The CAA since its inception has generated a lot of controversy and has been the greatest bone of contention between the Government and its detractors, namely the so called “secular” left and the Islamic fraternity. Apart from the violent reactions pan India, it is also a topic of paramount importance for the 2021 assembly polls of West Bengal, which harbors a significant refugee population from Bangladesh, erstwhile East Pakistan. The genesis goes all the way back to a forgotten Hindu Genocide in 1950 which started in 10th February and lasted for over two months and ended with the greatest betrayal known to the Bengali Hindus, known as the Nehru-Liaqat Pact.
Nachole Police Station area was a Hindu majority inhabited by mainly Santals and Bengali Hindus and also a hotbed of Communist Tebhaga Movement. On 5th January, 5 policemen were killed by Santals, when they opened fire to disperse the villagers gathered to protest the arrest of one of them. This also led to identical reprisal rape and killings from a 2000 strong Army contingent, assisted by police and East Pakistan Ansars. Around hundred peasants died in police custody. Communist leader Ila Mitra was caught and subjected to grotesque sexual torture within the precinct of the police station itself, which included stripping, inserting boiled egg inside her genitals and rape. Like a true communist she tried to whitewash the fact the bestiality was driven by Islamic hatred for the Hindu Kafir, the basic founding principle of the state of Pakistan.
These two events led to a large refugee influx in the Indian state of West Bengal and consequently Hindu-Muslim riots started in Kolkata. The communal violence was swiftly quelled by the state administration led by Chief Minister Bidhan Chandra Roy. However, the Pakistan administration resorted to malicious propaganda and rumor mongering on alleged persecution of Muslims in Kolkata. On 6th and 7th February, Radio Pakistan broadcasted that ten thousand Muslims were killed in Kolkata and gave a call for ‘action’. A local daily called the ‘Pashban’ inflated the number to one hundred thousand. Other local dailies and also prominent newspapers like the “Dawn”, jumped in the bandwagon of rumour-mongering which ended with disastrous consequences for the minority Hindus. (Kamra, 2000) (Roy, 2007) (Jugantar Archives)
High Drama at State Secretariat
Another Oscar-winning performance of rumor mongering took place in Dhaka Secretariat which had clear footprint of the Pakistani state
In February 1950, Sukumar Sen, the Chief Secretary of West Bengal had travelled to Dhaka to hold the Chief Secretary level dialogue with his East Bengal counterpart Aziz Ahmed. On 10 February, at around 10 A.M. in the morning, when the talks were in progress, a Muslim woman in blood-stained clothes was paraded in front of the Secretariat building. It was alleged that she had been raped in Kolkata and her breasts chopped off . The Secretariat employees immediately struck work and started a procession shouting anti-Hindu slogans. Allegedly Mr Sen was heckled by the so called protestors.As they progressed towards Nawabpur, many others joined the procession, which ended at the Victoria Park. At 12 noon, a rally was held at the park where the speakers, some of them employees of the Secretariat, made fierce anti-Hindu speeches. At around 1 P.M., as soon as the rally broke, riots commenced. (Lahiri) (Roy, 2007)
Theatre 1:Dhaka
The fact that the riot was preplanned was betrayed in Prabhas Chandra Lahiri’s book ‘Pak-Bharater Ruprekha’ .PC Lahiri had received a tip off that riots would start after the Namaz ,which actually did after the Secretariat drama and police remained a mute spectator.An estimated 50,000 Hindus were displaced in seven hours of murder loot and arson. According to the PTI reports, the worst affected areas were Banagram and Makims Lane. Most of the houses in the two predominantly Hindu localities were completely looted, many completely burnt down and places of worship desecrated.Hindu residents of Wari,a posh locality in Dhaka a modern equivalent of Ballygunge in Kolkata or Greater Kailash in Delhi , abandoned their homes and took refuge in the precinct of Indian High Commission in Dhaka. Residences and properties of sitting Hindu MLAs were attacked and destroyed with impunity .A prominent example being Mr Manohar Dhali’s Hotel.On the afternoon of 12 February, 60 India-bound Hindu passengers were attacked at the Kurmitola airport.All the non-Muslim passengers arriving at the Tejgaon airport were stabbed. East Pakistan Ansars in plain clothes were witnessed