The Kohat outrages on September 9 to 11, 1924 shook confidence even of the stubborn believers in the possibility of Hindu-Muslim unity by appeasement. Non-cooperation movement of Gandhiji gained strength because of his quid-pro-quo with Ali Brothers.
The politically aware Muslims, who were friendly with the British till now, abandoned their British bandwagon, not for freedom of India but for the cause of the Pan-Islamic Ummah. Mahatama Gandhi’s support to Jauhar Ali was tantamount to “backing a wrong horse”. By so doing, he introduced religious identity as a primary driver of political mobilization. His success in forging temporary unity collapsed like a house of cards after the sudden suspension of his movement in the wake of the Chauri Chaura incident in February 1922. A weakened Khilafat movement resulted in intensification and dissemination of Muslim identity politics which was already present for centuries in the minds of traditionalist Ulama and which had been spread among modernist Muslims by Aligarh movement.
Even before Kohat holocaust, the egregious Moplah medievalist attack, with all its ferocity, began in August 1921 had resulted from the aggressive Khilafat spirit ‘released like jinn from the bottle’. Now at Kohat (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), near Rawalpindi the preponderately large number of Muslims (12,000 Muslims to 5000 Hindus and Sikhs) could not countenance the little resistance to their supremacism and freehand they enjoyed in converting Hindus, particularly women due to new-born spirit of resistance among Hindus. On September 8, 1924 started a fracas in the town that led in next three days to massacre of hundreds of Hindus and other outrages, resulting in evacuation of Kohat by all the Hindus to save their life and honour. They had to take refuge in Rawalpindi over 200 K.M. distant.
There was no support from the then-British government as it was dependent on the majority Muslim population to maintain its stronghold in NWFP. Police force and administration was in the hands of Muslims. S. Ahmad Khan was Assistant Commissioner Police and Abbas Ali Shah was Head Constable.
Incendiarism of Kohat Not an Isolated Happening
In 1923 began the period of attack by radicalised Muslims on Hindus, which cannot be termed riot by any stretch of imagination. The augmented radicalisation of a large segment of Muslims caused by Khilafat movement led to brutal violent deeds at over a Hundred places in the country. Muslim Rais class had so far kept away from the Congress in spite of various inducements, personal and for their society. But needs of the Muslims began bringing them closer to the Congress since 1913. Lucknow pact resulted years before Mahatma Gandhi’s assumption of leadership of Khilafat movement. In 1919 began the four-year period of unprecedented cooked-up bonhomie thanks to Himalayan blunder of Gandhiji. When the marriage-de-convenience ended, the radicalised section of Muslims was up in arms for ‘jihad’.
In 1923, there were eleven attacks, in 1924 there were eighteen, in 1925 there were sixteen, and in 1926 there were thirty five attacks. In the twelve months from May 1926 to April 1927, 40 more incidents occurred across various cities mostly in Bengal, Punjab, North-West Frontier Province and United Provinces.
Incidents of Kohat
On September 9 began attack on the Hindus and on 10th and 11th untold barbarity was unleashed. Hundred were killed, property looted and burnt, temples desecrated, and men and women converted. All the Hindus of the town were made to flee to Ravalpindi.
Antecedents
Muslim community was used to lord over the Hindus in Kohat. Between 1919 and 1924 on an averages 150 conversions, mostly of women had happened. Of late, the Hindus began to organize in spite of being in small number under the aegis of Arya Samaj and Sanatan Dharma Sabha.
In May 1924 the Muslims of Kohat published a poem in a paper ‘Lahaul’ derogatory to Hindu gods. It read, “We shall have to burn the Gita of Kirars (used for Hindu mercantile community) We shall break the flute of Krishna. O Muslims! You will have to take up the sword and destroy the existence of Kirars and burn their goddesses.“
A Hindu leader of Kohat, Jiwan Das, then published a pamphlet entitled ‘Krishn Sandesh’. It read, “We have kept quiet so long, we shall have to speak out, O mulla! You must gather up your prayer-carpet and take it to Arabia. We shall build a temple to Vishnu in place of the Ka’ba, and destroy the existence of the Nimaziz”. It was distributed on Janmashtami, August 22. It incensed the Muslims. Inflammatory speeches in the mosques followed.
On September 3, 1924, a Muslim crowd went to the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ahmad Khan and demanded action against Jiwan Das. Khan directed burning of pamphlet and assured them that he would be duly prosecuted. The Hindu community withdrew the pamphlet but did not burn as it contained picture of Krishna.
On September 8, Jiwan Das was released on bail and asked to leave the district until conclusion of the trial. This gave ulama an excuse to incite Muslims for violence. Maulvi Ahmad Gul warned the police to take action against Das else the community would take action as per Shariat. The Maulvis made Muslims take ‘oath of talaq’ meaning there by that they would divorce their wives if they failed to defend their religion.
Islamists run riot
On September 9, a large crowd went to Deputy Commissioner Reilly, forcing him to give in to their demands. The Hindus were sensing trouble on learning of the ‘oath of talaq’ etc. They sent telegrams to the Deputy Commissioner. But to no avail.
Muslim mobs stormed into Hindu colonies with sticks and pelted stones. The house of one Sardar Makhan Singh was burnt and his garden destroyed. The Hindus fired shots at them in self-defence. One of the stone pelters died while several others were injured. Now the Muslim mob took to mass murder of Hindus.
