April 1926 had witnessed severe riots in Calcutta. In an article titled ‘The Calcutta Riot’, which was published in Documents of the History of the Communist Party of India and dated April 22, 1926, M.N. Roy, one of the founders of the party, writes of the role of the colonial powers and class in creating the communal problem.
“The Calcutta event has its special reasons. It is a part of a plan carefully laid down by the government to break up the Swaraj Party, which, in the province of Bengal, is under certain revolutionary influence. In Bengal the two communities are nearly balanced… A pact between the Hindus and Muslims led to the return of a Swarajist majority in the last Parliamentary election,” writes Roy.
“The agitation for the organisation of a Muslim party, obviously under official inspiration, strengthened the hands of the reactionary Hindu leaders, who are ever ready for an anti-Muslim campaign. There are a thousand and one pretences on which the slum proletariat in large cities like Calcutta can be incited into a street brawl. A few bottles of alcohol and pieces of silver can always work miracles. That is how the bloody riot of Calcutta, the news of which has been flashed all over the world by Reuter as a proof of Indian’s incapacity to govern himself, was engineered.”
