1946 : THE GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGS AND NOAKHALI GENOCIDE 1946 : THE GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGS AND NOAKHALI GENOCIDE A HISTORICAL STUDY DINESH CHANDRA SINHA : ASHOK DASGUPTA No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author and the publisher. Published by Sri Himansu Maity 3B, Dinabandhu Lane Kolkata-700006 Edition First, 2011 Price ` 500.00 (Rupees Five Hundred Only) US $25 (US Dollars Twenty Five Only) © Reserved Printed at Mahamaya Press & Binding, Kolkata Available at Tuhina Prakashani 12/C, Bankim Chatterjee Street Kolkata-700073 Dedication In memory of those insatiate souls who had fallen victims to the swords and bullets of the protagonist of partition and Pakistan; and also those who had to undergo unparalleled brutality and humility and then forcibly uprooted from ancestral hearth and home. PREFACE What prompted us in writing this Book. As the saying goes, truth is the first casualty of war; so is true history, the first casualty of India’s struggle for independence. We, the Hindus of Bengal happen to be one of the worst victims of Islamic intolerance in the world. Bengal, which had been under Islamic attack for centuries, beginning with the invasion of the Turkish marauder Bakhtiyar Khilji eight hundred years back. We had a respite from Islamic rule for about two hundred years after the English East India Company defeated the Muslim ruler of Bengal. Siraj-ud-daulah in 1757. But gradually, Bengal had been turned into a Muslim majority province. Freedom of India at the midnight, on 15th August 1947, came as a curse in our life. We lost our ancestral homeland, honour, identity, dignity and liberty. Moreover, it is because of the growing strength of such forces, which had led to this disaster and colossal human tragedy, that even sixty three years after the religion-based partition, our very existence is at stake now. It was in the 1940s when the movement for the partition of India gained momentum, two serious developments occurred, which clearly exposed the vulnerable position of the Hindus in Bengal, Unprecedented cruelty and barbarity were committed on the Hindus of Bengal-first in Calcutta, and then in Noakhali (now in Bangladesh), and thereafter throughout eastern Bengal, which subsequently became East Pakistan, and then Bangladesh. Anti-Hindu pogroms were organized by the Muslim League government and their fanatical supporters. We, the Hindus of East Bengal, lost everything. Our fathers and brothers were butchered and converted to Islam; mothers, sisters and daughters raped, kidnapped and very often converted to Islam, and then forced into marriage with the Muslims. Our temples and idols were desecrated and destroyed. Many of our people were forced to eat beef, a taboo for us. Our shops and other establishments were burnt. Every form of humiliation, harassment and denial were tried on this hapless Hindus. Finally, millions of them were compelled to abandon their hearth and home and flee to India as destitute refugees. We were told that this ethno-religious cleansing was necessary to establish a “Pure” Islamic state of Pakistan. But such a traumatic on-going human tragedy has been deliberately marginalised in all contemporary accounts. The post-partition literature, media, historians and the political class, exceptions apart, have pushed it under the carpet. Instead, they go on concocting false stories on of love and fraternity between the two communities. Bengal, once famous for its capacity to tell the truth and lead the country, has no intellectual, worth his or her name who would dare to tell the grim story-the systematic elimination of the Hindus in Bangladesh. Sixty four years have passed since the Great Calcutta Killings and the Noakhali carnage. Almost all authentic records, documents and materials regarding these carefully orchestrated Muslim attacks on an unprepared Hindu community had been destroyed and removed by the then Muslim League government in Bengal, and other interested parties. Consequently, there is no trace of thousands of memoranda, appeals and petitions from the Hindu victims of those genocidal attacks. But an idea of the unprecedented loss sustained by the Hindus of Calcutta can be had from the statements, depositions and the records of cross-examinations of the police officers belonging to the Calcutta police force submitted before the Calcutta Disturbances Enquiry Commission, reminiscences of eminent persons, various appeals and petitions submitted before the Indian National Congress, the Hindu Mahasabha - many of which are still available in their records, museums and the archives in Calcutta and New Delhi. As regards Noakhali, a