Scene1:
Around 3067 BCE (Place, Northern Bharat)
परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम्।
धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय संभवामि युगे युगे।।4.8।।
(for the protection; of the pious, the followers of the virtuous path, for the destruction; of the evil-doers, of the sinful ones; and also for establishing virtue fully;-for that purpose, I manifest Myself, in every age. Gita 4.8)
Scene2:
August, 1946, (Kolkata)
A 33 year old, stood his ground against the iconic Indian Leader M.K. Gandhi , and said “ I will not surrender a single piece of a weapon which had been or will be used to protect the lives and honor of my people, which would be used to protect the respect of the women of our community and which would be used to protect my land from being usurped …..I will not give up anything which can be used to protect ourselves”
What is the similarity of these two incidents? O my fellow Bhartiyas , it’s the belief which we have inherited from our ancestors , the heritage we need to protect with our lives and the belief which teaches us ;” धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः”
Characters:
Gopal Mukherjee aka Gopal Pantha :
There was a young man who used to stay in a non-descriptive by lane of Calcutta , once the crown jewel of the British Empire .Gopal Mukherjee used to be known as Gopal Pantha (Pantha= a Goat in Bengali ), because he used to run a meat shop in College Street .On the morning of 16 August 1946, he left for his shop as usual but when he heard about the trouble; he came back to his locality.
‘Muslim League volunteers were marching with long sticks in their hands. From Boubazar More to Harrison Road you could hear their slogans, “Larke lenge Pakistan.”
Then he heard that two goalas (dairymen) had been killed in Beliaghata and riots have started in Boubazar.’
Jugal Chandra Ghosh : used to run a wrestling club at Beliaghata . Politically agile Jugal was close to the leaders of Hindu Mahasabha and INTUC, Congress affiliated Trade Union Body. Beliaghata was having a mixed population at that time with numbers of Khatals (Small dairy units) and saw mills. Jugal was awestruck by the ferocity of the killing, which started in Kolkata in the middle of August of 1946. in his own words “I saw four trucks standing, all with dead bodies, piled at least three feet high; like molasses in a sack, they were stacked on the trucks, blood and brain oozing out… that sight had a tremendous effect on me.” (Partition Tapes, 72, SOAS.)
Bhanu Bose: was a strong man who used to operate a gang with his brother Jagabandhu Bose, both loosely affiliated with the Congress Socialist Party. Their area of operation was under the jurisdiction of Muchipara thana in central Calcutta. Bhanu came into the radar of Police in context of the protest agitation in February 1946 against the conviction of Rashid Ali; of the Indian National Army (INA). He advised his men to retaliate against the police sergeants and sahebs (Britishers) . This, he explained, would ‘help us free India’. The police arrested him on 5 April 1946. Well-connected as Bhanu was, the police had to set him free in a matter of weeks.
When Calcutta plunged into communal mayhem in August 1946, Bhanu’s name surfaced again in police records .The fury of the Riot drove Bhanu to take a stand and he again came into limelight for his role in the Hindu retaliation against the marauding mob who was hell bent to wipe out the majority from the city of Kolkata and neighboring districts .
Indrajit Das : was the leader of Kalitara Bose lane group. There was a bustee (slums) of Muslims in the vicinity of his area. Indrajit was active in containing the spread of the arson and riot from this Mia Bagan bustee.
Naresh Chandra Ghose: A special Constable with the Kolkata Police, Naresh was with Indrajit during the days of retaliation against the hellfire created by the arsonist mob who attacked the peaceful majority after the meeting of Maidan on 16th of August 1946 .
Background:
What happened in Kolkata in August 1946 ? What was the common thread which brought in the above-mentioned characters into the forefront and apparently connected all of them together? What was the cause which enraged the likes of Gopal, Bhanu , Jugal, Indrajit and Naresh and compelled them to do something which brought them for look out by the Police ?
The answer is , they wanted to protect the men and women of their community and in the process defeated the sinister plan of Shahid Suhrawardy, the then Premier of Bengal and an active leader of Muslim League which was vying for the creation of Pakistan and wanted Kolkata to be a part of it .
Let’s take a journey down the memory lane to understand the reason for this fall out between two communities.
