The Partition of Bengal in 1947, part of the Partition of India, was a religiously based partition that divided the British Indian province of Bengal between India and Pakistan. Predominantly Hindu West Bengal became a province of India, and predominantly Muslim East Bengal became a province of Pakistan.
The partition, with the power transferred to Pakistan and India on August 14–15, 1947, was done according to what has come to be known as the "3 June Plan" or "Mountbatten Plan". India’s freedom on August 15, 1947 ended over 150 years of British influence in the Indian subcontinent.
East Bengal, which became a province of Pakistan according to the provisions set forth the Mountbatten Plan, later became the independent country of Bangladesh after the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
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Background
In 1905, the first partition in Bengal was implemented as an administrative preference, making governing the two provinces, West and East Bengal, easier. While the partition split the province between West Bengal, in which the majority was Hindu, and the East, where the majority was Muslim, the 1905 partition left considerable minorities of Hindus in East Bengal and Muslims in West Bengal. While the Muslims were in favour of the partition, as they would have their own province, Hindus were not. This controversy led to increased violence and protest and finally, in 1911, the two provinces were once again united.
However, the disagreements between Hindus and Muslims in Bengal which had sparked the Partition of Bengal in 1905 still remained and laws, including the Partition of Bengal in 1947, were implemented in order to fulfill the political needs of the parties involved.
The partition
As per the plan, on 20 June 1947, the members of the Bengal Legislative Assembly cast three separate votes on the proposal to partition Bengal:
- In the joint session of the house, composed of all the members of the Assembly, the division of the joint session of the House stood at 126 votes against and 90 votes for joining the existing Constituent Assembly (i.e., India)
- Then the members of the Muslim-majority areas of Bengal in a separate session passed a motion by 106-35 votes against partitioning Bengal and instead joining a new Constituent Assembly (i.e., Pakistan) as a whole.
- This was followed by the separate meeting of the members of the non-Muslim-majority areas of Bengal who by a division of 58-21 voted for partition of the province.
Under the Mountbatten Plan, a single majority vote in favour of partition by either notionally divided half of the Assembly would have decided the division of the province, and hence the house proceedings on 20 June resulted in the decision to partition Bengal. This set the stage for the creation of West Bengal as a province of the Union of India and East Bengal as a province of the Dominion of Pakistan.
Also in accordance with the Mountbatten Plan, in a referendum held on 7 July, the electorate of Sylhet voted to join East Bengal. Further, the Boundary Commission headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe decided on the territorial demarcation between the two newly created provinces. Power was transferred to Pakistan and India on 14 and 15 August, respectively, under the Indian Independence Act 1947.
Aftermath
The second partition of Bengal left behind a legacy of violence which continues to this day. As Bashabi Fraser put it, “There is the reality of the continuous flow of ‘economic migrants’ / ‘refugees’ / ‘infiltrators’ / ‘illegal immigrants’ who cross over the border and pan out across the sub-continent, looking for work and a new home, setting in metropolitan centres as far off as Delhi and Mumbai, keeping the question of the Partition alive today. “[1]
Economic impact
West Bengal
Radcliffe's line split Bengal, which historically was always a single economic zone, into two halves. The two halves were intricately connected with each other. The fertile East produced food and raw materials which the West consumed and the industrialized West produced manufactured goods which were consumed by the East. This mutually beneficial trade and exchange was severely disrupted by the partition. Rail, road and water communication routes were severed between the two. After partition West Bengal suffered from a substantial food shortage as the fertile rice producing districts of Bengal went to the eastern half. The shortage continued throughout fifties and sixties. By 1959 West Bengal faced an annual food shortage of 950000 tones. Hunger marches became a common site in Kolkata.[2]
Jute was the largest industry in Bengal at the time of partition. Radcliffe's line left every single jute mill in West Bengal but four fifth of the jute producing land in East Bengal. The best quality fiber yielding breeds of jute were cultivated mostly in East Bengal. India and Pakistan initially went into a trade agreement to import raw jute from East Bengal for West Bengal's mills. However Pakistan had plans to set up its own mills and put restrictions on raw jute export to India. West Bengal's mills faced acute shortage. The industry faced a crisis.[3] On the other hand jute farmers in East Bengal was now without a market to sell their produce. Jute export to West Bengal suddenly became an anti-national act for Pakistan. Smuggling of raw jute shot up across the border.[4] However West Bengal rapidly increased jute production and by mid to late fifties became largely self sufficient in jute.[5] West Bengal's mills became less dependent on East Bengal for raw material. Pakistan also set up new factories to process its local produce instead of exporting to India.[6] The following table shows jute production details in two countries in 1961.[7]
Year 1961 | Area Harvested (Ha) | Yield (Hg/Ha) | Production (tonnes) |
---|---|---|---|
Bangladesh | 834000 | 15761 | 1314540 |
India | 917000 | 12479 | 1144400 |
