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| Noakhali riots | |
|---|---|
| Part of Partition of Bengal (1947) | |
 Gandhi listens to a survivor in Noakhali, 1946 | |
| Location | Noakhali Region, Bengal (present-day Bangladesh), British India |
| Date | 10 October 1946 – early November 1946 |
| Target | Bengali Hindus |
| Weapons | Bladed weapons, arson, looting, forced conversions[1] |
| Deaths | 285,[2]
~200 (Roy Bucher, Indian Army chief),[3] ~200 (Francis Tucker[4] |
| Perpetrators | Sections of the local Muslim population[5] |
| Defenders | Hindus, local leaders, relief organizations |
| Motive | Religious tensions, retaliation for earlier riots in Calcutta[6] |
| Part of a series on |
| Persecution of Hindus in pre-1947 India |
|---|
| Issues |
| Incidents |
The Noakhali riots were a series of semi-organized massacres, rapes and abductions, combined with looting and arson of Hindu properties, perpetrated by the Muslim community in the districts of Noakhali in the Chittagong Division of Bengal (now in Bangladesh) in October–November 1946, a year before India's independence from British rule.[7]
It affected the areas under the Ramganj, Begumganj, Raipur, Lakshmipur, Chhagalnaiya and Sandwip police stations in Noakhali district and the areas under the Hajiganj, Faridganj, Chandpur, Laksham and Chauddagram police stations in Tipperah district, a total area of more than 2,000 square miles.[8]
The massacre of the Hindu population started on 10 October, on the day of Kojagari Lakshmi Puja[9][10][11] and continued unabated for about a week. Around 50,000 Hindus remained marooned in the affected areas under the strict surveillance of the Muslims, where the administration had no say.[12]
Mahatma Gandhi camped in Noakhali for four months and toured the district in a mission to restore peace and communal harmony. In the meantime, the Indian National Congress leadership started to accept the proposed Partition of India and the peace mission and other relief camps were abandoned. The majority of the survivors migrated to West Bengal, Tripura[13] and Assam.[14]
- ^ Chandra, Dinesh (1984). Bengal 1946: The Great Calcutta Killings and Noakhali Genocide. Penguin. ISBN 9780143066134.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: checksum (help) - ^ ROY, Sukumar (1947). Noakhalite Mahatma (নোয়াখালীতে মহাত্মা) (in Bengali). Calcutta: Orient Book Company. p. 14.
- ^ Hajari, Nisid (2015). Midnight's Furies : The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 69.
- ^ Tucker, Francis (1950). While Memory Serves. London: Cassell and Company Ltd. p. 174.
- ^ "75 years of Partition: How the Noakhali riots came to be". Banginews. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ "Noakhali Riots: Background, Events, Aftermath and Relief Efforts". 23 February 2024. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ "The Bengal Conundrum: How Noakhali Riots Set Template for Anti-Hindu Violence in East Bengal". News18. 9 June 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
- ^ Sinha, Dinesh Chandra; Dasgupta, Ashok (1 January 2011). 1946: The great Calcutta killings and the Noakhali genocide (PDF) (First ed.). Kolkata: Sri Himansu Maity. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
- ^ নোয়াখালীতে গান্ধী: সাম্প্রদায়িক হত্যাযজ্ঞের রক্তাক্ত অধ্যায়. BBC Bangla (in Bengali). 2 October 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
- ^ হিন্দু-মুসলিম দাঙ্গা থামাতেই নোয়াখালী আসেন মহাত্মা গান্ধী. Somoy News (in Bengali). 2 October 2019. Archived from the original on 8 October 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
- ^ ROY, Sukumar (1947). Noakhalite Mahatma (নোয়াখালীতে মহাত্মা) (in Bengali). Calcutta: Orient Book Company. p. 11.
- ^ Sinha, Dinesh Chandra; Dasgupta, Ashok (2011). 1946: The Great Calcutta Killings and Noakhali Genocide. Kolkata: Himangshu Maity. pp. 278–280. ISBN 9788192246406.
- ^ Dev, Chitta Ranjan (2005). "Two days with Mohandas Gandhi". Ishani. 1 (4). Mahatma Gandhi Ishani Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
- ^ Dasgupta, Anindita (2001). "Denial and Resistance: Sylheti Partition 'refugees' in Assam". Contemporary South Asia. 10 (3). South Asia Forum for Human Rights: 352. doi:10.1080/09584930120109559. S2CID 144544505. Retrieved 7 August 2011.