04-10-2004, 08:21 PM
A feature of Hindu-Muslim relations during the year which was hardly less serious than the riots
was the number of murderous outrages committed by members of one community against persons
belonging to the other. Some of the most serious of these outrages were perpetrated in connection
with the agitation relating to Rangila Rasul and Risala Vartman, two publications containing most
scurrilous attack on the Prophet Muhammed and as a result of them, a number of innocent persons
lost their lives, sometimes in circumstances of great barbarity. In Lahore a series of outrages
against individuals led to a state of great excitement and insecurity during the summer of 1927.
The excitement over the Rangila Rasul 29[f.29] case had by now travelled far from its original
centre and by July had begun to produce unpleasant repercussions on and across the North-West
Frontier. The first signs of trouble in this region became apparent early in June, and by the latter
part of July the excitement had reached its height. On the British side of the border, firm and tactful
handling of the situation by the local authorities averted, what would have been a serious breach of
the peace. Economic boycott of Hindus was freely advocated in the British Frontier Districts,
especially in Peshawar, but this movement met with little success, and although the Hindus were
maltreated in one or two villages, the arrest of the culprits, together with appropriate action under
the Criminal Law, quickly restored order. Across the border however, the indignation, aroused by
these attacks on the Prophet, gave rise to more serious consequences. The Frontier tribesmen are
acutely sensitive to the appeal of religion and when a well-known Mullah started to preach against
the Hindus among the Afridis and Shinwaris in the neighbourhood of the Khyber Pass, his words
fell on fruitful ground. He called upon the Afridis and Shinwaris to expel all the Hindus living in
their midst unless they declared in writing that they dissociated themselves from the doings of their
co-religionists down country. The first to expel their Hindu neighbours were two clans of the
Khyber Afridis, namely the Kuikhel and Zakkakhel, on the 22nd July. From these, the excitement
spread among their Shinwari neighbours, who gave their Hindu neighbours notice to quit a few
days later. However, after the departure of some of the Hindus, the Shinwaris agreed to allow the
remainder to stay on. Some of the Hindus on leaving the Khyber were roughly handled. In two
cases, stones were thrown, though happily without any damage resulting. In a third case, a Hindu
was wounded and a large amount of property carried off, but this was recovered by Afridi
Khassadars in full, and the culprits were fined for the offence. Thereafter, arrangements were made
for the picketing of the road for the passage of any Hindu evacuating tribal territory. Under
pressure from the Political Agent an Afridi jirga decided towards the end of July to suspend the
Hindu boycott pending a decision in the Risala Vartman case. In the following week, however,
several Hindu families, who had been living at Landi Kotal at the head of the Khyber Pass moved
to Peshawar refusing to accept assurances of the tribal chiefs but leaving one person from each
family behind to watch over their interests. All told, between four hundred and fifty Hindus, men,
women and children, had come into Peshawar by the Middle of August, when the trouble was
definitely on the wane. Some of the Hindus were definitely expelled, some were induced to leave
their homes by threats, some left from fear, some no doubt from sympathy with their neighbours.
This expulsion and voluntary exodus from tribal territory were without parallel. Hindus had lived
there for more generations than most of them could record as valued and respected, and, indeed, as
essential members of the tribal system, for whose protection the tribesmen had been jealous, and
whose blood feuds they commonly made their own. In all, about 450 Hindus left the Khyber during
the excitement ; of these, about 330 had returned to their homes in tribal territory by the close of the
year 1927. Most of the remainder had decided to settle, at any rate for the present, amid the more
secure conditions of British India.
