Communal violence_1

Communal violence_1

1. Chauri Chaura

   • 5/2/1922
     • Protest mob had burned to death 22 policemen
       • Gandhi was devastated by these events and declared the movement over

2. Moplah rebellion

   • 1921
   • Moplahs turned on Hindus
     • The Malabar region, populated mainly by Moplahs. Descendants of early Muslim Arab traders. Unrest exacerbated by non-cooperation movement, lack of success at Khilafat, resentment of rich local landlords.  Police reinforcements led to more resentment and then rioting
   • Over 600 killed and 2500 forcibly converted to Islam
   • Provincial government called in troops; martial law imposed
     • Over 2000 rebels killed
       • 66 left to suffocate in a train wagon

3. Direct Action Day Calcutta Killings

   • Jinnah wanted to show could use direct mass action like Gandhi and Congress 
   • 16/8/1946
   • Police ordered by Muslim League to take a special holiday
   • Tens of thousands of Muslims had armed themselves with lathis and rocks
     • Self defence or aggression?
     • Hindus threw stones as they passed
   • Final mass rally, 100,000 marchers, Chief Minister of Bengal is thought to have incited violence against local Hindus
     • H. S. Suhrawardy
     • At nightfall attacks began in the slums and docks
       • 3 days of fioting, lynching, killing and arson
         • 6000 dead
         • 20,000 wounded
         • 100,000 homeless
         • Many homeless left to places where their religion was the stronghold
   • Was thought as Muslims march most victims were Hindu
     • Not thought necessarily to be the case now
     • Congress blamed the governor for failing to prepare
       • Hartal did not cause a problem elsewhere
     • Now thought initial trouble exploited by underworld gangslooking to settle scores and loot
   • Jinnah's reputation damaged

4. Aftermath of Independence

   • Britain did not want to be seen as causing it then leaving India/Pakistan did not want to be seen as incompetant; Britain have been continually telling them they would not be able to run the country successfully Britain seen as the cause divide and rule caused tensions between religious groups; have long tried to turn them against each other
   • Wavell appealed to Congress and Muslim league to call a halt to the killings but to no avail
     • Gandhi said 'if India wanted a blood bath, she could have it' Jinnah said Pakistan was worth the sacrifice of ten million Muslims
   • No British soldiers left to help
   • 15th August 1947
     • Muslim women in Punjab were dragged into the streets, stripped, raped and hacked to death
   • 20th August 1947
     • Punjab boundary force shot dead 84 participants in a muslim mob
       • 24th August Muslim members of the boundary force were killed by Hindu officers  after they shot Hindu looters. Force split on communal lines and then was broken up completely leaving no law and order in the Punjab for weeks
   • Death Toll
     • Authorities publicly undersetimated the death toll
       • said at the time 200,000
         • Now regarded as 1 million
   • People desperate to leave, mainly by train
     • 14th August 38 Sikhs knifed to Death at Lahore Station
     • People on trains being murdered during the journey
       • Armed guards started travelling on trains
   • Mass rape -used as a weapon of war
     • If surrounded women often committed suicide
       • Would often do this by throwing themselves down a well
     • Women and girls often abducted , forcibly converted and married
       • Years later women too afraid to return to their communities because of what they had been through
   • Bodies laid rotting in the streets
     • Cholera spread fast Vultures said to be too fat to fly
   • Death squads worked through neighbourhoods
     • Migrants were targeted
     • Victims were publicly humiliated, torturtured and genitalia mutilated
   • Financial strain
     • Hundreds of thousands went to Delhi
       • stayed in squalid camps
       • Women and girls sold in exchange for food
         • Used to humiliate men - they were meant to protect their wives and children
     • Half a million refugees arrived in Punjab, making it bankrupt