04-10-2004, 08:20 PM
The fast produced Unity Conferences. But the Unity Conferences produced nothing except pious
resolutions which were broken as soon as they were announced.
This short historical sketch of the part Mr. Gandhi played in bringing about Hindu-Moslem unity
may be concluded by a reference to the attitude of Mr. Gandhi in the negotiations about the
Communal Settlement. He offered the Muslims a blank cheque. The blank cheque only served to
exasperate the Muslims as they interpreted it as an act of evasion. He opposed the separate
electorates at the Round Table Conference. When they were given to the Muslims by the
Communal Award, Mr. Gandhi and the Congress did not approve of them. But when it came to
voting upon it, they took the strange attitude of neither approving it nor opposing it.
Such is the history of Mr. Gandhi's efforts to bring about Hindu-Moslem unity. What fruits did
these efforts bear? To be able to answer this question it is necessary to examine the relationship
between the two communities during 1920-40, the years during which Mr. Gandhi laboured so hard
to bring about Hindu-Moslem unity. The relationship is well described in the Annual Reports on
the affairs of India submitted year by year to Parliament by the Government of India under the old
Government of India Act. It is on these reports 28[f.28] that I have drawn for the facts recorded
below.
Beginning with the year 1920 there occurred in that year in Malabar what is known as the Mopla
Rebellion. It was the result of the agitation carried out by two Muslim organizations, the
Khuddam-i-Kaba (servants of the Mecca Shrine) and the Central Khilafat Committee. Agitators
actually preached the doctrine that India under the British Government was Dar-ul-Harab and that
the Muslims must fight against it and if they could not, they must carry out the alternative principle
of Hijrat. The Moplas were suddenly carried off their feet by this agitation. The outbreak was
essentially a rebellion against the British Government The aim was to establish the kingdom of
Islam by overthrowing the British Government. Knives, swords and spears were secretly
manufactured, bands of desperadoes collected for an attack on British authority. On 20th August a
severe encounter took place between the Moplas and the British forces at Pinmangdi Roads were
blocked, telegraph lines cut, and the railway destroyed in a number of places. As soon as the
administration had been paralysed, the Moplas declared that Swaraj had been established. A certain
Ali Mudaliar was proclaimed Raja, Khilafat flags were flown, and Ernad and Wallurana were
declared Khilafat Kingdoms. As a rebellion against the British Government it was quite
understandable. But what baffled most was the treatment accorded by the Moplas to the Hindus of
Malabar. The Hindus were visited by a dire fate at the hands of the Moplas. Massacres, forcible
conversions, desecration of temples, foul outrages upon women, such as ripping open pregnant
women, pillage, arson and destructionâ in short, all the accompaniments of brutal and unrestrained
barbarism, were perpetrated freely by the Moplas upon the Hindus until such time as troops could
be hurried to the task of restoring order through a difficult and extensive tract of the country. This
was not a Hindu-Moslem riot. This was just a Bartholomew. The number of Hindus who were
killed, wounded or converted, is not known. But the number must have been enormous.
In the year 1921-22 communal jealously did not subside. The Muharram Celebrations had been
attended by serious riots both in Bengal and in the Punjab. In the latter province in particular,
communal feeling at Multan reached very serious heights, and although the casualty list was
comparatively small, a great deal of damage to property was done.
Though the year 1922-23 was a peaceful year the relations between the two communities were
strained throughout 1923-24. But in no locality did this tension produce such tragic consequences
as in the city of Kohat. The immediate cause of the trouble was the publication and circulation of a
pamphlet containing a virulently anti-Islamic poem. Terrible riots broke out on the 9th and 10th of
September 1924, the total casualties being about 155 killed and wounded. House property to the
estimated value of Rs. 9 lakhs was destroyed, and a large quantity of goods were looted. As a result
of this reign of terror the whole Hindu population evacuated the city of Kohat. After protracted
negotiations an agreement of reconciliation was concluded between the two communities.
