Shri Gopal Mukherjee was known as Gopal Patha to whom Mahatma Gandhi pleaded a couple of times to stop the massacre of the Muslims. But Gandhiji’s plea was rejected which led to Gandhiji’s fasting for weeks in Calcutta.

Gopal Patha was not a politician nor did he have any political inclinations. He was a common man from the streets of Calcutta. Nowhere in the history books will we find his mention. But this is the power of a common man. Gopal Patha was a true nationalist. At that time Hussain Shaheed Suhrawadry was a powerful political leader of Muslim League party and the last chief minister of undivided Bengal.

There was a mass meeting held by Muslim League on 16^th August, 1946 which was termed by Mohammad Ali Zinnah who was All-India president of Muslim League, as Direct Action Day to partition India to have Pakistan finally. The Bengali Hindus were foolish enough to believe that the Direct Action Day would be nothing but a display of non- violent agitation on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi and Anna Hazare. That is why liberal and secular Hindus also attended the meeting in the presence of CPM leader Jyoti Basu , and muslim League leaders like  Suhrawardy and Khwaja Nizamuddin. They failed to comprehend the slogan of the meeting which clearly stated, “First Pakistan- Then Independence to India.

On the morning of 16^th August, 1946, Muslim Squads started attacking Hindu localities. The end of the meeting saw tens of thousands of armed Muslims massacre the Hindus and Hindu owned establishments and the worst kind of oppression of non- Muslims was witnessed in Bengal which continued from 16^th August to 18^th August, 1946. The public life in Bengal came to a grinding halt.

Phillip Talbot, who was present in Calcutta at that time, wrote a letter to Walter Rogers, of the Institute of Current World Affairs.

“It would be impossible to describe everything that we saw. A sense of desolation hung over the native bazaars. In street after street rows of shops had been stripped to the walls. Tenements and business buildings were burnt out, and their unconsumed innards strewn over the pavements. Smashed furniture cluttered the roads, along with concrete blocks, brick, glass, iron rods, machine tools ñ anything that the mob had been able to tear loose but did not want to carry off. Fountains gushed from broken water remains. Burnt-out automobiles stood across traffic lanes. A pall of smoke hung over many blocks, and buzzards sailed in great, leisurely circles. Most overwhelming, however, were the neglected human casualties: fresh bodies, bodies grotesquely bloated in the tropical heat, slashed bodies, bodies bludgeoned to death, bodies piled on push carts, bodies caught in drains, bodies stacked high in vacant lots, bodies, bodies.

“Watching a city feed on its own flesh is a disturbing experience”, Talbot concluded. “In spite of our war heritage of callousness, I know that I was not alone in sensing profound horror this last week as Calcutta, India’s largest metropolis and the second city of the Empire, resolutely set at work to cannibalise itself“.

Talbot’s letter is remarkable because of the clarity of his testimonial. He was an outsider and a witness whose detachment and compassion were severely tested as he wrote about the carnage all around him.

 “In human terms, estimated casualties ran from the Provincial Government’s absurdly reductive report of 7500 dead to military guesses that 70,000 to 1,00,000 people might have been killed in span of three days. Already more than 35,000 bodies have been collected and counted, and no one will ever know how many persons were swept down the Hoogly, caught in the clogged sewers, burned up in the 1,200 fires, or taken away by relatives who disposed of their bodies privately. Women were gathered from various localities to Bada maidaan for public rape …thousands of new widows, small girls, aged women were raped in afternoon broad daylight in open field in between the metropolis of Calcutta and simultaneously 1000s of Muslims gathered to see it as a festivities chanting Allah O Akbar. A reasonable guess, I think, is that more than 40,000 hindu woman were raped that day and 1,10,000 people were killed in what is already being called ‘The Great Calcutta Killing’ or ‘The Week of the Long Knives.”

The person solely to blame for this heightened passion and violent devastation was Suhrawardy as he had announced in the meeting that to have Pakistan it was necessary to paralyze the both the administration and the army. 

