Jinnah chose Kolkata (Calcutta) for his Direct Action day coz he wanted to have Kolkata in Pakistan. Kolkata was a major business city of India at that time, & Jinnah didn’t want to lose Kolkata!
The mission to Make Kolkata Hindu-free was given to Suhrawardy, who was Chief Minister of Bengal, & loyal to Jinnah.
At that time, Calcutta had 64% Hindus and 33% Muslims in 1946.
Suhrawardy started to execute his plan on 16th August - a strike was declared by him & all Muslims closed their shops, & gathered in masjid. It was Friday,18th day of Ramzan, and after namaz, a
Muslim mob started to butcher Hindus!
And as Suhrawardy expected, Hindus didn’t show any resistance, and easily succumbed to Muslim mobs.
Suhrawardy assured the Muslim mobs, that he has instructed the Police to not come in the way of their mission.
Mobs of lakhs of Muslims, armed with iron rods, swords and other dangerous weapons, spread to several parts of Calcutta, and neighbouring areas.
A Hindu shop of arms and weapons near the Muslim League office was attacked first. it was looted and burnt to ashes. The owner and his employees were beheaded. Hindus were chopped down ike vegetables. Many Hindu women and young girls were kidnapped and taken away as sex slaves.
On 16th August thousands of Hindus were killed & Hindu women were raped.
Killings continued on 17th August also.
600 Hindu labourers, mostly from Orissa at Kesoram Cotton Mills Lichubagan were beheaded.
A dance of massacre was going on in Kolkata. Hindus were running away from Kolkata, Suhrawardy was assured about his victory by 19th August.
Thousands of Hindus had been killed till 17th August.
But on 18th August, A Hindu decided to resist the Muslim mibs!He was a Bengali Brahmin & his name was Gopal Mukherjee. His friends used to call him Patha coz he used to run a meat shop.
He used to live at Malanga Lane in the Bowbazar area of Kolkata.
Gopal was 33 year old that time, & a staunch nationalist, and firm follower of Subash Chandra Bose & critique of Gandhi’s principle of non-violence.
Gopal used to run a street organization Bharat Jatiya Bahini. He had 500 - 700 people in his team - all were well-trained wrestlers.
On 18th Aug Gopal decided that they will not run away, & will will do a counter attack on the Muslims.
He called his wrestlers, gave them weapons. A Marwari businessman decided to finance him, & gave him adequate money.
His plan was first to secure Hindu areas by counter attacks.
His words were “Kill 10 Muslims for every 1 Hindu!”
Thr Muslim League had lakhs of jihadis, while Gopal had only few hundred fighters, but they made a plan, & decided to fight till end to save Kolkata becoming a Muslim city.
They made the rules that unlike Muslims they will not touch any enemy women n children.
Gopal himself was having 2 pistols that he had got from Azad Hind Fauj. From the afternoon of 18th Aug, Hindus under leadership of Gopal, started to fight back.
On 18th, when the Muslims came to Hindu colony to kill Hindus, they were greeted by Gopal’s team.
Gopal’s team killed each n every Muslim mobster who came to kill the Hindus & by the 19th, they had secured all Hindu colonies.
It was a complete surprise for Suhrawardy.
He didn’t think that Hindus will resist in this way.
When by 19th August they had secured Hindu areas, their revenge started from 20th August.
They marked all Jehadis who killed Hindus on 16th and 17th August & attacked them on 20th August.
By 19th the message was passed (reached) to all Hindus, that Hindus under the leadership of Gopal, were fighting the Muslims!
So by 21st August, a lot of Hindus had joined him, now started the revenge of the Hindus!
They killed so many Muslims in 2 days, that by 21st, deaths of Muslims outnumbered the deaths of Hindus!
The game had changed by 22nd August now! The Muslims were running away from Kolkata.
Suhrawardy accepted his defeat, & rushed to Congress leaders to request them to stop Gopal Patha, who had become Yamraj for the Muslims.
Gopal got ready on the conditions that all Muslims surrender their weapons to him, that Suhrawardy accepted.
Jinnah's plan to capture Kolkata was shattered by 22nd August.
The Bhagwa Flag was flying in Kolkata.
After Kolkata, Gopal did not dissolve his organization, and kept saving Hindus of Bengal.
When everything was over, as Police comes at the end of a feature film, Gandhi met to Gopal with his lessons of non violence, and Hindu-Muslim Unity, and asked him to surrender his Shastras (weapons).
Gopal’s words were “Gandhi called me twice, I didn’t go. The third time, some local Congi leaders told me that I should at least deposit some of my arms. I went there. I saw people coming and depositing weapons, which were of no use to anyone, out-of-order pistols, that sort of thing!"
Then Gandhi’s Secretary said to me: ‘Gopal, why don’t you surrender your arms to Gandhiji?’
Gopal replied, `"With these arms, I saved the women of my area, I saved the people. I will not surrender them. Where was Gandhiji, I said, during the Great Calcutta Killing? Where was he then? Even if I’ve used a nail to kill someone, I won’t surrender even that nail!”
Suhrawardy said “When Hindus make up their minds to fight back, they are the most deadly and lethal race in the world!"
Gopal Patha and Syama Prasad Mukherjee were the two legendary heroes who saved the Hindus of Bengal from Jehadi Muslim mobsters!
But before reading this, how many of you were aware of Gopal Patha?
Since Gopal did not follow Gandhi’s principle, his name was removed from books of history.
But he is the unsung Hero of India, who saved lives of lakhs of people.
Only due to him Kolkata is part of India today.
Never forget this name – Gopal Patha!
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