host of political leaders of all-India fame, social workers, journalists and volunteers who accompanied Gandhiji in his peace mission following the pogrom, have recorded their observations of that devastation, murder, arson, abduction, conversion, forced marriages of Hindu women etc in their reports, diaries and memoirs. But above all, thanks to late Prof. Nirmal Kumar Basu, who served as Gandhiji’s Secretary during his stay in Noakhali, some of the petitions of the Hindus submitted to Gandhiji describing their heart-rending stories have been preserved. These papers along with Prof Basil’s diary covering that turbulent period, were under the custody of Sri Rabindra Kumar Basu, nephew of Prof Basu and 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 no pains to bring out the voluminous book under the caption ‘Satchallisher Diary’. The Hindus of Bengal, specially erstwhile inhabitants of Noakhali and their posterity will remain ever grateful and indebted to Late Prof. Nirmal Kumar Basu, his nephew Sri Rabindra Kumar Basu, Sri Abhik De, the compiler and editor, as well as Sri Sandip Nayak of “Punascha” fame, for accomplishing a national duty by bringing out this historic publication. Mention must also be made of Pyarela’s Mahatma Gandhi - The Last Phase, wherein also some of the dastardly events were vividly recorded. We, two friends, when we were in our boyhood in the late forties of the last century, all on a sudden came face to face with some unknown and unheard of words and events, viz. ferocious riots, mass murders, forcible conversion to Islam, gang raping, abduction of women, looting, destruction of properties, burning of temples and breaking of idols worshipped by the Hindus. These sorts of tortures and atrocities compelled our guardians to runaway from East Bengal and seek shelter as displaced and destitute persons in India, specially in Hindu-dominated West Bengal - which ultimately remained with India as a separate State after partition due to mass agitation launched by Dn Syamaprasad Mookerjee and the Hindu Mahasabha . Coming at the fag-end of our life, we felt it an obligation to the posterity to bring 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 sources. We started our work in right earnest. Fortunately some benevolent persons also took interest in the matter and inspired and encouraged us to finalise the plan. Mention must be made in this connection of Mr. Ronen Dam, Dr. Bijay Basu, Dr. Dipak Ray, Dr. Biswanath Das, Mr. Ambica Datta and Mr, & Mrs. Pradosh and Aruna Sen - all from London and Dr. Saradindu Mukherji, Associate Professor of History, Hansraj College, University of Delhi. Words are inadequate to express our heart-felt thanks and gratitude for their help and co•operation in bringing out the book. Unstinted co-operation extended by Prof. Gobinda Baksi, Mr. Kaliprasad Mukherjee, eminent author and feature writer, Dr. Sanghamitra Dasgupta, Sri Somen Das and Sri Mainak Datta is also gratefully acknowledged. Our close relation with all of them prevents us from offering any formal thanks for the self-less service they have rendered towards completion of the book. We also offer our sincere thanks to Sri Rabindranath Datta, Sri Loknath Bhowmik, Sri Badal Sen, Sri Basudeb Pal and Sri Shibu Ghosh for providing us with some rare photographs. We must also thank Sri Himanshu Maity and his staff of the Mahamaya Press and Binding for undertaking the onerous task of this publication. Kolkata, Dinesh Chandra Sinha 26 January, 2011 Ashok Dasgupta CONTENTS PART–I THE GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGS PREFACE INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I ELECTION OF 1945-46 : PRELUDE TO 45 POGROMS AND PARTITION CHAPTER II THE CABINET MISSION PLAN : COMMUNAL 55 DIVISION CHAPTER III MUSLIM LEAGUE CALLS FOR “DIRECT 58 ACTION” CHAPTER IV HOW COMES 16TH AUGUST : LOOT, 62 MURDER, ARSON, RAPE, ABDUCTION & CONVERSION CHAPTER V THE GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGS IN PRESS 99 REPORTS CHAPTER VI THE GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGS : ON THE 114 FLOOR OF THE BENGAL LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY CHAPTER VII DEPOSITION OF THE POLICE COMMISSIONER 129 AND THE ARMY COMMANDER BEFORE THE CALCUTTA DISTURBANCES COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY. CHAPTER VIII PATHETIC, EMOTIVE APPEALS OF CITIZENS 142 PERSECUTED, LOOTED AND BUTCHERED CHAPTER IX GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGS : IN THE EYES 188 OF THE COMMUNIST LEADERS CHAPTER X SUHRAWARDY THREATENED TO DESTROY 191 CALCUTTA : NEHRU EXPRESSED HIS CONCERN TO MOUNTBATTEN CHAPTER XI WHY CALCUTTA WAS SINGLED OUT FOR 193 THE HOLOCAUST? CHAPTER XII