HT This Day: August 17, 1946 -- Ninety dead and 900 injured in Calcutta

Ninety persons died and 900 were injured up to 11 p.m. today as a result of street incidents in different parts of the city arising from the observance of the ‘Direct Action Day’ by the Muslim League.

Ninety persons died and 900 were injured up to 11 p.m. today as a result of street incidents in different parts of the city arising from the observance of the ‘Direct Action Day’ by the Muslim League.

HT This Day: August 17, 1946 -- Ninety dead and 900 injured in Calcutta

Twenty have sustained bullet wounds as a result of police firings on unruly mobs.

A large number of shops were looted and set on fire. The police of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee at the junction of Dharmatolla Street and Lower Circular Road was heavily stoned. Several residential houses were also attacked and stoned.

The military has been called out to help civil authorities. The police opened the at some places to disperse the unruly mobs. Curfew has been imposed between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. in the city.

The Bengal Government had declared the day a public holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act.

Mr H. S. Suhrawardy, Premier, had explained that this was done mainly for the purpose of minimising the risk of conflicts and in the interests of peace and order.

Government offices, banks, commercial houses and other business firms remained closed. Morning milk did not arrive at many houses and boarding establishments in Central Calcutta owing to difficulties of transport.

Dalhousie Square, the hub of Government and business offices which usually teems with office-workers at 10-30 in the morning, had a Sunday look today, with this difference that no transport services were plying in the area and only a few private cars were to be seen occasionally.

Suburban Services Affected

The Chief Transportation Manager, Bengal Assam Railway, announces that owing to local intimidation the railway staff are unable to work their suburban trains today. A few private cars were to be seen occasionally.

The East Indian and Bengal Nagpur Railway authorities state that their train services are working normally.

In an appeal issued on the eve of “Direct Action” Day, the Secretary of the Calcutta District Muslim League had called for observance of the day in peace and without any intimidation.

Uniformed Muslim volunteers with big sticks squatted at important street junctions to prevent vehicular traffic, but police vans arid lorries with steel-helmeted force rushed about without interference.

Some shops on Belgatchia Road in North Calcutta, near the tram depot, were looted in the afternoon by a mob.

From Dum Dum it is reported that a dozen persons were injured in a clash resulting from the looting of a restaurant there.

Some cases of firing by the police to disperse mobs have occurred.

Four shops in the Lake Market area in South Calcutta were looted and set on fire by a mob. Stray assaults are reported from the area.

There was a fracas between a procession proceeding from Tollygunge to the Muslim mass meeting at Ochterloney Monument and a crowd on Russa Road, in South Calcutta.

Following this, bus and other transport services in South Calcutta were suspended.

Dr B. C. Roy’s House Set On Fire

The house of Dr B. C. Roy, Congress leader, suffered damage at the hands of a mob. Dr Roy is out of Calcutta. The furniture and property was damaged by the mob, which attacked the house early in the afternoon. The house was also set on fire but the fire was soon extinguished. The property of the Congress Medical Mission to Malaya also suffered in the incident.

Earlier in the day, Dr Kiran Sankar Roy, leader of the Bengal Congress Parliamentary Party, contacted the Secretary to the Governor and stated that the situation in the city had become grave. Looting had been going on and stray assaults had taken place on a large scale. It was necessary that steps to control the situation should be strengthened.

Mr Roy was told that the military would be called out on picket duty.

Mr Suhrawardy late last night said that the situation was improving.

The situation quietened down at night.

Seven Injured In Patna

Seven persons have been admitted in the Patna General Hospital with injuries received in a clash which occurred on the occasion of the observance of “Direct Action” Day in Vikhnapahari area in Patna on Friday. The condition of one is reported to be precarious.

The trouble arose, it is reported, over the hoisting of the Muslim League Flag over the Purnendu Narain Anglo-Sanskrit School which took on ugly turn and resulted in the clash.

A large number of armed police are guarding the school area. Hindu students who had not been able to get out of the school premises as a result of the trouble were sent to their respective homes under police escort. Batches of armed police are patrolling the streets and police pickets have been posted in sensitive areas.

At the Instance of the Premier a peace patrol consisting of the Muslim League and Congress leaders will go round the town in a van tonight requesting the people to remain calm and not to give way to provocations.

