Partition of Bengal (1905)

The Bengal Presidency encompassed Bengal, Bihar, parts of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Assam.[4] With a population of 78.5 million it was British India's largest province.[5] For decades British officialdom had maintained that the huge size created difficulties in effective management[6][7] and had caused neglect of the poorer eastern region.[8] The idea of the partition had been brought up only for administrative reasons.[9] Therefore,[10] Curzon planned to split Orissa and Bihar and join fifteen eastern districts of Bengal with Assam. The eastern province held a population of 31 million, most of which was Muslim, with its centre at Dhaka.[11] Once the Partition was completed Curzon pointed out that he thought of the new province as Muslim.[12] Lord Curzon's intention was to divide Bengalis, not Hindus from Muslims.[13] The Western districts formed the other province with Orissa and Bihar.[14] The union of western Bengal with Orissa and Bihar reduced the speakers of the Bengali language to a minority.[15] Muslims led by the Nawab Sallimullah of Dhaka supported the partition and Hindus opposed it.[16]

The middle class of Bengal saw this as the rupture of their dear motherland as well as a tactic to diminish their authority.[17] In the six-month period before the partition was to be effected the Congress arranged meetings where petitions against the partition were collected and given to impassive authorities. Surendranath Banerjee had suggested that the non-Bengali states of Orissa and Bihar be separated from Bengal rather than dividing two parts of the Bengali speaking community, but Lord Curzon did not agree to this.[18] Banerjee admitted that the petitions were ineffective and as the date for the partition drew closer began advocating tougher approaches such as boycotting British goods. He preferred to label this move as "swadeshi" instead of boycott.[19] The boycott was led by the moderates but minor rebel groups also sprouted under its cause.[20]

Banerjee believed that other targets ought to be included. Government schools were spurned and on 16 October 1905, the day of partition, schools and shops were blockaded. The demonstrators were cleared off by units of the police and army. This was followed by violent confrontations, due to which the older leadership in the Congress became anxious and convinced the younger Congress members to stop boycotting the schools. The president of the Congress, G.K. Gokhale, Banerji and others stopped supporting the boycott when they found that John Morley had been appointed as Secretary of State for India. Believing that he would sympathise with the Indian middle class they trusted him and anticipated the reversal of the partition through his intervention.[21]

The partition triggered radical nationalism.

Bengali Hindus were upset with their minority status in the new province. They began an angry agitation freedom, featuring terrorism as younger members adopted the use bombings, shootings[22] and assassinations in a blend of religious and political feelings.[23] Vande Mataram (meaning 'I bow to thee Mother'), praising the goddess who represented Bengal & Kali was a rallying cry. Bengal was interpreted as the goddess which had been victimized by the British.[24] Although there were prominent Muslim speakers the Muslims were indifferent to the movement.[25] The British would have been spared from many complications had they not split Bengal. With each case of suppression, assertive nationalism increased in Bengal. Indian nationalism would have been more liberal in the absence of this partition.[26]

Nationalists all over India supported the Bengali cause and were shocked at the British disregard for opinion and ostensible divide and rule strategy. The protest spread to Bombay, Poona and Punjab. Lord Curzon had believed that the Congress was no longer an effective force but provided it with a cause to rally the public around and gain fresh strength from.[27] The partition also caused embarrassment to the Indian National Congress.[28] Gokhale had earlier met prominent British Liberals, hoping to obtain constitutional reforms for India.[29] The radicalization of Indian nationalism because of the partition would drastically lower the chances for the reforms. However, Gokhale successfully steered the more moderate approach in a Congress meeting and gained support for continuing talks with the government. In 1906 Gokhale again went to London to hold talks with Morley about the potential constitutional reforms. While the anticipation of the liberal nationalists increased in 1906 so did tensions in India. The moderates were challenged by the Congress meeting in Calcutta, which was in the middle of the radicalised Bengal.[30] The moderates countered this problem by bringing Dadabhai Naoroji to the meeting. He defended the moderates in the Calcutta session and thus the unity of the Congress was maintained. The 1907 Congress was to be held at Nagpur. The moderates were worried that the extremists would dominate the Nagpur session. The venue was shifted to the extremist free Surat. The resentful extremists flocked to the Surat meeting. There was an uproar and both factions held separate meetings. The extremists had Aurobindo and Tilak as leaders. They were isolated while the Congress was under the control of the moderates. The 1908 Congress Constitution formed the All-India Congress Committee, made up of elected members. Thronging the meetings would no longer work for the extremists.[31]

The authorities not able to end the protest, assented to reversing the partition and did so in 1911 .[32] King George announced in December 1911 that eastern Bengal would be assimilated into the Bengal Presidency.[33] Districts where Bengali was spoken were once again unified, and Assam, Bihar and Orissa were separated. The capital was shifted to New Delhi, clearly intended to provide the British Empire with a stronger base.[34] Muslims of Bengal were shocked because they had seen the Muslim majority East Bengal as an indicator of the government's enthusiasm for protecting Muslim interests. They saw this as the government compromising Muslim interests for Hindu appeasement and administrative ease.[35]

The partition had not initially been supported by Muslim leaders.[36] After the Muslim majority province of Eastern Bengal and Assam had been created prominent Muslims started seeing it as advantageous. Muslims, especially in Eastern Bengal, had been backward in the period of United Bengal. The Hindu protest against the partition was seen as interference in a Muslim province.[37] With the move of the capital to a Mughal site, the British tried to satisfy Bengali Muslims who were disappointed with losing hold of eastern Bengal.[38]

The uproar that had greeted Curzon's contentious move of splitting Bengal, as well as the emergence of the 'Extremist' faction in the Congress, became the final motive for separatist Muslim politics.[39] In 1909, separate elections were established for Muslims and Hindus. Before this, many members of both communities had advocated national solidarity of all Bengalis. With separate electorates, distinctive political communities developed, with their own political agendas. Muslims, too, dominated the Legislature, due to their overall numerical strength of roughly twenty two to twenty eight million. Muslims began to demand the creation of independent states for Muslims, where their interests will be protected.[40]

In 1947, Bengal was partitioned for the second time, solely on religious grounds, as part of the Partition of India following the formation of the nations India and Pakistan.[41] In 1955, East Bengal became East Pakistan, and in 1971 became the independent state of Bangladesh.[42]

• West Bengal
• Partition of Bengal (1947)

• David Ludden, (2013) India and South Asia: A Short History Oneworld Publications
• Burton Stein, (2010) A History of India, (2nd ed) Wiley-Blackwell
• Barbara Metcalf; Thomas Metcalf (2006). A Concise History of Modern India (2nd ed.) Cambridge University Press
• Hermanne Kulke; Dietmar Rothermund. A History of India (4th ed.) Routledge
• Ian Talbot; Gurharpal Singh (23 July 2009). The Partition of India Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85661-4
• Peter Hardy (7 December 1972). The Muslims of British India CUP Archive. ISBN 978-0-521-09783-3.
• Francis Robinson (1974). Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 1860–1923. Cambridge University Press.
• Ian Talbot (2016) A History of Modern South Asia: Politics, States, Diasporas Yale University Press
• Craig Baxter (1997) Bangladesh: from a nation to a state Westview Press

• Edwardes, Michael. High Noon of Empire: India under Curzon (1965)
• McLane, John R.. "The Decision to Partition Bengal in 1905," Indian Economic and Social History Review, July 1965, 2#3, pp. 221–237

• Ahmed, Sufia (2012). "Partition of Bengal, 1905". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.