Government giving an assurance that, subject to certain reservations, the prosecution pending
against persons concerned in rioting should be dropped. With the object of enabling the sufferers to
restart their businesses and rebuild their houses. Government sanctioned advances, free of interest
in certain instances, amounting to Rs. 5 lakhs. But even after the settlement had been reached and
evacuees had returned to Kohat there was no peace and throughout 1924-25 the tension between
the Hindu and Musalman masses in various parts of the country increased to a lamentable extent. In
the summer months, there was a distressing number of riots. In July, severe fighting broke out
between Hindus and Musalmans in Delhi, which was accompanied by serious casualties. In the
same month, there was a bad outbreak at Nagpur. August was even worse. There were riots at
Lahore, at Lucknow, at Moradabad, at Bhagalpur and Nagpur in British India ; while a severe
affray took place at Gulbarga in the Nizam's Dominions. September-October saw severe fighting at
Lucknow, Shahajahanpur, Kankinarah and at Allahabad. The most terrible outbreak of the year
being the one that took place at. Kohat which was accompanied by murder, arson and loot.
In 1925-26 the antagonism between the Hindus and the Muslims became widespread. Very
significant features of the Hindu-Muslim rioting, which took place during this year were its wide
distribution and its occurrence, in some cases, in small villages. Calcutta, the United Provinces, the
Central Provinces and the Bombay Presidency were all scenes of riots, some of which led to
regrettable losses of life. Certain minor and local Hindu festivals which occurred at the end of
August, gave rise to communal trouble in Calcutta, in Berar, in Gujarat in the Bombay Presidency,
and in the United Provinces. In some of these places there were actual clashes between the two
communities, but elsewhere, notably at Kankinarahâone of the most thickly populated jute mill
centres of Calcuttaâserious rioting was prevented by the activity of the police. In Gujarat,
Hindu-Muslim feeling was running high in these days and was marked by at least one case of
temple desecration. The important Hindu festival of Ramlila, at the end of September, gave rise to
acute anxiety in many places, and at Aligarh, an important place in the United Provinces, its
celebration was marked by one of the worst riots of the year. The riot assumed such dangerous
proportions that the police were compelled to fire in order to restore order, and five persons were
killed, either by the police or by riots. At Lucknow, the same festival gave rise at one time to a
threatening situation, but the local authorities prevented actual rioting. October saw another serious
riot at Sholapur in the Bombay Presidency. There, the local Hindus were taking a car with Hindu
idols through the city, and when they came near a mosque, a dispute arose between them and
certain Muslims, which developed into a riot.
A deplorable rioting started in Calcutta in the beginning of April as an affray outside a mosque
between Muslims and some Arya Samajists and continued to spread until 5th April, though there
was only one occasion on which the police or military were faced by a crowd which showed
determined resistance, namely, on the evening of the 5th April, when fire had to be opened. There
was also a great deal of incendiarism and in the first three days of this incendiarism, the Fire
Brigade had to deal with 110 fires. An unprecedented feature of the riots was the attacks on temples
by Muslims and on mosques by Hindus which naturally led to intense bitterness. There were 44
deaths and 584 injured. There was a certain amount of looting and business was suspended, with
great economic loss to Calcutta. Shops began to reopen soon after the 5th, but the period of tension
was prolonged by the approach of a Hindu festival on the 13th of April, and of the Id on the 14th.
