We Indians have been taught about Partition of Bengal, बंग-भंग (Hindi) or বঙ্গ-ভঙ্গ (Bengali), in some detail, as a watershed moment in the Indian freedom movement. The Swadeshi movement that followed the episode of Partition of Bengal is often considered an important movement which brought storm against the British Raj. It is also highlighted how the Bengali intelligentsia galvanized people’s resentment against the British and forced the British to revert their decision.
I am among those who believe that this episode in our nation’s history deserves more attention than what the authors, thinkers, political analysts and all sorts of public personalities have given in recent decades. This becomes specially relevant in a time when India government faced flak from a lot of public figures for taking legal measures to provide relief to the worst victims of the 1947 partition by amending the 1955 citizenship act.
In contemporary India, we understand “Partition of Bengal” as a decision based on the divide and rule policy of the British. We also kind of happen to agree that this decision was made to punish the Bengali Hindu elite which had been at the forefront of Indian freedom movement back in those days. However, our understanding of this event has been mostly one-sided and limited in many ways.
Looking back in history, I find that the Partition of Bengal created the bedrock of the communal politics that India built its political constructions upon in the following decades. The establishment of Muslim league, 1920’s Khalifat Movement, Arrangement of separate electorate for Muslims, Government of India Act of 1935 and finally, the partition of India- all these events are the different fruits of the tree that was planted as a sapling in the form of Partition of Bengal. Our understanding of the political culture of India and the Indian subcontinent will remain limited without fully understanding the reasons and the outcomes of this seminal event of Partition of Bengal.
In the following few paragraphs, I have summarized the political, the linguistic and the religious reality of the original Bengal province of British India during its partition in 1905. It would be interesting to see how things have changed since then. Aim of this post is to give you an idea of the lay of the land on which we will discuss the problem that will finally lead to the partition of India almost a forty years later. In later posts I will walk you through the entire story of Partition.
Most of the information put up here has been sourced from various online sources including Wikipedia. I have also included a map of the Bengal Province, sourced from Wikipedia, which shows the partition plan. I have not shied away from giving out my opinion wherever I felt it was necessary. Please feel free to ask questions.
First partition of the Bengal province of British India, commonly known as “Partition of Bengal” or “Banga-Bhanga”, was orchestrated by the then viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, in 1905. The reason that the British lord gave for this decision was apparently to create two administratively manageable smaller provinces out of the large and unmanageable Bengal Province.
In those days, Bengal Province was huge. It comprised of the entirety of the modern Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Meghalaya, and parts of Odisha and Chhattisgarh as well as the entirety of today’s Bangladesh. Calcutta (today’s Kolkata) was the provincial capital as well as the national capital.
The Bengal province had 11 distinct divisions which were administered directly by the British. Apart from the British administered divisions, there were numerous princely states which were governed by one of the neighboring divisions through a resident officer.
Linguistically, Bengal Province was diverse. While the centrally located divisions of Burdwan, Presidency, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Dacca were majority Bengali speaking; all other divisions had Bengali speakers only in minority. Patna, Bhagalpur and Chhotanagpur divisions, despite being populated by speakers of variety of different languages, had Hindi as the language of instruction in majority of the districts. Manbhum and Singhbhum districts of the Chhotanagpur division had sizeable Bengali and Odia speakers respectively, and hence these languages were promoted as languages of instruction in schools in these districts. Orissa division, located in the southwest of the province, had Odia as the primary language. The eastern flanks of the Bengal province comprised of the Assam Valley division, and the Surma Valley and Hill Districts division. Assamese was promoted as the primary language of instruction in the districts of Assam Valley. In Surma Valley and Hill Districts division, only Sylhet district was Bengali majority with all other districts being populated by ethnically and linguistically diverse numerous tribal groups. Hence, Bengali was used only in Sylhet district in this division.
Religion was another important marker of identity in the Bengal Province. In those days, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were counted separately from Hindus. The original religious/spiritual practices of these identity groups were essentially Indian. Hence, for the sake of this essay, I am considering Hindu, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe as one group, and calling it as Indian Religion (IR). Another major religious identity in the Bengal province was Islam. Christianity was not a prevalent religion in any part of the Bengal Province in those days. Patna, Bhagalpur, Presidency, Burdwan, Chhotanagpur, Orissa and Assam Valley were all predominantly Indian Religion (IR) majority. East-central divisions of the Bengal province- Rajshahi, Dacca and Chittagong; were Muslim majority with a sizeable Hindu minority. Assam Valley was IR majority with a sizeable Muslim minority. In Surma Valley and Hill Districts division, Sylhet was Muslim majority with sizeable IR minority. Whereas each of the Hill Districts were overwhelmingly IR majority.
Two distinct provinces were carved out of the original Bengal province- (1.) Predominantly IR majority Bengal province comprised of six western divisions with capital in Calcutta (today’s Kolkata) and (2.) Muslim majority with sizeable IR minority Eastern Bengal and Assam province comprised of the five eastern divisions with capital in Dacca (today’s Dhaka).
Although the British justified this division as one intended for better management of the huge Bengal province, it was a ploy to divide Bengali speaking region of the province based on the religion. The attitude of the Bengali Hindus and the Bengali Muslims towards this division was starkly different. Bengali Hindus saw this as weakening of their hegemony. Whereas the Bengali Muslims saw this as an opportunity to grow into a new elite in the Eastern Bengal region. Bengali Hindus protested this decision and called for abrogation of this bizarre partition. Whereas Bengali Muslims were consolidating power in the newly formed Eastern Bengal and Assam province. This followed up with establishment of Muslim League in Dacca in 1906. The role of the old Muslim elite of Dacca was very crucial in establishment of the Muslim League. Severe protest by the Bengali Hindu leaders and the general public compelled the British to abrogate the partition in 1912.
Corrigendum: Assam valley, Surma Valley and hill districts, these was not part of Bengal Province before partition during 1905
PS: Exercise caution while reading the shared map. This map published in the Wikipedia article shows the North Eastern Frontier Agency (NEFA) of British India as part of China. In reality, NEFA was controlled by the British and later it became sovereign territory of independent India. Later NEFA got recognized as a state within India- Arunachal Pradesh.
Image link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_Bengal_(1905)#/media/File:BengalPartition1905_Map.png
*Author is Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Notre Dame