The year 1928-29 was comparatively more peaceful than the year 1927-28. His Excellency Lord
Irwin, by his speeches to the Central Legislature and outside, had given a strong impetus to the
attempts to find some basis for agreement between the two communities, on those questions of
political importance, which were responsible for the strained relations between them. Fortunately
the issues arising out of the inquiry by the Simon Commission which was appointed in 1929,
absorbed a large part of the energy and attention of the different communities, with the result that
less importance came to be attached to local causes of conflict, and more importance to the broad
question of constitutional policy. Moreover, the legislation passed during the autumn session of the
Indian Legislature in 1927 penalising the instigation of inter-communal hostility by the press, had
some effect in improving the inter-communal disturbances. The number of riots during the twelve
months ending with March 31st, 1929, was 22. Though the number of riots was comparatively
small, the casualties,âswelled heavily by the Bombay riots,âwere very serious, no fewer than 204
persons having been killed and nearly a thousand injured. Of these, the fortnight's rioting in
Bombay accounts for 149 killed and 739 injured. Seven of these 22 riots, or roughly one-third of
them, occurred on the day of the celebration of the annual Muslim festival of Bakr-i-Id at the end of
May. The celebration of this festival is always a dangerous time in Hindu-Muslim relations. The
Muslim regard it as a day of animal sacrifice, and as the animal chosen is almost always a cow the
slightest tension between the two communities is apt to produce an explosion. Of the Bakr-i-Id riots
only two were serious and both of them took place in the Punjab. The first took place in a village in
the Ambala District in which ten people were killed and nine injured. The other riot which took
place in Softa village in the Gurgaon District in the Southern Punjab, attained considerable
notoriety because of its sensational features. The village of Softa is about 27 miles south of Delhi
and is inhabited by Muslims. This village is surrounded by villages occupied by Hindu cultivators
who, on hearing that the muslims of Softa intended to sacrifice a cow on the ' Id Day ', objected to
the sacrifice of the particular cow selected on the ground that it had been accustomed to graze in
fields belonging to the Hindu cultivators. The dispute over the matter assumed a threatening aspect
and the Superintendent of Police of the district accordingly went with a small force of police, about
25 men in all, to try to keep peace. He took charge of the disputed cow and locked it up, but his
presence did not deter the Hindu cultivators of a few neighbouring villages from collecting about a
thousand people armed with pitchforks, spears and staves, and going to Softa. The Superintendent
of Police and an Indian Revenue official, who were present in the village, assured the crowd that
the cow, in connection with which the dispute had arisen would not be sacrificed, but this did not
satisfy the mob which threatened to burn the whole village if any cow was sacrificed, and also
demanded that the cow should be handed over to them. The Superintendent of Police refused to
agree to this demand, whereupon the crowd became violent and began to throw stones at the police
and to try to get round the latter into the village. The Superintendent of Police warned the crowd to
disperse, but to no effect. He, therefore, fired one shot from his revolver as a further warning.
Notwithstanding the crowd still continued to advance and the Superintendent had to order his party
of police to fire. Only one volley was fired at first, but as this did not cause the retreat of the mob,
two more volleys had to be fired before the crowd slowly dispersed, driving off some cattle
belonging to the village.
While the police were engaged in this affair a few Hindu cultivators got into Softa at another place
and tried to set fire to the village. They were, however, driven away by the police after they had
inflicted injuries on three or four men. In all 14 persons were killed and 33 were injured. The
Punjab Government deputed a judicial officer to enquire into this affair. His report, which was
published on 6th July, justified the action of the police in firing on the mob and recorded the
opinion that there was no reason to suppose that the firing was excessive or was continued after the
mob had desisted from its unlawful aggression. Had the police not opened fire, the report proceeds,
their own lives would have been in immediate danger, as also the lives of the people of Softa.
Lastly, in the opinion of the officer writing the report, had Softa village been sacked, there would
certainly have broken up, within 24 hours, a terrible communal conflagration in the whole of the
surrounding country-side.
The riots of Kharagpur, an important railway centre not far from Calcutta, also resulted in serious
loss of life. Two riots took place at Kharagpur, the first on the occasion of the Muharram
celebration at the end of June and the second on the 1st September 1928, when the killing of a cow
served as a cause. In the first riot 15 were killed and 21 injured, while in the second riot, the
casualties were 9 killed and 35 wounded. But none of these riots is to be compared with those that
raged in Bombay from the beginning to the middle of February, when, as we have seen, 149
persons were killed and well over 700 injured.
