Communal Riots in Bengal, 1905 to 1947

Suranjan Das's academic study traces the pattern of Hindu Muslim communal violence in Bengal from 1905 to 1947, distinguishing what he calls elite communalism, organized political mobilization along religious lines, from mass communalism, the participation of ordinary people in riot violence once it began, and arguing that Bengal's communal riots were driven by contests over political power and economic resources given religious form rather than by religious doctrine itself. The book includes substantial treatment of the chain of communal violence that ran through 1946, from the Great Calcutta Killings in August through the Noakhali and Tippera riots in October and the retaliatory Bihar riots that followed in November.