Direct Action Day: Difference between revisions

| title = Direct Action Day<br>1946 Calcutta Killings

| partof = the [[Partition of India]]

| image = Calcutta 1946 riot.jpg

| image_size = 220px

| caption = Dead and wounded after the Direct Action Day which developed into pitched battles as [[Muslim]] and [[Hindu]] mobs rioted across [[Calcutta]] in 1946, the year before independence

| date = 16 August 1946

| place = [[Kolkata|Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]], [[British Raj|British India]]

| causes = Impending division of Bengal on religious grounds

| goals = [[Ethnic persecution|Ethnic]] and [[religious persecution]]

| result = [[Partition of Bengal (1947)|Partition of Bengal]]

| methods = [[Massacre]], [[pogrom]], [[forced conversion]], [[arson]], [[Kidnapping|abduction]] and [[mass rape]]

| fatalities = 4,000<ref name="Burrows" /><ref name="Sarkar2017p8" />

| side1 = [[Hindus]] and [[Sikhs]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sarkar |first1=Tanika |last2=Bandyopadhyay  |first2=Sekhar |year=2017 |title=Calcutta: The Stormy Decades |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REcrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA441 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=441 |isbn=978-1-351-58172-1}}</ref><ref name="Wavell">{{cite book

| side2 = [[Muslims]]

| leadfigures1 = No centralized leadership

| leadfigures2 = [[All-India Muslim League]]

'''Direct Action Day''' (16 August 1946) was the day the [[All-India Muslim League]] decided to take "[[direct action]]" for a separate Muslim homeland after the British exit from India. Also known as the '''1946 Calcutta Killings''', it was a day of nationwide communal riots.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Zehra|first=Rosheena|date=2016-08-16|title=Direct Action Day: When Massive Communal Riots Made Kolkata Bleed|url=https://www.thequint.com/news/india/direct-action-day-when-massive-communal-riots-made-kolkata-bleed|access-date=2021-08-31|website=TheQuint|language=en}}</ref> It led to large-scale violence between Muslims and [[Hinduism in India|Hindus]] in the city of [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] (now known as Kolkata) in the [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal province]] of [[British Raj|British India]].<ref name="Burrows">{{cite book|last=Burrows|first=Frederick|author-link=Frederick Burrows|title=Report to Viceroy Lord Wavell|publisher=The British Library IOR: L/P&J/8/655 f.f. 95, 96–107|year=1946}}</ref> The day also marked the start of what is known as ''The Week of the Long Knives''.<ref name="Sengupta">{{cite book |last=Sengupta |first=Debjani |year=2006 |chapter=A City Feeding on Itself: Testimonies and Histories of 'Direct Action' Day |chapter-url=http://archive.sarai.net/files/original/2ed2f960de6596b5ed75501e6de2c774.pdf |editor-last=Narula |editor-first=Monica |title=Turbulence |series=Serai Reader |volume=6 |publisher=The Sarai Programme, Center for the Study of Developing Societies |pages=288–295 |oclc=607413832}}</ref><ref>L/I/1/425. The British Library Archives, London.</ref> While there is a certain degree of consensus on the magnitude of the killings (although no precise casualty figures are available), including their short-term consequences, controversy remains regarding the exact sequence of events, the various actors' responsibility and the long-term political consequences.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/calcutta-riots-1946.html|title=The Calcutta Riots of 1946 &#124; Sciences Po Mass Violence and Resistance - Research Network|date=4 April 2019|website=www.sciencespo.fr}}</ref>

There is still extensive controversy regarding the respective responsibilities of the two main communities, the Hindus and the Muslims, in addition to individual leaders' roles in the carnage. The dominant British view tends to blame both communities equally and to single out the calculations of the leaders and the savagery of the followers for whom were criminal elements.<ref>Tuker, 1950</ref> In the [[Indian National Congress]]’ version of the events,<ref>Bose, 1968</ref> the blame tends to be squarely laid on the Muslim League and in particular on the Chief Minister of Bengal, [[Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy]]. The view from the Muslim League, which is partly upheld in [[Bangladesh]], the successor state to [[East Pakistan]], is that Congress and the Hindus in fact used the opportunity offered by Direct Action Day to teach the Muslims in Calcutta a lesson and to kill them in great numbers.<ref>Rashid, 1987</ref> Thus, the riots opened the way to a partition of Bengal between a Hindu-dominated Western Bengal including Calcutta and a Muslim-dominated Eastern Bengal (now Bangladesh).<ref name="auto"/>

