The Partition of Bengal in 1947:
The Partition of Bengal in 1947, part of the Partition of India,
divided the British Indian province of Bengal based on the Radcliffe Line
between India and Pakistan. Predominantly Hindu West Bengal became a state of India,
and predominantly Muslim East Bengal (now Bangladesh) became a province of
Pakistan.
On 20 June 1947, the Bengal Legislative Assembly met to decide the
future of the Bengal Presidency, on whether it would be a United Bengal within
India or Pakistan; or be divided into East and West Bengal. At the preliminary
joint session, the assembly decided by 120 votes to 90 that it should remain
united if it joined the new Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. Later, a separate
meeting of legislators from West Bengal decided by 58 votes to 21 that the
province should be partitioned and that West Bengal should join the existing
Constituent Assembly of India. In another separate meeting of legislators from
East Bengal, it was decided by 106 votes to 35 that the province should not be
partitioned and 107 votes to 34 that East Bengal should join Pakistan in the
event of partition.
On 6 July 1947, the Sylhet referendum decided to sever Sylhet from
Assam and merge it into East Bengal.
The partition, with the power transferred to Pakistan and India on
14–15 August 1947, was done according to what has come to be known as the
"3 June Plan" or "Mountbatten Plan". India's independence
on 15 August 1947 ended over 150 years of British influence in the Indian subcontinent.
East Bengal later became the independent country of Bangladesh after the 1971.
United Bengal plan:
After it became apparent that the division of India on the basis of
the two-nation theory would almost certainly result in the partition of the
Bengal province along religious lines, the Bengal provincial Muslim League
leader Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy came up with a new plan to create an
independent Bengal state that would join neither Pakistan nor India and remain
unpartitioned. Suhrawardy realised that if Bengal was partitioned, it would be
economically disastrous for East Bengal[4] as all coal mines, all jute mills
but two and other industrial plants would certainly go to the western part
since they were in an overwhelmingly-Hindu area. Most importantly, Calcutta,
then the largest city in India, an industrial and commercial hub and the
largest port, would also go to the western part. Suhrawardy floated his idea on
24 April 1947 at a press conference in Delhi.
However, the plan directly ran counter to that of the Muslim
League's, which demanded the creation of a separate Muslim homeland on the
basis of the two-nation theory. The Bengal provincial Muslim League leadership
opinion was divided. The leader Abul Hashim supported it. On the other hand,
Nurul Amin and Mohammad Akram Khan opposed it. However, Muhammad Ali Jinnah
realised the validity of Suhrawardy's argument and gave his tacit support to
the plan. After Jinnah's approval, Suhrawardy started gathering support for his
plan.
For the Congress, only a handful of leaders agreed to the plan,
such as the influential Bengal provincial Congress leader Sarat Chandra Bose,
the elder brother of Netaji and Kiran Shankar Roy. However, most other leaders
and Congress leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel,
rejected the plan. The nationalist Hindu Mahasabha, under the leadership of
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, vehemently opposed it. Its opinion was that the plan
is nothing but a ploy by Suhrawardy to stop the partition of the state so that
the industrial western part including the city of Kolkata would remain under
League control. It also claimed that even though the plan asked for a sovereign
Bengal state, it would be a virtual Pakistan, and the Hindu minority would
always be at the mercy of the Muslim majority.
Although the chance of the proposal seeing light without the
Congress central committee's approval was slim, Bose and Suhrawardy continued
talks to reach an agreement on the political structure of the proposed state.
Like Suhrawardy, Bose also felt that the partition would severely hamper
Bengal's economy, and almost half of the Hindus would be left stranded in East
Pakistan. The agreement was published on 24 May 1947 but was largely a
political agreement. The proposal had hardly any support at grassroots level,
particularly among Hindus. The Muslim League's continuous propaganda for the
two-nation theory during the past six years, as well as the marginalisation of
Hindus in the Suhrawardy ministry and the vicious 1946 riots, which many Hindus
believed had been sponsored by the state, left little room for trust in Muslim
League by Bengali Hindus. Soon, Bose and Suhrawardy were divided on the nature
of the electorate: separate or joint. Suhrawardy insisted upon maintaining the
separate electorate for Muslims and non-Muslims. Bose opposed and withdrew. The
lack of any other significant support from the Congress's side caused the
United Bengal plan to be discarded. Still, the relatively-unknown episode
marked the last attempt among Bengali Muslim and Hindu leadership to avoid
partition and to live together.