The rise of the Muslim political identity in institutional politics was matched by a rising consciousness amongst Hindus particularly after the Government of India Act (1935) that provided for provincial autonomy based on separate electorates. This was yet another turning point in the communal politics of Bengal.
Similarly, the Bengal Secondary Education Bill (1940) that proposed to increase Muslim representation in secondary education was seen by many Hindus as an attempt to curb their influence. Therefore, in the years between 1935 and 1947 ‘communal relations in Calcutta and Bengal deteriorated tragically.
In the early months of 1946, the Cabinet Mission Proposals had come to dominate the national political scene. Differences between the Congress and the Muslim League emerged on the question of whether to join the Interim Government. On July10 , Nehru declared in a press conference that although the Congress would join the Constituent Assembly, it was free to modify the Cabinet Mission Plan.
The Muslim League reacted immediately. In a resolution passed by the National Muslim Parliament held in Bombay on July 29, it stated its resolve to reject the Cabinet Proposals. ‘It has become abundantly clear that the Muslims of India would not rest content with anything less than the immediate establishment of an independent and full sovereign state of Pakistan and would resist any attempt to impose any constitution … or setting up of any Interim Government at the center without the approval and consent of the Muslim League; the Council of the All India Muslim League is convinced that now the time has come for the Muslim Nation to resort to Direct Action to achieve Pakistan … ‘ ( Text of Resolution passed in a meeting of the Muslim League Council at Bombay, 29 July 1946, quoted in Sumit Sarkar, ed., Towards Freedom, vol 1., p., 408. See also Public and Judicial Department Reports, L/PJ/10174, p., 8, IOLR.)
August 16 was marked as Direct-Action Day by Muslims throughout the country. In Bengal, with a Muslim League ministry in power, a special effort would be made to demonstrate the strength of Muslim convictions about Pakistan.
On Friday August 16, the Dawn came out with a full page ‘pledge of sacrifice,’ when Muslims in India would have to win their rights at the cost of their lives.
A mass rally was planned at the foot of the Ochterlony Monument near Dalhousie Square, Kolkata where Suhrawardy, Nazimuddin and other League leaders were to speak. Many of them apprehended trouble and knew the fire was waiting to be ignited. (Noteworthy was Premier Suhrawardy’s statement in The Statesman, 16 August 1946: ‘The Muslims should observe the day peacefully and in a disciplined manner. In spite of all the precautions and statements there was always a danger of conflict arising’).
A few days ago before the Direct Action Day ,on 4 August, The Muslim National Guard Convention was addressed by Suhrawardy where he passionately appealed for preparing for the great fight ahead while a joint conference of the Executive Committee of the Calcutta branch of the Muslim League took place with representatives of the Branch League, Mohalla Sardars and Muslim Labour workers of Calcutta, Howrah, Hoogly, Matiabruz and 24 Parganas.
There was a huge mob which gathered at Maidan on that inauspicious day of 16th August and the mob was in frenzy. Eyewitness account says that, some were intoxicated, either with alcohol or with enthusiasm…. Slogans about the famous warrior Khalifa Hazrat Ali …. and they carried huge imaginary portraits of Jinnah in battle dress, riding on a white horse, scimitar by the side, and leading the battle of the hordes against the infidels.
In his address the Chief Minister Suhrawardy reportedly assured the crowd that the military and police were ‘restrained.’ And all hell broke lose after that …….it was a state sponsored pogrom which took place in Kolkata, which started just after the meeting at Maidan. The city saw dance of death, lawlessness and one sided killing of the Hindu population …. the gory account of rape of Hindu women and killing of Hindu population would create a shudder in the minds of the readers till today.
A large number of Muslim rioters were kasais or butchers from north and central Calcutta, as well as khalasis or dockworkers, masons and hackney carriage drivers.After the stabbings and killings, the dead were either left on the streets or thrown into manholes. These corpses found their way through underground drains to the drainage pumping stations of the city.
The cobweb Calcutta Lanes and By Lanes became the hunting ground for the Muslim Rioters; in which they started roaming around undauntedly and was on a killing spree.
16th and 17th of August saw one sided killing of the Hindus by the well-organized state sponsored Muslim machinery and Suhrawardy stationed himself at the Police Head Quarters to keep the Law and Order ineffective as promised. He had a bigger plan to displace the majority Hindu population from Kolkata and surrounding districts as he wanted this place to be part of the East Pakistan.