 

Consequently, in July 1946, the Muslim League withdrew its agreement to the plan and announced a [[general strike]] (''[[hartal]]'') on 16 August, terming it Direct Action Day, to assert its demand for a separate homeland for Muslims in certain northwestern and eastern provinces in [[colonial India]].<ref name="Tsugitaka">

{{cite book |last=Nariaki |first=Nakazato |chapter=The politics of a Partition Riot: Calcutta in August 1946 |editor=Sato Tsugitaka |title=Muslim Societies: Historical and Comparative Aspects |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HvqUOb-iUsUC&pg=PT153 |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-415-33254-5 |page=112 }}

</ref><ref name="Bourke-White1949p15">{{cite book|last=Bourke-White|first=Margaret|author-link=Margaret Bourke-White|year=1949|title=Halfway to Freedom: A Report on the New India in the Words and Photographs of Margaret Bourke-White|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=15}}

</ref> Calling for Direct Action Day, [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]], the leader of the All India Muslim League, said that he wanted 'either a divided India or a destroyed India'.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Guha |first1=Ramachandra |title=Divided or Destroyed – Remembering Direct Action Day |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/divided-or-destroyed-remembering-direct-action-day/cid/157755 |work=[[The Telegraph (Kolkata)|The Telegraph]] |date=23 August 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Tunzelmann |first1=Alex von |title=Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire |date=2012 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4711-1476-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tHmPrSPzu3MC&pg=PT100}}</ref>

{{cite journal |last=Das |first=Suranjan |date=May 2000 |title=The 1992 Calcutta Riot in Historical Continuum: A Relapse into 'Communal Fury'? |journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=281–306 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X0000336X |jstor=313064 |s2cid=144646764 }}</ref><ref name="ASB_BP_Cal">{{cite book |last=Das |first=Suranjan|year=2012|chapter=Calcutta Riot, 1946|chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Calcutta_Riot,_1946|editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam|editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A.|title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh|edition=Second|publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> More than 4,000 people died and 100,000 residents were left homeless in Calcutta within 72 hours.<ref name="Burrows"/><ref name="Sarkar2017p8">{{cite book |last1=Sarkar |first1=Tanika |last2=Bandyopadhyay  |first2=Sekhar |year=2017 |title=Calcutta: The Stormy Decades |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REcrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=8 |isbn=978-1-351-58172-1}}</ref> The violence sparked off further religious riots in the surrounding regions of [[Noakhali riots|Noakhali]], [[1946 Bihar riots|Bihar]], [[United Provinces (1937-1950)|United Provinces]] (modern Uttar Pradesh), [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]] (including [[1947 Rawalpindi massacres|massacres in Rawalpindi]]) and the [[North Western Frontier Province]].<ref>{{citation |last1=Talbot |first1=Ian |last2=Singh |first2=Gurharpal |title=The Partition of India |publisher=Cambridge University Press  |isbn=978-0-521-67256-6 |year=2009 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/in/academic/subjects/history/twentieth-century-regional-history/partition-india?format=PB&isbn=9780521672566|page=67|quote=(Signs of 'ethnic cleansing') were also present in the wave of violence that rippled out from Calcutta to Bihar, where there were high Muslim casualty figures, and to Noakhali deep in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta of Bengal. Concerning the Noakhali riots, one British officer spoke of a 'determined and organized' Muslim effort to drive out all the Hindus, who accounted for around a fifth of the total population. Similarly, the Punjab counterparts to this transition of violence were the Rawalpindi massacres of March 1947. The level of death and destruction in such West Punjab villages as Thoa Khalsa was such that communities couldn't live together in its wake.}}</ref> The events sowed the seeds for the eventual [[Partition of India]].

