277:
bazaar which had a few Hindu houses. A fracas ensued which resulted in a Muslim boy being shot dead and several others wounded as Hindus opened fire from roof-tops. What triggered the firing is disputed with Hindus accusing the crowd of pelting local shops and torching Makan Singh's property but
Muslims maintaining that a few boys had merely engaged in aggressive posturing in front of Hindu shops and were already being driven out by the police. At about 12:30 P.M., local army regiments were brought in, and as fire and looting raged on, more support was called. Street-fighting raged on till about 7 PM, when the local police finally managed to exert control with aid from the nearby army regiments, and drove away the crowd. The military forces were then assigned to guarding the city perimeters.
258:
by Reily, subject to the condition that he might not enter the district until the trial started — Reilly gathered intelligence about
Muslims flocking onto neighboring villages ahead of the scheduled trial and devised the release to delay the inevitable confrontation that would have happened on Hindus paying the bail-bond and securing Das' release. On ground, the effects ran opposite with Muslim clerics spreading rumors about how Das has been acquitted. Everybody was asked to attend the evening congregational prayers at Haji Bahadur Mosque where preachers gave incendiary speeches about protecting Islam from enemies, and threatened to engage in tunes with
281:
neighborhood caught fire and most of the Hindus had to leave their homes — often with assistance from the administration, who set up camps — , allowing the mob to have a free run and decimate whatever feeble resistance was offered by those who had refused to leave. The mob engaged in extensive looting and arson before being cleared in the late evening. It took a week to douse the flames in light of the inflammable nature of buildings and gross inadequacy of fire-fighting systems.
358:
forces to have been complicit in looting. Reilly rejected Bray's accusations of mismanagement and emphasized that no administration would be able to quell a riot in the
Frontier Province, shall a minority community choose to "infuriate the majority by gross insults to their religion" and then proceed to "shoot down small unarmed boys"; he added that the unusually fast spread of fire played the determining role in the riot.
182:—a Hindu Newspaper based in Lahore and having a large audience in Kohat—was prosecuted for publishing inflammatory articles attacking Islam. This was the culmination of a months-long partisan tirade in the press where Hindus claimed to be speaking out against forced conversions and Muslims against dishonour of their religion. The same month, Muslims lodged protests against the proposed construction of a bathing
244:
the meeting had ended in an amicable resolution, certain Muslim leaders—Maulvi Ahmed Gul, Qazi Miraj Din et al—did not approve of it. The following day, they moved demonstrations before police superintendent Lillie and assistant commissioner S. Ahmed Khan, forcing the latter to take Das into preventive detention. Khan assured the irate crowd of Das's prosecution and ordered a public burning of all copies of
82:
236:. The poem was brought to broader public attention on the occasion of a Muslim funeral, on 1 September. Enraged Muslims held meetings in mosques against the "gross defamation" of Islam, and fanatical preachers from outside arrived in Kohat. With tensions escalating rapidly, the Dharm Sabha argued but to little effect that the poem was a response to an anti-Hindu poem published in the May issue of
136:
118:
100:
379:
community on 19 January agreed to return all property to their rightful owners, restore all desecrated shrines, withdraw all ongoing cases (incl. against Das), and ensure harmonious conduct in future. The government stood steadfast on refusing compensation but disbursed voluminous loans to the afflicted.
