'On 31st October they returned to Patna. Reports of disturbances in Patna district and town were sent in: "We sent for the Brigadier in charge of the military to provide military assistance. He said it was unnecessary. In the evening news came that a large number of wounded, including a proportion of old men, women and children, had arrived at Patna and Taregna stations. Two of the wounded women were pregnant, about 50 bodies were lying on the Taregna station even two or three days after". The next day they went to Ranchi to see the general in command of the military forces. From the air they saw below a big village in flames. A mob of ten thousand was surrounding it. "People were literally imprisoned in their homes. Women and children had assembled on their thatched roofs weeping and wailing piteously. They frantically waved their arms to draw our attention as our plane passed overhead. Sri Babu could not stand it. He wept".
'On 2nd November, while returning to Patna after meeting the general, they again saw several villages burning and mobs engaged in looting. Some villages were completely deserted; others were besieged by mobs. In the afternoon they made another flight over Patna district and saw several more villages burning. All this took place within a distance of ten to fifteen miles from Patna, the capital of the province. "The indifference and negligence of the district officers," reported Dr. Mahmud to Gandhi, "seemed to beggar description". In the words of Nehru, "even if they had walked, they could have reached the sites of occurrence in time".
'Dr. Mahmud's report continued: "About three and half lakh (three hundred and fifty thousand) Muslims are said to have fled from Bihar to different places after selling their gold ornaments at a ridiculous price and their homes and property for a song. In one village alone of Tilhari, I saw 5 wells full of dead bodies and another 10 to 12 wells similarly choked with the dead in Dharla village. Where there was a river in the vicinity, the dead bodies were thrown into it. Their numbers cannot be ascertained. Those killed include a high proportion of old men, women and children. There was a large number of infants in arms among the wounded in hospitals. Some women told me how their little ones were murdered in their laps".'
From Chapra (Saran district) the trouble spread to Monghyr, Bhagalpur, Santhal Paraganas, Patna and Gaya districts. On 25 October a procession had been taken out in Patna in observance of 'East Bengal Day'. It terminated in a big meeting at Bankipur Maidan presided over by Prof. Abdul Bari, the Muslim president of the provincial Congress committee. Highly objectionable slogans were shouted by a section of the procession, in spite of the assurance of the organisers that this would not happen. Attempts were made at the meeting to pass a resolution calling on Hindus to avenge Noakhali. These were resisted by the president and some other prominent persons. This happened the following day also. But unlike Chapra, with the exception of one stabbing incident, trouble was averted as a result of elaborate precautions taken by the authorities.
The Muslim extremists had also played their part in inflaming the situation in Patna. On the night of 27 October, they took to the streets, armed with lethal weapons. The mob ran down the streets of Muslim-dominated areas of Patna shouting the battle cry 'Allah-o-Akbar'. Gathering the Muslims from these areas, they brought them to pre-designated centres; here they were supplied with arms and ammunition and instructed to be prepared for the signal to launch attacks. A railway line separated the Muslim-dominated areas from the Hindu areas of Patna. The frenzied sloganeering of the Muslim extremists brought out the Hindu mobs from the surrounding localities in their thousands. The two mobs now faced each other. The Patna police, assisted by many Congress leaders, rushed to the spot and took up position on the railway tracks, right in the midst of the inflamed mobs. After a lot of persuasion the mobs retreated. A section of the Hindu mob regrouped at the village Kumarhar near Patna city, while another mob gathered in a different village. The police intercepted both the mobs before they could go on a rampage. This was on 28 October; thereafter the trouble spread in the rural areas of Patna district, which then became the worst affected. Reports of large scale rioting and arson were received from the Phulwarisharif and Poonpoon police stations on 29 and 30 October, followed by the news of the first terrible massacre at Masaurhi. The riots then spread in the south-east towards Biharsharif and the northern border of the Jehanabad subdivision in the district of Gaya.
