Rajasankar
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to பண்புடன், errajasa...@gmail.com
கடிதத்தின் தொடர்ச்சி
CAUSES OF THE FEBRUARY DISTURBANCE
18. It must be noted that stories of a few incidents of communal
disturbance that took place in West Bengal as a sort of repercussion
of the incidents at Kalshira were published in exaggerated form in he
East Bengal press. In the second week of February 1950 when the Budget
Session of the East Bengal Assembly commenced, the Congress Members
sought permission to move two adjournment motions to discuss the
situation created at Kalshira and Nachole. But the motions were
disallowed. The Congress members walked out of the Assembly in
protest. This action of the Hindu members of the Assembly annoyed and
enraged not only the Ministers but also the Muslim leaders and
officials of the Province. This was perhaps one of the principal
reasons for Dacca and East Bengal riots in February 1950.
19. It is significant that on February 10, 1950 at about 10 o'clock in
the morning a woman was painted with red to show that her breast was
cut off in Calcutta riot, and was taken round the East Bengal
Secretariat at Dacca. Immediately the Government servants of the
Secretariat stuck work and came out in procession raising slogans of
revenge against the Hindus. The procession began to swell as it passed
over a distance of more than a mile. It ended in a meeting at Victoria
Park at about 12 o'clock in the noon where violent speeches against
the Hindus were delivered by several speakers, including officials.
The fun of the whole show was that while the employees of the
Secretariat went out of procession, the Chief Secretary of the East
Bengal Government was holding a conference with his West Bengal
counterpart in the same building to find out ways and means to stop
communal disturbances in the two Bengals.
OFFICIALS HELPED LOOTERS
20. The riot started at about 1 p.m. simultaneously all over the city.
Arson, looting of Hindu shops and houses and killing of Hindus,
wherever they were found, commenced in full swing in all parts of the
city. I got evidence even from the Muslims that arson and looting were
committed even in the presence of high police officials. Jewellery
shops belonging to the Hindus were looted in the presence of police
officers. They not only did not attempt to stop loot, but also helped
the looters with advice and direction. Unfortunately for me, I reached
Dacca at 5 o'clock in the afternoon on the same day, in February10,
1950. To my utter dismay, I had occasion to see and know things from
close quarters. What I saw and learnt from firsthand information was
simply staggering and heart-rending.
BACKGROUND OF THE RIOT
21. The reasons for the Dacca riot were mainly five:
(i) To punish the Hindus for the daring action of their
representatives in the Assembly in their expression of protest by
walking out of the Assembly when two adjournment motions on Kalshira
and Nachole affairs were disallowed.
(ii) Dissension and differences between the Suhrawardy Group and the
Nazimuddin Group in the Parliamentary Party were becoming acute.
(iii) Apprehension of launching of a movement for re-union of East and
West Bengal by both Hindu and Muslim leaders made the East Bengal
Ministry and the Muslim League nervous. They wanted to prevent such a
move. They though that any large-scale communal riot in East Bengal
was sure to produce reactions in West Bengal where Muslims might be
killed. The result of such riots in both East and West Bengal, it was
believed, would prevent any movement for re-union of Bengals.
(iv) Feeling of antagonism between the Bengali Muslims and non-Bengali
Muslims in East Bengal was gaining ground. This could only be
prevented by creating hatred between Hindus and Muslims of East
Bengal. The language question was also connected with it and
(v) The consequences of non-devaluation and the Indo-Pakistan trade
deadlock to the economy of East Bengal were being felt most acutely
first in urban and rural areas and the Muslim League members and
officials wanted to divert the attention of the Muslim masses from the
impending economic breakdown by some sort of Jihad against Hindus.
STAGGERING DETAILS - NEARLY 10,000 KILLED
22. During my nine days' stay at Dacca, I visited most of the riot-
affected areas of the city and suburbs. I visited Mirpur also under
P.S. Tejgaon. The news of the killing of hundreds of innocent Hindus
in trains, on railway lines between Dacca and Narayanganj, and Dacca
and Chittagong gave me the rudest shock. On the second day of Dacca
riot, I met the Chief Minister of East Bengal and requested him to
issue immediate instructions to the District authorities to take all
precautionary measures to prevent spreading of the riot in district
towns and rural areas. On the 20th February 1950, I reached Barisal
town and was astounded to know of the happenings in Barisal. In the
District town, a number of Hindu houses were burnt and a large number
of Hindus killed. I visited almost all riot-affected areas in the
District. I was simply puzzled to find the havoc wrought by the Muslim
rioters even at places like Kasipur, Madhabpasha and Lakutia which
were within a radius of six miles from the District town and were
connected with motorable roads. At the Madhabpasha Zamindar's house,
about 200 people were killed and 40 injured. A place, called Muladi,
witnessed a dreadful hell. At Muladi Bandar alone, the number killed
would total more than three hundred, as was reported to me by the
local Muslims including some officers. I visited Muladi village also,
where I found skeletons of dead bodies at some places. I found dogs
and vultures eating corpses on he river-side. I got the information
there that after the whole-scale killing of all adult males, all the
young girls were distributed among the ringleaders of the miscreants.