In 1946, the [[Indian independence movement]] against the British Raj had reached a pivotal stage. British Prime Minister [[Clement Attlee]] sent a three-member [[1946 Cabinet Mission to India|Cabinet Mission]] to India aimed at discussing and finalizing plans for the transfer of power from the British Raj to the Indian leadership.{{sfn|Jalal|1994|p=176}} After holding talks with the representatives of the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League—the two largest political parties in the Constituent Assembly of India—on 16 May 1946, the Mission proposed a plan of composition of the new Dominion of India and its government.<ref name="Das"/><ref name="TOPVII">

{{cite book|year=1977|editor1-last=Mansergh|editor1-first=Nicholas|editor1-link=Nicholas Mansergh|editor2-last=Moon|editor2-first=Penderel|editor2-link = Penderel Moon|title=The Transfer of Power 1942-7|volume= VII|location=London|publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office|pages=582–591|isbn=978-0-11-580082-5}}</ref>

{{cite book|last=Azad|first=Abul Kalam|author-link=Abul Kalam Azad|year=2005|orig-year=First published 1959|title=India Wins Freedom: An Autobiographical Narrative|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q9_EW80LFjoC&pg=PA164|location=New Delhi|publisher=Orient Longman|pages=164–165|isbn=978-81-250-0514-8|quote=The resolution was passed with an overwhelming majority ... Thus, the [A.I.C.C.] seal of approval was put on the Working Committee's resolution accepting the Cabinet Mission Plan ... On 10 July, Jawaharlal held a press conference in Bombay ... [when questioned,] Jawaharlal replied emphatically that the Congress had agreed only to participate in the Constituent Assembly and regarded itself free to change or modify the Cabinet Mission Plan as it thought best ... The Moslem League had accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan ... Mr. Jinnah had clearly stated that he recommended acceptance.}}</ref> On 10 July, however, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], the Congress President, held a press conference in [[Bombay]] declaring that although the Congress had agreed to participate in the Constituent Assembly, it reserved the right to modify the Cabinet Mission Plan as it saw fit.<ref name="Azad"/> Fearing Hindu domination in the central government, the Muslim League politicians pressed Jinnah to revert to "his earlier unbending stance".{{sfn|Jalal|1994|p=210}} Jinnah rejected the British Cabinet Mission plan for transfer of power to an interim government which would combine both the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress, and decided to boycott the Constituent Assembly. In July 1946, Jinnah held a press conference at his home in Bombay. He proclaimed that the Muslim league was "preparing to launch a struggle" and that they "have chalked out a plan".<ref name="Bourke-White1949p15" /> He said that if the Muslims were not granted a separate Pakistan then they would launch "direct action". When asked to be specific, Jinnah retorted: "Go to the Congress and ask them their plans. When they take you into their confidence I will take you into mine. Why do you expect me alone to sit with folded hands? I also am going to make trouble."<ref name="Bourke-White1949p15" />

  |quote=As a public holiday would enable 'the idle folk' successfully to enforce hartals in ares where the League leadership was uncertain, the Bengal Congress ... condemned the League ministry for having indulged in 'communal politics' for a narrow goal.}}</ref> Congress leaders thought that if a public holiday was observed, its own supporters would have no choice but to close down their offices and shops, and thus be compelled against their will to lend a hand in the Muslim League's ''hartal''.<ref name="Tsugitaka"/> On 14 August, [[Kiron Shankar Roy]], a leader of the Congress Party in the Bengal Legislative Assembly, called on Hindu shopkeepers to not observe the public holiday, and keep their businesses open in defiance of the ''hartal''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tuker |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Tuker |date=1950 |title=While Memory Serves |publisher=Cassell |pages=154–156 |oclc=937426955 |quote="As a counter-blast to this, Mr. K. Roy, leader of the Congress Party in the Bengal Legislative Assembly, addressing a meeting at Ballygunge on the 14th, said that it was stupid to think that the holiday [would] avoid commotions. The holiday, with its idle folk, would create trouble, for it was quite certain that those Hindus who, still wishing to pursue  their business, kept open their shops, would be compelled by force to close them. From this there would certainly be violent disturbance. But he advised the Hindus to keep their shops open and to continue their business and not to submit to a compulsory ''hartal''."}}</ref> In essence, there was an element of pride involved in that the monopolistic position that the Congress had hitherto enjoyed in imposing and enforcing hartals, strikes, etc. was being challenged.<ref name="Tsugitaka"/> However, the League went ahead with the declaration, and Muslim newspapers published the programme for the day.{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}}