killing the Hindus while the administration turned a Nelson’s eye. According to Indian government sources, the bodies of 200 Hindu victims were cremated in the first two days of violence.On 24 February 1950, the U.S. ambassador to India wrote to the U.S. Secretary of State that between 600 and 1,000 Hindus were killed and thousands injured in Dhaka area.It was observed that after 1950 killings Hindu property holding fell to merely 12.7% from 55%and 90% of the Hindu residents migrated to India.Similarly the Hindu student population shrank from 2900 to forty only.From 65% of the college students,only 12 remained at the end of the massacre.Similarly for Hindu businesses,out of 1500 shops only 157 remained. (Lahiri) (Jugantar Archives)
Barisal district suffered the worst atrocities of the entire pogrom. Unlike in urban areas, in the rural areas the lead in the massacre was taken by Bengali speaking Muslims. As in Dhaka, it all started with preplanned rumour or mongering ,aided and abetted by Magistrate G A Farooqi.Minister Janab Tofajjel Ali toured Barisal district and provoked the local Muslims against the Hindus.On 13th February a meeting was convened in local Town hall and was addressed by Muslim league secretary Mr. Mahiuddin and ex DM Hassanali Mir.In the meeting a rumor was spread about popular leader Fajlul Haque being murdered in Kolkata along with his nephew and the Muslims were exhorted to extract revenge from local Hindus.Mr Farooqui, in spite of being aware of the volatile situation in Dhaka did nothing to stop these provocations .At the end of the pogrom he was rewarded with a promotion by the Muslim League as the commissioner of Rajshahi divison. (Singha)
Madhabpasha Massacre: Barisal
In Madhabpasha village,PS Babugunje, a couple of Hundreds of Hindus we’re trapped in a local Zamindar’s mansion.They were visited by Magistrate Farooqi,Additional SP Mr. R Khan and others of the local administration and assured protection.But no help; came in reality and soon after the officials left, a frenzied mob was let loose on the hapless inmates as if they were waiting for a signal .Around 300 Hindu men were rounded up , stripped naked, made to squat in a row and their heads chopped off one by onewith a Ramda(a heavy cutlass).Babies were snatched from their mothers and thrown below to be skewered on spikes by the mobs waiting downstairs ,as a kind of sport.A parallel can be drawn with Banu Quaryza massacre, were around 700 Jews were beheaded by Islamic armies (Kamra, 2000) (Roy, 2007) (Singha).
Muladi Massacre: Barisal
Another infamous episode took place inside Muladi port.When loot and arson broke out in Muladi village in the Sadar Sub-division of Barisal,hundreds of Hindus ran for shelter to the Muladi police station. Several hundred were attacked and killed in the precinct of the police station itself and the women violated, in full view of the police officers. The police officer in charge was himself found in possession of a large quantity of jewellery looted from the victims. Eerily similar to the Nazis collecting the valuables from the Jews after gassing them.This incident is vividly described in Jogendra Nath Mandal’s letter who was the law and labour minister of Pakistan and a leader of the scheduled caste federation.
“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 (Roy, 2007) (Singha) (Jugantar Archives) (Mandal, 1950).”
Rajapur Massacre: Barisal
In Rajapur PS,near Jhalakati, nine family members and neighbours of a certain Mukhopadhyay family were beheaded ,including a nine year old girl and their heads were neatly arranged for display.The mob was led by Union Board president Azmat Ali Khan, League President Moqammel Hussain among other prominent Muslims.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 (Roy, 2007) (Singha).
Lakhutia Massacre: Barisal
In Lakhutia, Muslim mobs started looting and burning Hindu houses on February 15.More than a thousand hapless Hindus including women and children took refuge in the Lakhotia Rajbari, whose scion Indra Lal Roy was the Indian flying ace in World War I. As in Madhabpasha, Deputy Magistrate visited the trapped inmates and gave assurance to send a police force.Following the earlier pattern, instead a murderous Muslim mob stacked straw and tree branches around the Rajbari house and set it on fire. Engulfed by smoke and fire the trapped inmates tried to escape but were waylaid by the waiting mobs and around 50 of them were butchered. Many perished within the flames. Women were abducted and taken to nearby Muslim villages (Roy, 2007) (Singha) (Jugantar Archives).
