1924 Kohat riots

The 1924 Kohat riots were major communal riots in Kohat town in the North-West Frontier Province, British India in 1924. In three days (9–11 September) of rioting, official statistics state that the total casualty-count was 155, of which the number of casualties among Hindus & Sikhs was more than three times higher than the number of casualties among Muslims. Almost the entire Hindu population which was living in the town at the time, a total of 3,200 people, was either evacuated or fled. The riots were described as a successful attempt to completely exterminate and erase the Hindu and Sikh communities in the area. In the surrounding villages, Hindus and Sikhs were also killed and the survivors of the riots were forced to flee the region but the majority of the region's Hindus and Sikhs had already been exterminated by the Muslims.^[1] Gandhi undertook a 21-day fast for Hindu-Muslim unity in October 1924.^[2]

Background[]

In the 1921 census, Kohat had a population of about 5000 Hindus and Sikhs^[a], and 12000 Muslims.^[1] Much of the bureaucracy was composed of Muslims.^[1] Despite, the Hindus were economically dominant: income tax records of the same year note indicate they paid four times as much as Muslims.^[1] Prior to the twentieth century, says Patrick McGinn, relations between the two religious communities were peaceful and exhibited multiple instances of cooperation.^[1]

However, with the turn of the century, waves of religiopolitical consciousness would sweep Kohat.^[1] The Indian Nationalist Movement was being extensively Hindu-ised, leading to subcontinental Muslims seeking out faith-based avenues for political aspirations.^[1] Aggressive efforts by Arya Samaj, aimed at resorting to primordial days of Hindu glory patronized the growth of communalism; in 1907, Provincial Commissioner H. Deane had held the Samaj to be primarily responsible for the sudden rise in religious antagonism.^[1] A minor riot broke out in the town in 1909.^[1] In the days before the '24 riot, the Khilafat Movement had just disintegrated and the surgent Ulemas took to rebranding themselves as defenders of Islam.^[1] Overall, in the opinion of McGinn, the dominant discourse in the town smacked of competitive communalism.^[1]

1924[]

In August 1924, the editor of Guru Ghantal—a Hindu Newspaper, based in Lahore and having a large audience in Kohat—was prosecuted for publishing inflammatory articles attacking Islam.^[b][1] This was part of a months-long bipartisan tirade in press where Hindus claimed to be speaking out against forced conversions^[c] and Muslims, against dishonor of their religion.^[1] In June, the son of Sardar Makan Singh eloped with a Muslim girl and the affair was communalized.^[1] In August, Muslims had lodged protests against construction of a bathing ghat for Hindu women in the vicinity of a Muslim neighborhood; the government settled the dispute in favor of Hindus on 2 September.^[1]

The immediate trigger of the dispute was Jiwan Das—secretary of the local branch of Sanatan Dharm Sabha—publishing a pamphlet of poems, titled Krishan Sandesh.^[1] One particular poem, allegedly written by a poet from Jammu, gave calls to evict all Muslims to Arabia and construct a Vishnu Temple at Kaaba.^[1] The Muslim community was expectedly provoked; meetings were held in mosques against the "gross defamation" of Islam, and fanatical preachers from outside arrived in Kohat.^[1] The Sabha argued the poem to be a response to an anti-Hindu poem, published in the May issue of Lahaul, where Muslims were urged to desecrate holy texts and shrines of infidels, and obliterate their existence.^[1] However the justifications pacified none.^[1]

Finally, on 2 September at a public meeting in Town Hall, Hindu leaders offered apologies blaming the young-turks and sought pardon; a resolution was published to the same effects and dispatched to the government as well as Muslim leaders.^[1] While the meeting had ended in an amicable resolution, certain Muslim leaders—Maulvi Ahmed Gul, Qazi Miraj Din et al—did not approve of the resolution.^[1] They moved demonstrations before Police Superintendent Lillie and Asst. Commissioner S. Ahmed Khan, forcing the latter to take Das into preventative detention.^[1] Khan assured the irate crowd of Das' prosecution and ordered a public burning of all copies of Krishan Sandesh.^[1]

While nothing transpired till 8 September, the situation was rapidly deteriorating.^[1] On 6 September, Hindus had even sent a letter to the Chief Commissioner and Dy. Commissioner Reilly about the precarious situation.^[1] Two days later, in a baffling move, Das was let off on bail subject to the conditions that he might not enter the district until the trial started.^[1] The Muslims believed that Das has been acquitted and everybody was asked to attend the evening congregational prayers, wherein preachers gave incendiary speeches about the need of protecting Islam from enemies and threatened to engage by Sharia, unless their demands were met by next morning.^[1] The crowd was invigorated and promised to divorce their wives and give up life, if they failed to avenge the honor of Islam.^[1] Armed contingents of Muslims paraded in the city, across the night.^[1]

The morning of 9 September, a Muslim crowd, exceeding a strength of thousand and mostly composed of young boys, demonstrated before Reilly and compelled him to accept all demands.^[1]

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