During the year 1929-30 communal riots, which had been so conspicuous and deplorable a feature
of public life during the preceding years, were very much less frequent. Only 12 were of sufficient
importance to be reported to Government of India, and of these only the disturbances in the City of
Bombay were really serious. Starting on the 23rd of April they continued sporadically until the
middle of May, and were responsible for 35 deaths and about 200 other casualties. An event which
caused considerable tension in April was the murder at Lahore of Rajpal, whose pamphlet Rangila
Rasul, containing a scurrilous attack on the Prophet of Islam, was responsible for much of the
communal trouble in previous years, and also for a variety of legal and political complications.
Fortunately, both communities showed commendable restraint at the time of the murder, and again
on the occasion of the execution and funeral of the convicted man ; and although feelings ran high
no serious trouble occurred.
The year 1930-31 saw the eruption of the Civil Disobedience Movement It gave rise to riots and
disturbances all over the country. They were mostly of a political character and the parties involved
in them were the police and the Congress volunteers. But, as it always happens in India, the
political disturbances took a communal twist. This was due to the fact that the Muslims refused to
submit to the coercive methods used by Congress volunteers to compel them to join in Civil
Disobedience. The result was that although the year began with political riots it ended in numerous
and quite serious communal riots. The worst of these communal riots took place in and around
Sukkur in Sind between the 4th and 11th of August and affected over a hundred villages. The
outbreak in the Kishoreganj subdivision of Mymensingh District (Bengal) on the 12th/15th of July
was also on a large scale. In addition, there were communal disturbances on the 3rd of August in
Ballia (United Provinces) ; on the 6th of September in Nagpur, and on the 6th/7th September in
Bombay ; and a Hindu-Christian riot broke out near Tiruchendur (Madras) on the 31st of October.
On the 12th of February, in Amritsar, an attempt was made to murder a Hindu cloth merchant who
had defied the picketers, and a similar outrage which was perpetrated the day before in Benares had
very serious consequences. On this occasion, the victim was a Muslim trader, and the attack proved
fatal; as a result, since Hindu-Muslim relations throughout most of Northern India were by this time
very strained, a serious communal riot broke out and continued for five days, causing great
destruction of property and numerous casualties. Among the other communal clashes during this
period were the riots at Nilphamari (Bengal) on the 25th of January and at Rawalpindi on the 31st.
Throughout Northern India communal relations had markedly deteriorated during the first two
months of 1931, and already, in February, there had been serious communal rioting in Benares,
This state of affairs was due chiefly to the increasing exasperation created among Muslims by the
paralysis of trade and the general atmosphere of unrest and confusion that resulted from Congress
activities. The increased importance which the Congress seemed to be acquiring as a result of the
negotiations with the Government aroused in the Muslims serious apprehensions and had the effect
of worsening the tension between the two communities. During March, this tension, in the United
Provinces at any rate, became greatly increased. Between the 14th and 16th there was serious
rioting in the Mirzapur District, and on the 17th, trouble broke out in Agra and continued till the
20th. There was also a communal riot in Dhanbad (Bengal) on the 28th, and in Amritsar District on
the 30th ; and in many other parts of the country, the relations between members of the two
communities had become extremely strained.