Hindu public opinion was mobilized around the ''Akhand Hindusthan'' (United India) slogan.<ref name="Das" /> Certain Congress leaders in Bengal imbibed a strong sense of Hindu identity, especially in view of the perceived threat from the possibility of marginalizing themselves into minority against the onslaught of the [[Pakistan movement]].<ref name="Das"/> Such mobilization along communal lines was partly successful due to a concerted propaganda campaign which resulted in a 'legitimization of communal solidarities'.<ref name="Das"/>

Troubles started on the morning of 16 August. Even before 10 o'clock Police Headquarters at Lalbazar had reported that there was excitement throughout the city, that shops were being forced to close, and that there were many reports of brawls, stabbing and throwing of stones and brickbats. These were mainly concentrated in the North-central parts of the city like Rajabazar, Kelabagan, College Street, Harrison Road, Colootolla and Burrazar.<ref name="Burrows"/> Several of these areas had also been rocked by communal riots in December 1910.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bandyopadhyay |first=Ritajyoti |year=2022 |title=Streets in Motion: The Making of Infrastructure, Property, and Political Culture in Twentieth-century Calcutta |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/streets-in-motion/2D42F4BF0D2086A1DBB254A5120ACB42 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=76, 120–121 |isbn=978-1-009-10920-8 |doi=10.1017/9781009109208|s2cid=250200020 }}</ref> In these areas the Hindus were in a majority and were also in a superior and powerful economic position. The trouble had assumed the communal character which it was to retain throughout.<ref name="Burrows"/> The League's rally began at [[Ochterlony Monument]] at noon exactly. The gathering was considered as the 'largest ever Muslim assembly in Bengal' at that time.<ref name="Rashid">{{cite book|last=Rashid|first=Harun-or|title=The Foreshadowing of Bangladesh: Bengal Muslim League and Muslim Politics, 1936–1947|publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]|year=1987}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2017}}

On 17 August, Syed Abdullah Farooqui, the President of Garden Reach Textile Workers' Union, along with Elian Mistry, a hardline Muslim hooligan, led a huge armed mob into the mill compound of Kesoram Cotton Mills in the Lichubagan area of Metiabruz {{Citation needed|date=October 2016}}. The mill workers, among whom were a substantial number of [[Odia people|Odias]], used to stay in the mill compound itself. On 25 August, four survivors lodged a complaint at the Metiabruz police station against Farooqui.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Sickle & the Crescent: Communists, Muslim League and India's Partition |last1=Sanyal |first1=Sunanda |last2=Basu |first2= Soumya |year=2011 |publisher=Frontpage Publications |location=London |isbn=978-81-908841-6-7 |pages=149–151 }}</ref> [[Bishwanath Das]], a Minister in the Government of [[Orissa, India|Orissa]], visited Lichubagan to investigate into the killings of the [[Odia people|Oriya]] labourers of Kesoram Cotton Mills.<ref name="sinha127">{{cite book |title=Shyamaprasad: Bangabhanga O Paschimbanga (শ্যামাপ্রসাদ: বঙ্গভঙ্গ ও পশ্চিমবঙ্গ) |last=Sinha |first=Dinesh Chandra |year=2001 |publisher=Akhil Bharatiya Itihash Sankalan Samiti |location=Kolkata |page=127}}</ref> Some sources estimate that the death toll was 10,000 or more.<ref name="Sengupta"/> Many authors claim that Hindus were the primary victims.<ref name="Wavell"/>

