Mahatma Gandhi by Dennis Dalton

Author:Dennis Dalton
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: History/World
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2011-09-09T21:00:00+00:00

By the end of 1946 India was drifting rapidly to chaos. The real power had passed from British hands; senior officials, anxious about their future, were conscious that they were caretakers under notice and were disheartened; Ministers, paralyzed by the communal situation, seemed unable to come to grips with the problems of administration; and the unparalleled communal riots in Calcutta, together with serious disorder in many parts of India, made it clear that nobody was in effective control.42

Of this situation, Calcutta was an inextricable part, acting from within India upon it, and in turn reacting to the violence from without.

The agony that Calcutta experienced in the year after the Great Killing is indescribable. Fear and violence pervaded the city. Many sought to escape, either fleeing from the city or withdrawing into armed communal camps within it. The first major riot of the year occurred in late March. A series of stray incidents quickly escalated into large-scale mob violence and troops were called in to restore order.43 After March 1947, rioting became chronic, persisting, in Governor Burrows’ words, in “a stream,…now ebbing, now flowing, but never completely ceasing for more than a few days.”44 The government had clearly lost control; while Suhrawardy now took maximum precautions,45 “so far has the position now deteriorated that the public has come to realize that its only protection is, in the last resort, India’s armed force.”46 The once effective Calcutta police department had itself become undermined and demoralized by communalism,47 and the Hindu majority regarded the League ministry with intense suspicion. “We have come to a stage,” Suhrawardy admitted, “when nobody, not even the Government, can guarantee that there will not be arson, stabbing or looting.”48

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