Displacement
Between the year 1946-51
After the parcel of Bengal between Hindu dominant part West Bengal
And Muslim lion's share East Bengal there was a flood of displaced people from
both the sides. An assessment recommend that before Partition, West Bengal had
a populace of 21.2 million, of whom 5.3 million or around 25% were Muslim
minorities, though East Bengal had 39.1 million individuals, of whom 11.4
million or about 30% were overwhelmingly Hindu minorities. Almost 5 million
Hindus have left Pakistan's East Bengal for India's West Bengal district and
around 2 million Muslims have left India's West Bengal for Pakistan's East
Bengal area following Partition because of viciousness, revolt which have
happened on both the sides by hordes.
In the year 1960
An expected 30 lakh Hindu outcasts had entered West Bengal by 1960
as near 7 lakh Muslims left for East Pakistan. The displaced person deluge in
Bengal was additionally joined by the way that the public authority was less
set up to restore them, bringing about enormous lodging and disinfection issues
for the large numbers, the majority of whom were proprietors of huge property
back in East Bengal.]
In the time of 1964
During East Pakistan mob of 1964, it is assessed that Since January
1 of that year, as per Indian specialists, 135,000 Hindu outcasts have shown up
in West Bengal from East Pakistan. Likewise the Moslems began to relocate to
East Pakistan from West Bengal. As per Pakistani figures, 43,000 Moslem
outcasts have shown up from West Bengal since January 1.
In the year 1971 (Bangladesh freedom period)
In 1971, during Bangladesh freedom battle against Pakistan, an
enormous gathering of outcasts numbering an expected 7,235,916 have shown up
from Bangladesh to India's West Bengal, Out of which almost 80% of them are
Bengali Hindus and after Independence of Bangladesh, almost 15,21,912
individuals having a place with Bengali Hindu displaced people have chosen to
remain back in West Bengal, India. The Bangladeshi Hindus have been principally
gotten comfortable Nadia, North 24 parganas and South 24 parganas region of
West Bengal after 1971.
Aftermath
Before the authority Radcliffe line was drawn these were the strict
socioeconomics in Bengal district in 1947:
Muslims greater part areas: Dinajpur, Rangpur, Malda, Murshidabad,
Rajshahi, Bogra, Pabna, Mymensingh, Jessore, Nadia, Faridpur, Dhaka, Tippera,
Bakerganj, Noakhali and Chittagong.
Non-Muslim larger part Districts: Calcutta, Howrah, Hooghly,
Birbhum, Burdwan, Bankura, Midnapore, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, 24 Pargana,
Khulna and Chittagong Hill Tract.
Final division:
Pakistan: East Dinajpur, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Bogra, Pabna,
Mymensingh, Sylhet (with the exception of Karimganj), Khulna, Bakerganj, plain
Tippera (Tripura), Noakhali, Chittagong, Jessore, East Nadia, Chittagong Hill
Tracts.
India: West Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Malda, Murshidabad,
West Nadia, Calcutta, 24 Pargana, Burdwan, Birbhum, Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly
and Karimganj locale in Assam.
The second parcel of Bengal gave up a tradition of brutality that
proceeds right up 'til the present time. As Bashabi Fraser put it, "There
is the truth of the consistent progression of 'monetary transients'/'evacuees'/'infiltrators'/'illicit
migrants' who get over the line and work out across the sub-mainland, searching
for work and another home, setting in metropolitan communities as distant as
Delhi and Mumbai, keeping the topic of the Partition alive today.
Removal emergency
A monstrous populace move started following parcel. A huge number
of Hindus relocated to India from East Bengal. Most of them got comfortable
West Bengal. A critical number even went to Assam, Tripura and different
states. Notwithstanding, the outcast emergency was especially not quite the
same as Punjab at India's western boundary. Punjab saw broad mutual uproars
preceding allotment. Therefore, populace move in Punjab happened very quickly
after the parcel as unnerved individuals left their homes from the two sides.
