Topic: Partition of Bengal (October 16, 1905) the plans, real motives and course

Question : Briefly discuss the partition of Bengal?

Answer:

The idea of partition of Bengal was quite an old one. Bengal as truly too big to be governed by a Lieutenant Governor without the aid of an Executive Council. As early as 1868 territorial realignments were being discussed and such considerations finally led to separation of Assam from Bengal in 1874, which was placed under a Chief Commissioner. The province of Bengal now comprised of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Chhotanagpur. Then again in 1892-96 plans were being made to transfer to Assam either whole of the Chittagong Division or Chittagong district. By making Assam bigger in size its administration would have improved. Its small size meant that Assam did not have a separate cadre of Indian Civil Service officers. And Bengal was too big and too populated to be governed effectively. In 1903 Sir Andrew Fraser became the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal and suggested that along with the Chittagong Division two districts of Dacca Division-Dacca and Mymensingh should also be transferred to Assam. Lord Curzon forwarded this idea.

On December 3, 1903, Lord Curzon announced the scheme of territorial redistribution which came into effect on October 16, 1905. The following were the territorial realignments:

The Plan: - The new province of Assam would consist of the state of Tripura, the Division of Chittagong, Dacca, Mymensingh (Both were the districts of the Dacca Division). Later more of its districts- Bakharganj, Faridpur, Rajshahi (excluding Darjeeling), Malda, Dinajpur, Bogra, and Jalpaiguri (along with the state of Cooch Bihar) were added to Assam.

Bengal was to surrender not only these large eastern territories but also to cede to the Central Provinces the five Hindi-speaking states.

On the western side, Bengal was offered Sambalpur and five minor Oriya speaking states from the Central Provinces. Bengal with its capital Calcutta would be left with an area of 141,580 sq. miles and population of 54 million, of which 42 million would be Hindus and 9 million Muslims. After the realignment the Bengali Hindus would be in minority as they would be outnumbered by the Hindi and Oriya speaking populace. This was one of the reasons that led to opposition to the scheme of partition. Also, such a scheme would affect the socio-cultural solidarity of the Bengali-speaking people.

The new province was named Eastern Bengal and Assam with Dacca as its capital. Its population was of 31 million, where 18 million would be Muslims and 12 million Hindus. Here the Bengali Hindus would be in minority. The Partition clearly divided the regions on the basis of religious identities Hindu and Muslims.

The plans for the partition became public in December 1903 and were met by agitations almost overnight. Since most of the initial agitations were by Bengali Hindus, Lord Curzon started courting the Muslims for garnering the support for the partition. The increasing frustration of the Extremists with the Moderates who could not put up an effective protest against the partition was responsible for bringing the neo-nationalists. They were more successful in generating responses from the masses because of their composition and methodology.

But under Lord Curzon, the Partition of Bengal had political motives which were not related with the efficiency of the administration.

Real Motives: In Lord Curzon’s own words- ‘to split up and thereby weaken a solid body of opponents to the British rule.’ ‘Calcutta is the center from which Congress party is manipulated throughout the-whole of Bengal and indeed whole of India.’ In short, the partition would have led to a rupture in the development of national and political consciousness which till now was focused around Bengal and radiated outwards from there.

Why was the partition attractive for so many Muslims? The East of Bengal, famous for its hierarchy of tenure was dominated by majority of Muslim poor peasants and rich upper class Hindu landholders. As the protests rose, the colonial state in order to garner support started claiming that the partition would result in Muslim majority in East Bengal and thus the partition was favourable for the Muslims. Also, Curzon gained the support of Nawab Salimulla of Dacca (a leading zamindar) by promising him a large government loan on good-terms.

Course- The Announcement of- the partition - created mass unrest and agitation across Bengal. The neo-nationalists were at the forefront of the agitation. Petitions, memoranda, speeches and public meetings were the main methods of protesting. The moderates’ peaceful methods were no longer sufficient.

Zamindars, lawyers, merchants, students, common people, and even women came forward to protest the partition. Bamkin Chandra’s song ‘Vande Matram’ became the national song of Bengal most overnight. Some Muslims too opposed the partition but majority of them, were later influenced by the idea of Muslim majority. In 1906 the Muslim League was formed in Dacca where the Nawab Salimulla played an important role. The League worked for the partition.

Parallel to this was the rise in the influence of the neo-nationalists Bipan Chandra Pal, Aurobindo Ghosh openly promoted anti-partition movement.

When it became evident that peaceful methods of petition (first phase), and speeches, etc were be unable to prevent the Partition, the need for more effective methods of protests was felt. The British interests had to be hurt in order to bring to their notice the seriousness of the protest against the partition. This need led to BOYCOTT-CUM-SWADESHI Movement which was started after a meeting in Calcutta on August 7, 1905 in reaction to the partition of Bengal. The partition was carried out on 16 October 1905.

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