|color3 = blue}}

Kolkata had a Hindu population of 2,952,142, Muslim population of 1,099,562, Sikh  population of 12,852 as per 1946 year before partition and after independence Muslims population came down to just 601,817 due to the migration of 500,000 Muslims from Kolkata to East Pakistan after the riot. The 1951 Census of India recorded that 27% of Kolkata's population was East  Bengali refugees mainly Hindu Bengalis and they contributed the economic growth of Kolkata in various fields just after settlement. Millions of Bengali Hindus from East Pakistan had taken refuge mainly in the city and a number of estimations shows that around 320,000 Hindus from East Pakistan had immigrated to Kolkata alone during 1946–1950 period.{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}} The first census after partition shows that in Kolkata from 1941 to 1951 the number of Hindus increased while the number of Muslims decreased, that is Hindu percentage have increased from 73% in 1941 to 84% in 1951, while Muslim percentage have declined from 23% in 1941 to 12% in 1951 census.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bandyopadhyay |first=Ritajyoti |year=2022 |chapter=City as Territory: Institutionalizing Majoritarianism |title=Streets in Motion: The Making of Infrastructure, Property, and Political Culture in Twentieth-century Calcutta |chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/7E2E920B58F14F19422771AC711C713C/9781009100113c3_p119-157_CBO.pdf/city_as_territory_institutionalizing_majoritarianism.pdf |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=145 |isbn=978-1-009-10920-8 |doi=10.1017/9781009109208|s2cid=250200020 }}</ref> According to 2011 census, Kolkata city have a Hindu majority of (76.51%), Muslims stand at (20.6%) as 2nd largest community, and Sikh population stands at (0.31%).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/|title=Home &#124; Government of India|website=censusindia.gov.in}}</ref>

  }} cited in Batabyal 2005, p. 272.</ref> It soon engulfed the neighbouring police stations of Raipur, Lakshmipur, Begumganj and Sandip in Noakhali, and Faridganj, Hajiganj, Chandpur, Laksham and Chudagram in Tippera.<ref name="Batabyal2005p272">{{cite book |last=Mansergh |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Mansergh |author2=Moon, Penderel |author2-link = Penderel Moon | date=1980 |title=The Transfer of Power 1942-7 |volume= IX |location=London |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |page=48 |isbn=978-0-11-580084-9}} cited in Batabyal 2005, p. 272.</ref> The disruption caused by the widespread violence was extensive, making it difficult to accurately establish the number of casualties. Official estimates put the number of dead between 200 and 300.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mansergh |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Mansergh |author2=Moon, Penderel | author2-link = Penderel Moon |date=1980 |title=The Transfer of Power 1942-7 |volume= IX |location=London |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |page=98 |isbn=978-0-11-580084-9}} cited in Batabyal 2005, p. 273.</ref><ref name="Tuker1950p174-176">{{cite book |last=Tuker |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Tuker |date=1950 |title=While Memory Serves |publisher=Cassell |pages=174–176 |oclc=186171893 |quote="The number of dead was at that time reliably estimated as in the region of two hundred. On the other hand, very many Hindu families had fled, widespread panic existed, and it was impossible to say if particular individuals were dead or alive ... Hindus evacuated villages ''en masse'', leaving their houses at the mercy of the robbers who looted and burned ... Our estimate was that the total killed in this episode was well under three hundred. Terrible and deliberately false stories were blown all over the world by a hysterical Hindu Press."}}</ref> After the riots were stopped in Noakhali, the Muslim League claimed that only 500 Hindus were killed in the mayhem, but the survivors opined that more than 50,000 Hindus were killed.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} According to [[Francis Tuker]], who at the time of the disturbances was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command, India, the Hindu press intentionally and grossly exaggerated reports of disorder.<ref name="Tuker1950p174-176" /> The neutral and widely accepted death toll figure is around 5000.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Khan |first1=Yasmin |author-link=Yasmin Khan |year=2017 |orig-year=First published 2007 |title=The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PEpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 |edition=New |publisher=Yale University Press |page=68 |isbn=978-0-300-23032-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Written in Blood |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804007,00.html |url-access=subscription |magazine=Time |date=28 October 1946 |page=42 |quote=Mobs in the Noakhali district of east Bengal ... burned, looted and massacred on a scale surpassing even the recent Calcutta riots. In eight days an estimated 5,000 were killed.}}</ref>