As early as 27 October the local authorities at Patna, after consultations with the commissioner, had requested for military assistance to control the situation. But until the 31st, the inspector-general of police, Creed, was of the opinion that the situation was well under control. On 31 October the request for immediate military assistance was made again. The brigadier in charge of the military garrison dismissed the request saying that it was not necessary as the situation was not 'nearly so bad as that of 1942', referring to the stray incidences of violence that had erupted during the Quit India Movement. The magistrates and the troops finally took up positions in the interior of the Patna sub-division by 3 and 4 November. By the 5th, Gandhi's partial fast as a penance for the Bihar disturbances had commenced. Thousands of leaflets carrying the news about Gandhi's partial fast and his resolve to go on a fast unto death were distributed all over. Nehru and Patel, accompanied by Liaquat Ali Khan and the infamous Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, arrived in Patna on 3 November. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Azad and Acharya Kripalani joined them soon after, followed by the viceroy. Addressing a big gathering in Patna on the 6th, Nehru said, 'It is a matter of shame for me to come down here and ask you to observe the basic principles of civilised conduct when so many problems, national and international, are facing us and need solution. By no standard of civilised conduct can acts of lawlessness and killing of neighbours be justified. There can be no justification for stooping to bestiality, simply because some fellows have lost their heads elsewhere. What is happening in the Province is pure and simple hooliganism and it is your first and foremost duty to stop it at once at all costs. You cannot shift the responsibility by simply saying that you did not take part in it individually.' Dr. Rajendra Prasad told people that his district was being tainted. The government was determined to handle it with the use of force. Kripalani remarked that 'By indulging in such acts, you have only helped your enemies inside and outside the country and have proved traitors to the country's cause.'
Gandhi addressing worshippers at the dargah of Khwaja Qutub-ud-Din at Mehrauli and inside the dargah on 27 January 1948.
News of Gandhi's visit to the Mehrauli urs appearing in the Hindustan Times on 28 January 1948.
Gandhi flanked by Abha and Manu, his 'walking sticks', at Birla House.
The route taken by Gandhi as he walked from his room in Birla House to where he was murdered on 30 January 1948.
The spot where Gandhi fell on 30 January 1948. Inset: the stone tablet installed at the spot.
Women from Gandhi's retinue and from the Birla household mourn beside his body.
Gandhi's body lying in state, with his chest left uncovered displaying the gun shot wounds.
Gandhi's body draped in the Tricolour, atop the weapon's carrier outside Birla House.
Gandhi's, close aides pray around his funeral pyre.
A forlorn Nehru inspects the preparations for Gandhi's funeral.
Nehru laying a garland on the funeral pyre.
People perched on electric and telegraph poles to catch a glimpse of Gandhi's funeral procession.
(facing page):
The funeral procession winds its way round the statue of King George.
Patel and Ramdas Gandhi console Dr. Sushila Nayyar, Manu and Abha as they bid a tearful farewell to Gandhi.
The funeral procession on Raj Path.
The governor general's Mounted Guards circle the burning pyre in an effort to prevent people from being pushed on to the funeral pyre.
Prime Minister Nehru speaks with Governor General Mountbatten.
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, the Chinese ambassador and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad flank the Mountbatten family.
On the n
ight of 6 November, Nehru sent the report to Gandhi in which he described how the poor were suffering. But he also mentioned a change in the Bihar situation. 'On the whole the situation is quietening down,' he said. During their flight over Patna, Monghyr and Gaya on the 7th, they found 'The general outlook to be very peaceful, with peasants tilling the field'. By the 8th, Nehru wrote: 'As far as one can judge, the mass movement against the Muslims is over'. There was a new tendency visible which was hopeful: 'Muslims suggested that the evacuees should return to their villages where they still existed so as to look after their property which they had left in a hurry, and to cut their paddy crops which were ripe. There was a danger otherwise of these being cut and taken away by others. Thus, the primary instinct of self-preservation was giving place to the love of property. This in itself was indication of the return of some measure of normality'.
Of the sixteen districts, six had been affected by the riots. According to government figures, 9,869 houses were damaged or destroyed; 2,186 rounds were fired by the police and military, killing 393 people and injuring 100. Although it was difficult to estimate the exact number of those murdered, the government said the number of Muslims killed in the riots was in the region of 5,400. The Friends Services Unit estimated that the number killed was 10,000. The truth lay somewhere between these two figures.
The Bihar killings ultimately partitioned India. After this there was no looking back: events spiralled out of control, finally leading to the division of India and the massive exchange of population which till then was harped on only by Jinnah and his Muslim League, but was considered impractical and unnecessary by both the Congress and the colonial administration. Bihar was the opportunity the Muslim League was waiting for.
The Bihar Muslim League published a report on the riots on 1 December which was widely publicised by the Muslim League-sponsored press all over India. The leaders of the Congress party and the government were accused of having formed 'an underground council of war against the Muslims which planned and executed the massacres of Muslims and worked as the High Command of the campaign of mass killing'. The Bihar premier, Srikrishna Sinha, who was considered even by the Muslims as their true friend and benefactor, was branded a murderer and accused of having issued 'written orders under his own signature to Government officers that no help is to be given for evacuation and rescue work and that this order is to be strictly followed'. Jayprakash Narayan, the Socialist leader who had severely criticised the Congress and had publicly accused many Congressmen of having participated in the riots, was himself targeted by the League and labelled an 'ultra communalist'. The League's accusations were so reckless and far-fetched, that Nehru was forced to denounce them emphatically: 'The report is so wild and irresponsible that it becomes impossible to attach importance to what they say'.