At a place called Kaibartakhali under P.S. Rajapur, 63 persons were
killed. Hindu houses within a stone's throw distance from the said
thana office were looted, burnt and inmates killed. All Hindu shops of
Babuganj Bazar were looted and then burnt and a large number of Hindus
were killed. From detailed information received, the conservative
estimate of casualties was placed at 2,500 killed in the District of
Barisal alone. Total casualties of Dacca and East Bengal riot were
estimated to be in the neighbourhood of 10,000 killed. The lamentation
of women and children who had lost their all including near and dear
ones melted my heart. I only asked myself "What was coming to Pakistan
in the name of Islam."
NO EARNEST DESIRE TO IMPLEMENT DELHI PACT
23. The large scale exodus of Hindus from Bengal commenced in the
latter part of March. It appeared that within a short time all the
Hindus would migrate to India. A war cry was raised in India. The
situation became extremely critical. A national calamity appeared to
be inevitable. The apprehended disaster, however, was avoided by the
Delhi Agreement of April 8. With a view to reviving the already lost
morale of the panicky Hindus, I undertook an extensive tour of East
Bengal. I visited a number of places of the districts of Dacca,
Barisal, Faridpur, Khulna and Jessore. I addressed dozens of largely
attended meetings and asked the Hindus to take courage and not to
leave their ancestral hearths and homes. I had this expectation that
the East Bengal Govt. and Muslim League leaders would implement the
terms of the Delhi Agreement. But with the lapse of time, I began to
realise that neither the East Bengal Govt. nor the Muslim League
leaders were really earnest in the matter of implementation of the
Delhi Agreement. The East Bengal Govt. was not only ready to set up a
machinery as envisaged in the Delhi Agreement, but also was not
willing to take effective steps for the purpose. A number of Hindus
who returned to native village immediately after the Delhi Agreement
were not given possession of their homes and lands which were occupied
in the meantime by the Muslims.
MOULANA AKRAM KHAN'S INCITATIONS
24. My suspicion about the intention of League leaders was confirmed
when I read editorial comments by Moulana Akram Khan, the President of
the Provincial Muslim League in the "Baisak" issue of a monthly
journal called 'Mohammadi'. In commenting on the first radio-broadcast
of Dr.A.M.Malik, Minister for Minority Affairs of Pakistan, from Dacca
Radio Station, wherein he said, "Even Prophet Mohammed had given
religious freedom to the Jews in Arabia", Moulana Akram Khan said,
"Dr.Malik would have done well had he not made any reference in his
speech to the Jews of Arabia. It is true that the Jews in Arabia had
been given religious freedom by Prophet Mohammed; but it was the first
chapter of the history. The last chapter contains the definite
direction of prophet Mohammed which runs as follows:- "Drive away all
the Jews out of Arabia". Even despite this editorial comment of a
person who held a very high position in the political, social and
spiritual life of the Muslim community, I entertained some expectation
that the Nurul Amin Ministry might not be so insincere. But that
expectation of mine was totally shattered when Mr.Nurul Amin selected
D.N.Barari as a Minister to represent the minorities in terms of the
Delhi Agreement which clearly states that to restore confidence in the
minds of the minorities one of their representatives will be taken in
the Ministry of East Bengal and West Bengal Govt.
NURUL AMIN GOVERNMENT'S INSINCERITY
25. In one of my public statement, I expressed the view that the
appointment of D.N.Barari as a Minister representing the minorities
not only did not help restore any confidence, but, on the contrary,
destroyed all expectations illusions, if there was any in the minds of
the minorities about the sincerity of Mr.Nurul Amin's Govt. My own
reaction was that Mr.Nurul Amin's Govt. was not only insincere but
also wanted to defeat the principal objectives of the Delhi Agreement.
I again repeat that D.N.Barari does not represent anybody except
himself. He was returned to the Bengal Legislature Assembly on the
Congress ticket with the money and organisation of the Congress. He
opposed the Scheduled Caste Federation candidates. Some time after his
election, he betrayed the Congress and joined the Federation. When he
was appointed a Minister he had ceased to be a member of the
Federation too. I know that East Bengal Hindus agree with me that by
antecedents, character and intellectual attainments Barari is not
qualified to hold the position of a Minister as envisaged in the Delhi
Agreement.
