Communal riots in 1947: Who were the architects & why?
Tracing the roots of the 1947 riots:The roots of the riots in 1947 date back to 1906:
At the request of the Muslims of Bengal, in 1905, Lord Curzon announced the partition of Bengal. It was the beginning of of the Muslim awakening from the long slumber of self-pity and “reveling in the glory of yester year“. The British wanted to divide Bengal, to allow the Muslims some sense of self rule. Partition of Bengal’s implications for Bangladesh & Pakistan then and now
Map of Bengal 1906: THe partition of Bengal and the riots
The Muslims formed a majority in all of Bengal (which included Bengal, Bihar and Orissa). East Bengal, present day Bangladesh was a Muslim Majority area and West Bengal at that time included both present day Orissa and Bihar where also Bengalis would become minorities. Bengal was the epi-centre of Indian Nationalism. Bengali ideas influenced whole of India. The Muslim Bengalis Waqar ul Mulk, Mohsin ul Mulk had led a campaign for Muslim rights.
According to the 1941 census 53.4 per cent of the Bengalis were Muslims and the rest Hindus, with a minuscule proportion of Buddhists and Christians thrown in. The province was divided into five administrative divisions, which were further subdivided into districts, as follows : Presidency division, consisting of the districts of 24-Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad, Jessore and Khulna and the Presidency town of Calcutta ; Burdwan division, with the districts of Howrah, Hooghly, Midnapore, Bankura, Burdwan and Birbhum ; Rajshahi division, with the districts of Rajshahi, Pabna, Malda, Dinajpur, Bogra, Rangpur, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling ; Dacca division, with the districts of Dacca, Faridpur, Barisal and Mymensingh (the largest district in British India) ; and Chittagong division with the districts of Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Noakhali and Tipperah. Apart from these districts of Bengal, the people of Sylhet district of Assam, adjoining the Tipperah and Mymensingh districts of Bengal, those of the princely state of Cooch Behar adjoining Jalpaiguri and Rangpur, and a large number among the people of the princely state of Tripura, and among those of the districts of Manbhum nad Singhbhum in Bihar also largely spoke Bangla, and therefore were Bengalis. A map of the erstwhile province of Bengal, as it existed till the midnight of 14th August 1947 is at Fig. 1. The Bangla-speaking areas outside Bengal are also shown in the same map.
There was a vague and unofficial division of the province into three parts : East, West and North. West included the Presidency and Burdwan divisions ; North, the Rajshahi division ; and East, the Dacca and Chittagong divisions. There were substantial differences in the geography and the culture of the three parts. The West, particularly Burdwan division, had no navigable rivers, and some parts of the division were semi-arid ; however, the division had very large reserves of coal in its Ranigunge coalfields which had sired a large number of heavy industries in the region, including an integrated steel plant at Burnpur. The North was bounded by two great rivers, Padma and Jamuna (different from the Jumna or Yamuna which flows by Delhi and Agra ; this Jamuna is the Bengali incarnation of the mighty Brahmaputra of Assam). The region was criss-crossed by a number of swift-flowing tributaries of the two rivers. The East, as opposed to the two, was a low-lying flood plain, being a delta created by three huge rivers : Ganga, a snow-fed river, rechristened after entering Bengal as Padma; Brahmaputra, ditto, Jamuna ; and Meghna, a short but wide river fed only by rain, but from some of the rainiest places in the world, including Cherrapunjee. Certainly the major rivers, and practically all their tributaries and distributaries were navigable right through the year. In fact the usual means of locomotion in British East Bengal used to be the country boat, the nouka.
To oppose the partition in 1906, Swadeshi movement came into action. The RSS already mobilized used this as an excuse to create mayhem. Under presrrue of the Swadeshi movement and Hindu mahasaba Lord Curzon cancelled the partition of Bengal.
Communal riots in 1947: Who were the architects & why? Mohammad Zainal Abedin noazabd@gmail.com
I had the opportunity to go through the write-up of Tilak R. Sikri in the Washington Post captioned “”India’s Survivors of Partition Begin to Break Long Silence” that referred to the untold sufferings of the people who were the victims of communal riots that made millions of people homeless and hundreds of thousands of
them killed. In recalling the fateful scar of communal riot he mentioned how the Hindus suffered, but he did not mention what happened to the Muslims who suffered more tragically, as they (Muslims) were minority and the victims of the Hindus and their Sikh allies in Punjab. Tilkar failed to mention who were the
masterminds of that communal riot that made the partition of the subcontinent inevitable.
Muslims, even their leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah, could be happy if the subcontinent remained undivided. They opted for a separate homeland for the Muslims when Hindu leaders denied to provide equitable rights to Muslims in independent India.