The Sikhs were to have taken out a procession on the 13th, but Government were unable to give
them the necessary license. The apprehensions with regard to the 13th and 14th of April,
fortunately, did not materialise and outward peace prevailed until 22nd April when it was abruptly
broken as a result of a petty quarrel in a street, which restarted the rioting. Fighting between the
mobs of the two communities, generally on a small scale, accompanied by isolated assaults and
murders continued for six days. During this period there were no attacks on the temples and
mosques and there was little arson or looting. But there were more numerous occasions, on which
the hostile mobs did not immediately disperse on the appearance of the police and on 12 occasions
it was necessary to open fire. The total number of casualties during this second phase of the rioting
was 66 deaths and 391 injured. The dislocation of business was much more serious during the first
riots and the closing of Marwari business houses was not without an effect on European business
firms. Panic caused many of the markets to be wholly or partially closed and for two days the meat
supply was practically stopped. So great was the panic that the removal of refuse in the disturbed
area was stopped. Arrangements were, however, made to protect supplies, and the difficulty with
the Municipal scavengers was overcome, as soon as the Municipality had applied to the police for
protection. There was slight extension of the area of rioting, but no disturbances occurred in the
mill area around Calcutta. Systematic raiding of the portions of the disturbed area, the arrest of
hooligans, the seizure of weapons and the re-inforcement of the police by the posting of British
soldiers to act as special police officers had the desired effect, and the last three days of April, in
spite of the continuance of isolated assaults and murders, witnessed a steady improvement in the
situation. Isolated murders were largely attributable to hooligans of both communities and their
persistence during the first as well as the second outbreak induced a general belief that these
hooligans were hired assassins. Another equally persistent feature of the riots, namely, the
distribution of inflammatory printed leaflets by both sides, together with the employment of hired
roughs, strengthened the belief that money had been spent to keep the riots going.
The year 1926-27 was one continuous period of communal riots. Since April 1926, every month
witnessed affrays more or less serious between partizans of the two communities and only two
months passed without actual rioting in the legal sense of the word. The examination of the
circumstances of these numerous riots and affrays shows that they originated either in utterly petty
and trivial disputes between individuals, as, for example, between a Hindu shopkeeper and a
Mahomedan customer, or else, the immediate cause of trouble was the celebration of some
religious festival or the playing of music by Hindu processionists in the neighbourhood of
Mahomedan places of worship. One or two of the riots, indeed, were due to nothing more than
strained nerves and general excitement. Of these, the most striking example occurred in Delhi on
24th June, when the bolting of a pony in a crowded street gave the impression that a riot had
started, upon which both sides immediately attacked each other with brickbats and staves.
Including the two outbursts of rioting in Calcutta during April and May 1926,40 riots took place
during the twelve months ending with April 1st 1927, resulting in the death of 197 and injuries,
more or less severe, to 1,598 persons. These disorders were widespread, but Bengal, the Punjab,
and the United Provinces were the parts of India most seriously affected. Bengal suffered most
from rioting, but on many occasions during the year, tension between Hindus and Mahomedans
was high in the Bombay Presidency and also in Sind. Calcutta remained uneasy throughout the
whole of the summer. On 1st June a petty dispute developed into a riot in which forty persons were
hurt. After this, there was a lull in overt violence until July 15th on which day fell an important
Hindu religious festival. During its celebration the passage of a procession, with bands playing in
the neighbourhood of certain mosques, resulted in a conflict, in which 14 persons were killed and
116 injured. The next day saw the beginning of the important Mahomedan festival of Muharram.
Rioting broke out on that day and, after a lull, was renewed on the 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd.
Isolated assaults and cases of stabbing occurred on the 23rd, 24th and 25th. The total ascertained
casualties during this period of rioting were 28 deaths and 226 injured. There were further riots in
Calcutta on the 15th September and 16th October and on the latter day there was also rioting in the
adjoining city of Howrah, during which one or two persons were killed and over 30 injured. The
April and May riots had been greatly aggravated by incendiarism, but, happily, this feature was
almost entirely absent from the later disorders and during the July riots, for example, the Fire
Brigade was called upon to deal with only four incendiary fires.
Coming to the year 1927-28 the following facts stare us in the face. Between the beginning of April
and the end of September 1927, no fewer than 25 riots were reported. Of these 10 occurred in the
United Provinces, six in the Bombay Presidency, 2 each in the Punjab, the Central Provinces,
Bengal, and Bihar and Orissa, and one in Delhi. The majority of these riots occurred during the
celebration of a religious festival by one or other of the two communities, whilst some arose out of
the playing of music by Hindus in the neighbourhood of mosques or out of the slaughter of cows by
the Muslims. The total casualties resulting from the above disorders were approximately 103
persons killed and 1,084 wounded.