Initially it was reported over 170 dead and nearly 1,000 injured, but numbers of both categories must be many times these figures. Within a few months a Government report claimed 3,700 dead and 11 ,000 seriously injured in the Calcutta Riots
Retaliation by the Hindus:
But in his wildest of dreams, Suhrawardy never imagined the so called peaceful, meek Hindus will fight back. It was not in his consideration and calculation.
He might have never imagined , the call of ;” धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितःwill be taken so seriously by a section of the Hindu youths that they would match the fire by fire and will surpass the ferocity of the Muslim Rioters with a higher ruthlessness.
The band of Justice League of Kolkata, Hindu youths like Gopal, Yugal, Bhanu, Indrajit, Naresh along with their groups started to hunt back the hunters . The one-sided affair became a losing game for the Muslim arsonists. The lanes and by lanes which was seeing the rampage by the Muslim rioters suddenly became their death beds.
Gopal called up his followers and organized his boys because he thought ‘it was a very critical time for the country; the country had to be saved. If we become a part of Pakistan, we will be oppressed … said; this is the time we have to retaliate, and you have to answer brutality with brutality. Gopal told his followers; “if they kill one, you should kill ten”
However, he strictly cautioned his boys that No Muslim Kid and woman to be harmed or disrespected (The oral testimony of Gopal Pantha and others used in the chapter are from interviews conducted by Andrew Whitehead and Anuradha Awasthi for a BBC programme on 50 years of India’s independence)
Jugal raised money from the neighbourhood sawmills, factories and Khatals (dairy-sheds) and distributed it among his boys who took the battle to the opponents and beat them .
Bhanu was instrumental in regaining the ground in and around Muchipara. With his group he wrestled out the area from the grip of the Muslim marauders.
It was an overall struggle for existence for the Hindus of Kolkata. The Muslim League had planned for their total annihilation and wanted the economic center of Kolkata to be a part of the East Pakistan, however they could never imagine their plan will be foiled by the dogged resistance from the Justice League of Kolkata Streets , the unassuming people like Gopal, Jugal, Bhanu , Indrajit , Naresh will rise to the occasion and will win the battle which the Muslims thought ;they had mastered .
Seeing the turn of the tide, finally Army was called in to restore law and order in Kolkata. Suhrawardy backtracked and the city of Kolkata slowly started limping back to normalcy.
M.K. Gandhi came to Kolkata and urged these people, to surrender their arms to initiate the peace process. Gopal and Bhanu denied to do so. Bhanu’s defiance led to a split with his brother Jagabandhu.
The Great Calcutta Killing , as the Amrita Bazar Patrika named it would have resulted in one sided killing and displacement of Hindus from the city of Kolkata , which happened a after a few months ( During October 1946) from Noakhali , present day Bangladesh if and only if the men like Gopal, Bhanu, Yugal would not have shown their mettle .
Whether these people were good men or goondas (local strongmen) as per popular belief that’s a different discussion altogether, but the most important contribution of these men is, they paid back the Butcher of Calcutta, Suhrawardy in his own coin. The Week of Long Knives came to an end due to the super human effort of the street groups led by these individuals.
Figures like Gopal Mukherjee, Yugal Ghose, Bhanu Bose sit uncomfortably within Indian historiography and in most cases have not been given the recognition which is due to them. One astonishing point to note , that the efforts of these valiant people have been whitewashed by the so called Institutional historians , they have been painted as Goondas, but one thing we should keep in mind that the resistance which they had initiated and implemented protected Kolkata from going into the clutch of Muslim League and eventually to Pakistan
An objective analysis of their works rather than their characters would have been a better option to give them the credit for saving thousands of Hindu Lives and ultimately the city of Calcutta from being a part of Pakistan.
M.K.Gandhi came and started to fast and demanded these men should surrender the arms, however the development of Noakhali , another pogrom which took place just after four months of Great Calcutta Killing ( October 1946) ; revalidated the stand of these men, they had risen up and protected the city , but Hindus of Noakhali couldn’t protect themselves and got slaughtered , raped .Uprooted and displaced from their ancestral land , the same could have happened to many Hindus of Calcutta and neighboring districts ; but Calcutta had the likes of Gopal, Yugal and Bhanu and above all Shyamaprasad.