THE Calcutta riots have brought out one important fact prominently for the consideration of both the Government and the general public. That is the citizens’ claim to exercise their right of defending against attacks during riots and to form necessary organisations with this object. It will be remembered that at the commencement of rioting in Calcutta, JM Sengupta, the Mayor, finding the police ineffective to prevent riots, offered to send citizen volunteers to assist the police and protect the public. This suggestion was made to the Police Commissioner, JE Armstrong, at a very early stage of rioting, but for inexplicable reasons it was not approved. Subsequently, the Police Commissioner thought better of the proposal and wrote to Sengupta to organise a body of Hindu and Moslem volunteers who would be enrolled as special constables and ordered to patrol in affected localities and exercise police functions in suppressing riots. But it appears that Sengupta objected to the volunteers being asked to enrol as special constables, which role was very unpopular, and thus the suggested scheme fell through and nothing was done in the matter. It is a matter of deep regret that this extremely useful suggestion was not adopted at a time of great emergency in Calcutta. Forward publishes the correspondence that passed on this matter between the Police Commissioner and the Mayor. This correspondence shows that the idea of employing volunteers was made at the “beginning of the riots”, that the volunteers should be drawn from both communities and that they should work in close cooperation with each other for the purpose of preventing attacks on temples and mosques.