357:
visited Kohat and held the
Muslims responsible for triggering the riot. Local Hindus accused the Muslim-dominated administration of rampant mismanagement and bias; Bray agreed, expressing scorn over the lackaidisical response of the police machinery even in face of the talaq oath, and found the armed
257:
While no significant developments transpired till the following week, the situation was rapidly deteriorating — on 7 September, Hindus would petition Chief
Commissioner of the Province, K. N. Bolton about the precarities they faced and bias of Khan, "a Muslim". On 8 September, Das was let off on bail
243:
Finally, on 2 September at a public meeting in Town Hall, Hindu leaders offered apologies blaming the young turks, sought pardon, and promised to tear the particular page off the pamphlets; a resolution was published to the same effect and dispatched to the government as well as Muslim leaders. While
161:
In the 1921 census, Kohat had a population of about 8,000 Hindus and Sikhs, and 19,000 Muslims. Much of the bureaucracy was composed of
Muslims. The Hindus were economically dominant: income tax records of the same year note indicate they paid four times as much tax as Muslims. Prior to the twentieth
280:
The next morning, thousands of
Muslims from neighboring villages infiltrated into Kohat — by as many as thirteen breaches in the perimeter wall — and by afternoon, the Hindu neighborhood was surrounded from all sides. Notwithstanding police efforts in driving away the mob and Hindu retaliations, the
276:
In the morning of 9 September, a Muslim crowd, exceeding the strength of a thousand and mostly composed of young boys, demonstrated before Reilly and compelled him to let Khan start an immediate inquiry. While a majority of the crowd proceeded with Khan, a part chose to return to their homes via the
365:
remarked to Bolton, in private, that as the government has been already subject to severe criticism, and his report shall be detailed enough to address such concerns but strategic enough to not hamper Hindu-Muslim relations in the subcontinent. The inquiry commenced by the first week of
October and
378:
insisted in particular that the Hindus shall not return to Kohat, until the
Government compensated them for damages incurred in the riot and assured them safety. It would be January 1925 before Hindus started trickling back in — a resolution adopted by "representatives" of Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh
499:
To Gandhi, the Kohat situation was emblematic not only of the
British Government's errors of omission and commission that fanned religious riots but also of the cruel treatment met out to refugees on a pan-India basis. Visiting Rawalpindi in December, he lashed out at the local bureaucracy for
186:
for Hindu women in the vicinity of a Muslim neighborhood; the government adjudicated the dispute in favour of Hindus on 2 September. Overall, in the opinion of Patrick McGinn, the dominant discourse in the town on the eve of the riot smacked of competitive
169:
being extensively Hindu-ised, subcontinental Muslims sought out faith-based avenues for political aspirations. After the disintegration of the Khilafat Movement, local Ulema had rebranded themselves as defenders of Islam. Aggressive efforts by
444:
McGinn contends the publication to have been a calculated strategy to provoke the Muslim community and attract Hindus to their fold. Nair finds the publication to be an indicator of how deep the political and religious spheres had become
174:
stirred communal tensions in no insignificant manner either — in 1907, Provincial Commissioner H. Deane held the Arya Samaj to be primarily responsible for the sudden rise in religious antagonism. A minor riot broke out in 1909.
366:
by 10 October, a draft report had been prepared. Bolton found Khan's theatrical incineration of the pamphlet unwise and reiterated Bray's grievance about the failure to recognize the enormity of the talaq oath.
500:
exhibiting rank callousness and incompetency in its disregard for Hindu insecurities, as lodged on the 6th; the administration's refusal to arrange for food of the refugees in Rawalpindi drew ire too.
454:
Initially, Das feigned ignorance about the contents. However, later investigations shew that not only was he in constant touch with the printers but also had read them aloud in their congregations.
264:
unless their demands were met by next morning; Ahmed Gul and a few others pleaded for sanity but to little avail. Police informants note that the crowd was invigorated and even took the
374:
The migrant population attempted to curry favors with Hindu Nationalist parties in the mainland and requested that the government station a Hindu garrison in Kohat.
341:
Official records pegged net casualties at 145 — Hindus bore the disproportionate share. By 15 September, almost the entire Hindu population chose to migrate out to
204:
The immediate trigger of the dispute was a defaming poem written about Krishna during Janmastami and the retaliation by Jiwan Das—secretary of the local branch of
791:
472:
Around the same time, the Dharm Sabha invoked Reilly's attention to the mass mobilization of Muslims and received police for protection of Hindu neighborhoods.
25:
254:, and Hindus objected to the burning by observing a day-long bandh which was withdrawn upon Deputy Commissioner Reilly threatening to arrest the organizer.
361:
By late September, it was decided that a European magistrate would initiate an inquiry into the riot and Bolton was chosen for the role; Viceroy
761:
776:
362:
162:
century, says Patrick McGinn, relations between the two religious communities were peaceful and exhibited multiple instances of cooperation.
426:
In an interview to Gandhi, Kamal Jailane estimated that about 150 Hindus were converted every year in Kohat for the last four-five years.
178:
In June 1924, the son of Sardar Makan Singh eloped with a Muslim girl and the affair was communalised. In early August, the editor of
711:
781:
648:
McGinn, Patrick (1 November 1986). "Communalism and the North-West Frontier Province: the Kohat Riots, 9–10 September 1924".