West Bengal's paper and leather industry faced similar problems. The paper mills used East Bengal's Bamboo and the tanneries consumed leather, also mainly produced in East Bengal. Like jute, lack of raw material pushed these two industries into decline.[8]
Despite center and state governments' best efforts, the pressure of millions of refugees, food shortages and industrial decline put post-independence West Bengal in a severe crisis. Dr. B. C. Roy's government tried to cope up with the situation by initiating several projects. The government built irrigation networks like DVC and Mayurakshi project, the Durgapur industrial zone and the Salt Lake City. But these failed to arrest West Bengal's decline. Poverty rose. West Bengal lost its top place and lagged well behind other Indian states in industrial development. Massive political unrest, strikes and violence crippled the state throughout the next three decade after partition.[9]
North East India
Rail and road links connecting North East India to the rest of the country passed through East Bengal territory. The lines connecting Siliguri in North Bengal to Kolkata and Assam to Chittagong were severed. The whole Assam Railway was cut off from the rest of the Indian system.[10]
These lines carried almost all freight traffic from these regions. The most important commodities were tea and timber. The tea industry in Assam depended on the Chittagong port to export its produce and import raw materials for the industry such as coal which was used as the fuel to dry the tea leaves. The industry was severely hit as Chittagong port went to Pakistan. Initially India and Pakistan reached an agreement to allow cross border transit traffic but now India had to pay a tariff. By 1950 India reconnected Assam to the rest of the country's rail network by building a 229 km meter gauge rail link through the Siliguri corridor.[11] But now the Tea chests from Assam's gardens would have to be carried over a much longer distance to reach the Kolkata port. Exporting tea via the nearby Chittagong port was still an option but after 1965's war all transit traffic was switched off by Pakistan.[12]
East Pakistan became independent Bangladesh in 1971 but cross border railway traffic didn't resume until 2003. By nineties India upgraded the Assam rail link to broad gauge right up to Dibrugarh thereby easing the traffic problem in Brahmaputra valley region. But the southern section of this area which comprises Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Barak valley of Assam still faces serious connectivity problem. Talks between the two countries are currently underway to allow transit traffic between this area and mainland India through Bangladesh.
East Bengal
At the time of partition East Bengal had no large industry. There were few mineral resources in this region. Its economy was completely agrarian. The main produce was food grains and other crops, jute, bamboo, leather and fish. These raw materials were consumed by factories in and around Kolkata. Kolkata was the center of Bengal's economic and social development for both Hindus and Muslims. All large industries, Military bases, Government offices and most of the institutions of higher education were situated in Kolkata. Without Kolkata Muslim East Bengal was decapitated.[13] It lost its traditional market for agricultural products. It also lost the Kolkata port, the premium port of the whole country at that time. East Bengal had to begin from nothing. Dhaka at that time was only a district headquarter. The Government offices had to be placed inside makeshift buildings. Dhaka also faced a severe human resource crisis. The majority of high ranking officers in British Indian administration were Hindu and they migrated to West Bengal. Often these posts had to be filled up by West Pakistani officers. Desperately poor, East Bengal soon became politically dominated by West Pakistan. Urdu was imposed upon the whole country. Economic disparities and subjugation of Bengalis by the Punjabi elite eventually led to struggle for separation.
See also
Bibliography
Works Cited
1. Bashabi Fraser Bengal Partition Stories: An Unclosed Chapter. New York: Anthem Press, 2008. ISBN 1843312999
Works Referenced
- Joya Chatterji Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition, 1932-1947. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0521411289
- S.M. Ikram Indian Muslims and Partition of India. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 1992. ISBN 8171563740
- Hashim S. Raza Mountbatten and the partition of India. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 1989. ISBN 8171560598
- Craig Baxter Bangladesh: From a Nation to a State. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997. ISBN 0813328543
- Singh, J.J. “Partition of India: British Proposal Said to be Only Feasible Plan Now.” The New York Times 15 Jun. 1947: E8
- Gyanendra Pandey Remembering Partition: Violence, Nationalism, and History in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 0521002508
- Tai Yong Tan and Gyanesh Kudaisya The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia. London: Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0415172977
References
- ^ 1
- ^ Chatterji - Spoils of partition Page 244 - 245
- ^ Chatterji - Spoils of partition. Page 240
- ^ Schendel - The Bengal borderland. Page - 158-159
- ^ FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
- ^ Schendel - The Bengal borderland. Page - 159
- ^ FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
- ^ Chatterji - Spoils of partition. Page 241-242
- ^ Chatterji - Spoils of Partition
- ^ History of Indian railways
- ^ History of Indian railways
- ^ Schendel - The Bengal borderland. Page - 150
- ^ Jalal - The sole spokesman. Page - 3
- Suhrawardy, Huseyn Shaheed Retrieved September 25, 2009.
- Partition of Bengal, 1947 Retrieved September 25, 2009.
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