In Assam, the communal riot which occurred at Digboi in Lakhimpur District, resulted in deaths of
one Hindu and three Muslims. In Bengal, a communal riot took place in the Asansol division
during the Muharram festival. In Bihar and Orissa there was a certain amount of communal tension
during the year, particularly in Saran. Altogether there were 16 cases of communal rioting and
unlawful assembly. During the Bakr-i-Id festival a clash occurred in the Bhabua sub-division of
Shahabad. Some 300 Hindus collected in the mistaken belief that a cow had been sacrificed. The
local officers had succeeded in pacifying them when a mob of about 200 Muhammedans armed
with lathis, spears and swords, attacked the Hindus, one of whom subsequently died. The prompt
action of the police and the appointment of a conciliation committee prevented the spread of the
trouble. The Muharram festival was marked by two small riots in Monghyr, the Hindus being the
aggressors on one occasion and the Muslims on the other. In the Madras Presidency there were also
several riots of a communal nature during the year and the relations between the communities were
in places distinctly strained. The most serious disturbance of the year occurred at Vellore on the 8th
of June, as a result of the passage of a Muslim procession with Tazias near a Hindu temple ; so
violent was the conflict between members of the two communities that the police were compelled
to open fire in order to restore order ; and sporadic fighting continued in the town during the next
two or three days. In Salem town, owing to Hindu-Muslim tension a dispute arose on the 13th of
July, as to who had been the victor at a largely attended Hindu-Muslim wrestling match at
Shevapet. Another riot occurred in October at Kitchipalaiyam near Salem town ; the trouble arose
from a few Muslims disturbing a street game played by some young Hindus. Hindu-Muslim
disturbances also arose in Polikal village, Kurnool District, on the 15th of March, owing to a
dispute about the route of a Hindu procession, but the rioters were easily dispersed by a small force
of police. In the Punjab there were 907 cases of rioting during the year as compared with 813 in
1929. Many of them were of a communal character, and the tension between the two principal
communities remained acute in many parts of the Province. In the United Provinces, although
communal tension during 1930 was not nearly so acute as during the first 3 months of 1931, and
was for a while overshadowed by the excitement engendered by the Civil Disobedience Movement,
indications of it were fairly numerous, and the causes of disagreement remained as potent as ever.
In Dehra Dun and Bulandshahr there were communal riots of the usual type, and a very serious riot
occurred in Ballia city as a result of a dispute concerning the route taken by a Hindu procession,
which necessitated firing by the police. Riots also occurred in Muttra, Azamgarh, Mainpuri and
several other places.
Passing on to the events of the year 1931-32, the progress of constitutional discussions at the R. T.
C. had a definite reaction in that it bred a certain nervousness among the Muslim and other minority
communities as to their position under a constitution functioning on the majority principle. The first
session of the Round Table Conference afforded the first " close-up " of the constitutional future.
Until then the ideal of Dominion Status had progressed little beyond a vague and general
conception, but the declaration of the Princes at the opening of the Conference had brought
responsibility at the Centre, in the form of a federal government, within definite view. The
Muslims, therefore, felt that it was high time for them to take stock of their position. This
uneasiness was intensified by the Irwin-Gandhi settlement, which accorded what appeared to be a
privileged position to the Congress, and Congress elation and pose of victory over the Government
did not tend to ease Muslim misgivings. Within three weeks of the " pact " occurred the savage
communal riots at Cawnpore, which significantly enough began with the attempts of Congress
adherents to force Mahomedan shopkeepers to observe a hartal in memory of Bhagat Singh who
was executed on 23rd March. On 24th March began the plunder of Hindu shops. On the 25th there
was a blaze. Shops and temples were set fire to and burnt to cinders. Disorder, arson, loot, murder,
spread like wild fire. Five hundred families abandoned their houses and took shelter in villages. Dr.
Ramchandra was one of the worst sufferers. All members of his family, including his wife and aged
parents, were killed and their bodies thrown into gutters. In the same slaughter Mr. Ganesh Shankar
Vidyarthi lost his life. The Cawnpore Riots Inquiry Committee in its report states that the riot was
of unprecedented violence and peculiar atrocity, which spread with unexpected rapidity through the
whole city and even beyond it. Murders, arson and looting were widespread for three days, before
the rioting was definitely brought under control. Afterwards it subsided gradually. The loss of life
and property was great. The number of verified deaths was 300; but the death roll is known to have
been larger and was probably between four and five hundred. A large number of temples and
mosques were desecrated or burnt or destroyed and a very large number of houses were burnt and
pillaged.
was the number of murderous outrages committed by members of one community against persons
belonging to the other. Some of the most serious of these outrages were perpetrated in connection
with the agitation relating to Rangila Rasul and Risala Vartman, two publications containing most
scurrilous attack on the Prophet Muhammed and as a result of them, a number of innocent persons
lost their lives, sometimes in circumstances of great barbarity. In Lahore a series of outrages
against individuals led to a state of great excitement and insecurity during the summer of 1927.