26. I recommended three names to Mr.Nurul Amin for this office. One of
the persons I recommended was an MA.,LL.B., Advocate, Dacca High
Court. He was Minister for more than 4 years in the first Fazlul Huq
Ministry in Bengal. He was chairman of the Coal Mines Stowing Board,
Calcutta, for about 6 years. He was the senior Vice-President of the
Scheduled Caste Federation. My second nominee was a B.A., LL.B. He was
a member of the Legislative Council for 7 years in the pre-reform
regime. I would like to know what earthly reasons there might be for
Mr.Nurul Amin in not selecting any of these two gentlemen and
appointing instead a person whose appointment as Minister I strongly
objected to for very rightly considerations. Without any fear of
contradiction I can say that this action of Mr.Nurul Amin in selecting
Barari as a Minister in terms of the Delhi Agreement is conclusive
proof that the East Bengal Govt. was neither serious nor sincere in
its professions about the terms of the Delhi Agreement whose main
purpose is to create such conditions as would enable the Hindus to
continue to live in East Bengal with a sense of security to their
life, property, honour and religion.
GOVERNMENT PLAN TO SQUEEZE OUT HINDUS
27. I would like to reiterate in this connection my firm conviction
that East Bengal Govt. is still following the well-planned policy of
squeezing Hindus out of the Province. in my discussion with you on
more than one occasion, I gave expression to this view of mine. I must
say that this policy of driving out Hindus from Pakistan has succeeded
completely in West Pakistan and is nearing completion in East Pakistan
too. The appointment of D.N.Barari as a Minister and the East Bengal
Government's unceremonious objection to my recommendation in this
regard strictly conform to name of what they call an Islamic State.
Pakistan has not given the Hindus entire satisfaction and a full sense
of security. They now want to get rid of the Hindu intelligentsia so
that the political, economic and social life of Pakistan may not in
any way be influenced by them.
EVASIVE TACTICS TO SHELVE JOINT ELECTORATE
28. I have failed to understand why the question of electorate has not
yet been decided. It is now three years that the minority Sub-
Committee has been appointed. It sat on three occasions. The question
of having joint or separation electorate came up for consideration at
a meting of the Committee held in December last when all the
representatives of recognised minorities in Pakistan expressed their
view in support of Joint Electorate with reservation of seats for
backward minorities. We, on behalf of the Scheduled Castes, demanded
joint electorate with reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes. This
matter again came up for consideration at a meeting called in August
last. But without any discussion whatsoever on this point, the meeting
was adjourned sine die. It is not difficult to understand what the
motive is behind this kind of evasive tactics in regard to such a
vital matter on the part of Pakistan's rulers.
DISMAL FUTURE FOR HINDUS
29. Coming now to the present condition and the future of Hindus in
East Bengal as a result of the Delhi Agreement, I should say that the
present condition is not only unsatisfactory but absolutely hopeless
and that the future completely dark and dismal. Confidence of Hindus
in East Bengal has not been restored in the least. The Agreement is
treated as a mere scrap of paper alike by the East Bengal Government
and the Muslim League. That a pretty large number of Hindus migrants,
mostly Scheduled Caste cultivators are returning to East Bengal is no
indication that confidence has been restored. It only indicates that
their stay and rehabilitation in West Bengal, or elsewhere in the
Indian Union have not been possible. The sufferings of refugee life
are compelling them to go back to their homes. Besides, many of them
are going back to bring movable articles and settle or dispose of
immovable properties. That no serious communal disturbance has
recently taken place in East Bengal is not to be attributed to the
Delhi Agreement. It could not simply continue even if there were no
Agreement or Pact.
30. It must be admitted that the Delhi Pact was not an end in itself.
It was intended that such conditions would be created as might
effectively help resolve so many disputes and conflict existing
between India and Pakistan. But during this period of six months after
the Agreement, no dispute or conflict has really been resolved. On the
contrary, communal propaganda and anti-India propaganda by Pakistan
both at home and abroad are continuing in full swing. The observance
of Kashmir Day by the Muslim League all over Pakistan is an eloquent
proof of communal anti-India propaganda by Pakistan. The recent speech
of the Governor of Punjab (Pak) saying that Pakistan needed a strong
Army for the security of Indian Muslims has betrayed the real attitude
of Pakistan towards India. It will only increase the tension between
the two countries.
