Direct Action Day

After withdrawing from the Cabinet Mission plan, the Muslim League called on Muslims to observe 16 August 1946 as Direct Action Day for Pakistan. In Bengal, the League ministry of H. S. Suhrawardy declared the day a public holiday. Clashes began that morning as League processions moved through the city, and in the afternoon a great League rally gathered at the Ochterlony Monument on the Maidan, where Suhrawardy spoke. Killing, looting and arson spread through north and central Calcutta, and from the 17th Hindu and Sikh gangs struck back as hard. The army was not deployed until the second day.

More than 4,000 people died and 100,000 were left homeless within 72 hours, by the usual count, and some estimates run to 10,000. In October Hindus were killed and forcibly converted in Noakhali and Tippera in eastern Bengal, and Gandhi walked from village to village there through the winter. Within weeks Muslims were massacred in their thousands in Bihar, and in November at Garhmukteshwar in the United Provinces.

Who bears the blame for Calcutta is argued: the League and Suhrawardy for the call and the holiday, or the Hindu Mahasabha and Congress volunteers who were also armed and ready. The killings of that autumn persuaded many leaders on both sides that partition could not be avoided. The monument was renamed Shaheed Minar, martyrs' column, in 1969.