The excitement over the Rangila Rasul 29[f.29] case had by now travelled far from its original
centre and by July had begun to produce unpleasant repercussions on and across the North-West
Frontier. The first signs of trouble in this region became apparent early in June, and by the latter
part of July the excitement had reached its height. On the British side of the border, firm and tactful
handling of the situation by the local authorities averted, what would have been a serious breach of
the peace. Economic boycott of Hindus was freely advocated in the British Frontier Districts,
especially in Peshawar, but this movement met with little success, and although the Hindus were
maltreated in one or two villages, the arrest of the culprits, together with appropriate action under
the Criminal Law, quickly restored order. Across the border however, the indignation, aroused by
these attacks on the Prophet, gave rise to more serious consequences. The Frontier tribesmen are
acutely sensitive to the appeal of religion and when a well-known Mullah started to preach against
the Hindus among the Afridis and Shinwaris in the neighbourhood of the Khyber Pass, his words
fell on fruitful ground. He called upon the Afridis and Shinwaris to expel all the Hindus living in
their midst unless they declared in writing that they dissociated themselves from the doings of their
co-religionists down country. The first to expel their Hindu neighbours were two clans of the
Khyber Afridis, namely the Kuikhel and Zakkakhel, on the 22nd July. From these, the excitement
spread among their Shinwari neighbours, who gave their Hindu neighbours notice to quit a few
days later. However, after the departure of some of the Hindus, the Shinwaris agreed to allow the
remainder to stay on. Some of the Hindus on leaving the Khyber were roughly handled. In two
cases, stones were thrown, though happily without any damage resulting. In a third case, a Hindu
was wounded and a large amount of property carried off, but this was recovered by Afridi
Khassadars in full, and the culprits were fined for the offence. Thereafter, arrangements were made
for the picketing of the road for the passage of any Hindu evacuating tribal territory. Under
pressure from the Political Agent an Afridi jirga decided towards the end of July to suspend the
Hindu boycott pending a decision in the Risala Vartman case. In the following week, however,
several Hindu families, who had been living at Landi Kotal at the head of the Khyber Pass moved
to Peshawar refusing to accept assurances of the tribal chiefs but leaving one person from each
family behind to watch over their interests. All told, between four hundred and fifty Hindus, men,
women and children, had come into Peshawar by the Middle of August, when the trouble was
definitely on the wane. Some of the Hindus were definitely expelled, some were induced to leave
their homes by threats, some left from fear, some no doubt from sympathy with their neighbours.
This expulsion and voluntary exodus from tribal territory were without parallel. Hindus had lived
there for more generations than most of them could record as valued and respected, and, indeed, as
essential members of the tribal system, for whose protection the tribesmen had been jealous, and
whose blood feuds they commonly made their own. In all, about 450 Hindus left the Khyber during
the excitement ; of these, about 330 had returned to their homes in tribal territory by the close of the
year 1927. Most of the remainder had decided to settle, at any rate for the present, amid the more
secure conditions of British India.
