The Noakhali riots of 1946 were large-scale communal massacres of Hindus in British Bengal, prompting Gandhi's four-month peace mission and accelerating partition discussions.
Key Facts
- Start date
- 10 October 1946
- Duration of initial violence
- Approximately one week
- Hindus marooned
- Around 50,000 people
- Area affected
- More than 2,000 square miles sq miles
- Gandhi's stay
- Four months in Noakhali district
- Districts affected
- Noakhali and Tipperah (11 police station areas)
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Rising communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims in British Bengal in the lead-up to Indian independence, combined with political agitation and the mobilisation of Muslim radical groups, created conditions for organised violence. The timing on the Hindu festival of Kojagari Lakshmi Puja on 10 October 1946 was deliberate, targeting the Hindu population at a moment of religious observance.
Muslim mobs carried out semi-organised massacres, rapes, abductions, looting, and arson against Hindu communities across more than 2,000 square miles in the Noakhali and Tipperah districts of eastern British Bengal from October to November 1946. Approximately 50,000 Hindus were left trapped and subjugated in the affected areas under radical control for an extended period.
Mahatma Gandhi spent four months in Noakhali attempting to restore communal peace, but the Indian National Congress eventually accepted the Partition of India and relief efforts were abandoned. The majority of Hindu survivors fled to West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam, contributing to one of the largest forced demographic displacements of the partition era.