Direct Action Day Quotes

“the weapon which has proved infallible for me”

“He had in fact worked a miracle, perhaps the greatest in modern times.”

“I want to touch the hearts of those who are behind the goondas.”

“Was [Gandhi] almost seriously wounded when the crowd attacked his party.”

“Wikipedia: Direct Action Day”

“Be ready to take your swords...we shall show our glory with swords in hand and will have a special victory””

“If Congress regimes are going to suppress and persecute the Musalmans, it will be very difficult to control disturbances.”

“In the Punjab we have 55,000 soldiers and large scale rioting in our hands. In Bengal our forces consist of one man, and there is no rioting.”

“Gandhiji has achieved many things, but in my considered opinion there has been nothing, not even independence, which so truly wonderful as his victory over evil in Calcutta.”

“Bengal Chief Minister H.S. Suhrawardy was not only politically responsible for the remarkable police inaction, but as a Muslim League leader, he had also organized the agitation.”

“Each group blamed the other for the violence. Jinnah blamed the “Viceroy, Mr. Gandhi, and the Congress”. Nehru placed the responsibility “for all that has happened” in Calcutta on the Muslim League.”

“The riots in Calcutta shocked Gandhi, the nation, and the world. Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh leaders exploited the communal tensions in 1946-1947 for their own political gain. In their fervor for liberation from the Hindu majority.”

“...the time has come for the Muslim nation to resort to direct action to achieve Pakistan, to assert their just rights, to vindicate their honour and to get rid of the present British slavery and the contemplated future caste-Hindu domination.”

“Calcutta and Noakhali did not bring any condemnation from the League of these criminal attacks on minorities. Far from it-in the League Press the attempt was made to shift the responsibility, where there occurrences were admitted at all, on the Hindus.”

“16th August is a blot on Bengal’s history. The day is horrifically remmembered as Direct Action Day or Great Calcutta Killings which led to the brutal killings of thousands of Bengalis. Many dead bodies kept lying on road for days to be fed by dogs & vultures even.”

“H.S. Suhrawardy, the Chief Minister of Bengal and a major Muslim leaguer in Calcutta, was “appalingly negligent …perhaps…even deliberately provocative” in the early stages of killing.”

“[Justice Khosla of Lahore High Court recounts of the carnage:] ‘The streets were strewn with dead bodies and the corpses… There were stories of children having been hurled down from the roofs of houses. Young children were reported to have been boiled in oil. Others were burnt alive. Women were raped and mutilated and then murdered.’”

“Women in Calcutta stopped eating during his fast. Police officers,- Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, Indians and British, fasted for twenty-four hours in solidarity with God, By September 3, the rioting had ceased. On September 4, a group of leaders from all faiths came together and promised they would give their lives for continued peace and communal harmony in Calcutta.”

“Even while repudiating his method and efficacy, the one question in people’s mind would be, How is Gandhiji?...University students...would say...one thing stuck them as curious, after all, if anybody had to suffer for the continued killing and betrayal in the city, it was not Gandhi. He had taken no part in it. So while others were engaged in crime, it was he who had to suffer like this.”

““What we have done to-day is the most historic act in our history. Never have we in the whole history of the League done anything except by constitutional methods. But now we are forced into this position. Today we bid good-bye to constitutional methods.”.... “To-day we have forged a pistol and are in a position to use it.”... “We mean every word of it. We do not believe in equivocation.””