In the long, tumultuous history of India’s path to independence, some episodes stand out for the sheer intensity of human suffering they reveal. One such chapter is the Noakhali riots of 1946, a tragedy that exposed the raw fault lines between communities in Bengal on the eve of Partition. Nearly three-quarters of a century later, the incident continues to attract international attention. On 2 October 2019, BBC News Bangla revisited this dark chapter in a report titled “Gandhi in Noakhali: The Bloody Chapter of a Communal Massacre”, highlighting the horrors of the time and Gandhi’s courageous intervention. By mid-1946, undivided Bengal was a tinderbox.

The Great Calcutta Killings of 16 August 1946 had claimed nearly 4,000 lives, leaving over 100,000 homeless, and the aftershocks rippled a

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