Proposal and Act of Partition

The government officially published the idea of Partition in Bengal in January 1904, justifying
the move on administrative grounds. The province was deemed too large, and proper care needed
to be taken of the Eastern regions, which had suffered in the past from poor communication with
the hub of Kolkata and surrounding West Bengal.

The new province created was to be called 'Eastern Bengal and Assam', with its capital in Dhaka.
It would consist of the state of Hill Tripura, the Divisions of Chittagong, Dhaka and Rajshahi
(excluding Darjeeling) and the district of Malda amalgamated with Assam. Bengal, having had
an area of 189,000 sq miles and a population of 78.5 million, was to be reduced to an area of
141,580 sq. miles and a population of 54 million. The new province was not only to have clearly
defined geographical boundaries, but also a prescribed demographic, with particular linguistic,
religious, and ethnological characteristics. Most importantly, 'Eastern Bengal and Assam' would
give the Bengali Muslim population, hitherto a minority, a separate province in which they could
thrive as the majority religion.

The Partition of Bengal was duly affected on 16 October 1905.

Reaction and Growth of Sectarianism

The Partition movement was strongly opposed from the beginning by the Bengali Hindu middle-
class, who felt it was a deliberate blow by the British against the solidarity of the Bengali-
speaking population. They believed the British government was fostering a strong Muslim nation
in order to keep within check the rapidly growing Hindu power in the West.

This period saw the growth of the Indian National Congress, who condemned the Partition as a
thinly veiled attempt at British 'divide and rule'. The Congress grew from a middle-class pressure
group to become the main platform for a nation-wide nationalist movement centred on the goals
of Swaraj (self government) and Swadeshi (boycotting the import of British manufactured
goods).

The majority of Muslims, at first distrustful of the Partition, were consequently won over to the
proposition of the 'Eastern and Assam' state, which - they were assured by the British authorities
- would focus directly on the needs of their people. The Swaraj and Swadeshi movements were
duly opposed by the majority of Bengali Muslims as means to secure a prevention of the
partition, and the rallying cries of a movement that was defining itself through Hindu militarism
and religious fervour.

Height of Sectarianism
Anti-partition agitation, initially peaceful and constitutional, developed into a movement with an
active terrorist wing, and in 1907 the Indian National Congress split into two groups - a moderate
wing and an extremist militant party headed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and his 'cult of the bomb
and gun'.

The Muslim community was pushed into developing their own communal stance, supported by
the Mohammedan Provincial Union (founded in 1905) and All India Muslim League (1906).

Terrorist activity, from both Muslims and Hindu groups, reached its peak in 1910-1911.

End of Partition

On 1st April 1912 the British government formally annulled the Partition of Bengal, as a reaction
to the increasingly uncontrollable sectarian violence.

Aftermath

The Partition of Bengal marks a turning point for nationalism in India. From one point of view
the disastrous experiment of 'Eastern Bengal and Assam' may have served to fortify Bengali
solidarity. However, giving Muslims a territorial identity inevitably lead to the growth of
separatist Muslim politics, as well as encouraging a newly virulent strain of Indian Hindu
nationalism.

Read more at Suite101: Partition of Bengal 1905: History of the Partition of Bengal Under
British Rule, 1905 to 1911. http://indian-
history.suite101.com/article.cfm/partition_of_bengal_1905#ixzz0g0PUHY7Q