According to Governor Burrows, "the immediate occasion for the outbreak of the disturbances was the looting of a Bazar [market] in Ramganj police station following the holding of a mass meeting."<ref>{{cite book |last=Mansergh |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Mansergh |author2=Moon, Penderel | author2-link = Penderel Moon |date=1980 |title=The Transfer of Power 1942-7 |volume= IX |location=London |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |page=98 |isbn=978-0-11-580084-9}} cited in Batabyal 2005, p. 277.</ref> This included attacks on the place of business of Surendra Nath Bose and Rajendra Lal Roy Choudhury, the erstwhile president of the Noakhali Bar and a prominent [[Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha|Hindu Mahasabha]] leader.<ref>{{cite book |last=Batabyal |first=Rakesh |date=2005 |title=Communalism in Bengal: From Famine to Noakhali, 1943–47 |publisher=Sage Publishers |page=277 |isbn=978-0-7619-3335-9 |quote=This included an attack on the 'Kutchery bari of Babu Suerndra Nath Bose and Rai Saheb Rajendra Lal Ray Choudhury of Karpara' ... the erstwhile president of the Noakhali Bar and a prominent Hindu Mahasabha leader in the district.}}</ref>

 

[[Mahatma Gandhi]] camped in Noakhali for four months and toured the district in a mission to restore peace and communal harmony. In the meantime, the [[Indian National Congress|Congress]] leadership started to accept the proposed Partition of India and the peace mission and other relief camps were abandoned. The majority of the survivors migrated to [[West Bengal]], Tripura<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dev |first1=Chitta Ranjan |year=2005 |title=Two days with Mohandas Gandhi |journal=Ishani |volume=1 |issue=4 |publisher=Mahatma Gandhi Ishani Foundation |url=https://www.indianfolklore.org/journals/index.php/Ish/article/view/463 |access-date=7 August 2011 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804180344/https://www.indianfolklore.org/journals/index.php/Ish/article/view/463 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[Assam]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dasgupta |first1=Anindita |year=2001 |title=Denial and Resistance: Sylheti Partition 'refugees' in Assam |journal=Contemporary South Asia |volume=10 |issue=3 |page=352 |publisher=South Asia Forum for Human Rights |doi=10.1080/09584930120109559 |s2cid=144544505 |url=http://www.safhr.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=345&Itemid=572 |access-date=7 August 2011}}</ref>

A [[1946 Bihar riots|devastating riot rocked Bihar]] towards the end of 1946. Between 30 October and 7 November, a large-scale massacre in Bihar brought Partition closer to inevitability. Severe violence broke out in [[Chhapra]] and [[Saran district]], between 25 and 28 October. Very soon [[Patna]], [[Munger]] and [[Bhagalpur]] also became the sites of serious violence. Begun as a reprisal for the [[Noakhali riot]], whose death toll had been greatly overstated in immediate reports, it was difficult for authorities to deal with because it was spread out over a large area of scattered villages, and the number of casualties was impossible to establish accurately: "According to a subsequent statement in the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]], the death-toll amounted to 5,000. ''[[The Statesman (India)|The Statesman]]'''s estimate was between 7,500 and 10,000; the Congress party admitted to 2,000; [[Jinnah]] claimed about 30,000."<ref>{{cite book |last=Stephens |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Stephens (editor) |year=1963 |title=Pakistan |location=New York |publisher=Frederick A. Praeger |page=111 |oclc=1038975536}}</ref> However, By 3 November, the official estimate put the figure of death at only 445.<ref name="Das"/><ref name="Batabyal2005p272" />

According to some independent sources, the death toll was around 8,000 human lives.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.massviolence.org/India-from-1900-to-1947?cs=print |title=Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence |last=Markovits |first=Claude |date=6 November 2007 |access-date=12 December 2011}}</ref>

 

 

[[Category:Bengal Presidency]]

[[Category:20th century in Kolkata]]

[[Category:Massacres in 1946]]

[[Category:August 1946 events in Asia]]

[[Category:1946 murders in India]]