It has been 75 years of independence from the British raj. We have come a long way since then but there are some permanent scars in the history of India just like Direct Action Day, that will be there forever. On this Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, let’s encapsulate the atrocities Hindus suffered at the hands of jihadis.

“Oh Kaffir, do not be proud and happy, for your doom is not far and the general massacre will come”, the pamphlets on Direct Action Day warned. On August 10, the Hindus observed that the Muslims had been given lathis, spears, and daggers, according to a Stren Reckoning. A close henchman of Suhrawardy, Sharif Khan MLA, provided the Howrah goondas with weaponry.

When Sharif Khan and Mr. Usman, the mayor of Calcutta, visited Howrah, they incited the locals to turn on non-Muslims. On the morning of August 16, Dawn published a 4-page supplement informing readers that the time has come for direct action and that force alone could protect Muslim rights.

According to the command given to the intelligence division, “Goonda elements among the Muslims may cause problems.”
Some Muslim hostels had received orders to get ready to set military lorries and tram cars on fire. Unruly groups initially not numbering more than 50 or 60 holding flags and banners and armed with sticks, daggers, spears, and hatchets were yelling slogans and asking other Muslims to join them.

There were 1200 calls for support made to the deputy police commissioner.
The 11 phones that were installed in two different rooms rang frequently. Even keeping track of the many texts received was tough.

Suhrawardy entered the police control room and remained there for seven hours. Mosques should receive special protection, and police pickets should be placed outside each one, according to his instructions. There are no similar guidelines for Hindu temples.

There was an immediate response to bogus accusations that M/s Lal Chand & Co. had used weapons against Muslims. Muslims had attempted to start a fire at the store. Ms. Lal Chand stated that their requests for assistance had been ignored.

Numerous Muslim businesses were marked as “Mussalman shops-Pakistan.” The homes of prominent Hindus and politicians were singled out for special Muslim vengeance. BC Roy’s home was burned down. The office of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee was violently stoned, and Kirron Shankar Roy’s SIL was stabbed.

Attacks on and attempts to set fire to the Ananda Bazaar Patrika and Hindustan Standard offices occurred. On TC Dutta Street, a house was set on fire and was still burning the next day. The Regent Theater caught fire

Several temples were attacked and destroyed by fire. These included the Sitla Temple on College Street and the Radhakrishna Temple on Cornwallis Road.

For several hours, the nearby Hindu homes and the science institution were under constant attack. Dead bodies littered the streets, where they remained for several days while emitting an offensive odor.
Numerous dead bodies were dumped through manholes, obstructing the city’s sewerage. In the river, dead bodies were observed floating.

There were rumors that young children had fallen from home rooftops. According to reports, little infants were boiled in oil. Others were killed by burning. Women were murdered after being raped and mutilated. Military lorries dropped bleaching powder on the bodies, garbage piles, and animal and human remain, yet the odor of the city persisted for days.

According to estimates, there were over 5000 fatalities and over 15000 injuries. The Muslim League and its press aggressively asserted that Direct Action Day was a Hindu plot to kill Muslims and destroy the League and that violence was instigated by Congress followers.

Nearly the whole district’s Hindu population had been stripped of everything they owned before being coercively converted to Islam. The entire day of Eid was spent in meetings. Maulvis promoted hatred for non-Muslims in their sermons. Idols were shattered and temples vandalized. Buffaloes were reportedly murdered in public close to mosques and other locations. Some complainants experienced harassment and violence as a result of their boldness in filing complaints against Muslims.

According to estimates, at least 95% of Noakhali’s non-Muslim population was thus converted to Islam, and its women were treated with disdain. The people who had been converted were made to read Kalma, butcher cows, and consume their flesh. The sindoor was taken off and the conch shell bangles were broken.

The purpose of the Noakhali Muslims was to intimidate the Hindus, dishonor their women, desecrate their gods, and convert them to Islam before the ladies were forced to marry into Muslim families.
On the other side, a number of counter-charges were filed against Hindus, and the police prosecuted them with remarkable vigor. A large number of Muslims who were charged with major crimes were either not detained or, if they were, were freed on minimal bond amounts. It was estimated that 99% of non-Muslim homes were burned down.

Syed Jalil, one of the speakers, stated firmly that Qaid-e-Azam and Messrs. Nazimuddin and Suhrawardy had stated that Muslims did not believe in nonviolence. According to Shaheedul Haq of the Muslim Students Federation, a Muslim could enter heaven by killing someone or by being killed by a Hindu. The statesmen revealed that between 2000 and 3000 people had died on the 20th.

“We are 10 cr in India…we are starting jihad in the month ram zan to establish the kingdom of iz lam, making India the biggest izlamic kingdom in the world.”-was read in the mosque to over 1 lakh Muslims on Aug 16, 1946.

One of the biggest massacres in Indian history was never given an essential place in standard history books because there were too many troubling details to cover up for the sake of spreading the ideology of secularism. Liberals who oppose forgetting the Holocaust in Europe, and the systematic persecution of American Indians, want Indians to forget the 2 crore people who were murdered by Muslims on Direct Action Day.

 

Note: The above information is an excerpt from the Book Stern Reckoning.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.