Labour Monthly
Source: Labour Monthly October 1947, pages 312-316
Publisher : The Labour Publishing Company Ltd., London.
Transcription/HTML markup: Ted Crawford/D. Walters
Public Domain : Marxists Internet Archive (2013). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source. Published here under the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license 2013.
Within two weeks of August 15 and the country-wide rejoicing over the establishment of a National Government, opening the prospect of a new free life for our people, the nation stands horror-struck at the dark menacing clouds rising from the Punjab.
From the two parts of the Punjab mass migration of minorities is taking place after a systematic campaign of mass extermination. The latest Punjab riots far surpass all earlier riots both in the numbers, involved and the area affected.
Today is not the time to unravel the chain of cause and effect. It goes far back to the provocative Attlee Award of December last, which laid the basis for the partition of the Punjab, and the claims and counter-claims over boundaries made by the different communities.
The best of our leaders have rightly emphasised not to stress the past. What, however, needs to be known to everyone, whether Hindu or Muslim, whether citizen of the Indian Union or Pakistan, is that there is nothing to choose between the extent of brutalities, or type of atrocities, committed on either side. The numbers killed on both sides surpass all earlier records. The number of women raped and abducted runs into thousands. Neighbourliness, humanity, chivalry, all seem to have disappeared for the time being.
What set this fire alight? What poisoned our people?
1. Imperialist bureaucracy. Soon after the Attlee Declaration February 20, the Punjab Ministry was sacked by Governor Jenkins, who installed his autocratic Section 93 rule, with the result that when the transfer of power came on August fi 5 our Governments inherited a Province which was already aflame, where the administration had already broken down. Further, the round of riots in March, 1946, in Rawalpindi, Multan, Lahore, Amritsar and Jullundur were all in the districts headed by British Deputy Commissioners.
Next, on the eve of transfer of power from August 1 to 15 and then up to September 1, the centre of the latest riots was all the 12 districts on both sides of the border where the British-officered Boundary Force was supposed to keep the peace. Pandit Nehru has, publicly hinted that the Boundary Force did not do its job: and every Punjabi, whether in the East or in the West, if questioned, can easily give innumerable examples from his own experience to show how frequently the army and the police took a part in looting, burning, raping and killing.
2. Punjab’s Princes, and vested interests. Reactionary national elements, nursed under British rule, have played their own part and bear heaviest responsibility inside each community. Punjabi Princes have supplied arms to bands of their own communities, some to the National Guards, some to the Akalis.
In the countryside it is the big landlords who raised and led big armed bands to kill or drive out the minorities so that they themselves got their lands and houses, the peasantry got split communally and their own feudal rule was maintained unimpaired.
In the towns it is the war-rich blackmarketeers who have acted as financial patrons their respective communal organisations. Factory owners, if Hindu, sacked all the Muslim workers and, if Muslim, sacked all the non-Muslim workers and this added fuel to the fire. The aim of the war-rich capitalist elements has been to drive out their trade and industrial rivals to be able to get monopoly control in their own hands.
3. Political criminals. Yet this could never have succeeded without reactionary communal leaders who made a bid for mass popularity in the chaotic conditions that have prevailed in the riot-torn Punjab, during the last six months. In the Punjab the Congress has always been weak and has become weaker still because of the unnatural alliance with the Unionists first and later with the reactionary Akalis.
In the countryside, the reactionary Akali leadership ruled through armed bands. Their political aim inside the Eastern Punjab is to get a dominant hold over the East Punjab Government. In their illegal leaflets issued in the name of the Government of Khalistan, and distributed en masse, they, boastfully declare, their aim of establishing Khalistan.
“Khalistan is the Empire of Khalsa as left by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sher-i-Punjab. Every Khalsa must pledge himself to this and nothing else.”
In fact, what they are planning is a confederation of the Sikh States and the Sikh central districts of the Punjab around Patiala, as the base.
The ambitions of these communal reactionaries are not confined to the Eastern Punjab alone. Both the Mahasabha and the Akalis are running a systematic campaign to discredit and run down the Nehru Government. Their common slogan is that the Nehru Government is neither protecting the minorities in the Western Punjab nor letting them retaliate against the Muslim minorities in the Eastern Punjab. Their slogan is: Nehru must meet Aung San’s fate.
In Delhi, the Mahasabha called for an observance of Martyrs’ Day on August 30 for which leaflets were distributed in thousands in the name of Jai Bharat in which it openly called:
“Remember 30th August, 1947, when you have to observe Martyrs’ Day. The day should begin with mass murder of Muslim children and women alike. Forcible occupation of the Muslim buildings should be your objective. Set fire to Muslim mohallas, but beware that the fire does not spread to Hindu Sikh localities.”
The National Government rightly and quickly banned the day.
As in the Indian Union, so in Pakistan, the danger from extreme communalists, all old pro-British elements, is equally great. In the beginning Mr. Jinnah: and the mass of League leaders were trying to concentrate fire on the atrocities in the Eastern Punjab, completely ignoring the atrocities in the Western Punjab.