By far the most serious riot reported during the year was that which took place in Lahore between
the 4th and 7th of May 1927. Tension between the two communities had been acute for some time
before the outbreak, and the trouble when it came was precipitated by a chance collision between a
Mahomedan and two Sikhs. The disorder spread with lightning speed and the heavy casualty
listâ27 killed 272 injuredâwas largely swollen by unorganised attacks on individuals. Police and
troops were rushed to the scene of rioting quickly and it was impossible for clashes on a big scale
to take place between hostile groups. Casual assassinations and assaults were however, reported,
for two or three days longer before the streets and lanes of Lahore became safe for the solitary
passerby.
After the Lahore riot in May, there was a lull for two months in inter-communal rioting, if we
except a minor incident, which happened about the middle of June in Bihar and Orissa ; but July
witnessed no fewer than eight riots of which the most serious occurred in Multan in the Punjab, on
the occasion of the annual Muharram celebrations. Thirteen killed and twenty-four wounded was
the toll taken by this riot. But August was to see worse rioting still. In that month, nine riots
occurred, two of them resulting in heavy loss of life. In a riot in Bettiah, a town in Bihar and Orissa,
arising out of a dispute over a religious procession, eleven persons were killed and over a hundred
injured, whilst the passage of a procession in front of a mosque in Bareilly in the United Provinces
was the occasion of rioting in which fourteen persons were killed and 165 were injured.
Fortunately, this proved to be the turning point in inter-communal trouble during the year, and
September witnessed only 4 riots. One of these, however, the riot in Nagpur in the Central
Provinces on September 4th was second only to Lahore riot in seriousness and in the damage which
it caused. The spark, which started the fire, was the trouble in connection with a Muslim
procession, but the materials for the combustion had been collected for some time. Nineteen
persons were killed and 123 injured were admitted to hospitals as a result of this riot, during the
course of which many members of the Muslim community abandoned their homes in Nagpur.
resolutions which were broken as soon as they were announced.
This short historical sketch of the part Mr. Gandhi played in bringing about Hindu-Moslem unity
may be concluded by a reference to the attitude of Mr. Gandhi in the negotiations about the
Communal Settlement. He offered the Muslims a blank cheque. The blank cheque only served to
exasperate the Muslims as they interpreted it as an act of evasion. He opposed the separate
electorates at the Round Table Conference. When they were given to the Muslims by the
Communal Award, Mr. Gandhi and the Congress did not approve of them. But when it came to
voting upon it, they took the strange attitude of neither approving it nor opposing it.
Such is the history of Mr. Gandhi's efforts to bring about Hindu-Moslem unity. What fruits did
these efforts bear? To be able to answer this question it is necessary to examine the relationship
between the two communities during 1920-40, the years during which Mr. Gandhi laboured so hard
to bring about Hindu-Moslem unity. The relationship is well described in the Annual Reports on
the affairs of India submitted year by year to Parliament by the Government of India under the old
Government of India Act. It is on these reports 28[f.28] that I have drawn for the facts recorded
below.
