| 1947 Rawalpindi massacres | |
|---|---|
 Skeletal remains of people burned to death atThamali during the Rawalpindi massacres. | |
| Location | Rawalpindi Division,Punjab,British India |
| Date | March 1947 |
Attack type | |
| Deaths | 2,000–7,000 |
| Victims | Hindus andSikhs |
| Perpetrator | Muslim National Guard |
| Motive | |
The1947 Rawalpindi massacres (also1947 Rawalpindi riots)[1] refer to widespread violence againstHindus andSikhs in theRawalpindi Division of thePunjab Province ofBritish India in March 1947. The violence preceded thepartition of India and was instigated and perpetrated by theMuslim League National Guards, a quasi-paramilitary organisation affiliated with theMuslim League, as well as local cadres and politicians of the League, demobilised Muslim soldiers, local officials and policemen.[2][3]
It followed the fall of a coalition government of theUnionist Party,Indian National Congress andAkali Dal, achieved through a six-week campaign by the Muslim League. The riots left between 2,000 and 7,000 Sikhs and Hindus dead, and set off their mass exodus from Rawalpindi Division.[4][5] 80,000 Sikhs and Hindus were estimated to have left the Division by the end of April.[6] The incidents were the first instance of partition-related violence in Punjab to show clear manifestations ofethnic cleansing,[7][8] and marked the beginning of systematicviolence against women that accompanied the partition, seeing rampantsexual violence, rape, andforced conversions, with many women committingmass suicides along with their children, and many killed by their male relatives, for fear of abduction and rape.[9][10] The events are sometimes referred to as theRape of Rawalpindi.[a]
.jpg)
In the1946 Punjab provincial election, theMuslim League (ML) won 75 of the 86 Muslim seats in the province and emerged as the biggest party, but failed to win any non-Muslim ones and fell short of the magic figure in the 175 seat assembly.[b] The Muslimzamindar-led secularUnionist Party, which had won 18 seats, of whom 10 were Muslim, formed a coalition government with theIndian National Congress, which was the second biggest winner after the ML, winning 51 seats, and theShiromani Akali Dal, which had won 20 seats, all from Sikh constituencies.[c] The Unionist Party's leader,Khizar Hayat Tiwana, was elected thepremier.[15]
After withdrawing from theCabinet Mission plan in July 1946, Muslim League leaderMuhammad Ali Jinnah called for "Direct Action" in August. The calls for direct action were followed by large-scale rioting and violence inCalcutta, which gradually spread elsewhere during the following months.[16][d] In December 1946, rioting was reported from theHazara district of theNorth-West Frontier Province (NWFP) after a Muslim League campaign to oust the Congress government in that province.[18] The neighbouringRawalpindi Division received thousands of Hindu and Sikh refugees who had been driven out from the Hazara district.[19][20] In January 1947, Tiwana banned theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and theMuslim League National Guards, which prompted large "direct action" demonstrations by the Muslim League throughout the province that later turned violent.[21][22] The Muslim League campaign worsened communal tensions in the province, which had already been raised after previous year's election campaign.[23] On 20 February 1947, British Prime MinisterClement Attlee announced that the British will leave India by June 1948.[24]