Hindu leaders agreed on partition of the subcontinent, as they thought and hoped that the dismemberment of India would be a temporary arrangement and reunification of India was a matter of time. History says that the riot of 1947 was masterminded to divide Bengal and Punjab, which were Muslim majority provinces at that time. Riots would not have occurred if they were not politically motivated. Neither innocent people would have been displaced or massacred; if Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister and his preceptor Gandhi would not had set a pre-condition that division of India “must mean a division also of Bengal and Punjab.” (See Nehru’s letter written on May 23, 1947, to Ashraffuddin Ahmad Chowdhury, the Congress President of Tripura, now Comilla, and district.) Nehru also did not keep secret the goal of his demand.
He in the same letter informed Ashraffuddin, “That is the only way to have a United India soon after. If we have a United India straightway, without such division that will, of course be very welcome.”
It is known to all that the Sikhs of Punjab and the Bengalees of Bengal wanted to have independent Punjab and Bengal. Sikhs of the Punjab were incited to stand against the Muslims and they were instigated that they would become the slaves of the Muslims if they would side with the Muslims for an independent sovereign Punjab, as the Muslims were slightly Majority over the Sikh in Punjab. Hindus joined hand with the Sikhs in anti-Muslim riot in Punjab. In this way division of Punjab was made inevitable.
When a joint movement of the Bengalee Hindus and Muslims in favour of United Independent Bengal got momentum, both Gandhi and Nehru vehemently opposed the idea. To break the unity of the Bengalee
Muslims and the Hindus Nehru and his disciples warned that Muslims would dominate the Hindus, if Bengal remained undivided. They demanded that Hindu majority region of Bengal Must merge with
India. Nehru publicly declared, each village, even each house of Bengal would have to be divided on communal line. To disunite the Bengalee Muslims and the Hindus and deter the emergence of United
Independent Bengal communal riots were masterminded.
It is easily understandable who were behind the riots of 1947. There were originated due to anti-Muslim communal feelings of the anti-Muslim cliques. Hundreds of thousands of anti-Muslim riots that occurred in India since 1947 unequivocally justify who were and are communal and terrorists. Tilak though in his write-up condemned communal riot, utterly failed to rise above his communal feelings, which was amply exposed in his writing.
Contributed by Isha Khan, who can be reached at bdmailer@gmail.com
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Mr Ansari….if you think that muslims and hindus are two different civilizations then why do you think Brihot Bangladesh is required? Further you say it is us indians who do not understand anything beyond ethnicity..so why bring bengali ethnicity to define a country? Further you said Pakistan was created because Muslims feared domination by Hindus in undivided India..so why is hindu fear of being dominated by muslims in undivided bengal not valid?? Further when you lament the fall of Urdu in Bengal…how come you shed tears of bengali nationalism?
As long as India gets jacked..everything seems to be kosher!!! Great one point agenda….
The Hindus and Muslims are two different civilizations.
Bangladesh was formed on ethnicity. It was Mujib’s ideology which was buried deep into the Bay of Bengal on August 14th, 1975. West Bengal will be a Muslim majority area in a couple of decades. It is natural for the Bengalis and the Muslims of the Northeast to get together.
Your fear is correct. The West Bengalis suppressed the East bengalis for the centuries when the Union Jack flew atop Kolkota. Now the things will be reversed. However most West Bengalis are communists–so it wont matter.
I did not lament the fall of Urdu. I simply stated facts that till the arrival of Lord Clive in Bengal and beyond that–Urdu was spoken as the language in Bengal.
Bharat has dug its own grave. Now it has to lie in it. You crow about the victory in 1971. That ephemeral victory has been the downfall of Bharati democracy too. 1971 created a Nuclear South Asia, possibly a Nuclear Iran. It hardened Chinese positions, and created difficulties for the USSR a decade later. Zia Ul Haq sent a telegram reminding the Moscow of Pakistan’s revenge.
Within Bharat itself, the brutal emergency consolidated the stranglehold of the Nehru dynasty–which brought untold misery on South Asia. Nehru’s attempt to impose Bharat on 560 states manifests itself into the desire of 50 new states to lean away from Delhi in varying degrees of independence from the Central Authority. Assam and kashmir want nothing to do with “India”. Maharashtra wants to the Hindu Republic. Gujarat wants to impost Ram Rajha. The restless Tamils have blackmailed Dlehi into disproportional representation in the Center–hence Talangana and other such movements. Bharat has aggravated the Chinese, the Bengalis, the Pakistanis, the Lankans, the Nepalese, the Bhutanese, the Sikkimese and the Maldivians. All neighbors are pissed off. Bharat has tried to impose itself on all peoples. Internally Bharat has alienated the 450 million Dalits and Scheduled classes and Untouchables, the 150 million Muslims–else all of us would be rooting for Bharat.