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN EAST BENGAL TODAY
31. What is today the condition in East Bengal? About fifty lakhs of
Hindus have left since the partition of the country. Apart from the
East Bengal riot of last February, the reasons for such a large scale
exodus of Hindus are many. The boycott by the Muslims of Hindu
lawyers, medical practitioners, shop-keepers, traders and merchants
has compelled Hindus to migrate to West Bengal in search of their
means of livelihood. Wholesale requisition of Hindu houses even
without following due process of law in many and non-payment of any
rent whatsoever to the owners have compelled them to seek for Indian
shelter. Payments of rent to Hindu landlords was stopped long before.
Besides, the Ansars against whom I received complaints all over are a
standing menace to the safety and security of Hindus. Inference in
matters of education and methods adopted by the Education Authority
for Islamisation frightened the teaching staff of Secondary Schools
and Colleges out of their old familiar moorings. They have left East
Bengal. As a result, most of the educational institutions have been
closed. I have received information that sometime ago the Educational
Authority issued circular in Secondary Schools enjoining compulsory
participation of teachers and students of all communities in
recitation from the Holy Koran before the school work commenced.
Another circular requires Headmasters of schools to name the different
blocks of the premises after 12 distinguished Muslims, such as,
Jinnah, Iqbal, Liaquat Ali, Nazimuddin, etc. Only very recently in an
educational conference held at Dacca, the President disclosed that out
of 1,500 High English Schools in East Bengal, only 500 were working.
Owing to the migration of Medical Practitioners there is hardly any
means of proper treatment of patients. Almost all the priests who used
to worship the household deities at Hindu houses have left. Important
places of worship have been abandoned. The result is that the Hindus
of East Bengal have got now hardly any means to follow religious
pursuits and performance of social ceremonies like marriage where the
services of a priest are essential. Artisans who made images of gods
and goddesses have also left. Hindu Presidents of Union Boards have
been replaced by Muslims by coercive measures with the active help and
connivance of the police and Circle Officers. Hindu Headmasters and
Secretaries of Schools have been replaced by Muslims. The Life of the
few Hindu Govt. servants has been made extremely miserable as many of
them have either been superseded by junior Muslims or dismissed
without sufficient or any cause. Only very recently a Hindu Public
Prosecutor of Chittagong was arbitrarily removed from service as has
been made clear in a statement made by Srijukta Nellie Sengupta
against whom at least no change of anti-Muslim bias prejudice or
malice can be leveled.
HINDUS VIRTUALLY OUTLAWED
32. Commission of thefts and dacoities even with murder is going on as
before. Thana offices seldom record half the complaints made by the
Hindus. That the abduction and rape of Hindu girls have been reduced
to a certain extent is due only to the fact that there is no Caste
Hindu girl between the ages of 12 and 30 living in East Bengal at
present. The few depressed class girls who live in rural areas with
their parents are not even spared by Muslim goondas. I have received
information about a number of incidents of rape of Scheduled Caste
Girls by Muslims. Full payment is seldom made by Muslims buyers for
the price of jute and other agricultural commodities sold by Hindus in
market places. As a matter of fact, there is no operation of law,
justice or fair-play in Pakistan, so far as Hindus are concerned.
FORCED CONVERSIONS IN WEST PAKISTAN
33. Leaving aside the question of East Pakistan, let me now refer to
West Pakistan, especially Sind. The West Punjab had after partition
about a lakh of Scheduled Castes people. It may be noted that a large
number of them were converted to Islam. Only 4 out of a dozen
Scheduled Castes girls abducted by Muslims have yet been recovered in
spite of repeated petitions to the Authority. Names of those girls
with names of their abductors were supplied to the government. The
last reply recently given by the Officer-in-Charge of recovery of
abducted girls said that "his function was to recover Hindu girls and
'Achhuts' (Scheduled Castes) were not Hindus". The condition of the
small number of Hindus that are still living in Sind and Karachi, the
capital of Pakistan, is simply deplorable. I have got a list of 363
Hindu temples and gurdwaras of Karachi and Sind (which is by no means
an exhaustive list) which are still in possession of Muslims. Some of
the temples have been converted into cobbler's shops, slaughter houses
and hotels. None of the Hindus has got back. Possession of their
landed properties were taken away from them without any notice and
distributed amongst refugees and local Muslims. I personally know that
200 to 300 Hindus were declared non-evacuees by the Custodian a pretty
long time ago. But up till now properties have no been restored to any
one of them. Even the possession of Karachi Pinjirapole[ii][2] has not
been restored to the trustees, although it was declared non-evacuee
property sometime ago. In Karachi I had received petitions from many
unfortunate fathers and husbands of abducted Hindu girls, mostly
Scheduled Castes. I drew the attention of the 2nd Provisional
Government to this fact. There was little or no effect. To my extreme
regret I received information that a large number of Scheduled Castes
who are still living in Sind have been forcibly converted to Islam.