On 2 March 1947, Khizar Hayat Tiwana resigned as premier in light of the Muslim League agitations and campaign against his ministry, and the official announcement of the imminent end of British rule.[17][18] Although anticipated, a Muslim League-led coalition could not form due to the League's inability to assuage the fears of non-Muslim legislators, who had become increasingly hostile to the League and the demand forPakistan.[25][e] Akali Dal leaderMaster Tara Singh notoriously made a public spectacle of his disapproval of the Pakistan demand outside the Punjab Assembly on 3 March.[26][27] Communal clashes erupted inLahore andAmritsar on 4 March after Hindus and Sikhs began demonstrations against the Pakistan demand. On 5 March, which marked the Hindu festival ofHoli, armed Muslim mobs started attacking Hindus and Sikhs in several cities ofWest Punjab, including the cantonment town ofRawalpindi andMultan, killing close to 200 in the latter with the casualties being mostly Hindu.[28][29] Several villages in theMultan District were attacked after dark, and many Hindus were killed and their properties looted or destroyed.[30] With no government in sight, GovernorEvan Jenkins imposedgovernor's rule in Punjab.[31]
The rioting soon spread from the towns to the rural areas of Rawalpindi Division in northern Punjab. Faced with resistance from the Hindus and Sikhs in the divisional headquarters of Rawalpindi, Muslim mobs banded together and turned to the countryside.[32][18][33][f] The mobs went on a rampage, engaging in arson, looting, massacres and rape, one village after the other in the districts ofRawalpindi,Jhelum andCambellpur (present-day Attock). Sikhs were the primary targets, but Hindus were also attacked. In one incident, on 7 March, a train was raided by a mob atTaxila, which killed 22 Hindu and Sikh passengers.[35] Houses in the Sikh and Hindu quarters of the village ofKahuta were torched with their occupants present inside, while women were abducted to be raped.[36]
The village ofThoha Khalsa was the site of a much-publicised massacre. An armed Muslim mob laid siege to the village, asking the Sikh residents to convert to Islam. Sikh men killed female members of their families to prevent their abduction and rape, before being killed themselves by the attackers. More than 90 Sikh women and children committed mass suicide after jumping into a well to avoid rape.[37][6][38][39] The death toll at the village is estimated to be around 300. A similar massacre, mass suicide and looting also took place at the village ofChoa Khalsa, where around 150 Sikhs—and a smaller number of Hindus—were killed,[39] and in the Sikh village ofDhamali.[40]
InBewal village, a house where villagers had taken refuge was besieged and villagers were asked to surrender their arms and convert to Islam. One group of the villagers took up the offer and were subsequently converted, while the remaining were periodically attacked. The house was set on fire, following which the villagers shifted to a Gurdwara where they were attacked and massacred. One survivor claimed that out of a total of 500 Hindu and Sikh villagers, only 76 had survived, of whom nearly half had been abducted.[41] Similar attacks happened at the villages of Mughal andBassali.[42]Kallar,Dubheran,Jhika Gali andKuri were also attacked.[43][44] Some of the survivors had been left disfigured and mutilated, breasts of many women who had been raped were cut-off.[45] Villages in theGujar Khan and Cambellpur districts were decimated, dead bodies of children were found hanging from trees and girls as young as eleven had been gang-raped.[44] TheAll India Congress Committee, in its report on the violence, described the strategy of the attacks as follows:[46][undue weight? –discuss]
First of all minorities were disarmed with the help of local police and by giving assurances by oaths on holy Quran of peaceful intentions. After this had been done, the helpless and unarmed minorities were attacked. On their resistance having collapsed, lock breakers and looters came into action with their transport corps of mules, donkeys and camels. Then came the ‘Mujahadins’ with tins of petrol and kerosene oil and set fire to the looted shops and houses. Then there were maulvis with barbers to convert people who somehow or other escaped slaughter and rape. The barbers shaved the hair and beards and circumcised the victims. Maulvis recited kalamas and performed forcible marriage ceremonies. After this came the looters, including women and children.