Other Theatres in Chittagong Sylhet and Noakhali
Anti-Hindu violence started in Chittagong on 12th February at the instigation of Muslim League leader Fazlul Quader Chowdhury. At night the city went up in flames. Hindus were killed in Chittagong proper and adjoining areas such as Noapara, Chowdhury Hat, Patiya and Boalkhali. Fani Sen, a relative of legendary revolutionary Surya Sen was stabbed and killed in the violence. Four Buddhists were stabbed to death (Singha).
February, Hindus were attacked in Noakhali town. On 13th February, Hindus were attacked in broad daylight in Feni town, within 200 metres of the S.D.O., the Police station and the courts. Hindu women were abducted and forcefully married to Muslims. The attacks continued till 23rd February by when 4,500 Hindus had taken shelter at the refugee camp at Feni College and another 2,500 were scattered in various refugee camps across the Noakhali district. 5,000 Hindus fled to Belonia, in the Indian state of Tripura (Singha).
In Sylhet, the arson, loot and murder were perpetrated in an extensive manner. 203 villages were devastated and more than 800 Hindu religious places were desecrated. In the villages of Dhamai, Baradhami, Pubghat and Baraitali about 500 Bishnupriya Manipuri families were affected in the violence (Singha).
Train Massacres
The architects of the 1950 genocide tried to mimic the Punjab model of train massacres during the partition riots.The advantages for the organizers was that the victims from distant villages would be traveling in these trains and ascertaining their identity or exact number would be next to impossible and their crimes would be hidden from scrutiny.Needless to say, the rail authorities were hand in glove with the murderers.There were many who saw the railway staff at Akhaura junction washing coaches to remove bloodstains.The railway and steamer employees of East Bengal Government aided and abetted the murder squads by stopping the trains and steamers at wayward stations indicated by rape and murder squads.After the deed was done, the corpses would be buried on the sides of the railway lines by Muslim labourers’ popular modus-operand i was de-training the Hindu passengers by uniformed Ansars under the guise of protection and packing them in separate compartments marked for them.Initially some police would be posted in these compartments,who would disembark at the crucial moment after which the train would be stopped in between by pulling chains and murder squads took over.In mixed compartments,Muslim passengers would collaborate with the attackers and identify the hapless Hindu passengers travelling with them for murder and rejoice loudly after the deed was done.Worse still, the railway authorities would coerce the survivors to file a report of a normal railway robbery .Ghost trains would arrive in Sealdah station sans passengers , with compartments full of bloodstains, abandoned luggage, women’s clothing etc. While it is difficult to identify the exact number of train massacres and impossible to determine the bodycount, the notorious ones were Anderson/Bhairav bridge , Santahar and Sitakunda rail massacres. Hiren Chaki, the nephew of freedom fighter Prafulla Chaki was killed in the massacre (Kamra, 2000) (Roy, 2007) (Singha) (Jugantar Archives).
Anderson Bridge Massacre
Anderson Bridge also known as the Bhairab Bridge is a 1 km long railway bridge over the Meghna River, connecting Bhairab Bazar Junction in Kishoreganj District with Ashuganj in Brahmanbaria District. The bridge carries a single metre-gauge rail track. In 1950, it was an important rail link connecting Dhaka and Mymensingh districts on the west with Sylhet, Comilla and Chittagong districts in the east (Roy, 2007).