Inside a year the populace trade was generally finished among East and West
Punjab. Yet, in Bengal, brutality was restricted uniquely to Kolkata and
Noakhali. Also, henceforth in Bengal relocation happened in a substantially more
continuous style and proceeded over the course of the following thirty years
following segment. Despite the fact that mobs were restricted in pre-freedom
Bengal, the climate was regardless publicly charged. The two Hindus in East
Bengal and Muslims in West Bengal felt risky and needed to take a pivotal
choice that is whether to leave for a dubious future in another country or to
remain in oppression under the other local area. Among Hindus in East Bengal
the individuals who were monetarily better positioned, especially higher
standing Hindus, left first. Government workers were allowed to trade their
posts among India and Pakistan. The informed metropolitan upper and working
class, the country nobility, brokers, finance managers and craftsmans left for
India not long after segment. They regularly had family members and different
associations in West Bengal and had the option to settle with less trouble.
Muslims followed a comparable example. The metropolitan and instructed upper
and working class left for East Bengal first.
Anyway more unfortunate Hindus in East Bengal, a large portion of
whom had a place with lower standings like the Namashudras thought that it was
considerably more hard to relocate. Their solitary property was ardent land
possessions. Numerous sharecropped. They didn't have any abilities other than
cultivating. Thus, the majority of them chose to remain in East Bengal.
Notwithstanding, the political environment in Pakistan decayed not long after
parcel and mutual brutality began to rise. In 1950 serious uproars happened in
Barisal and different spots in East Pakistan, causing a further departure of
Hindus. The circumstance was distinctively depicted by Jogendranath Mandal's
abdication letter to the at that point executive of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan.
Mandal was a Namashudra pioneer and notwithstanding being a lower rank Hindu,
he upheld Muslim League as a dissent to the enslavement of lower position
Hindus by their higher station co-religionists. He escaped to India and left
his bureau priest's post. All through the following twenty years, Hindus left
East Bengal at whatever point collective strains erupted or connection among
India and Pakistan weakened, as in 1964. The circumstance of the Hindu minority
in East Bengal arrived at its most noticeably terrible in the months going
before and during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, when the Pakistani
armed force methodicallly focused on ethnic Bengalis paying little heed to
strict foundation as a component of Operation Searchlight.
In autonomous Bangladesh, state-supported separation of Hindus
generally halted. Yet, similar to India, the two networks' relationship stays
tense and intermittent shared savagery happened, for example, in the result of
Babri Mosque destruction. Movement to India keeps on introducing day albeit now
it is generally because of monetary reasons and isn't restricted to Hindus
alone.
Despite the fact that Muslims in post-freedom West Bengal
confronted some separation, it was not normal for the state supported segregation
looked by the Hindus in East Bengal. While Hindus needed to escape from East
Bengal, Muslims had the option to remain in West Bengal. Throughout the long
term, be that as it may, the local area got ghettoized and was socially and
monetarily isolated from the larger part local area. Muslims fall well behind
different minorities like Sikhs and Christians in practically all friendly
pointers like proficiency and per capita pay.
Aside from West Bengal, a huge number of Bihari Muslims likewise
got comfortable East Bengal. They had endured horrendously in serious uproars
before parcel. Be that as it may, they upheld West Pakistan during Bangladesh's
freedom war and were in this way denied citizenship by Bengalis in autonomous
Bangladesh. The majority of these Bihari exiles actually stay stateless.
Statistics
The 1951 evaluation in India recorded 2.523 million evacuees from
East Bengal. Among them 2.061 million got comfortable West Bengal. The rest
went to Assam, Tripura and different states. By 1973 their number came to more
than 6 million. The accompanying table shows the significant rushes of
displaced person deluge and the episode that caused it.
|
Year |
Reason |
Number in lakhs |
|
1947 |
3.44 |
|
|
1948 |
Hyderabad annexation by
India |
7.86 |
|
1956 |
Pakistan becomes Islamic
Republic |
3.20 |
|
1964 |
Riots over Hazratbal incident |
6.93 |
|
1971 |
15 |
The 1951 evaluation in Pakistan recorded 671,000 evacuees in East
Bengal, most of which came from West Bengal. The rest were from Bihar. By 1961
the numbers arrived at 850,000. Rough gauges recommend that about 1.5 million
Muslims moved from West Bengal and Bihar to East Bengal in twenty years after
parcel.