During the slaughter he was present in the Lalbazaar Police control room but only to help his comrades to achieve Pakistan. The Hindus who had always remained with their Muslim counterparts as brothers were totally confused. The shock was so great that they did not know what to do. It was as if they were totally paralyzed. The majority of the Hindus who followed the doctrines of Gandhiji and believed this slaughter as their destiny as Gandhiji had preached that Hindus should surrender to death if attacked but should not raise their weapons in retaliation. Only a few extremist Hindus believed that if a brutal retaliation is not offered, there would be no Bengal anymore and Bengal would cease to exist.  

Among these few extremist Hindus was Gopal Chandra Mukherjee or Gopal Patha. He was a resident of Malanga Lane of Bowbazaar area of Central Calcutta. He was the owner of a slaughter house of goats and therefore the nick name Gopal Patha. (Patha means Goat in Bengali). He was a relative of Anukul Chandra Mukherjee who was a famous revolutionary and a follower of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. He did not believe in the doctrine of non-violence taught by Gandhiji. He believed that if you want to drive away Britishers from India you need to exert force. He had good relations with some of the Congress leaders like Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy.

Gopal Mukherjee, as per his own ideology, had formed Bhartiya Jatiya Bahini , a small organization of youth whom he trained to learn and practice knowledge of power and firearms. This small militant organization raised the first defence against the rioting Muslims Under the guidance of Dr. Shyama prasad Mukherjee, Sikhs and Bihari cowherds also formed a front to resist the plundering Muslim killers.  

When rioting started from the Hindu side, Suhrawardy called in the army. The assault by Gopal Patha was so violent that Muslims hid in mosques out of fear and large parts of Calcutta saw Muslims being hunted down. Gopal Patha instructed his followers to kill any Muslim youth visible to them but to send the Muslim women and the children to the nearby mosques. The tables had clearly turned and there was utter loss and chaos within a day of the attack launched by Gopal Patha.

Muslim League leaders like G.G Ajmiri and Mujibur Rehman who were a part of student’s organization of the Muslim Leaque and member of Muslim National Guard respectively, pleaded with Gopal Patha to stop this man slaughter and blood bath.  The Muslim leadership took revenge of this blood bath in Noakhali near Chittagong on 10^th of October, 1946 under the leadership of Ghulam Sarwar and it was considered the darkest chapter in the history of mankind.  

In 1947, when India gained Independence and Pakistan was formed. Gandhiji said he would not remain in Delhi but go to Noakhali to console the tortured Hindus. But Suhrawadry and his collaborators requested him to save their lives from Gopal Patha who was hell bent on killing them. Hearing this Gandhiji gave up his idea of going to Noakhali and remained in Calcutta. Inspite of massive anger among the Hindus, he asked the Hindus to cast aside hatred and submit their arms and ammunitions to him. Gandhiji requested Gopal Patha twice to surrender but he refused. He said, “I will not lay down even a nail if it has been used for defending Hindu honour.”

He breathed his last in 2001 by natural death. No jihadi dared to touch him but nobody remembered him also, we do not find his reference in any history book.  Although it is a sad fact that we still have a Suhrawardy Avenue in Calcutta and it feels like we are patronizing one and forgetting the other which causes feeling of anger and hatred at this type of appeasement politics.  

I end by saying- Those who fail to learn from History are doomed to repeat it. All Indians should learn from the words of Mohammad Iqbal who wrote-

Mazahab nahin sikhaata apas men bair rakhana

Hindi hain ham watan hai, hindostaan hamaara

Saare jahaan se achchha hindostaan hamaara

Ham bulabulen hain isaki, ye gulisataan hamaara

Also, we need to rise against the policy of DIVIDE AND RULE, left behind by the English and appeasement politics. Our political scenario should be supported by ‘Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas’ irrespective of religion, caste, creed or sex.

Categories:Experiencing the In-experienced

Rupa Dey

Ex-Principal of Shreerang Vidyalaya,
English Medium,
Secondary Section & Junior College.