240:, where Muslims were urged to incinerate holy texts of infidels and desecrate their shrines to obliterate their existence.
530:
166:
188:
766:
32:
in 1924. In three days (9–11 September) of rioting, official statistics peg the number of casualties among
771:
417:
One such poem (published 7 July) mentioned the days of Islam to be numbered, that it was a false religion.
206:
165:
However, with the turn of the century, waves of religiopolitical consciousness swept Kohat. With the
786:
221:
673:
707:
665:
657:
408:
Army garrisons stationed in the city were counted too. The resident population was lower.
375:
755:
677:
29:
131:
232:, gave calls to evict all Muslims to Arabia and to construct a Vishnu Temple at
81:
661:
248:. However, the pamphlet had a cover image of Krishna alongside an engraving of
396:
354:
342:
171:
135:
45:
669:
463:
Gul was the Secretary of the local Khilafat committee, when it was disbanded.
95:
268:
oath. Armed contingents of Muslims paraded the city through the night.
113:
41:
260:
211:
33:
490:
Bolton had been the Deputy Commissioner of Kohat from 1909 to 1910.
233:
229:
117:
77:
37:
21:
183:
531:"CENSUS OF INDIA, 1921 VOLUME XIV NORTH-WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE"
742:
Changing Homelands: Hindu Politics and the Partition of India
706:. Lahore: Oxford University Press Pakistan. pp. 89–90.
99:
44:; almost the entire Hindu population had to be evacuated to
250:
740:
Nair, Neeti (2011). "Negotiating a Minority Status".
8:
481:Some were even sheltered by local Muslims.
283:
435:More particularly, a Muslim commissioner.
55:
522:
388:
735:
733:
731:
729:
727:
725:
723:
643:
641:
639:
637:
635:
633:
631:
629:
627:
625:
623:
621:
619:
617:
615:
613:
611:
609:
607:
605:
603:
601:
599:
597:
595:
593:
591:
589:
587:
585:
583:
581:
579:
577:
575:
573:
571:
569:
567:
7:
792:Anti-Hindu violence in British India
697:
695:
693:
691:
689:
687:
565:
563:
561:
559:
557:
555:
553:
551:
549:
547:
509:The loans would be remitted in 1938.
353:On 22 September, Foreign Secretary
228:, allegedly written by a poet from
14:
345:with only 155 choosing to stay.
395:Includes total Municipality and
134:
116:
98:
80:
1:
762:History of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
777:North-West Frontier Province
702:Lambert, Richard D. (2013).
224:, 22 August. One particular
40:at more than thrice that of
26:North-West Frontier Province
744:. Harvard University Press.
167:Indian Nationalist Movement
808:
662:10.1177/026272808600600204
210:—publishing a pamphlet of
63:
57:Religion in Kohat City
782:20th-century Hinduism
220:, on the occasion of
650:South Asia Research
286:
222:Krishna Janmashtami
207:Sanatan Dharm Sabha
60:
704:Hindu-Muslim Riots
284:
56:
339:
338:
159:
158:
149:Total Population
799:
746:
745:
737:
718:
717:
699:
682:
681:
645:
542:
541:
539:
537:
527:
510:
507:
501:
497:
491:
488:
482:
479:
473:
470:
464:
461:
455:
452:
446:
442:
436:
433:
427:
424:
418:
415:
409:
406:
400:
393:
287:
138:
120:
102:
84:
61:
20:happened in the
18:1924 Kohat riots
807:
806:
802:
801:
800:
798:
797:
796:
752:
751:
750:
749:
739:
738:
721:
714:
701:
700:
685:
647:
646:
545:
535:
533:
529:
528:
524:
519:
514:
513:
508:
504:
498:
494:
489:
485:
480:
476:
471:
467:
462:
458:
453:
449:
443:
439:
434:
430:
425:
421:
416:
412:
407:
403:
394:
390:
385:
372:
351:
274:
246:Krishan Sandesh
218:Krishan Sandesh
202:
197:
58:
54:
12:
11:
5:
805:
803:
795:
794:
789:
784:
779:
774:
769:
767:Kohat District
764:
754:
753:
748:
747:
719:
712:
683:
656:(2): 139–158.