The year 1928-29 was comparatively more peaceful than the year 1927-28. His Excellency Lord
Irwin, by his speeches to the Central Legislature and outside, had given a strong impetus to the
attempts to find some basis for agreement between the two communities, on those questions of
political importance, which were responsible for the strained relations between them. Fortunately
the issues arising out of the inquiry by the Simon Commission which was appointed in 1929,
absorbed a large part of the energy and attention of the different communities, with the result that
less importance came to be attached to local causes of conflict, and more importance to the broad
question of constitutional policy. Moreover, the legislation passed during the autumn session of the
Indian Legislature in 1927 penalising the instigation of inter-communal hostility by the press, had
some effect in improving the inter-communal disturbances. The number of riots during the twelve
months ending with March 31st, 1929, was 22. Though the number of riots was comparatively
small, the casualties,âswelled heavily by the Bombay riots,âwere very serious, no fewer than 204
persons having been killed and nearly a thousand injured. Of these, the fortnight's rioting in
Bombay accounts for 149 killed and 739 injured. Seven of these 22 riots, or roughly one-third of
them, occurred on the day of the celebration of the annual Muslim festival of Bakr-i-Id at the end of
May. The celebration of this festival is always a dangerous time in Hindu-Muslim relations. The
Muslim regard it as a day of animal sacrifice, and as the animal chosen is almost always a cow the
slightest tension between the two communities is apt to produce an explosion. Of the Bakr-i-Id riots
only two were serious and both of them took place in the Punjab. The first took place in a village in
the Ambala District in which ten people were killed and nine injured. The other riot which took
place in Softa village in the Gurgaon District in the Southern Punjab, attained considerable
notoriety because of its sensational features. The village of Softa is about 27 miles south of Delhi
and is inhabited by Muslims. This village is surrounded by villages occupied by Hindu cultivators
who, on hearing that the muslims of Softa intended to sacrifice a cow on the ' Id Day ', objected to
the sacrifice of the particular cow selected on the ground that it had been accustomed to graze in
fields belonging to the Hindu cultivators. The dispute over the matter assumed a threatening aspect
and the Superintendent of Police of the district accordingly went with a small force of police, about
25 men in all, to try to keep peace. He took charge of the disputed cow and locked it up, but his
presence did not deter the Hindu cultivators of a few neighbouring villages from collecting about a
thousand people armed with pitchforks, spears and staves, and going to Softa. The Superintendent
of Police and an Indian Revenue official, who were present in the village, assured the crowd that
the cow, in connection with which the dispute had arisen would not be sacrificed, but this did not
satisfy the mob which threatened to burn the whole village if any cow was sacrificed, and also
demanded that the cow should be handed over to them. The Superintendent of Police refused to
agree to this demand, whereupon the crowd became violent and began to throw stones at the police
and to try to get round the latter into the village. The Superintendent of Police warned the crowd to
disperse, but to no effect. He, therefore, fired one shot from his revolver as a further warning.
Notwithstanding the crowd still continued to advance and the Superintendent had to order his party
of police to fire. Only one volley was fired at first, but as this did not cause the retreat of the mob,
two more volleys had to be fired before the crowd slowly dispersed, driving off some cattle
belonging to the village.
While the police were engaged in this affair a few Hindu cultivators got into Softa at another place
and tried to set fire to the village. They were, however, driven away by the police after they had
inflicted injuries on three or four men. In all 14 persons were killed and 33 were injured. The
Punjab Government deputed a judicial officer to enquire into this affair. His report, which was
published on 6th July, justified the action of the police in firing on the mob and recorded the
opinion that there was no reason to suppose that the firing was excessive or was continued after the
mob had desisted from its unlawful aggression. Had the police not opened fire, the report proceeds,
their own lives would have been in immediate danger, as also the lives of the people of Softa.
Lastly, in the opinion of the officer writing the report, had Softa village been sacked, there would
certainly have broken up, within 24 hours, a terrible communal conflagration in the whole of the
surrounding country-side.
The riots of Kharagpur, an important railway centre not far from Calcutta, also resulted in serious
loss of life. Two riots took place at Kharagpur, the first on the occasion of the Muharram
celebration at the end of June and the second on the 1st September 1928, when the killing of a cow
served as a cause. In the first riot 15 were killed and 21 injured, while in the second riot, the
casualties were 9 killed and 35 wounded. But none of these riots is to be compared with those that
raged in Bombay from the beginning to the middle of February, when, as we have seen, 149
persons were killed and well over 700 injured.
