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The Dagger: Dominating Interests’ Class War In East Bengal, 1946 And After (Part II: The jab)

By Farooque Chowdhury

29 October, 2015
Countercurrents.org

“[T]he promises of Pakistani nationalism had fired the imagination of Muslim tenants who hoped to improve their lot at the expense of their erstwhile masters. (Yasmin Khan, op. cit.) It was the head of the coin.

The tail carried mark of reaction, an onslaught by reaction shrouded with sectarianism. “Fears of outright persecution were strengthened by real assaults and murders of East Bengalis in the grievous riots in Khulna, Chittagong, Barisal and Sylhet in 1950 and the ruthless requisitioning of Hindu property by a partisan and unaccountable state administration. […] Rich and poor Bengali Hindus became fused in a new collective consciousness of their vulnerable minority status.” (ibid.)

It was not only the case of the rich and poor Hindus. The people, as a whole, found them betrayed and persecuted. The Hindus were the immediate target. But, ultimately, it was the people irrespective of cast and creed who were targeted to rob of awareness and organization, sense of solidarity and fraternity. Awareness and organization of people are their resources they build up slowly. These are much needed resources for people in all societies. The resources were robbed by the masters in command of the situation as part of the class war it was conducting.

Sectarianism is a “nice” way to confuse people, to keep them blindfold, and to deprive them. “East Bengal Muslims in their enthusiasm wanted bread and they have by the mysterious working of the Islamic State and the Shariat got stone instead from the arid deserts of Sind and the Punjab.” (Resignation letter of Jogendra Nath Mandal, addressed to the prime minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan, October 8, 1950, reffered in Dilip Hiro, The Longest August: The unflinching rivalry between India and Pakistan, Nations Books, New York, 2015)

“Even when communal violence was rampant in Calcutta and Noakhali, the Muslim and Hindu peasants of the Tebhaga movement in predominantly Muslim Rangpur and Dinajpur were fighting […] and opposing Partition.” (Nitish Sengupta, op. cit.) But the people’s political destiny was appropriated by a reactionary clique with its political power and the coercive power of state although this people faced persecution, torture, deprivation over ages. A retinue of niggling thieves and hoodlums joined the notorious clique with the motive of theft and loot.

The situation that pulled the people into it was beyond their control. “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.” (Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte) The people in East Bengal found them “under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.” And, the Communist Party, the party standing by them, was struggling there. That phase of struggle is mostly unknown and unsung yet. The following narrations tell only a small part of that heroic, persistent struggle, and loss in a class war.

Free from riot: Communist activists under the leadership of Jiten Ghosh carried on publicity work in villages of the western part of Bikrampur, formerly a part of Dhaka district, for months during the period. They organized meetings in villages, and made people aware of the curse of communalism. The efforts kept the area free from communal riot. (Gayan Chakrabarty, Krishak Neta Jiten Ghosh [Jiten Ghosh, the Peasant Leader], Jiten Ghosh Kalyan Trust, Dhaka, February 1994)

Political activity affected: However, in areas the situation was different. “Communal riot in Dhaka was organized by the reactionary forces in August 1946. It continued up to mid-December, 1946. The riot disrupted normal life in the town. Areas in the town virtually got demarcated on the basis of community – Hindu or Moslem. No Hindu dared to move into Moslem areas. The same was with the Moslems. The riot disrupted trade and commerce. It became very difficult to conduct political activities by the Communist Party.” (Gayan Chakrabarty, Dhaka Jelaar Communist Aandoloner Ateet Joog (The Yester Years of Communist Movement in Dhaka District), Jatio Shahitya Prakashanee, Dhaka, August 1987)

Workers and students: The Party tried to make a breakthrough in the hostile situation. “The primary activity of the Communist Party turned out as peace keeping through peace committees. Hindu and Moslem workers of the Dhaka Cotton Mills brought out peace processions twice in the town. They defied Section 144 to march in the processions. The marches decreased mutual mistrust between the two communities in the town to some extent. But basically the situation didn’t change. The abnormal situation persisted even in January-February 1947 although the riot ceased in December 1946. People were yearning for a change in the situation. For about six months, there was no public meeting in Dhaka town; no mass organization could properly carry on its activities; none could move without fear. Trains, boats, and even steamers were not spared by rioters. Even within this situation, we [the Communist Party] decided to observe the first anniversary of Rashid Ali Day in February 1947. It was not possible to organize any meeting or procession in the town due to the situation. So, it was planned to organize procession at early in the morning, and squad meetings and meetings at neighborhood level. Students flocked in huge numbers and joined the early-morning procession the student activists of the Communist Party in the Dhaka University organized. About 90 per cent students from Salimullah Hall, Jagannath Hall, Dhaka Hall and Fazlul Huq Hall took part in the procession. At the end, the number of participants in the early-morning procession stood at around one thousand. The students’ procession decided to proceed towards the town with the purpose of restoring normalcy there although Section 144 was still in force. Armed police obstructed the procession as it advanced. But the students could not be deterred. They marched ahead. Police didn’t dare to open fire in view of the charged situation all over the country. Thousands of citizens irrespective of religious identity joined the procession. It seemed the entire town people were joining the procession like a deluge. At last, the number of participants in the procession stood around 15,000. Moslem and Hindu people were dancing with joy as the procession was marching forward. Citizens, from rooftops, were showering flower petals on the procession. Hindu and Moslem citizens were embracing each other. The situation in the town returned to normal within a day. In neighborhoods, Moslems and Hindus were shaking hands of each other. This procession cast away the environment of mistrust between the feuding communities to many extents in not only in the town, but also in the entire province. The main slogan in the procession was ‘Hindu-Moslem are brothers, down with the British imperialism’”. (ibid.)

