RIOTS IN CALCUTTA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 78, 3 April 1926, Page 9

RIOTS IN CALCUTTA.

HINDUS AGAINST MOSLEMS. SEVERAL PEOPLE KILLED. MANY OTHERS INJURED. ((By Cable.—Press Association. —Copyright.) (Received 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, April 2. A dispatch from Calcutta states that serious Hindu and Moslem riots have occurred. Several have been killed and many injured. ' i The riots have been confined to the .northern parts of the city.— (A. and | N.Z. Cable.)

The traditional and inextinguishable hatred between Hindu and Mohammedan ] is the foundation-stone of the whole fabric of Indian political life. That hatred is as bitter to-day as it has ever been. If the probable situation of the immediate future is to he understood, it is better to say that, in the opinion of all responsible authorities in the four ( provinces chiefly affected —the Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province. ] Bihar and Orissa. and Bengal —the ; antagonism is great. It is so obvious a ' menace to India that even Gandhi admitted the possibility that his reign of soui-force might be unable to prevent the ' bursting of the storm which British control of India alone holds back. Gandhi [ told Percival Landon gravely that, even if it devastated all India, be would ac- [ cept it rather than endure the rule of British civilisation. It is not, indeed, impossible that, in his heart of hearts, he regarded it as the swiftest method of \ wiping out the last traces of that civilisation and of restoring the peninsula to the old regime of village communities and their simple life. The possibility of thi3 Catastrophe is never forgotten in India, Mr. Landon says. It looms in the background of almost every step that is taken by any administration, Imperial, provincial, or municipal; though, with a touch of Oriental superstitution, which has communicated itself even to the Englishman, the horror of it is so appalling that it is rarely anticipated in any precise manner. At home the real meaning of such a holocaust of Northern India is not understood at all, and for that reason it may be a good thing to break through the superstitution and roughly outline the almost certain course of such a war. Should the control of this religious antagonism ever pass beyond our power, either because we shall have surrendered our Imperial position or because —a matter which at this moment demands especial notice—our military efficiency in India shall have become inadequate to the gravity of the task, there would follow sporadic outrages against the sacred places of either creed, followed instantly by massacres of which ever community found itself in a minority in the district. At this call to arms the two religious camps would organise themselves, and war, relentless and complete, would herald an era of mutual extermination. In such an upheaval there would be no room for prisoners or internments. On the side of the Mussulmans the immediate advantage would be secured of having a natural and traditional leader of born warriors, and it would be tbe work of a month only to extend the southern frontier of Afghanistan to the Sutlej and the Indus. At the same time, a ruthlessly waged campaign of defence would have secured to the Moslems an enclave in Eastern Bengal, of which Dacca would be the capital until Calcutta had been reduced. A Bitter Conflict. Meanwhile the Hindu forces would have marshalled themselves, and the necessity for a unified control would have made them sink their rivalries in the face of a common danger. From a military point of view the great struggle would, as ever, take place over the historic battlegrounds between Ambala and Delhi, and upon the result of that struggle the destiny of India would depend. It is not necessary to balance the forces or the probabilities of the contest; but it is obvious that a conflict between such splendid fighting material as the Sikhs, Rajputs, and Mahrattas on the one part, and on the other the fanatic strength of militant Islam, would be no campaign such as in the past has been decided by a single Panipat. It would rival the savage in-fighting of the "Salient" or Verdun. For the narrowness of the terrain between the desert and the hills would permit of and even compel such a concentration as Ypres, Verdun, and the Carso outside Gorizia alone knew in the late war. Even less necessary is it to ruminate upon the possible intervention of hillmen after both sides had fought themselves to a shadow of their first . military strength. It is only needful to realise the massacre and pilla~e which would accompany this contest ?n every district where Moslem and Hindu now live side by side, and to bring home to Englishmen the duty that is incumbent on them of seeing to it that this awful convulsion shall never take place. It is of cardinal importance to remember that to this "day" the Mohammedan fighting men have looked forward with unconcealed eagerness for a century and more, and that, as I have said," even that avowed pacifist Gandhi—who represents Hinduism as no agitator has ever before represented it —regards its [ approach wiith resignation, "if I may again use a simile which still seems to illustrate our position in India better than others I have employed, the two jarring creeds of India are like two , teams pulling on • against another, the Hindus "being like a great hempen '. hawser, the Moslems like a thin steel , chain, while we stand as umpire and keep the balance between them with a trained touch upon the knot that links up the two ropes. Need I add that if we abandon our work as umpire we shall be, of all peoples who have ever held great place and responsibility in the • I world, the most contemptible?