Similar accounts of the attacks are recounted in first information reports (FIRs) given to the police by survivors.[47]
The attacks were premeditated, and rumours were spread through mosques to instigate Muslim villagers.[3][48] The attackers are said to have received weapons and funds from outside, and were partly funded by the Muslim League.[49] They were armed with guns, rifles, axes, swords, spears, sticks, and in two cases with hand grenades.[50] Houses of those driven out were razed and subsequently flattened up to prevent them from returning and rebuilding.[51][52] Muslim houses were sometimes marked by their occupants to allow the attackers to distinguish them from houses of non-Muslims.[53] The ancestral home of Tara Singh was also reduced to ashes. The mobs continued their campaign of loot and mass murder without hindrance.[51] Muslim policemen aided and abetted the violence at many places throughout West Punjab, and at times responded inordinately late to appeals for help.[54][g] There is evidence of involvement of Muslim League cadres and local politicians in the attacks,[56] but little evidence directly implicating the top leadership of the Muslim League—including Jinnah.[3] However, no leaders of the Muslim League, national or provincial, offered any condemnation of the massacres.[57][h]
The violence ceased by the middle of March.[i] At many places, attacks ended after the army moved in to rescue survivors. Many villages had their entire population wiped out while others had few survivors.[58] The official death toll for non-Muslims killed in the Rawalpindi district alone stood at 2,263,[j] however, this number was considered inaccurate due to "the widespread nature of disturbances" and a collapse of "normal administrative machinery".[59] The number was based on registered police cases and did not include such cases "where whole families were wiped out and no claims were made".[59] A contemporaryShiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee report put the number of dead at over 7,000.[60] Later scholars have given estimates ranging between 4,000 and 8,000 dead in the rural areas of Rawalpindi.[61][62]
Many women were abducted during the violence. 70 were abducted from the Doberan village, 40 fromHarial, 30 from Tainch, 95 fromRajar and 105 from Bamali. A further 500 were abducted from Kahuta and between 400 and 500 were abducted from Rawalpindi. Abducted women were often sold multiple times and raped by their captors.[63]
The massacres triggered a mass-migration of Sikhs and Hindus from the Rawalpindi Division to central and eastern Punjab,Sikh-ruledprincely states,Jammu and Kashmir,Delhi and theUnited Provinces. The descriptions of atrocities faced by these refugees provoked feelings of revenge, especially among the Sikhs.[64][65][66] The massacres had a deep impact on the Sikhs and Hindus of the Punjab, who planned to avenge them later by unleashing similar violence on the Muslims of theeastern portions of the province, to make way for the settlement of the refugees who had been driven out from the west.[6][67][68][69] The Sikhs, in particular, felt especially humiliated as parts of the Muslim press taunted them after the massacres.[70] The absence of condemnation of the massacres by leaders of the Muslim League widened the growing rift between the League and the Sikhs.[71] The riots also lead to the Congress and Sikh leaders of the Punjab demanding its partition.[72] On 8 March, theCongress Working Committee passed a resolution to partition the Punjab.[73][74]
Survivors identified attackers by their names, occupations and home villages in FIRs after the massacres.[75] Despite identification by fact-finding committees, few of the perpetrators were ever brought to justice, partly because of communal polarisation of the legal system.[65] The British administration threatened penalties for the worst cases of official negligence, however, these threats carried little weight owing to impending British withdrawal from the region.[76] Statements by the Muslim League were seen to be of more consequence; one prominent politician of the League offered protection for perpetrators and threatened action against such officials who maintained law and order, in the Attock district.[76] This established a precedent of impunity for officials and policemen acting in a biased manner.[65] Such failures to prosecute the perpetrators are seen to have enabled the later violence in Punjab, closer to the partition.[77]
The events have produced some of the most unforgettable images of the partition violence.[6] It marked the beginning of partition-related ethnic cleansing in Punjab.[7][8] Those who died in the violence, especially those who killed themselves or were killed by their families to prevent anticipated conversion, rapes, abductions or forced marriages—which were seen as violative of communityhonour—were valorised for their sacrifice and continue to be seen asmartyrs in the Sikh community.[78][k][l]
Images of the aftermath of the massacres were compiled by politicianPrabodh Chandra and published in a booklet titledRape of Rawalpindi in 1947, soon after the massacres. The circulation of this booklet was stopped by the government fearing retaliation against Muslims in East Punjab.[60][m] The events, in particular the massacre and mass suicide at Thoha Khalsa, were depicted in the 1988 television filmTamas, directed byGovind Nihalani. The film was based onBhisham Sahni's Hindi novel of thesame name.[81][n] An incident similar to the Thoha Khalsa mass suicide is also depicted in the 2003 filmKhamosh Pani.[83] APunjabi novel based on the events calledKhoon de Sohille written byNanak Singh was published in 1948. It was translated into English asHymns in Blood (2022).[84] Other works based on the violence includeKartar Singh Duggal’s 1951 Punjabi novelNahun te maas (translated into English asTwice Born Twice Dead in 1979),Shauna Singh Baldwin’s 1999 English novelWhat the Body Remembers and Manjit Sachdeva's 2013 English novelLost Generations.[85][86]