism. A national leadership that might already had been perturbed by the devastating Hindu attacks on the Muslims of Shahabad and Katarpur on the Bakr-Eid of 1917 and 1918 respectively, but had brushed them aside as being of little consequence in the context of the immediate political agenda and the emerging unity among the Hindu and Muslim nationalist politicians was thrown into consternation by some of the event of the next few years. Muslim communalism flourished in the 1920s in colonial India on the basis of “Islam in danger”. The Muslim massive agitation and political issue during 1920s were the issue of fate of the khalifa, the Mopillah rising in Malabar. The Hindu-Muslim movements like shuddhi and sangathan and tabligh and tanzim, and the spate of Hindu-Muslim riots from 1923 onwards. As we have been observed, Hindu and Muslim political mobilization had been seen in the past as 1 necessary even inevitable at least in the early stages of the building of an Indian nationalism. Such communitarian mobilization now came to be regarded by more and more nationalist observers as a distorted and distorting tendency. Hindu and Muslim politics with all their divergent aspect became from the 1920s the chief flogging horse of Indian nationalism divisive primitive and in a far more general nationalist judgment. All the main controversies, which first embittered the Hindu-Muslim relation and later divided the two communities (Hindu and Muslim), were the cow question, Ramlila and Moharram processions and on other religious occasions, music before mosque and also the question of representation in services, in municipalities and councils, joint and separate electorates, safeguards and redistribution of provinces and federal, as opposed to a unitary basis of the constitution. By 1930s and 1940s, the importance of enlightened leadership was thus being stressed on all sides as the critical ingredient that was required in the bid to advance the backward peoples of India. It had taken great leaders like Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Akbar to actualize the dream of Indian unity in the past, and they had done so in the great states and empire that they established. It would take great leaders like Nehru and Patel to realize the newly desired unity of India. All these circumstances encouraged the identity based political mobilization to determine the extent of exclusion and inclusion of the community in license permit raj. Any application for license-permit to start an industry in any state or region accompanied hectic political lobbying and the politicians in turn introduced religious or caste symbols to mobilize the community and stake their claims for share in power. In fact urban middle classes were the torch bearer of communal consciousness in the both communities which further polarized Hindu-Muslim relations. The Hindu-Muslim religious conflicts worsened by 1946 i.e. the recurrence of frequent communal riots at village Pauthoo (Gaya district) and at Benibad in Muzaffarpur district started on 27th September, 1946. This work consists of four major chapters including “Introduction”. The introductory chapter deals with the gradual intrusion of communalism in all walks of social, political, economic and cultural life, formation of communal organizations and communal movements, i.e. cow-protection movement, Hindi-Urdu controversy which erupted to accumulate politico-economic power and grab government job 2 opportunities and transformed into the conflicts between the Hindus and the Muslims. The anti-cow-slaughter movement peaked up in 1893, when in Basantpur in Saran district, one of the most furious and well organized riots of late 19th century broke out and Hindus attacked the Muslim villages assaulting butchers as well as low-status Hindus viewed as complicit in marketing beef. Cow-slaughter movement was employed by the agitators both as local trade networks and powerful religious symbols to divide Hindus from Muslims as well as the British. Anand Yang Anand in his paper “Sacred Symbols and Sacred Space Rural India: Community Mobilization in the “Anti-Cow Killing” Riot of 1893” (1980) argued that the patterned behavior of the crowd show that mobilization of large numbers of people at Basantpur was achieved through the networks of hats (local marketing systems). In another village Hindu crowds attempted to kill Muslims and to rob their homes but were forced to withdraw when met by gunfire from posted military police. Rioting, looting, and murder were widespread in the districts of Shahabad, Gaya and Patna during Bakar-Id in September 1917. The September 1917, in Shahabad riot was one of the ferocious incidents of communal riots that ignited over the issue of cow-slaughter. In Shahabad district in October 1917, for instance, the immediate issue was cow-protection. Crowds of up to 50,000 Hindu peasants attacked Muslim villages. Second chapter, “Communal Riots in Bihar: 1946-47”, deals with the riots between 1946 and 1949. It explores the communal polarization of politics during 1938 to 1946. Though this process of communal schism finally resulted in partition of India, but communal carnages continued in India still today. These riots were and are the outcome elite manipulation of the masses to attain economic accumulation and accumulation of political power. Though these elitist classes emerged as the champion of their respective community but factually they are only loyal to them. With Jinaah’s call for “Direct Action Day” on 16th August, 1946 as reaction the Great Calcutta (Kolkata) Killings took place which unleashed the ferocious communal riots in Bihar. There was already communally ripe situation in Bihar and riots were going on and the places like Patna, Gaya, Monghyr and Palamau districts were engulfed in the communal riots in March, 1946. A serious communal riot took place in Patna on 18th may, 1946, in Benibad the tensed situation was at its verge and riots were ignited. On 25th October, 1946 complete hartal at Chapra was observed and on 26th October, 1946, some Muslim shops were attacked by the Hindus form the villages north of Chapra. Riots spread to, Jehanabad, Khodaibagh, Jalalpur, Nabazar, in fact, almost all 3 over Bihar. These riots were ceased only when Jawaharlal Nehru responded these riots with the weapon of secularism and threatened the communally mad masses to machine-gunning, aerial attacks and bombing and surprisingly the situation was under control. Gandhi also threatened to go on fast if the riots would not be stopped. There had been no serious occurred except on 19th November, 1946 in Monghyr. In 1946, October-November, in which 30,000-50,000 Muslims were killed according to the Muslim Leagues estimate, except some places police remain as silent spectators. In 1947, March onwards riots again reared its head. Warisalganj (Gaya), Kutubpur (Poonpoon, Police Station), Behrawan (Poonpoon, Police Station), etc. were the scene of communal riots. By June people were fed up with communal riots. They supposed that Pakistan scheme should be either dropped or immediately granted. In Bhabhuna town communal incidents took place in July, 1947, where RSS members were responsible for igniting the riots, as they wanted to drive Muslims out. On 22nd August, 1947, communal riot took place over the issue of bringing down the flag of India. On 25th October, 1947, riots took place in Tirhut division, Sitamarhi sub- division, Singhachauri, village Mehsaul, Police Station Runisyedpur, over the issue of cow-sacrifice on Bakra-Eid. Third chapter, “Communal Riots in Post-Independence Bihar till 1967”, focuses on the role of administration, intelligentsia, press and the major riots till 1967. This chapter explores Government handling of riots and role of police and armed forces as well as how they use communal issues to attain their power. Communalism became active in the 1960s, gaining in strength as seen in rising communalization of Indian society. In 1950s itself, there was a series of communal riots. Seven communal incidents takes place in 1954, nine in 1955, eight in 1956, six in 1957, eight in 1958, twelve in 1959, eight in 1960, twenty two in 1961, five in 1962 and ten in 1963, but these were not of serious in nature.