During the year 1929-30 communal riots, which had been so conspicuous and deplorable a feature
of public life during the preceding years, were very much less frequent. Only 12 were of sufficient
importance to be reported to Government of India, and of these only the disturbances in the City of
Bombay were really serious. Starting on the 23rd of April they continued sporadically until the
middle of May, and were responsible for 35 deaths and about 200 other casualties. An event which
caused considerable tension in April was the murder at Lahore of Rajpal, whose pamphlet Rangila
Rasul, containing a scurrilous attack on the Prophet of Islam, was responsible for much of the
communal trouble in previous years, and also for a variety of legal and political complications.
Fortunately, both communities showed commendable restraint at the time of the murder, and again
on the occasion of the execution and funeral of the convicted man ; and although feelings ran high
no serious trouble occurred.
The year 1930-31 saw the eruption of the Civil Disobedience Movement It gave rise to riots and
disturbances all over the country. They were mostly of a political character and the parties involved
in them were the police and the Congress volunteers. But, as it always happens in India, the
political disturbances took a communal twist. This was due to the fact that the Muslims refused to
submit to the coercive methods used by Congress volunteers to compel them to join in Civil
Disobedience. The result was that although the year began with political riots it ended in numerous
and quite serious communal riots. The worst of these communal riots took place in and around
Sukkur in Sind between the 4th and 11th of August and affected over a hundred villages. The
outbreak in the Kishoreganj subdivision of Mymensingh District (Bengal) on the 12th/15th of July
was also on a large scale. In addition, there were communal disturbances on the 3rd of August in
Ballia (United Provinces) ; on the 6th of September in Nagpur, and on the 6th/7th September in
Bombay ; and a Hindu-Christian riot broke out near Tiruchendur (Madras) on the 31st of October.
On the 12th of February, in Amritsar, an attempt was made to murder a Hindu cloth merchant who
had defied the picketers, and a similar outrage which was perpetrated the day before in Benares had
very serious consequences. On this occasion, the victim was a Muslim trader, and the attack proved
fatal; as a result, since Hindu-Muslim relations throughout most of Northern India were by this time
very strained, a serious communal riot broke out and continued for five days, causing great
destruction of property and numerous casualties. Among the other communal clashes during this
period were the riots at Nilphamari (Bengal) on the 25th of January and at Rawalpindi on the 31st.
Throughout Northern India communal relations had markedly deteriorated during the first two
months of 1931, and already, in February, there had been serious communal rioting in Benares,
This state of affairs was due chiefly to the increasing exasperation created among Muslims by the
paralysis of trade and the general atmosphere of unrest and confusion that resulted from Congress
activities. The increased importance which the Congress seemed to be acquiring as a result of the
negotiations with the Government aroused in the Muslims serious apprehensions and had the effect
of worsening the tension between the two communities. During March, this tension, in the United
Provinces at any rate, became greatly increased. Between the 14th and 16th there was serious
rioting in the Mirzapur District, and on the 17th, trouble broke out in Agra and continued till the
20th. There was also a communal riot in Dhanbad (Bengal) on the 28th, and in Amritsar District on
the 30th ; and in many other parts of the country, the relations between members of the two
communities had become extremely strained.
