Title PARTITION: Tape 75 TAPE 75 Writer 255MODEM Mod Date & Time 255MODEM Apr 25 15:23 Side A Gopal 'Patha' MUKHERJEE - continued 8 > ... (development of riot on evening of 16th) 45 > the next day, M groups from other area came in big processions and entered this park [Wellington Sq] ... that time I had two American pistols with me, loaded 115 > ... 146 > ... (re the murder of Hiren Ghose, and alleged involvement of Suhrawardy) 21S > ... 25C > of course, it was a v critical time for the co; we thought that the co had to be saved; we thought if the whole area becomes Pak, there'll be more torture and more repression, so i called all my boys and sd this is the time when we have to retaliate, and you have to answer brutality with brutality, so if you come to know that one murder has taken place, you commit 10 murders ... the ration sd be 1 to 10, that was the order to my boys [NA translation OK] ** 271 > [so how many murders?] it's v diff't cos we didn't keep any score, I gave them that order, so basically] they were carryong out my order (and about 3/4 of own boys killed) 288 > [how did you kill?] basically people used all sorts of weapons, they had small knives, big choppers and sticks and rods, guns, pistols, we secured some weapons during the 42 movement ... during WW2 the Am army was also in Calcutta, the negros were here, and if you paid them 250 Rs they wd give you one pistol and 100 catridges, if you buy then one bottle of whisky, they wd give you 1 pistol and 100 cartridges, that way we secured all these weapons ... *** 310 > [who wre you killing?] the rioters we were fighting with who attacked us , but why sd we kill an ordinary rickshaw wala or hawker, they were not part of the politics ... basically people who attacked us ... we fought them and killed them ... we prepared some country bombs, we'd also secured some grenades from the Am army ... to camouflage myself [from the police] I grew a beard and long hair 330 > (had a meat shop, that's why known as 'pata' or goat) 336 > (gave strict orders to boys not to misbhave with women, and notn to loot) 345 > . . . 357 > yes, if you like you can call it an army, but we were all in plin clothes .. and we had secured some arms and e/body knew we had some arms ... 365 > it's not a qn of pride, it;s basically duty; but I thought I had to help the people in distress 371 > ... some of my boys even attemped to kill S;dy ... 390 > ... [translated on next side] Title Writer Mod Date & Time St PARTITION: Tape 76 255MODEM 255MODEM Apr 25 17:13 R* TAPE 76 Jolly Mohan KAUL a Kashmiri Pandit by origin; 75; was active in Kidapur (port) area of city in 46 - sec of Port Trust Employees Assn, then one of largest TUs in Cal, and mbr of district cttee of CPI; in CPI till early 60s; was in a CP-dominated TU march to the Maidan on Direct Action day - spent the evening in a Muslim basti, hiding out in a TU office: interviewed at flat in Calcutta, 26 April 1997 187 > background to direct action day - and landmark genl strike of 29 July 46 in support of postal workers 218 - 'when the call by the ML for the 16th Aug Direct Action Day came, we found ourselves in a diff't sitn; it is not correct to say ... we supp'd or had even indiretc sympathy with that DA day call; we were comp opposed to it, we knew it was highly disrutpive and provocative ... we felt it was comp wrong to use that kind of tactics rto get Pak' 232 - 'the prob before us was, take a place like port, let's make it abs concrete, where def more than 60% of the workers were M, a v large % from e Bengal ... the dilemma that faced us was that we knew that as far as the call from the ML for direct action day was concerned, it wd evoke response from the M workers; if the H workers resisted that - crane is being oprated the driver may have been a M, but his helper a H, ... if the crane driver wants to go on strike, and his helper doesn't want to go on strike, there can be a clash, a fight' 255 - 'we came to a v deliberate concn that the only way to maintain the TU solidarity of the w/c, to prevent physical clashes ... wd be to go along with the strike, and therefore we decided in the port, and I bel the same decn was taken in the tram union also, and gen by the party, that where there are mixed section of Hs and Ms, we'll all go on strike' 266 - 'we even decided we will march together to the Maidan,# where the mtg was going to take place, I was there marching, we were hoping that as a result of this we wd be able to maintain the unity of the w/c ...' 274 - 'we got to the Maidan, but by the time we reached the M'n we realised that the riots had broken out, we found dead bodies on the way, so we imm folded up our flags and told the workers, let's march back: let us try and see if we can save our locality at least from the riots' 285 - 'I think our tactics did pay off; we kept the port and dock workers ... the org'd TU m'ment in Cal was able to ... maintain the bsolidarity of the H and M workers' (as proven by support for later strikes) 320 - [Gt Cal Killing] 'they were not spon riots; later on, when the frenzy was roused, there was spon killing, but there was no atmos of riots in Cal ... do you think I wd have risked H workers in a ML rally if I though we'd not been able to control the riots;' 328 - 'cert the ML l'ship here was involved, no doubt about it ... and cd have hatched this cons'ey with the officials here, who were mainly British' 339 > re spill over to Noakhali 369 > CP's confusions over policy to Pak, and criticism of it from within to 391 - ENDS