Imagine a world where Bharat is supported by all her neighbors? Bharat can only get that if it fundamentally reinvents itself–instead of imposing itself and its ideals on other nations. Neither Bharati secularism nor Bharat’s version of democracy have provided Bharati citizens a good life. The Koreans, The Taiwanese, the Malysians, and the Dubaiits, and the Chinese have. That is the right model. Bharati penury stricken caste infested, corruption system is for the birds.
Bharat cannot impress its neighbors by buying trinkets that turn to rust
Bharat is incapable of introspection. Meager success in the past decade has given the Bharatis a swollen head. This has to be brought back to size, either through pinata action or through Exedrin–we don’t know. However the self image is distorted–and does not reflect reality. If the self image is too far off from how others perceive you, then it is a sign of insanity–on a national level it is a pathological illness which manifests itself in the kind of failures and isolation that Bharat faces today.
please read ‘bangla’ forums or somebody to translate that to you..you will understand how close bangladeshis are to pakistan.
please keep dreaming of brihot bengal under the nawabs. wy don’t you come down to bengal oneday and check for yourself? the refugess are escaping bangladesh..and going as far as mumbai and delhi and assam to earn a living and become citizens of india., you claim sounds like texas and florida deciding to join mexico…..
I have a lot of Bangla friends–those forums are invested with Indians with false names–the real people is what matters.
Snoar Bangla will be resurrected all over Lord Clive’s “Bengal”–and Bharat is the flight path of Brihot Bangla.
We have multiple Bangla freinds who regularly contribute to our sites. Did you check out “India Doctrine” by Barrister Munshi?
haha..the chap who is a lieutenant general in pak defence forum?? i have read the great ‘india’ doctrine too and he has a few other friends….will send some links on the revisionist history.
Point is Mujib was a demagogue who had no idea of administration. Like all liberator turning dictator…best example possibly is Mugabe….he was turning the country into a basket case. He just did not have the rigour of administration, was easily influenced, was indebted to numerous armed groups with multiple polarities and of course people exgagarated everything to him. On top..there was huge cold war between army officers who fought and the repartriated officers who had no appreciation of indian role…and all army officers with the militias…..Mujib just lost it and tried to be a king of sorts by his Baksal which resulted in the coup.
Actually Bengalis are very good as revolutionaries and anarchists…they are emotional and expolosive..but they lack the rogour to build nation. Even when they fought the Mughals..they kept fighting within themselves. No wonder Bangladesh did not go far.
As I said..it was extremely foolish of Pakistan not to build the eastern territory first……that happens when Army guys take power…they just have no vision of geo-political realities…you can’t blame India for that surely.
Mr. Ansari: Whenever any slumdog Hindu/bharti barks about 71 victory please tell him this ”Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing. There are many victories worse than a defeat” Pakistan was on losing side but still it fought, it was sanctioned up to neck. Slumdogs were sure of winning they had all support of soviets and its weapons. Pak army was involved in civil war for 9 months, Widespread Mutiny and not enough support from people, Pak has no tanks, few aircraft, few artillery units no air and naval support but still honourable and brave pakistanis including Bengalis fight and died for motherland. When pak army was exhausted fighting mukti Bahini slumdogs deemed it right to invade Eat pak their so-called victory is worse than defeat. One of my distant relative was 18 years old when he was sent to East Pak he never came back but sure he died for its motherland and this wont go waste. Pak army showed such courage and bravery which has never been recorded in history, a single platoon of 40 pak soldiers with WW2 weapons were against fighting a well armed division of 15000 slumdog soldiers in every village. We took revenge by destroying Soviet union into 15 states we will god willing destroy Bharat into 50 states.
Pakistan Zindabad!
Death to Bharat!
They know–they just use it as flamebait!
PS: One small point–the name of the country is Pakistan–only Bharatis call it PAK
The doctrine of Defence of East lies in West was wrong
The choice of Niyazi was wrong
The army disposition was wrong….they should have played for time and hold dhaka..not fighting over a dispersed front
and diplomacy was vey wrong…nothing comes if you tear papers in UN…..
again..yahya should have resigned much much earlier…to allow at least a pretense of democratic voice be heard,…why did he not do it in September??
And why wait till 4th December to start the Western Front War?? Indian artileery was heavily engaged from 20th Movember already???
Dear Moin,
Please read one of Pakistan’s high court judge’s comments on minorities.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/14-tactless-remarks-830-zj-10
I agree with the Chief Justice. At least the minorities are not enslaved as untouchables. Please read the Saachar Report