Beginning with the year 1920 there occurred in that year in Malabar what is known as the Mopla
Rebellion. It was the result of the agitation carried out by two Muslim organizations, the
Khuddam-i-Kaba (servants of the Mecca Shrine) and the Central Khilafat Committee. Agitators
actually preached the doctrine that India under the British Government was Dar-ul-Harab and that
the Muslims must fight against it and if they could not, they must carry out the alternative principle
of Hijrat. The Moplas were suddenly carried off their feet by this agitation. The outbreak was
essentially a rebellion against the British Government The aim was to establish the kingdom of
Islam by overthrowing the British Government. Knives, swords and spears were secretly
manufactured, bands of desperadoes collected for an attack on British authority. On 20th August a
severe encounter took place between the Moplas and the British forces at Pinmangdi Roads were
blocked, telegraph lines cut, and the railway destroyed in a number of places. As soon as the
administration had been paralysed, the Moplas declared that Swaraj had been established. A certain
Ali Mudaliar was proclaimed Raja, Khilafat flags were flown, and Ernad and Wallurana were
declared Khilafat Kingdoms. As a rebellion against the British Government it was quite
understandable. But what baffled most was the treatment accorded by the Moplas to the Hindus of
Malabar. The Hindus were visited by a dire fate at the hands of the Moplas. Massacres, forcible
conversions, desecration of temples, foul outrages upon women, such as ripping open pregnant
women, pillage, arson and destructionâ in short, all the accompaniments of brutal and unrestrained
barbarism, were perpetrated freely by the Moplas upon the Hindus until such time as troops could
be hurried to the task of restoring order through a difficult and extensive tract of the country. This
was not a Hindu-Moslem riot. This was just a Bartholomew. The number of Hindus who were
killed, wounded or converted, is not known. But the number must have been enormous.
In the year 1921-22 communal jealously did not subside. The Muharram Celebrations had been
attended by serious riots both in Bengal and in the Punjab. In the latter province in particular,
communal feeling at Multan reached very serious heights, and although the casualty list was
comparatively small, a great deal of damage to property was done.
Though the year 1922-23 was a peaceful year the relations between the two communities were
strained throughout 1923-24. But in no locality did this tension produce such tragic consequences
as in the city of Kohat. The immediate cause of the trouble was the publication and circulation of a
pamphlet containing a virulently anti-Islamic poem. Terrible riots broke out on the 9th and 10th of
September 1924, the total casualties being about 155 killed and wounded. House property to the
estimated value of Rs. 9 lakhs was destroyed, and a large quantity of goods were looted. As a result
of this reign of terror the whole Hindu population evacuated the city of Kohat. After protracted
negotiations an agreement of reconciliation was concluded between the two communities.
Government giving an assurance that, subject to certain reservations, the prosecution pending
against persons concerned in rioting should be dropped. With the object of enabling the sufferers to
restart their businesses and rebuild their houses. Government sanctioned advances, free of interest
in certain instances, amounting to Rs. 5 lakhs. But even after the settlement had been reached and
evacuees had returned to Kohat there was no peace and throughout 1924-25 the tension between
the Hindu and Musalman masses in various parts of the country increased to a lamentable extent. In
the summer months, there was a distressing number of riots. In July, severe fighting broke out
between Hindus and Musalmans in Delhi, which was accompanied by serious casualties. In the
same month, there was a bad outbreak at Nagpur. August was even worse. There were riots at
Lahore, at Lucknow, at Moradabad, at Bhagalpur and Nagpur in British India ; while a severe
affray took place at Gulbarga in the Nizam's Dominions. September-October saw severe fighting at
Lucknow, Shahajahanpur, Kankinarah and at Allahabad. The most terrible outbreak of the year
being the one that took place at. Kohat which was accompanied by murder, arson and loot.
In 1925-26 the antagonism between the Hindus and the Muslims became widespread. Very
significant features of the Hindu-Muslim rioting, which took place during this year were its wide
distribution and its occurrence, in some cases, in small villages. Calcutta, the United Provinces, the
Central Provinces and the Bombay Presidency were all scenes of riots, some of which led to
regrettable losses of life. Certain minor and local Hindu festivals which occurred at the end of
August, gave rise to communal trouble in Calcutta, in Berar, in Gujarat in the Bombay Presidency,
and in the United Provinces. In some of these places there were actual clashes between the two
communities, but elsewhere, notably at Kankinarahâone of the most thickly populated jute mill
centres of Calcuttaâserious rioting was prevented by the activity of the police. In Gujarat,
Hindu-Muslim feeling was running high in these days and was marked by at least one case of
temple desecration. The important Hindu festival of Ramlila, at the end of September, gave rise to
acute anxiety in many places, and at Aligarh, an important place in the United Provinces, its
celebration was marked by one of the worst riots of the year. The riot assumed such dangerous
proportions that the police were compelled to fire in order to restore order, and five persons were
killed, either by the police or by riots. At Lucknow, the same festival gave rise at one time to a
threatening situation, but the local authorities prevented actual rioting. October saw another serious
riot at Sholapur in the Bombay Presidency. There, the local Hindus were taking a car with Hindu
idols through the city, and when they came near a mosque, a dispute arose between them and
certain Muslims, which developed into a riot.