Shops Looted in Allahabad

In Allahabad, the day passed off peacefully except for the looting, it is reported, of a few khonchawalas (vendors) at the Allahabad Junction station. Confusion also prevailed for some time at the Women’s University Hostel when, it is alleged Muslim girl students wanted to hoist the Muslim League flag on the hostel building. A number of Muslim students gathered at the gate of the hostel but later dispersed on the advice of their president. At the D.A.V. school where the authorities feared some trouble, an order under Section 144 Cr.P.C. in the school limits was promulgated by the District authorities and police pickets were posted.

AGRA

All Muslim shops here remained closed today and Muslim students absented themselves from the classes. A procession which was part of the programme was abandoned.

LAHORE

A well-attended meeting at which the Nawab of Mamdot, a land-owner in the Punjab and President of the Punjab Muslim League, announced the renunciation of his hereditary title of Nawab was the highlight of the Direct Action Day observances here.

The report is silent on whether he also renounced the jagir grant he receives from the Government.

Generally Muslim shops remained closed. The observance of the day was peaceful and without incident. Lathi armed poke and police pickets were at important road corners.

Addressing the meeting, the Nawab of Mamdot said: “Today the Congress has joined hands with the British to crush the freedom urge among the hundred million Muslims of India but I assure you that so long as we remain firm and united no unholy alliance between the British imperia list forces and the Hindu capitalist classes can suppress our upsurge for emancipation.”

The Nawab of Mamdot said that as a result of the last war the British had been reduced to the position of a third-rate Power. They thought they needed the support of the Hindu capitalist classes to retain their power. The British also thought, the Nawab said that the poverty-stricken Muslim masses - who supported them in the last war-could again be “purchased” in the next war. The Hindus being a capitalist class could not be purchased and the British wanted the help of the Hindu capitalist classes for an outlet for their trade and commerce.

The Nawab of Mamdot said: ‘’What we want now is a clash between British imperialism and Russian communism. The British will then demand the help of the Indian Muslims who will demonstrate at that time their power and importance.”

DELHI

The day passed off peacefully in Delhi

KARACHI

Complete stoppage of business and labour activities and the city’s transport services marked the observance of the ‘Direct Action’ Day in Karachi. Following the declaration of a public holiday by the Sind Government under the Negotiable Instruments Act, all markets, banks, business houses, Government and municipal offices and schools remained closed, while must of the vegetable vendors and hawkers drew their shutters for the day.

The observance began with a large procession of Muslim students who held a meeting later. Sheikh Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah, Premier, Pir Elahi Bux and Mr M. H. Gazder addressed the meeting. While the procession was passing through the Sind Secretariat and the Chief Court some of the students hoisted Muslim League flags on the buildings.

The Premier spoke of the circumstances in which the Muslim League Working Committee adopted the “Direct Action” resolution. He said that the two-nation theory was given a go-by the Muslims when they accepted a Union Government at the Centre in respect of three important subjects. They had agreed to give up the Pakistan demand for ten years in order to belie the cry that Muslims were standing in the way of the freedom of India. Even as regards the Interim Government they had agreed to the 5 : 5 : 3 ratio but finally the Cabinet Mission proposed six Congress, five Muslim League and three others while the Congress demanded the right of nominating one of the “misguided Muslims’ in their quota. He asked if it was equitable and fair on the part of the British Government to ask the Congress to form the Interim Government, while they did not allow the Muslim League to do so, when the Congress turned down and the Muslim League accepted the interim plan.

Pir Elahi Bux said that the Bengal Premier had declared that on the day the Congress formed an Interim Government at the Centre he, would raise the flag of independent Bengal. Sind, he added, would follow Bengal’s example.

BOMBAY

Muslims in Bombay city and suburbs observed complete hartal today in response to Mr Jinnah’s appeal. Shops and business houses in Muslim localities remained closed and trams and buses passing through the area were suspended for the day.

The day’s programme began with a procession.

Several lorries full of Muslim League followers, including students, went round Muslim localities and the Fort area shouting League slogans and waving League flags.

The authorities, at whose instance a contingent of British troops moved into the city yesterday, posted them in the compound of the police headquarters.

AHMEDABAD

Muslim shops remained closed in the city today in observance of the “Direct Action” Day. Muslim workers abstained from the mills while the city’s public bus service stopped for want of drivers.