Arson engulfed shops, temples and houses. Properties of the Hindus were vandalised and looted. In the evening police dispersed the frenzied mob. The following day intensity of rowdyism peaked. Thousands of Muslims from Kohat and nearby tribal areas gathered to unleash deadliest episodes of violence.
Hindus were forced to flee the town and take shelter in a nearby temple. Muslims looted and burnt Hindu houses freely and slaughtered those who stayed behind. The Hindus of Kohat took refuge in Rawalpindi.
After several months there was a trickle of Hindus to return to Kohat from January 1925, after NWFP Chief Commissioner H.N. Bolton’s mediation an uneasy settlement between Hindu and Muslim leaders was reached. The settlement favoured the Muslims. All civil and criminal cases pertaining to the attack were dropped. The Hindu victims of the attack did not get any compensation. They were offered loans of 5 lakh rupees for the damages.
The horrifying happenings of Kohat made Mahatma Gandhi undertake a 21 days fast, from September 18. The fast made Hindu Muslim leaders to assemble for a Unity Conference at Delhi from September 26 to October 2. Three hundred leaders gathered to promote Communal harmony. But this attempt was still born.
Gandhiji was not allowed to visit Kohat. He visited Rawalpindi accompanied by Khilafat leader Shaukat Ali on February 4, 1925. Here he met Kohat refugees. The official Muslim leadership from Kohat chose not to come. They telegraphically informed that reconciliation had already been affected. But the Hindus were not agreeable to Bolton’s arbitrated verdict.
Ahmed Gul (the Khilafat Secretary) and Pir Kamal, a local zamindar, travelled from Kohat to meet Mahatma Gandhi at Rawalpindi. Gandhiji interviewed these representatives from Kohat to understand the root causes of the disturbances and enquire about misgivings of refugees.
There was tell-tell news in the Times of India captioned “Crime of Conversion” regarding Gandhiji’s attempt at inducing Muslims to let Hindus resettle in Kohat honourably. It spells out real face of Islamic supremacism. Bhai Parmanand speaking to a representative of the Milap in March 1925 dwelt as to why Gandjhiji’s mission failed. The two representatives of Kohat told the Mahatma that it was advisable for the Hindus not to return to Kohat unless they repented their past misdeeds and humbly apologised to the Musalmans. These ‘misdeeds’ it was discovered were the ‘new fangled’ re-conversion of Hindu converts to Islam. The maulvi said that of late the Hindus have begun to obstruct the Moslem work of conversion and even to take back in their fold people thus converted. In this way an attempt was made to re-convert certain converted women. On Mr Gandhi’s inquiring, who attempted to reconvert the women, the maulvi Saheb said “The husbands of the converted women made such attempts. This is a crime according to Islam, as according to Shariyat, a woman who embraced Islam can have nothing to do with her husband of the old faith.” Bhai Parmanand said “Thereupon maulana Shaukat Ali observed, ‘it is true that according to Shariyat when a person embraces Islam, their former marital ties are broken’. Mahatma Gandhi said ‘a Hindu woman is never released from the marital tie. I am utterly astonished to hear you say this.’ Maulvi Pir Kamal retorted : ‘I can not even understand what you say and no Musalman can. Commenting on this interesting point of the Shariyat the Pragtik (Parmanand) exclaims ‘It is a great crime in the eyes of Muslim religion if the Hindu women converted to Islam are re-converted’, these sentiments of the maulvi would astonish any one but what is still more astonishing is that the big brother (Shaukat Ali) who had gone there to bring about peace also bowed his head in assent and said amen to these sentiments.”
Gandhiji on reaching Sabarmati Ahram on 10th of February, 1925 spoke to the inmates of the Ahram expressing concern at forced conversion perpetrated at Kohat. It pained him that the Muslims took conversion activity in a casual manner.
Gandhiji and Shaukat Ali did not agree on causes of happenings of Kohat. Gandhiji argued that the Hindus had been subjected to unprovoked aggression and forced conversions. Shaukat placed a larger share of the blame on provocations by the Hindu minority. This division indicated fractures in the Hindu-Muslim coalition of 1919.
The British government depended on the majority Muslim community to maintain their stronghold in NWFP. Therefor it turned blind eye to the treatment meted out to the Hindus.
The aftermath of the 1924 Kohat riots
Sanatan Dharma Sabha Conference held at Rawalpindi at the end of November 1924, attended by 1,200 delegates from the Panjab, Baluchistan, Sindh and the NWFP blamed the authorities that they were informed of threat to Hindus on September 6, yet no pre-emptive action was taken.
An analysis of the Khilafat movement leads to conclusion that the creation of Pakistan, can not be attributed solely to Khilafat movement. The fault line was centuries old and there was little that Gandhiji could do to repair it. Only his presumption that he could affect it was presumptuous. His wooing the radical Muslims leaders weakened Hindus, as a large chunk of Hindu society concurred with Gandhiji that appeasement was the way to unity.
Maulana Mohammed Ali prevaricated in giving the statement in December 1924 at the Bombay session of the Muslim League that “The sufferings of the Hindus of Kohat are not unprovoked….”
Kohat attack by Muslims gave a body-blow to Gandhiji’s fond hope to bring Muslims in the national main stream by gross appeasement. Glimpse of the truth dawned on him while conversing with Ahmad Gul at Rawalpindi. It is strange that still he went on hoping against hope.