A deplorable rioting started in Calcutta in the beginning of April as an affray outside a mosque
between Muslims and some Arya Samajists and continued to spread until 5th April, though there
was only one occasion on which the police or military were faced by a crowd which showed
determined resistance, namely, on the evening of the 5th April, when fire had to be opened. There
was also a great deal of incendiarism and in the first three days of this incendiarism, the Fire
Brigade had to deal with 110 fires. An unprecedented feature of the riots was the attacks on temples
by Muslims and on mosques by Hindus which naturally led to intense bitterness. There were 44
deaths and 584 injured. There was a certain amount of looting and business was suspended, with
great economic loss to Calcutta. Shops began to reopen soon after the 5th, but the period of tension
was prolonged by the approach of a Hindu festival on the 13th of April, and of the Id on the 14th.
The Sikhs were to have taken out a procession on the 13th, but Government were unable to give
them the necessary license. The apprehensions with regard to the 13th and 14th of April,
fortunately, did not materialise and outward peace prevailed until 22nd April when it was abruptly
broken as a result of a petty quarrel in a street, which restarted the rioting. Fighting between the
mobs of the two communities, generally on a small scale, accompanied by isolated assaults and
murders continued for six days. During this period there were no attacks on the temples and
mosques and there was little arson or looting. But there were more numerous occasions, on which
the hostile mobs did not immediately disperse on the appearance of the police and on 12 occasions
it was necessary to open fire. The total number of casualties during this second phase of the rioting
was 66 deaths and 391 injured. The dislocation of business was much more serious during the first
riots and the closing of Marwari business houses was not without an effect on European business
firms. Panic caused many of the markets to be wholly or partially closed and for two days the meat
supply was practically stopped. So great was the panic that the removal of refuse in the disturbed
area was stopped. Arrangements were, however, made to protect supplies, and the difficulty with
the Municipal scavengers was overcome, as soon as the Municipality had applied to the police for
protection. There was slight extension of the area of rioting, but no disturbances occurred in the
mill area around Calcutta. Systematic raiding of the portions of the disturbed area, the arrest of
hooligans, the seizure of weapons and the re-inforcement of the police by the posting of British
soldiers to act as special police officers had the desired effect, and the last three days of April, in
spite of the continuance of isolated assaults and murders, witnessed a steady improvement in the
situation. Isolated murders were largely attributable to hooligans of both communities and their
persistence during the first as well as the second outbreak induced a general belief that these
hooligans were hired assassins. Another equally persistent feature of the riots, namely, the
distribution of inflammatory printed leaflets by both sides, together with the employment of hired
roughs, strengthened the belief that money had been spent to keep the riots going.
The year 1926-27 was one continuous period of communal riots. Since April 1926, every month
witnessed affrays more or less serious between partizans of the two communities and only two
months passed without actual rioting in the legal sense of the word. The examination of the
circumstances of these numerous riots and affrays shows that they originated either in utterly petty
and trivial disputes between individuals, as, for example, between a Hindu shopkeeper and a
Mahomedan customer, or else, the immediate cause of trouble was the celebration of some
religious festival or the playing of music by Hindu processionists in the neighbourhood of
Mahomedan places of worship. One or two of the riots, indeed, were due to nothing more than
strained nerves and general excitement. Of these, the most striking example occurred in Delhi on
24th June, when the bolting of a pony in a crowded street gave the impression that a riot had
started, upon which both sides immediately attacked each other with brickbats and staves.