Government reaction
In Punjab, Indian Government expected a populace move and was
prepared to take proactive measures. Land plots which were emptied by Muslims
were apportioned to approaching Hindu and Sikh evacuees. Government allotted
generous assets for recovery of exiles in Punjab. Interestingly, there was no
such arranging in the eastern piece of the country. Neither Central nor West
Bengal state Government expected any enormous scope populace trade and no
organized approach was set up to restore a large number of vagrants. The
recently autonomous nation had not many assets and the Central Government was
depleted in resettling 7 million exiles in Punjab. Rather than giving
restoration, the Indian Government attempted to pause and surprisingly turn
around the displaced person flood from East Bengal. India and Pakistan marked
the Nehru-Liaqut agreement in 1950 to stop any further populace trade among
West and East Bengal. The two nations consented to take the displaced people
back and return them their property which they cleared in their individual
nations. In any case, practically speaking, the two nations neglected to
maintain it. Even after it turned out to be evident that evacuees were resolved
not to be sent back, the legislatures of the two nations neglected to give any
critical help. The Government strategy of East Bengal outcast recovery for the
most part comprised of sending them to 'void zones', for the most part outside
of West Bengal. Perhaps the most dubious of such plans was the Government's
choice to settle the evacuees forcibly in Dandakaranya, an infertile plot of
land in focal India.
Social sway
Without the public authority's help the outcasts regularly settled
themselves. Some secured positions in processing plants. Many took private
companies and selling. Various displaced person settlements jumped up in Nadia,
24 Paraganas and Kolkata's rural areas.
Tripura's ancestral uprising
The regal province of Tripura had a dominatingly ancestral
populace. However, taught Bengalis were invited by the King and they were
noticeable in the state's organization in pre-freedom India. Yet, after
segment, a great many Bengali Hindus relocated to Tripura. This changed the
state's demography totally. Tripura's clans turned into a minority in their own
country and furthermore lost their property possessions. Subsequently,
ancestral rebellion started which drove vicious uproars among clans and
Bengalis in 1980. Low scope revolt proceeds right up 'til today. This is
genuine that a significant number of Bengali was moved from East Bengal side in
the hour of Bengal parcel and Bangladesh freedom war yet 50% of the Bengali
people group of Tripura live in Tripura from many years and that is
demonstrated by the 1901 registration report. This report obviously specifies
that Bengali and Tripura ancestral numbers were practically equivalent.
Economic sway
· West Bengal
Radcliffe's line split Bengal, which truly was consistently a
solitary financial zone, single social and ethnic (Bengali-Hindu or
Bengali-Muslim) zone, into equal parts. The two-parts were unpredictably
associated with one another. The fruitful East delivered food and crude
materials which the West burned-through and the industrialized West created
fabricated merchandise which were devoured by the East. This commonly helpful
exchange and trade was seriously upset by the segment. Rail, street and water
correspondence courses were cut off between the two. After parcel, West Bengal
experienced a generous food lack as the ripe rice delivering areas of Bengal
went toward the eastern half. The deficiency proceeded all through the 1950s
and 1960s. By 1959, West Bengal confronted a yearly food lack of 950,000 tones.
Yearning walks turned into a typical sight in Kolkata.
Jute was the biggest business in Bengal at the hour of parcel.
Radcliffe's line left each and every jute plant in West Bengal yet four-fifths
of the jute creating land in East Bengal. The best quality fiber yielding types
of jute were developed generally in East Bengal. India and Pakistan at first
went into an economic accord to import crude jute from East Bengal for West
Bengal's factories. Notwithstanding, Pakistan had plans to set up its own
factories and put limitations on crude jute fare to India. West Bengal's
factories confronted intense deficiency. The business confronted an emergency.
Then again, jute ranchers in East Bengal were currently without a market to
sell their produce. Jute fare to West Bengal abruptly turned into an enemy of
public represent Pakistan. Sneaking of crude jute shot up across the boundary.
