ABSTRACT
At twenty past ten on the cold winter night of 21 December 1942, the air-raid sirens suddenly rent the air. The people of Calcutta were not altogether unprepared, for they had been expecting something dramatic to happen for quite some time. Exactly after twenty-eight minutes, however, their worst fears were confirmed: Calcutta was being bombed by Japanese aircrafts. War rumours recorded by the Calcutta Police can be divided into two basic categories. The first group of rumours arose from the fear of civil evacuation and adoption of a scorched-earth policy that was allegedly to be pursued by the colonial administration. The second category of rumours dealt with themes of racism intrinsic to British rule shamelessly exhibited even at the peak of its war-induced vulnerability, its inability and unwillingness to protect the interest of its colonial subjects, and even the desirability of Japanese occupation that could, in fact, emancipate India from the clutches of British imperial dominance.
