Communal Riots in the Punjab 1923 - 1928

Title: Communal Riots in the Punjab 1923 - 1928

Author: Amrit Kaur Basra

Publisher: Shree Kala Prakashan, 2015 (First)

ISBN: 9789385329012

Pages: 416

Indian society was already long riven into Hindus and Muslims when the British first came on the scene. The bifurcated communities were not at all homogeneous as they were further split into castes and sects. Strange as it may seem, but the downtrodden castes saw their upper caste taskmasters as belonging to their own broad community than a Muslim nobleman who might even have been benevolent to them. Things didn’t change much after the 1857 Rebellion and rudiments of political activity began as part of making a modern state. Early political workers came from aristocratic and elite sections of the society and their parlour politics of continually petitioning the authorities to bring about change didn’t encompass the masses. With the 1909 Reforms, elected Indian members found their place in legislative bodies for the first time. The electorate was severely curtailed by constraints of income restrictions, but the way forward was clear to savants. It was a given that as time goes on, mass participation in politics and administration was not long in coming. A new face was required to steer the most prominent political organization of the time, the Indian National Congress, to take up popular issues and work among the people. Mahatma Gandhi was conveniently called back from South Africa at this instant and tasked with the onerous duty of making the Congress a mass-based party. Unfortunately for Gandhi, Congress and India, he touched upon the issue of reinstatement of the Khilafat, which was ready at hand, but socially irrelevant for India. What was in the ordinary Indian’s interest to bring back a sultan, who was totally blind to the political landscape of Europe, alienated from his subjects and nobles and was stupid enough to ally with the obviously losing side in the First World War? Khilafat was, however, a strong rallying cry for Muslims who wanted the rule of their religion over other petty rivals like nationalism and secular territorial sovereignty. The Hindus flocked to this banner because they trusted the Mahatma, but as soon as the real motives of Muslim fanatics to create an Islamic state was clear, they backtracked. It was quickly discovered that they were riding a ferocious tiger and didn’t know how to get off its back. Fierce communal riots broke out all over the country. In the southern district of Malabar in 1921, it assumed the dimensions of ethnic cleansing as thousands of Hindus were raped, killed and forcibly converted to Islam. Punjab was a crucial province of India which possessed a sizeable share of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs in its population. This province reeled under a series of communal riots – thirteen major riots in a span of just five years. Unlike in Malabar, the Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs were an organized lot by forming strong associations and they fought back the onslaught. This book analyses the reasons, the buildup, the flare up and the aftermath of these riots. This book is the PhD thesis of Amrit Kaur Basra, who is a Professor of History at Delhi College of Arts and Science.

Basra propounds three objectives in the book. First of all, it seeks to study the interaction of political and socio-economic factors that caused communal riots. Assessment of the impact of communal riots on Punjabi society, national politics and the colonial government comes second. Filling the gap of published material on communal violence in Punjab is the third in view of the fact that many works do exist on the situation in Bengal and United Provinces. The assertion of communities began in the aftermath of 1857 Rebellion, in which Punjab didn’t take part because the local administration was efficient and the local Muslims didn’t support the cause of Bahadur Shah Zafar as they apprehended that the withdrawal of the British would result in the re-establishment of the Sikh state (p.30). Sikhs were till then thought to be a community or caste among the Hindus, but their separation as a religion – a qaum and not a panth – began in earnest. The differences were easy to show off – they were not idolatrous, didn’t wear the sacred thread, professed faith in Guru Granth Sahib, practiced a kind of baptism and their passage rites were as per the practices approved by Sikh gurus. To further strengthen their claim, idols were removed from the precincts of the Golden Temple in 1905. Basra records that the history of identity formation among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs was marked by inner contradictions and use of symbols, institutions and ideas. The process of socio-religious and intellectual regeneration from the 1880s was marked by the use of public debates, street preaching and taking out religious processions to forge community identity. It was the print culture that forged these activities.

The author elucidates the troublesome issues on which intercommunal antagonism hinged. The Muslims opposed playing of music as part of religious processions near their mosques. Even the celebration of Holi was identified as an affront against Muslims (p.108). Ringing of temple bells and blowing of conch shells which was an essential item on the Hindu ritual awoke resentment if a mosque was situated nearby. Eve teasing was another contentious issue. On the other hand, Hindus objected to the slaughter of cows even when the cow was the personal property of a Muslim and it was killed in his own premises. The spirit of rejuvenation and renewal offered by the reformist movements of Arya Samaj and Swami Shraddhanand instilled a new vigour in Hindus that they even began a campaign to reconvert people who were already lost to other faiths. This movement called Shuddhi invited wrath from Muslims who saw this as another attempt to hinder their legitimate share in power warranted by their numerical strength. By the early 1920s, communal consciousness encompassing rural and urban populations was fostered through newspapers and the Shuddhi, Sanghatan, Tanzim and Tabligh movements. In this period, the press was identified as a potent source responsible for exacerbating communal tension through virulent and scurrilous writings. The publication of a polemical tract titled Rangila Rasul which dwelt on the married life of the Prophet particularly vitiated the atmosphere. Most of the riots revolved around the twin issues of cow slaughter and regulation of religious festivals. Many were short-lived and suppressed by the British. The author remarks that as the British’s authority diminished around 1920, communal activities were strengthened and the spread of violence widened.

The book details the thirteen major communal riots that rattled Punjab in the five years starting from 1923. The narration is not consistent or structured. In a few cases, the author goes after the provocation while in some, she focuses on the violence and in other cases the response of administration is covered. Basra proposes class antagonism as the cause of the trouble. This convinces none except perhaps a few leftist mandarins inhabiting the inner sanctum of academia, whose formulaic analysis demands and usually obtains pre-ordained solutions to complex social issues. These riots were not originated as a class struggle of debtors against moneylenders and landowners. Moreover, Hindus and Sikhs always stuck together. The Ahmadiyya community sided with Muslims which was ironic when juxtaposed with what was about to happen to them in independent Pakistan. Indian civil officials lost all credibility among the masses as they were thought to be partial to their own communities. Seeing all this, one is led to believe in the absolute truth of Jinnah’s two-nation theory which articulated that Hindus and Muslims were two nations that can’t live in peace within one state. Jihadi elements had not infiltrated into the social milieu of this period but the outcome was still grim enough.

The book collates much data, but an overarching theory or vision is not presented. She misses the wood for the trees. The book is full of shocking typos and it seems that the publisher had bypassed proofreading of the text. A few maps are provided, but are meaningless and illegible. A huge collection of notes accompany each chapter. A glossary as well as an impressive bibliography is provided along with a good index.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star