The Muslim League's effort were ably helped by the Hindu Right wing comprising the Hindu Mahasabha and RSS, as well as by the Congress' follies. Syed Abdul Aziz, a prominent Muslim League leader and bitter critic of Gandhi, compiled a very damaging report which showed how far the police and civic administration was guilty of aiding and abetting the rioters and criminal inaction. His research showed that, although Muslims were murdered, raped and mutilated and their properties pillaged, in many cases within a few yards of— and in no case more than two miles from—the police station or the magistracy, no action was taken for days to save the lives or property of the victims. For instance, Poonpoon and Hilsa were within a hundred yards of the police station; Masaurhi and Taregna railway stations within three hundred and four hundred yards respectively; Chistipore and Palawapore within half a mile; Attasarai and Manaura within one mile and Kaila within a mile and a half from the police station. In all these places Muslims were systematically murdered and their properties looted. Abdul Aziz concluded his damaging statement saying: 'If the officials and police had any sense of their duty and determination to protect the Muslims, at least 100 constables, 15 sub-inspectors, 10 inspectors, 2 District Superintendents of Police, 10 Magistrates and 2 District Magistrates should have allowed themselves to be killed or injured before they allowed thousands of men, women and children under their direct charge to be slaughtered mercilessly'.
Relief measures and compensations announced by the government reached the survivors at a criminally slow pace. In Benibad, Rs. 45,000 was sanctioned to be distributed amongst the Muslim survivors, but it was distributed only after six months when Gandhi reached the village. The Statesman, in a series of articles on the Bihar riots, was severely critical about the way the riots were handled. An article appearing on 8 November, titled 'Disgrace Also', stated: 'A pogrom of such magnitude could hardly happen without premonitory signs. Yet the local administration seems to have been caught unawares'. In another article on 13 November: 'Not only does Bihar's tragedy resemble Bengal's worse one in severity, there can be found dismal similarity in other particulars. Governor's slow moving or not on the spot; Ministers apparently at the outset divided in mind whether some rioting would not be good or bad, and later, amidst the crises of carnage, quite incapable of disciplining the mob.... The Governor's absence at the critical time has indeed evoked remark'.
After the riots were brought under control the Congress committed a grave blunder. It was a foregone conclusion that there would be a mass movement of Muslims fleeing the riot-torn regions. The government immediately set about establishing refugee camps. To blunt the virulent attack launched by the Muslim League, the shell-shocked Bihar government handed over the responsibility of establishing and running the camps to the Muslim League. Systematically, the League started establishing the camps in such a way that they could segregate the Muslim victims and concentrate them in regions in a manner whereby they could claim maximum territory in the cause of establishing a Muslim homeland. The camps were virtually closed to the Congress. The relief material sent by the Bihar government was claimed to have been sent by Jinnah. Many camps were taken over by bands of khaksars and other fanatic elements; they commandeered a major part of the relief material and rations for their own use. The resulting scarcity was blamed on the Bihar government, thus further aggravating anger amongst the victims. They were made to believe that they would find safety only when they had their own country.
By January 1947 nearly 75,000 Bihari Muslims had migrated to Bengal. The districts in which the immigrants were settled were all on the Bihar border with the aim to turn the area into a Muslim-majority one. This border of Bengal was contiguous with the Santhal Parganas of Bihar, the tribal lands of central India. A document sent to the government, later discovered, revealed that the Muslim League was planning to foment a movement for an independent Jharkhand in collaboration with the tribal people of Chotanagpur and Santhal Paraganas. Jharkhand would then seek union with the aboriginals of the Central provinces and would eventually link up with the Nizam's territories of Hyderabad which was seeking a treaty with the Portuguese colony of Goa. Thus a part of India would be cut out from Bengal in the east, running through its central areas and finally ending on the west coast. The Muslim League was obviously in an advanced stage of setting their plans to split up the country into motion, already establishing contacts with other political organisations. This is apparent from a speech delivered by the secretary of the Santhal Paragana Adibasi Sabha, Kanu Kickoo. Speaking at the Muslim League sponsored 'Division of Bihar Conference', he said, 'It is the highest travesty of constitutionalism that the Adibasi, who form seventy per cent of the total population, have been reduced to a very ordinary majority. Let the Mongol, Aryan or any race for that matter, quit and hand over the country to its genuine inhabitants, the Adibasis. Racially and culturally we are distinct entities from the Hindus. Geographically Jharkhand stands out from the rest of Bihar, what we want is simply this: "Hands off Jharkhand".' The League was thus using political groups who were at loggerheads with the administration, to strengthen its ambition of dividing the country.
Lets Kill Gandhi Page 38