Background

• The Bengal Presidency included the states of Bengal, Bihar, and parts of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, and Assam. It was British India’s largest province, with a population of 78.5 million people.
• For decades, British officials claimed that the massive size made effective management difficult and resulted in neglect of the poorer eastern region. The partition had been proposed solely for administrative purposes.
• As a result, Curzon intended to divide Orissa and Bihar and unite fifteen eastern districts of Bengal with Assam.
• The eastern province had a population of 31 million people, the majority of whom were Muslims, and its capital was Dhaka. Curzon stated after the Partition that he considered the new province to be Muslim.
• Lord Curzon’s intention was not to separate Hindus and Muslims, but rather to separate Bengalis.
• The Western districts, along with Orissa and Bihar, formed the other province.
• The union of western Bengal with Orissa and Bihar reduced Bengali speakers to a minority.
• Muslims, led by Dhaka’s Nawab Sallimullah, supported partition, while Hindus opposed it.

Features

• The British Government decided to partition Bengal in December 1903. Lord Curzon was the viceroy of India at that time who made this decision.
• Bengal was divided into two provinces:
  • First was Bengal comprising of Western Bengal as well as the provinces of Bihar and Orissa.
  • The second was Eastern Bengal and Assam.
• Bengal retained Calcutta as its capital while Dacca was chosen as the capital for Eastern Bengal.
• The real motive of partition was the desire to weaken Bengal which was at the center of Indian Nationalism in the early 20th century.
• The official reason given for the decision of partition was that Bengal with a population of 78 million had become difficult to administer.
• The administrative division was on the basis of:
  • Linguistic Basis: Reducing the Bengalis to a minority in Bengal itself. The new proposal of Bengal was provisioned to have 17 million Bengalis and 37 million Hindi and Oriya speakers.
  • Religion Basis: The western Bengal was to be a Hindu majority area and the Eastern Bengal was to be a Muslim majority area.
• Lord Curzon was trying to woo Muslims. He argues that Dacca could become the capital of the new Muslim majority province which would provide them with unity.
• Thus, the British wanted to create Muslim communalists to counter the Congress and national movement.

Impact

• After Curzon announced the partition, there was widespread political unrest in the province. Many Bengalis saw the partition as an insult to their motherland. There was a huge outpouring of support for Bengal’s unity.
• Rabindranath Tagore wrote the famous song ‘Amar Sonar Bangla,’ which later became Bangladesh’s national anthem.
• The Indian National Congress objected to the move to divide the province along communal lines.
• The majority of Bengalis in the western part of the province protested this move, which would also make them a linguistic minority in their own province. There would be more people speaking Odia and Hindi than Bengalis.
• Many Muslims in the Bengali Muslim community welcomed the move, believing that becoming the majority in the new province would advance their educational, economic, and political interests.
• The rest of the country was united in its opposition to this partition. The British authorities’ ‘divide and rule’ policy was exposed by the people.
• The main goal of such a partition was to create a schism between the two communities, thereby undermining the country’s unity and nationalism.
• The agitation had begun long before the date of the partition. People observed a day of mourning on the anniversary of the partition. Tagore asked Hindus and Muslims to protest by tying rakhis to each other.
• As a result of the partition, the Swadeshi and Boycott movements in the national struggle began.
• People began boycotting British goods, which had flooded the Indian market and harmed indigenous industry.
• The partition succeeded in causing a communal schism in the country and even aided in the formation of the Muslim League in 1906.

Annulment

• The partition was declared unconstitutional in 1911 as a result of widespread political protests.
• New provinces were established along linguistic rather than religious lines. Bengal was divided into the provinces of Bihar and Orissa. Assam was separated into its own province.
• The authorities, unable to put an end to the protests, agreed to reverse the partition.
• On December 12, 1911, King George V announced at the Delhi Durbar that eastern Bengal would be absorbed into the Bengal Presidency.
• Districts where Bengali was spoken were reunited, while Assam, Bihar, and Orissa were divided.
• Lord Hardinge annulled the partition of Bengal in 1911. It was done in response to the Swadeshi movement’s riots against the policy.
• The capital was moved to New Delhi, clearly to provide a stronger base for the British colonial government.
• Bengal’s Muslims were shocked because they had seen the Muslim majority East Bengal as a sign of the government’s eagerness to protect Muslim interests.
• They saw this as the government sacrificing Muslim interests in order to appease Hindus and make administrative life easier.
• Muslim leaders were initially opposed to the partition. After the creation of the Muslim-majority provinces of Eastern Bengal and Assam, prominent Muslims began to see it as advantageous.
• During the United Bengal period, Muslims, particularly in Eastern Bengal, were backward. The Hindu protest against partition was interpreted as meddling in a Muslim province.
• The British attempted to appease Bengali Muslims who were dissatisfied with the loss of eastern Bengal by relocating the capital to a Mughal site.
• Despite the annulment, the partition did not create a communal divide between Bengal’s Hindus and Muslims.