"On the 24th (October 1946) Diwali was to be celebrated by the Hindus as ‘“‘Dark’”? Diwali, a mourning day, in sympathy with the sufferers in Bengal. In Chapra a local Muslim leader exhorted his followers to ‘rejoice’ by illuminating their houses. On the 25th when a meeting was held by the Hindus to protest against the happenings in Bengal, riots broke out’ in all their intensity and ferocity and raged for five days... 76 ‘Communal tension had been growing for some time past. The Muslim League, infuriated at the success of the Congress Ministry, had let loose- insidious propaganda of ‘atrocities’ committed on the Muslim minority in the Congress- governed provinces. They also published a mendacious report called the ‘Pirpur Report’ which helped to inflame the sentiments of both Hindus and Muslims. “Also, during the ‘Quit India’ movement there was a great upheaval in Bihar. At that time the attitude of the Muslim League was such that the general opinion was that it stood as a ‘barrier to the freedom struggle.’ This had made the Muslims unpopular. “ “In Calcutta riots, as we have seen, at first the Muslims had the upper hand. The labouring class of Hindus from Bihar had greatly suffered at the hands of Muslim rioters. They brought with them harrowing accounts of their experience. This excited the anger of the Hindus. At this time a pamphlet purporting to have been issued by some League leader was distributed in Bihar. It contained instructions ‘to kill the Hindus,’ Hindus believed that the Muslims were planning some mischief in Bihar. On top of this, an unfortunate incident occurred in Muzaffarpur towards the end of September. It was reported that a Hindu girl abducted from Calcutta was brought to Bihar and kept confined in the house of a local Muslim, The Hindus tried to persuade him to release the girl. Failing in this, the crowd went to search the house. But they found that the man had disappeared along with the girl. At this the crowd lost control and wreaked vengeance on the local Muslims by looting and burning their houses and killing some of them, So far as the League Government in Bengalwas concerned, it had helped the Muslim rioters. It roused itself only when the Hindus took action on their own. In Bihar the Hindus being in the majority did not wait to be attacked by the Muslims.’’ “The Viceroy no more prevented the Central Government from acting on the plea of provincial autonomy... When we re- buked the people for what they had done they did fee] ashamed. The police repeatedly resorted to firing to quell the rioting .... Those who raided Muslim houses were not accompanied by sadhus and sannyasis; they were not fighting a jihad as the Muslims were doing in Calcutta, Noakhali and in the North. It was collective revenge coupled with the apprehension that if they did not take the offensive there would be no protection for them.... While the Hindus in Noakhali would not get encouragement from Gandhiji’s visit to return to their homes, the same cannot be said of the Muslims in Bihar... At Gandhiji’s suggestion, at many places the Hindus went to the camps and brought back Muslims to their village homes. Hindus contributed funds to the the rehabilitation of Muslim refugees. Hindu women donated their ornaments to Gandhiji for the purpose and fed and looked after Muslims, “The work of relief and rehabilitation that was going on was now placed under a Muslim Minister, Abdul Qayum Ansari, Gandhiji’s work was, however, made difficult by the attitude of the Muslim League workers. The Government of Bihar, as a gesture of goodwill, had handed over the camps to be run by the volunteers of the League. Soon the camps became the hot-beds of intrigue, and the work of rehabilitation was hampered greatly as they prevailed upon the refugees not to go back to their homes. The Muslim League Ministry of Bengal also did all in its power to prevent the Muslim refugees from returning to their homes in Bihar. They wanted to draw as large a number of Bihari refugees as possible to Bengal in order to settle them in the bordering districts where the Hindus were in a majority.’’"