Soon the Pakistan leaders, too were faced with complete administrative breakdown and the worst reactionaries began denouncing the League leadership itself for not taking strong, measures against the atrocities in the Eastern Punjab. And they, too, began to make a bid for leading places inside Provincial and Central Governments: The realisation of this grave situation inside Pakistan itself led to the laudable sentiments in Mr. Jinnah’s broadcast speech on August 31:
“These decisions and measures adopted by the special conference should reassure the people of all communities that both the Pakistan and India Governments are determined to put down ruthlessly these orgies and their far-reaching consequences ... The civilised world is looking upon these doings and happenings with horror, and the fair name of the communities concerned stands blackened in the eyes of the world.”
The Punjab riots are being used by the imperialist agencies to discredit both India and Pakistan, to prove that we are incapable of ruling ourselves. Tory papers like Beaverbrook’s Daily Express are screeching that the Punjab disturbances are due to the hasty withdrawal of British officers.
“Britain’s ‘precipitate renunciation’ of authority in India on August 15 was a gamble with the lives of millions … The horrors of the Punjab were the result of ‘a hasty and clumsy policy.’”
A UPA message from Washington, dated August 27, states that the Anglo-American Joint Chiefs of Staff are watching to see that the Punjab riots do not become a menace to the security of South East Asia. In other words, they are waiting to see how far their own military juniors, who unfortunately yet remain the leaders and commanders of our armed forces, can get an excuse for intervening as a “neutral force” and getting a stronger grip over our defence. The same message says that their diplomatic interest goes to show that disturbances in India would mean that we shall not be able to play our leading role in Asia. This danger is real. Instead of India continuing to play active role against imperialist intervention in Indonesia and Viet Nam, We are being threatened with imperialist intervention ourselves. Our international standing, our national honour abroad, is at stake.
Further, the peaceful relations between Pakistan and the Indian Union are at stake. Our Party was the first to warn the country that the British were planning to turn partitioned India into two mutually hostile States. Today the threat is become an actual menace.
The National Standard reports that the Pakistan Government is alleged to have supplied two rifles per person in their border areas. The Free Press Journal reports that the Eastern Punjab Governor has asked the National Government to send at least 10,000 arms to border villages in the Eastern Punjab to meet the daily raids. The urgent need of the hour is not for either Government to arm their border areas but for both Governments to disarm those that are armed, if we do not wart two mutually hostile States to grow up.
The Punjab stirs heroic memories in every heart.
Today it is bleeding, burning, suffering, and calls to all of us for aid and not to let its plight overtake any other Province. We must act in aid of the Punjab and in our own interest. The two are one.
(1) All Support to Government. Reaction is threatening our two Governments and it is the duty of us all to rally whole-heartedly and enthusiastically behind them and pledge them all our support.
It is a very good sign that the two Governments are, co-operating closely. We must demand the closest co-operation. That way lies the shortest path toward restoring peace and establishing good relations. The primary efforts have got to come from the two Governments themselves, so far as restoring peace within the Punjab is concerned and also for mobilising the popular forces outside for any and every service required. It is here that the great weakness lies because the two Governments are still relying only on the bureaucracy which is rotten to the core and needs a drastic and immediate purge.
(2) Send New Troops: The Punjab riots, on both sides, need quelling with firm military action. The troops there are the very same that constituted the Boundary Force and who have already been infected with communal poison and have been guilty of the worst atrocities. It is necessary to disarm arid withdraw all these troops and send the British officers back home.
The immediate necessity is for Pandit Nehru to appeal to the patriotism of the Indian army and send new troops under picked loyal patriotic Indian officers, of whom there are plenty, with orders to arrest and disarm all the armed gangs, and restore peace for the people who have been terrorised or misled. Further, both the Premiers must appeal for an army of patriotic volunteers for service in the disturbed areas together with the armed forces for aiding the task of rehabilitation, raising mass morale and going all out to fight provocation and bring the minorities back to their own homes.
Such is also the demand of all non-communal Congressmen in the Punjab who are feeling utterly miserable, and helpless, because by themselves they feel overwhelmed by the communal elements.
(3) All Help to Refugees. A big problem of the moment is that of the refugees. They must be assured a welcome and all reasonable relief in camps run by all-parties’ committees. This will at once reverse the present position when the worst communal elements are exploiting the refugees and using them for spreading atrocity tales.
The sooner peace is restored in the disturbed areas through a combination of Government and popular efforts the faster we will work to a situation when the refugees can go back to their homes in safety and security.
(4) Countrywide Exposure of Reactionaries. The spirit of retaliation can no longer be fought by moral sermons alone.
Inside the Indian Union it is the duty of us all who love India, stand for progress and are pledged to fight for democracy to rouse our people against dark communal elements, the RSS and the Akali leaders of the Punjab, and similar elements in every Province who would rouse the spirit of retaliation.
Inside Pakistan we look forward to progressive Leaguers seeking the co-operation of all popular elements and fighting their Noons, disarming the Muslim National Guards, and warning the Pirs against the misuse of religion.
In every town and district the initiative must come from the Left in rousing the people against the spirit of retaliation and all riot-mongers and firmly holding out that our real battle is not one against the other but all together against the vested interests and for a new social order.