Anyway West Bengal quickly expanded jute creation and by mid-to-late 1950s
turned out to be to a great extent independent in jute. West Bengal's factories
turned out to be less reliant on East Bengal for crude material. Pakistan
likewise set up new plants to handle its nearby produce as opposed to sending
out to India. The accompanying table shows jute creation subtleties in two
nations in 1961.
|
Year 1961 |
Area Harvested (Ha) |
Yield (Hg/Ha) |
Production (tonnes) |
|
East Pakistan |
834000 |
15761 |
1314540 |
|
India |
917000 |
12479 |
1144400 |
West Bengal's paper and cowhide industry dealt with comparable
issues. The paper plants utilized East Bengal's Bamboo and the tanneries
devoured cowhide, additionally for the most part delivered in East Bengal. Like
jute, absence of crude material drove these two enterprises into decrease.
Notwithstanding focus and express governments' earnest attempts,
the pressing factor of millions of exiles, food deficiencies and mechanical
decay put post-freedom West Bengal in a serious emergency. Dr. B. C. Roy's administration
attempted to adapt up to the circumstance by starting a few ventures. The
public authority assembled water system networks like DVC and Mayurakshi
project, the Durgapur mechanical zone and the Salt Lake City. Yet, these
neglected to capture West Bengal's decay. Destitution rose. West Bengal lost
its top spot and falled well behind other Indian states in mechanical turn of
events. Enormous political turmoil, strikes and viciousness injured the state
all through the following multi decade after parcel.
· North East India;
Rail and street joins associating North East India to the remainder
of the nation went through East Bengal domain. The lines associating Siliguri
in North Bengal to Kolkata and Assam to Chittagong were cut off. The entire
Assam Railway was cut off from the remainder of the Indian system. These lines
conveyed practically all cargo traffic from these areas. The main items were
tea and lumber. The tea business in Assam relied upon the Chittagong port to
trade its produce and import crude materials for the business, for example,
coal which was utilized as the fuel to dry the tea leaves. The business was
seriously hit as Chittagong port went to Pakistan. At first, India and Pakistan
agreed to permit cross-line travel traffic yet now India needed to pay a duty.
By 1950, India reconnected Assam to the remainder of the nation's rail network
by building a 229 km meter measure rail connect through the Siliguri Corridor.
Be that as it may, presently the Tea chests from Assam's nurseries would need
to be persisted an any longer distance to arrive at the Kolkata port. Trading
tea by means of the close by Chittagong port was as yet a choice however after
1965's conflict all travel traffic was turned off by Pakistan.
East Pakistan became free Bangladesh in 1971 however cross-line
rail route traffic didn't continue until 2003. By the 1990s, India redesigned
the Assam rail connect to expansive measure straight up to Dibrugarh
accordingly facilitating the traffic issue in Brahmaputra Valley district, yet
the southern part of this region which involves Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and
Barak valley of Assam actually faces genuine network issue. Talks between the
two nations are in progress to permit travel traffic between this territory and
terrain India through Bangladesh.
East Bengal
At the hour of segment, East Bengal had no huge industry. There
were not many mineral assets in this locale. Its economy was totally agrarian.
The principle produce was food grains and different yields, jute, bamboo,
cowhide and fish. These crude materials were devoured by plants in and around
Kolkata. Kolkata was the focal point of Bengal's monetary and social
advancement for the two Hindus and Muslims. Every huge industry, army
installations, government workplaces and the vast majority of the foundations
of advanced education were arranged in Kolkata. Without Kolkata, East Bengal
was beheaded. It lost its conventional market for horticultural items. It
likewise lost the Kolkata port, the superior port of the entire country around
then. East Bengal needed to start from nothing. Dhaka around then was just a
region base camp. Government workplaces must be put inside shoddy structures.
Dhaka additionally confronted a serious human asset emergency. Most of
high-positioning officials in British Indian organization were Hindu and they
relocated to West Bengal. Frequently these presents had on be topped off by
West Pakistani officials. Urgently poor, East Bengal before long turned out to
be politically overwhelmed by West Pakistan. Urdu was forced upon the entire
country. Financial differences and oppression of Bengalis by the Punjabi world
class ultimately prompted a battle for division
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