In Assam, the communal riot which occurred at Digboi in Lakhimpur District, resulted in deaths of
one Hindu and three Muslims. In Bengal, a communal riot took place in the Asansol division
during the Muharram festival. In Bihar and Orissa there was a certain amount of communal tension
during the year, particularly in Saran. Altogether there were 16 cases of communal rioting and
unlawful assembly. During the Bakr-i-Id festival a clash occurred in the Bhabua sub-division of
Shahabad. Some 300 Hindus collected in the mistaken belief that a cow had been sacrificed. The
local officers had succeeded in pacifying them when a mob of about 200 Muhammedans armed
with lathis, spears and swords, attacked the Hindus, one of whom subsequently died. The prompt
action of the police and the appointment of a conciliation committee prevented the spread of the
trouble. The Muharram festival was marked by two small riots in Monghyr, the Hindus being the
aggressors on one occasion and the Muslims on the other. In the Madras Presidency there were also
several riots of a communal nature during the year and the relations between the communities were
in places distinctly strained. The most serious disturbance of the year occurred at Vellore on the 8th
of June, as a result of the passage of a Muslim procession with Tazias near a Hindu temple ; so
violent was the conflict between members of the two communities that the police were compelled
to open fire in order to restore order ; and sporadic fighting continued in the town during the next
two or three days. In Salem town, owing to Hindu-Muslim tension a dispute arose on the 13th of
July, as to who had been the victor at a largely attended Hindu-Muslim wrestling match at
Shevapet. Another riot occurred in October at Kitchipalaiyam near Salem town ; the trouble arose
from a few Muslims disturbing a street game played by some young Hindus. Hindu-Muslim
disturbances also arose in Polikal village, Kurnool District, on the 15th of March, owing to a
dispute about the route of a Hindu procession, but the rioters were easily dispersed by a small force
of police. In the Punjab there were 907 cases of rioting during the year as compared with 813 in
1929. Many of them were of a communal character, and the tension between the two principal
communities remained acute in many parts of the Province. In the United Provinces, although
communal tension during 1930 was not nearly so acute as during the first 3 months of 1931, and
was for a while overshadowed by the excitement engendered by the Civil Disobedience Movement,
indications of it were fairly numerous, and the causes of disagreement remained as potent as ever.
In Dehra Dun and Bulandshahr there were communal riots of the usual type, and a very serious riot
occurred in Ballia city as a result of a dispute concerning the route taken by a Hindu procession,
which necessitated firing by the police. Riots also occurred in Muttra, Azamgarh, Mainpuri and
several other places.
Passing on to the events of the year 1931-32, the progress of constitutional discussions at the R. T.
C. had a definite reaction in that it bred a certain nervousness among the Muslim and other minority
communities as to their position under a constitution functioning on the majority principle. The first
session of the Round Table Conference afforded the first " close-up " of the constitutional future.
Until then the ideal of Dominion Status had progressed little beyond a vague and general
conception, but the declaration of the Princes at the opening of the Conference had brought
responsibility at the Centre, in the form of a federal government, within definite view. The
Muslims, therefore, felt that it was high time for them to take stock of their position. This
uneasiness was intensified by the Irwin-Gandhi settlement, which accorded what appeared to be a
privileged position to the Congress, and Congress elation and pose of victory over the Government
did not tend to ease Muslim misgivings. Within three weeks of the " pact " occurred the savage
communal riots at Cawnpore, which significantly enough began with the attempts of Congress
adherents to force Mahomedan shopkeepers to observe a hartal in memory of Bhagat Singh who
was executed on 23rd March. On 24th March began the plunder of Hindu shops. On the 25th there
was a blaze. Shops and temples were set fire to and burnt to cinders. Disorder, arson, loot, murder,
spread like wild fire. Five hundred families abandoned their houses and took shelter in villages. Dr.
Ramchandra was one of the worst sufferers. All members of his family, including his wife and aged
parents, were killed and their bodies thrown into gutters. In the same slaughter Mr. Ganesh Shankar
Vidyarthi lost his life. The Cawnpore Riots Inquiry Committee in its report states that the riot was
of unprecedented violence and peculiar atrocity, which spread with unexpected rapidity through the
whole city and even beyond it. Murders, arson and looting were widespread for three days, before
the rioting was definitely brought under control. Afterwards it subsided gradually. The loss of life
and property was great. The number of verified deaths was 300; but the death roll is known to have
been larger and was probably between four and five hundred. A large number of temples and
mosques were desecrated or burnt or destroyed and a very large number of houses were burnt and
pillaged.