People’s struggle: Initiatives were not ceased to organize people’s struggle in areas in East Bengal. “A powerful movement was organized in Mymensingh demanding abolition of Tonko, an exploitative system imposed on the poor peasantry of the area. In Sylhet, another movement was organized demanding abolition of Naankaar system, a system of perpetually bonded labor. The movement in Mymensingh ultimately turned into armed clashes between police force and armed poor peasants. Hundreds of thousands of poor peasants joined the movement. These movements were led by respective district branches of the Communist Party. It was not possible to extend support to these movements from urban areas and by the laborers due to Congress-Muslim League rivalry, and the prevailing atmosphere of communal riot in the country. However, these movements saved rural areas from fratricidal riot to much extent. Congress and Muslim League opposed the movements with their full force. Despite the opposition, influence of the Communist Party increased widely for the leadership the Party provided in the movements. Most of the district branches of the Party in the northern and eastern parts of East Bengal got strengthened as a result of these movements. It was not possible to organize a strong peasants’ movement in the district of Dhaka due to land system in the district. Despite the fact, a strong Tebhaga movement was organized in Kookooteeaa union under Bikrampoor and in its surrounding areas. In Chaalkaarchar under Narayanganj subdivision (now, Narayanganj is a district) another movement was organized against jotedaars, the big landholders. The jotedaars changed share croppers of their plots of land every year. The share croppers’ struggle was to retain respective plots of land they tilled. In their struggle to retain their right to tilling the lands they tilled the previous year, they continued with tilling the respective plots of land. Litigations by the jotedaars were filed against many peasants and peasant activists. Warrants of arrest were issued against many peasant leaders, activists and peasants.” (ibid.)

Decreasing strength: Organizational activities were carried on regularly despite the hostile environment. “In April 1947, the second conference of the Dhaka district committee of the Communist Party was held at a girls’ school compound in Narayanganj. The conference elected a district committee with 30 members and a district secretariat with five members. A number of industrial workers and peasants were elected in the committee. The number of party members during the conference was eight hundred. The number was about one thousand during 1945. But the number decreased due to many reasons. One of the reasons was quite a number of members left the district. Moreover, a strict measure was followed to bestow membership of the party. Recruitment in the Party turned difficult due to strong anti-party propaganda by Congress and Muslim League. The Party had to carry on its political work within the hostile environment of communalism. There was the British imperialism on one end, and the Hindu-Moslem communal division among the people created by Congress and Moslem League propaganda.” (ibid.)

Class enemy’s assault: Repression by state was unabated during the period. “Hundreds of industrial workers, peasants and political activists were behind bar on the day of August 14, 1947, the day the state of Pakistan was created. There were warrants of arrest for many also. The Communist Party joined a number of functions organized to celebrate the Pakistan Independence Day, and raised demands for release of the prisoners, and withdrawal of warrants of arrest. On August 14, 1947, a big procession was brought out from Chak Bazaar in Dhaka town by the pro-Pakistan political forces. About one thousand Communist Party activists with red flags joined the procession and raised slogans in support of the demands. The entire procession supported the demands. Within a day or two, a meeting of Party members and supporters was organized at North Brook Hall in the town. About eight hundred comrades joined the meeting. Party’s attitude towards Pakistan and its government was explained in the meeting. Within seven days, a public meeting was organized by the Party at the Coronation Park in Dhaka town. People’s rights and demands were raised in the big public meeting. Bhavani Sen, secretary of the provincial committee of the Party, addressed the meeting. Big public meetings in the areas under the Party’s political influence were also organized after the creation of Pakistan. People were paying attention to the Party stand on issues of the day. But the reactionary bureaucracy of the Pakistan state and the ruling clique were eyeing the Party publicities including these meetings with fear, and were propagating that we were anti-Pakistan, and lackeys of India. They were propagating that the only purpose of our publicity is to destroy Pakistan by creating indiscipline.” (ibid.)

[Farooque Chowdhury writes from Dhaka. The article, here in five parts, first appeared in Frontier, Autumn Number, 2015, Vol. 48, No. 14 - 17, Oct 11 - Nov 7, from Kolkata with the following heading: “Radcliffe’s Surgery And After: Class War in East Bengal, 1946 and Communist Party”]

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