ABSTRACT
The Calcutta Disturbances of August 1946 are counted among the most serious communal riots the Indian subcontinent has ever experienced. They began in the early morning of 16 August 1946, and continued for five days until 20 August. The rioting erupted as a violent confrontation between Muslims and Hindus, mobilized by the All-India Muslim League and the Indian National Congress, respectively; but, before long, a broad variety of social groups inhabiting the large colonial metropolis came to be involved in collective violence in one form or another. The contrast that existed between the actions taken by Martyn and by Suhrawardy during the Disturbances may be taken as an indication that the 'safeguards' worked after all to the benefit of the Indian people, since they enabled British high officials to deal with the violence firmly and efficiently, keeping partisan interference on the part of Indian politicians to a minimum.