Including the two outbursts of rioting in Calcutta during April and May 1926,40 riots took place
during the twelve months ending with April 1st 1927, resulting in the death of 197 and injuries,
more or less severe, to 1,598 persons. These disorders were widespread, but Bengal, the Punjab,
and the United Provinces were the parts of India most seriously affected. Bengal suffered most
from rioting, but on many occasions during the year, tension between Hindus and Mahomedans
was high in the Bombay Presidency and also in Sind. Calcutta remained uneasy throughout the
whole of the summer. On 1st June a petty dispute developed into a riot in which forty persons were
hurt. After this, there was a lull in overt violence until July 15th on which day fell an important
Hindu religious festival. During its celebration the passage of a procession, with bands playing in
the neighbourhood of certain mosques, resulted in a conflict, in which 14 persons were killed and
116 injured. The next day saw the beginning of the important Mahomedan festival of Muharram.
Rioting broke out on that day and, after a lull, was renewed on the 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd.
Isolated assaults and cases of stabbing occurred on the 23rd, 24th and 25th. The total ascertained
casualties during this period of rioting were 28 deaths and 226 injured. There were further riots in
Calcutta on the 15th September and 16th October and on the latter day there was also rioting in the
adjoining city of Howrah, during which one or two persons were killed and over 30 injured. The
April and May riots had been greatly aggravated by incendiarism, but, happily, this feature was
almost entirely absent from the later disorders and during the July riots, for example, the Fire
Brigade was called upon to deal with only four incendiary fires.
Coming to the year 1927-28 the following facts stare us in the face. Between the beginning of April
and the end of September 1927, no fewer than 25 riots were reported. Of these 10 occurred in the
United Provinces, six in the Bombay Presidency, 2 each in the Punjab, the Central Provinces,
Bengal, and Bihar and Orissa, and one in Delhi. The majority of these riots occurred during the
celebration of a religious festival by one or other of the two communities, whilst some arose out of
the playing of music by Hindus in the neighbourhood of mosques or out of the slaughter of cows by
the Muslims. The total casualties resulting from the above disorders were approximately 103
persons killed and 1,084 wounded.
By far the most serious riot reported during the year was that which took place in Lahore between
the 4th and 7th of May 1927. Tension between the two communities had been acute for some time
before the outbreak, and the trouble when it came was precipitated by a chance collision between a
Mahomedan and two Sikhs. The disorder spread with lightning speed and the heavy casualty
listâ27 killed 272 injuredâwas largely swollen by unorganised attacks on individuals. Police and
troops were rushed to the scene of rioting quickly and it was impossible for clashes on a big scale
to take place between hostile groups. Casual assassinations and assaults were however, reported,
for two or three days longer before the streets and lanes of Lahore became safe for the solitary
passerby.
After the Lahore riot in May, there was a lull for two months in inter-communal rioting, if we
except a minor incident, which happened about the middle of June in Bihar and Orissa ; but July
witnessed no fewer than eight riots of which the most serious occurred in Multan in the Punjab, on
the occasion of the annual Muharram celebrations. Thirteen killed and twenty-four wounded was
the toll taken by this riot. But August was to see worse rioting still. In that month, nine riots
occurred, two of them resulting in heavy loss of life. In a riot in Bettiah, a town in Bihar and Orissa,
arising out of a dispute over a religious procession, eleven persons were killed and over a hundred
injured, whilst the passage of a procession in front of a mosque in Bareilly in the United Provinces
was the occasion of rioting in which fourteen persons were killed and 165 were injured.
Fortunately, this proved to be the turning point in inter-communal trouble during the year, and
September witnessed only 4 riots. One of these, however, the riot in Nagpur in the Central
Provinces on September 4th was second only to Lahore riot in seriousness and in the damage which
it caused. The spark, which started the fire, was the trouble in connection with a Muslim
procession, but the materials for the combustion had been collected for some time. Nineteen
persons were killed and 123 injured were admitted to hospitals as a result of this riot, during the
course of which many members of the Muslim community abandoned their homes in Nagpur.