On 12 February, most of the Hindu passengers travelling on this train route were murdered. All the cases followed a pattern. The assailants would board the trains from either side either at Bhairab Bazar Junction or Ashuganj, just before the train departed. They would lock the doors of the compartment from inside. When the train was completely on the bridge, the train would stop. The assailants would pick out the Hindus one by one, force them out of the compartment, slit their throats and throw their corpses into the river.People trying to jump out would either be hit by steel girders or fall in crocodile infested waters.On the shores of Meghna river rioters would wait,brickbatting the survivors or drag them to the shores for massacre. Prabhas Chandra Lahiri has held Aziz Ahmed, the Chief Secretary of East Bengal and Abdul Majid, the District Magistrate of Rajshahi responsible for this massacre (Roy, 2007) (Jugantar Archives).
Santahar train massacre
A large number of Bihari Muslims were settled around the railway town of Santahar,close to Naogaon who took the lead in Santahar massacre.As per eyewitness accounts, trains were stopped just after they have left the station precinct and were surrounded by frenzied mobs armed with lethal weapons who massacred hundreds of passengers after barging into trains and dragging them out of compartments. Allegedly a Punjabi Muslim Railway crew inspector called Md. Sharif also leader of the Ansars,was the chief architect of the massacre (Roy, 2007) (Singha).
Sitakunda Rail Massacre:
Sitakunda in Chittagong district was a holy site of pilgrimage for the Bengali Hindus of East Bengal, Tripura and Assam. Every year on the occasion of Mahashivaratri thousands of pilgrims visited the Chandranath temple there. That year, on 14th& 15thFebruary, the East Pakistan Ansars and armed Muslim mobs murdered pilgrims arriving from Chittagong within the train and at Sitakunda railway station. All up and down trains on the Chittagong-Sitakunda route were looted, Hindu houses in Sitakunda were set on fire (Singha) (Jugantar Archives)
Steamer Massacre:
The waterways, a crucial mode of transport in East Bengal, witnessed similar massacres like the railways perpetrated by the steamer employees and Muslim mobs. The steamers would be stopped a secluded jetties, where murderous Muslim mob would murder, loot and rape the Hindu passengers. The corpses would be disposed in the river.
.Prominent examples are the steamer massacres were in ‘ SS Naga’,’S S Sitakunda’ and S S Ostrich.On 14th February,,Barisal bound Hindu passengers were killed on steamer Naga, and their bodies dumped in the river.
Ilsaghat is a steamer station on the Meghna, in the island of Bhola, 7 miles from Bhola town. It falls on the steamer route between Barisal and Chittagong. On 16 February 1950, the S.S.Sitakunda of the Royal Steam Navigation Company anchored at Ilsaghat on her way to Chittagong.Around 8 P.M. that night, hundreds of Muslims attacked S.S.Sitakunda while still anchored at the steamer station. They massacred the unarmed Hindu passengers and threw them into the river. 30 Hindus were killed in the massacre, while three survived.Similarly in steamer Ostrich,Hindu passengers were forcefully disembarked on a isolated shore of River Padma and subjected to atrocities.Hindus who were hiding inside the steamer were killed and bodies dumped in water (Singha) (Jugantar Archives).
Nehru-Liaqat Pact: backstabbing of Bengali Hindus
The sordid saga ended with two resignation letters .One was from the Law and Labour Minister of Pakistan J N Mandal and a champion of Dalit Muslim Unity. He wrote a lengthy resignation letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan which describes in threadbare details the shocking details of the genocide.Similar to JN Mondal’s resignation letter, another letter of resignation shook the Politics of the Indian State of West Bengal.The resignation letter was from Dr. S P Mukherjee addressed to the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in protest against the pathetic joke called ‘Nehru Liaqat Pact’.He sarcastically advised the supporters to stay in East Pakistan with their families in general and womenfolk in particular to test the waters there (Roy, 2007) (Jugantar Archives).
The proposal was that the pre 1950 refugees were to be differentiated from post 1950 refugees.For the latter the brief was relief and not rehabilitation because they were expected to go back.This pact contained a solemn assurance by the Governments of India and Pakistan that henceforth each country would ensure the security and dignity of their religious minorities.The Punjab Model of population exchange, which was coordinated by Nehru himself would be discontinued for Bengal Minorities, since it’s against India’s social and spiritual principles.Dr Meghnad Saha protested vehemently and Nehru and S P Mukherjee had a heated exchange in Parliament which culminated in the resignation of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and K C Niyogee, his cabinet ministers from West Bengal (Roy, 2007).
