‘defence groups’ and militia in anticipation of violence on August 16,
and because violence had been anticipated from Muslims, these defence
groups tended to be Hindus, but they were organised according to
localities rather than in a massive collective communal organisation.^28
Insecurity had bred violence, ‘defence’ turned easily into offence, and many
more Muslims than Hindus died in the three days of violence that
followed in Calcutta. This was certainly far from what League leaders
anticipated.
The response to the scale of slaughter was one of disbelief. Nehru
was aghast at what he saw. ‘[T]he conflict is between humanity and
inhumanity, between ordinary decency and bestial behaviour,’ he declared.
‘This has ceased to be merely communal or political. It is a challenge to
every decent instinct of humanity and it should be treated as such. What
has led up to this, the incitements to violence, the direct invitations to the
shedding of blood, are worthy of enquiry.’ Clearly referring to instigators,
he stressed the responsibility of every citizen to calm things down and
to cooperate with the police to isolate ‘anti-social elements’. Localities,
he advised, should organise themselves for self-protection irrespective of
party, religion or profession, as should villages – which, indeed, was
something like what happened in Calcutta. People should not respond to
trouble from other areas. They should not rely on ‘peace committees’
composed of the very elements who had indulged in the violence, as had
been the practice in previous instances of communal riots.^29
Such advice had little effect. In October, violence spread to Noakhali,
where the slogan ‘We Want Revenge for Calcutta’ was heard, but violence
was largely muted in comparison to Calcutta and to subsequent events,
restricted to what amounted to a local act of revenge against a Hindu
zamindar; the rioters were mostly content to ritually humiliate Hindus by
making them eat beef, recite the Islamic creed, the Kalma, and wear a
lungi, a sarong-like garment associated in Eastern Bengal with poor
Muslim peasants.^30 Then the violence spread to the north and west of
India, where any question of restraint was quickly lost.
By this time, Nehru was the head of the Interim Government,
inaugurated by Wavell on September 2, 1946. The Interim Government
was to work on the principles of communal representation: Hindus,
Muslims and Sikhs, Scheduled Castes (as the Backward Castes were now
called after the 1935 Government of India Act had named them in a
special Schedule) and the smaller minorities of Indian Christians and
THE END OF THE RAJ 131