Rima Sarkar

NOAKHALI MASSACRE, 1946: THE KOJAGORI LOKHKHI PUJA THAT TURNED INTO A NIGHTMARE FOR BENGALI HINDUS Today is Kojagori Lokhkhi Puja, one of the most sacred and emotionally significant days for us Bengali Hindus. Eighty years ago, on this very festival, our ancestors in Noakhali, East Bengal (now Bangladesh), were massacred. The Noakhali Massacre began on 10 October 1946, the day of Kojagori Lakshmi Puja. I do not commemorate Noakhali on 10 October every year. For me, its anniversary is Kojagori Lokhkhi Puja itself. It was on this sacred day that Muslim mobs unleashed violence against Hindu villages. Hindus were murdered, women raped and abducted, houses looted and burned, temples desecrated, and people forcibly converted to Islam. The violence spread across Noakhali and neighbouring Tippera (now Comilla). Golam Sarwar, a former Muslim League legislator, emerged as one of the principal instigators. Entire villages were devastated. Thousands fled their ancestral homes. Contemporary reports described mass conversions, sexual violence, killings and widespread destruction. 1. “RIOT ULTIMATUM: JOIN ISLAM OR BURN” OUR ANCESTORS, TOO, HAD THEIR RALIV, GALIV YA CHALIV MOMENT IN HISTORY. An Associated Press report dated 20 Oct 1946, citing The Statesman, described mass conversions to Islam and the abduction of Hindu women. The report stated that approximately 150,000 people across 400 villages had been affected by the violence. It quoted a Hindu correspondent from Noakhali describing an ultimatum from a mob to convert to Islam or be burned. 2. THE TELEGRAM FROM NOAKHALI A telegram dated 17 Oct 1946, sent from Chaumuhani to the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee, reported that murder, looting, arson and forced conversions were continuing. It warned: “Unconverted people are being slaughtered on mass scale.” The telegram also reported starvation and the failure of local authorities to provide protection, demanding immediate military intervention. 3. GANDHI AND THE WOMEN OF NOAKHALI On 18 Oct 1946, after being informed of the atrocities, Gandhi spoke about the plight of women in Noakhali. Gandhi suggesting that self immolation by taking poison was preferable to surrendering to dishonour. 4. WOMEN CHOSE DEATH OVER SEXUAL VIOLENCE & DISHONOUR In 1946: The Great Calcutta Killings and Noakhali Genocide, Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sinha and Ashok Dasgupta reproduce these statements on page 266. The book also quotes the Hindusthan Standard, which reported that women in Noakhali, desperate to escape sexual violence, had jumped into fires, taken poison or hanged themselves. Gandhi visited Noakhali in Nov 1946 and undertook his peace mission. But the killings, forced conversions, displacement and trauma had already devastated Hindu communities. 5. “QUIT NOAKHALI OR DIE, GANDHI WARNS HINDUS” Even six months later, on 8 April 1947, The New York Times published a report under this headline. It described continuing threats against Hindus, including attempts to burn them alive. The terror had not simply disappeared. 6. THE HUMAN REMAINS OF NOAKHALI One of the photographs attached to this post shows human skeletal remains in Noakhali following the communal violence. It is preserved in the Bridgeman Images archive, sourced from Dinodia, with the description: “A human skeleton at Noakhali East Bengal after the riots between Hindus and Muslims, November 1946.” Archive reference: DND2561152. This is not an illustration. It is an archival photograph documenting the aftermath of the violence. For Bengali Hindus, Noakhali was not simply another communal riot. It was an assault on their lives, their faith, their women, their homes and their right to exist in their ancestral land. And the timing makes it particularly painful. Kojagori Lokhkhi Puja is the night when Bengali Hindu families worship Maa Lakshmi, light their homes and pray for peace, prosperity and the well being of their loved ones. NOAKHALI, 1946. NEVER FORGET.