Needless to say the pact was honoured by the Indian side but the Pakistani side reciprocated with Santahar rail massacre and subsequent 1964 followup genocide for the Hajratbal episode and finally the mother of all Hindu genocides,in 1971 when 2.5 million Hindus were butchered by Pakistani regulars and irregulars.
What did Pakistan gain through the massacre?
As per Professor Samar Guha
1)February killings squeezed out the overwhelming majority of upper and middle class Hindus from East Bengal.
2)Towns and cities were freed of Hindus and their predominance .Large scale migration of non-Muslims has greatly helped the Pak Government to free municipalities,lawyer’s associations and other public,educational and cultural institutions from ’Undesirables’
3)Evacuation of non Muslims from the towns and cities solved the acute problem of housing of growing Muslim middle class and Govt. employees.
4)Militant Scheduled Caste(Namashudras)and tribal people living in compact masses and constituting local majority in the frontier zones adjacent to India were liquidated substantially with a view to increase the Muslim population.
5)Blackmail the Indian Government successfully to buy East Bengal jute and supply much needed coal to Pakistan at a lopsided price in favor of Pakistan.
Lose-Lose situation for Bengali Hindus on either side of the border.
1)The Nehru-Liaqat pact provided absolute physical security to Muslims in East Bengal.Which later turned them into political king-makers owing to their blooming population from 19% in 1950 to 27.1% in 2011 census and their tendency to vote en-bloc.
2) While the pact had a quid pro quo clause , it was never honoured by the Pakistani government and later by Islamist Bangladesh who turned Hindu genocide into a cottage industry.As a result the Hindu population shrank from 33%to merely 8%.
3)The exchange of properties which worked since the partition also stopped owing to overwhelming advantage in favor of Muslims.Who would actually buy a property of a fleeing Hindu , which could be obtained for free otherwise.
4) Since the Punjab model population exchange did not take place, the refugee Hindus could not be settled in the evacuee properties and their downhill journey continued in refugee camps throughout India from remote Andaman to Dandakaranya in Chhattisgarh, where they were exploited once again. Marchjapi being a bloody example of refugee massacre in independent India.
5) Pakistan Government issued a circular to heads of commercial organizations requiring them to obtain prior permission from DM before appointing any non Muslim.Hindus who still controlled big capital invested hugely in industries which was stalled by bureaucracy.With their home and hearth and future bleak, Hindus had no option but to embark on a one way journey to India
NRC and CAA
Tragic events of 1950 and the Farcial Nehru Liaqat pact, make it obligatory on the part of Indian government to provide unquestioned citizenship to the minorities of Bangladesh who are still subjected to inhuman violations.Bangladeshi infiltrators on the other hand receive citizenship at the drop of a hat, by turning into the vote bank of local collaborators like the erstwhile commuinst party and also the present ruling fraternity of West Bengal.The Bengali Hindu is now endangered in West Bengal itself , which was meant to be Bengali Hindu homeland as envisioned by its architect Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.The distant echo of 1950 genocide can be heard in the form of Daganga, Dhulagarh and Canning riots.
Thus citizenship of India is an undisputed right of any non-Muslim minority in Bangladesh.Also eviction of Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators from West Bengal is also of paramount importance to preserve the sanctity of Bengali Hindu homeland and also to prevent the recurrence of the likes of 1950 genocide. CAA and NRC is not as option but an obligation to correct historical wrongs and must be enforced without delay, if India in general and West Bengal in particular has to survive and thrive in the long run.
Bibliography:
Jugantar Archives. (n.d.).
Kamra, A. J. (2000). The Prolonged Partition And Its Pogroms. Voice Of India.
Lahiri, P. C. (n.d.). Pak Bharater Ruprekha.
Mandal, J. (1950). Resignation Latter To Liaqat Ali Khan.
Roy, T. (2007). A Supressed Chapter In History. Bookwell.
Singha, D. C. (n.d.). Raktaranjito Dhaka Barisal.
