India, March 7 -- The Great Calcutta Killing of August 1946 took a toll of 30,000 men, women and children. The fighting that followed thereafter, consumed more than a million lives. And yet, the conflict has never been described as a war, but as communal riots.

Is not a riot a civil war, which is a non-international armed conflict? One could also call it an internal conflict. Take the riot in Northeast Delhi towards the end of February, wherein pistols and guns were freely used; albeit the weapons were mostly country-made. Victims suffered bullet wounds almost by the hundred. Many an establishment was the target of arson and several places appeared as if bombed from the air, although perhaps they were not.

In the days bygone, the use o...