75 years on, here's a look back at Jinnah's infamous Direct Action Day

August 16, 1946 was the day Pakistan became a certainty

Today is the 75th anniversary of “Direct Action Day”. For some reason, even though it was the day the pre-Partition killings started in real earnest — they had begun in February actually — India has forgotten it although more than 4,000 people died and around a 100,000 were left homeless, in just 72 hours.

Even the Prime Minister, with his ill-chosen Partition Horrors Day, has focused on August 14, which is the Independence Day of Pakistan. Truth be told, Pakistan became a certainty on August 16, 1946.

Direct Action Day was the result of the call by Mohammad Ali Jinnah for an all-India protest by Muslims for the creation of Pakistan. Its immediate consequence was massive killings of Hindus and Muslims in Calcutta, as it was known then. The killings went for a week.

Direct Action Day was an act of absolute perfidy by Jinnah who, until then, had behaved with restraint. Indeed, he had even given his assent, along with the Congress, to the Cabinet Mission Plan, which had suggested a formula for transfer of power to Indians. But he withdrew his support saying he suspected the Congress of “insincerity” and instead launched his Direct Action Day demanding a separate homeland for Indian Muslims. He even said he wanted “either a divided India or a destroyed India”.

What and why

The sequence of events was as follows. On June 16, 1946, Jinnah accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan. On July 10, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the Congress president, said the Congress reserved the right to modify the Cabinet Mission Plan as it saw fit.

Jinnah responded by saying if there was to be no Pakistan, he would take direct action. He was asked what they meant.

He replied, “Go to the Congress and ask them their plans. When they take you into their confidence, I will take you into mine. Why do you expect me alone to sit with folded hands? I also am going to make trouble.”

The next day, he announced August 16, 1946 would be Direct Action Day and warned Congress, “We do not want war. If you want war, we accept your offer unhesitatingly. We will either have a divided India or a destroyed India.”

How it happened
 

The Muslim League Chief Minister of Bengal, Hussein Suhrawardy, declared a public holiday on that day. The Bengal Congress protested, accusing Suhrawardy of indulging in “communal politics”.

Very soon both parties started using religious symbolism and precedents, but the Congress less so. The British looked on, hoping for the best. They did not send in the army until the early hours of August 17.

The Muslim League held a massive rally, which began at noon. The usual communal nonsense was spoken to a crowd of around 100,000. But there is no record of Suhrawardy’s speech because the police had sent only one reporter to the meeting. But everyone later agreed that he had said that “the police would not interfere”.

What followed was predictable — massive Hindu-Muslim riots, first in Bengal and then later on in Punjab, the two provinces that were divided a year later in 1947. There were riots in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also.

Jinnah, the British and Nehru

After 75 years and a tidal wave of research, one thing is clear: the Congress underestimated Jinnah’s resolve and overestimated British good intentions. It, therefore, made huge mistakes.

Jinnah was going to have his Pakistan, which the British also wanted as they saw it as a military base for safeguarding their oil interests in West Asia. The Congress simply did not comprehend the motives. The Direct Action Day was the start of a joint strategy that eventually resulted in the partition of India. People were totally expendable in that scheme of things.