islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

Islamic Jihadstarted by the supporters of the Congress and some of them even went so far to say that the Hindus hadprepared a deeply laid plan to commit wholesale murder of Muslims to discredit the Muslim League.’ 556Nehru’s reaction to the Direct Action riots was, noted Time, ‘‘Either direct action knocks the Governmentover, or the Government knocks direct action over.’’ 557 PC Lahiry, a freedom fighter against the British and amember of the Provincial Legislative Assembly of post-independence East Pakistan, writes of this tragedy:The well-thought plan of the Muslim League to frighten and terrorize the Congress and theHindus to submit to the demand of the League for a separate sovereign state of Pakistan wasfrustrated in Calcutta, because the Hindus (and Sikhs) did not lag behind the Muslims inaggressiveness and killing. A large number of Muslims also died. 558Following the Calcutta riots, Muslims in Bombay started rioting on September 2, on the day the InterimCongress Government took office. The violence lasted several days leaving over 200 people dead.Anti-Hindu riots move to East BengalDisappointed with the outcome of the Direct Action and to avenge the death of their Muslim brethren inCalcutta, Muslims in East Bengal, where they were in the majority, took it upon themselves to continue thesavagery on the Hindus in their midst. A series of sustained riots took place; the riots of Noakhali-Tippera of1946–47, known as the Noakhali riots, rate a special mention. Since the late nineteenth century, rising Islamicfundamentalism—fueled by the puritanical Saudi Wahabbism and Anjuman Society—had been sweepingacross Bengal, particularly Noakhali, where the population was predominantly Muslim (80–85 percent). 559This radicalization was seen as a primer for the riots in Noakhali and other districts (Feni, Comilla) acrossEast Bengal, affecting some 350 villages. 560 According to Lahiri, ‘Having thus failed in Calcutta, the MuslimLeague selected another venue in the district of Noakhali, where the Hindus were only 18 percent of the totalpopulation, for the nefarious deed of arson, loot, abduction and rape of the Hindu women, mass-conversion offaith and killings.’ 561 The first news of the Noakhali violence reached Bengal Congress Office in Calcutta on15 October 1946 from the Party members in Noakhali in the form of a telegram, which read: 562‘Houses burned on mass scale / Hundreds burnt to death / Hundreds killed / Otherwise largenumber Hindu girls forcibly married to Moslems and abducted / All Hindu temples and imagesdesecrated / Helpless refugees coming to Tippera District / Golam Sarwar leader incitingMoslems to exterminate Hindus from Noakhali…’The Noakhali riots were ignited by this Pir (Sufi master), Maulvi Gholam Sarwar, by grossly exaggerating thestories of Calcutta riots and putting all blames on the Hindus. Muslim clerics in public Islamic gatherings(waaz mahfil) preached hatred against the Hindus regarding the Calcutta riots. In order to instigate Muslimsinto orgasmic violence, rumors were spread amongst them that the Hindus had brought armed Sikh and Hinduhooligans from Calcutta to Noakhali to massacre them. By mid-October, records Khosla: ‘Hundreds ofmurders had been committed, thousands of women had been dishonored and carried away or compelled to556. Ibid, p. 66557. Direct Action, Time, 26 Aug, 1946; http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,933559,00.html558. Lahiri PC (1964) India Partitioned and Minorities in Pakistan, Writers’ Forum, Calcutta, p. 6559. Batabyal R (2005) Communalism in Bengal: From Famine to Noakhali, 1943-47, SAGE Publications, p. 295–96.560. Ibid, p. 270–71561. Lahiri, p. 7562. Khan, p. 68175