543:
521:
520:
518:
515:
512:
511:
502:
492:
483:
474:
465:
456:
447:
437:
428:
419:
410:
401:
387:
386:
384:
381:
376:Mahatma Gandhi
371:
368:
350:
347:
337:
336:
333:
330:
327:
324:
320:
319:
316:
313:
310:
307:
303:
302:
299:
296:
293:
290:
273:
270:
201:
198:
196:
193:
157:
156:
153:
150:
146:
145:
142:
139:
128:
127:
124:
121:
110:
109:
106:
103:
92:
91:
88:
85:
74:
73:
70:
66:
65:
59:(1921 census)
53:
50:
13:
10:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
804:
793:
790:
788:
785:
783:
780:
778:
775:
773:
772:1924 in India
770:
768:
765:
763:
760:
759:
757:
743:
736:
734:
732:
730:
728:
726:
724:
720:
715:
713:9780199068593
709:
705:
698:
696:
694:
692:
690:
688:
684:
679:
675:
671:
667:
663:
659:
655:
651:
644:
642:
640:
638:
636:
634:
632:
630:
628:
626:
624:
622:
620:
618:
616:
614:
612:
610:
608:
606:
604:
602:
600:
598:
596:
594:
592:
590:
588:
586:
584:
582:
580:
578:
576:
574:
572:
570:
568:
566:
564:
562:
560:
558:
556:
554:
552:
550:
548:
544:
532:
526:
523:
516:
506:
503:
496:
493:
487:
484:
478:
475:
469:
466:
460:
457:
451:
448:
441:
438:
432:
429:
423:
420:
414:
411:
405:
402:
398:
392:
389:
382:
380:
377:
369:
367:
364:
359:
356:
349:Investigation
348:
346:
344:
334:
331:
328:
325:
322:
321:
317:
314:
311:
308:
305:
304:
300:
297:
294:
291:
289:
288:
282:
278:
271:
269:
267:
263:
262:
255:
253:
252:
247:
241:
239:
235:
231:
227:
223:
219:
215:
214:
209:
208:
199:
194:
192:
190:
185:
181:
176:
173:
168:
163:
154:
151:
148:
147:
143:
140:
137:
133:
130:
129:
125:
122:
119:
115:
112:
111:
107:
104:
101:
97:
94:
93:
89:
86:
83:
79:
76:
75:
71:
68:
67:
62:
51:
49:
47:
43:
39:
35:
31:
30:British India
27:
23:
19:
741:
703:
653:
649:
534:. Retrieved
525:
505:
495:
486:
477:
468:
459:
450:
440:
431:
422:
413:
404:
391:
373:
363:Rufus Isaacs
360:
352:
340:
285:Casualties:
279:
275:
265:
259:
256:
249:
245:
242:
237:
225:
217:
212:
205:
203:
180:Guru Ghantal
179:
177:
164:
160:
132:Christianity
24:town of the
17:
15:
399:population.
189:communalism
72:Percentage
69:Population
787:1924 riots
756:Categories
536:9 February
517:References
397:Cantonment
355:Denys Bray
343:Rawalpindi
172:Arya Samaj
52:Background
46:Rawalpindi
678:145791223
670:0262-7280
445:entwined.
370:Aftermath
216:, titled
64:Religion
298:Missing
295:Injured
96:Hinduism
323:Muslim
213:bhajans
200:Prelude
152:27,853
114:Sikhism
108:20.81%
90:67.85%
87:18,898
42:Muslims
710:
676:
668:
306:Hindu
272:Events
261:Sharia
238:Lahaul
226:bhajan
144:3.66%
141:1,020
126:7.68%
123:2,139
105:5,796
34:Hindus
674:S2CID
383:Notes
292:Dead
266:talaq
234:Kaaba
230:Jammu
155:100%
78:Islam
38:Sikhs
22:Kohat
708:ISBN
666:ISSN
538:2023
318:111
301:Net
195:Riot
184:ghat
36:and
16:The
658:doi
335:34
329:23
326:11
315:13
312:86
309:12
48:.
758::
722:^
686:^
672:.
664:.
652:.
546:^
332:0
251:om
191:.
28:,
716:.
680:.
660::
654:6
540:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
