Direct action of suppression

Everything is in the official records. Yet the West Bengal administration has been painting the events portrayed in Vivek Agnihotri's yet to be released movie as unhistorical.

- SUGATO HAZRA

"16 August was a black day in the history of India", wrote Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. "Mob violence unprecedented in the history of India plunged the great city of Calcutta into an orgy of bloodshed, murder and terror. Hundreds of lives were lost... Processions were taken out by the League which began to loot and commit acts of arson."

Maulana Azad was the Congress president for seven years from 1939 to 1946 before handing over the mantle to Nehru. He also was the first Education Minister in the Nehru cabinet. As Congress president, Maulana had negotiated with the Cabinet Mission and was successful in making Jinnah-led Muslim League to agree on a federal system without creating two nations.

Sadly, Maulana's chosen successor Jawaharlal Nehru stated that "Congress would be free to modify the Cabinet Mission Plan", which gave an opportunity to Jinnah to withdraw "from the League's early acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan."

When the Cabinet Mission Plan failed, Muslim League Council, at the end of July, decided to resort to direct action and authorised Jinnah to take appropriate steps so as to press for a separate Muslim homeland. Jinnah had declared August 16 as the Direct Action Day. No programme was fixed but in Calcutta, Maulana had observed "that a strange situation was developing...In Calcutta, I found a general feeling that on 16 August the Muslim League would attack Congressmen and loot Congress property... There was a general sense of anxiety in Calcutta which was heightened by the fact that the Government was under the control of the Muslim League and Mr H.S. Suhrawardy was the Chief Minister."