PAKISTAN 'ACCURSED' FOR HINDUS
34. Now this being in brief the overall picture of Pakistan so far as
the Hindus are concerned, I shall not be unjustified in stating that
Hindus of Pakistan have to all intents and purposes been rendered
"Stateless" in their own houses. They have no other fault than that
they profess the Hindu religion. Declarations are being repeatedly
made by Muslim League leaders that Pakistan is and shall be an Islamic
State. Islam is being offered as the sovereign remedy for all earthly
evils. In the matchless dialectics of capitalism and socialism you
present the exhilarating democratic synthesis of Islamic equality and
fraternity. In that grand setting of the Shariat Muslims alone are
rulers while Hindus and other minorities are zimmies who are entitled
to protection at price, and you know more than anybody else Mr.Prime
Minister, what that price is. After anxious and prolonged struggle I
have come to the conclusion that Pakistan is no place for Hindus to
live in and that their future is darkened by the ominous shadow of
conversion or liquidation. The bulk of the upper class Hindus and
politically conscious scheduled castes have left East Bengal. Those
Hindus who will continue to stay accursed in Pakistan will, I am
afraid, by gradual stages and in a planned manner be either converted
to Islam or completely exterminated. It is really amazing that a man
of your education, culture and experience should be an exponent of a
doctrine fraught with so great a danger to humanity and subversive of
all principles of equality and good sense. I may tell you and your
fellow workers that Hindus will allow themselves, whatever the treat
or temptation, to be treated as Zimmies in the land of their birth.
Today they may, as indeed many of them have already done, abandon
their hearths and homes in sorrow but in panic. Tomorrow they strive
for their rightful place in the economy of life. Who knows what is in
the womb of the future ? When I am convinced that my continuance in
office in the Pakistan Central Government is not of any help to Hindus
I should not with a clear conscience, create the false impression in
the minds of the Hindus of Pakistan and peoples abroad that Hindus can
live there with honour and with a sense of security in respect of
their life, property and religion. This is about Hindus.
NO CIVIL LIBERTY EVEN FOR MUSLIMS
35. And what about the Muslims who are outside the charmed circle of
the League rulers and their corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy ?
There is hardly anything called civil liberty in Pakistan . Witness
for example, the fate of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan than whom a more
devout Muslim had not walked this earth for many years and of his
gallant patriotic brother Dr. Khan Sahib. A large number of erstwhile
League leaders of the Northwest and also of the Eastern belt of
Pakistan are in detention without trial. Mr. Suhrawardy to whom is due
in a large measure the League's triumph in Bengal is for practical
purpose a Pakistani prisoner who has to move under permit and open his
lips under orders. Mr. Fazlul Haq, that dearly loved grand old man of
Bengal, who was the author of that now famous Lahore resolution, is
ploughing his lonely furrow in the precincts of the Dacca High Court
of Judicature, and the so called Islamic planning is as ruthless as it
is complete. About the East Bengal Muslims general, the less said the
better. They were promised of autonomous and sovereign units of the
independent State. What have they got instead ? East Bengal has been
transformed into a colony of the western belt of Pakistan, although it
contained a population which is larger than that of all the units of
Pakistan put together. It is a pale ineffective adjunct of Karachi
doing the latter's bidding and carrying out its orders. East Bengal
Muslims in their enthusiasm wanted bread and they have by the
mysterious working of the Islamic State and the Shariat got stone
instead from the arid deserts of Sind and the Punjab.
MY OWN SAD AND BITTER EXPERIENCE
36. Leaving aside the overall picture of Pakistan and the callous and
cruel injustice done to others, my own personal experience is no less
sad, bitter and revealing. You used your position as the Prime
Minister and leader of the Parliamentary Party to ask me to issue a
statement, which I did on the 8th September last. You know that I was
not willing to make a statement containing untruths and half truths,
which were worse that untruths. It was not possible for me to reject
your request so long as I was there working as a Minister with you and
under your leadership. But I can no longer afford to carry this load
of false pretensions and untruth on my conscience and I have decided
to offer my resignation as your Minister, which I am hereby placing in
your hands and which, I hope, you will accept without delay. You are
of course at liberty to dispense with that office or dispose of it in
such a manner as may suit adequately and effectively the objectives of
your Islamic State.
Yours sincerely,
Sd./- J.N. Mandal
8th October 1950