1905: The Partition Before Partition

The partition of Bengal in 1905 split more than a province, it touched people's hearts and awakened India's fight for freedom.

On October 16, 1905, exactly 120 years ago, the Bengal presidency was partitioned by the British, represented in India by George Nathanial Curzon.

Lord Curzon and the British claimed that the partition was purely for administrative reasons.

The Bengal presidency was the largest in India, comprising what is now West Bengal, Bangladesh, Bihar (including parts of Chhattisgarh) and Odisha.

The population of the Bengal presidency in 1905 was 78.5 million. India's population, as per the 1901 census, was over 238 million, which means the Bengal presidency alone was nearly a third of India's population.

The Bengal presidency (officially, the presidency of Fort William in Bengal) was large because the British's conquest of India began from Calcutta, and as the British marched northwest from Calcutta, all the newly captured territories captured were made a part of the Bengal presidency.

At one point, the Bengal presidency stretched from the Khyber Pass to Singapore! However, through the 19th century, the British began parcelling out the distant lands, creating separate provinces and territories (United Province, Central Provinces, Punjab, Burma, etc).

Despite that, the Bengal presidency was still extremely large, and Lord Curzon announced in July 1905 that the presidency would be split into two halves on October 16: Bengal, and Eastern Bengal and Assam.

The announcement and partition caused a furore amongst the nationalists in India, who saw it as a move to divide Hindus and Muslims.

They were not wrong: Lord Curzon wasted little time in telling the Muslims of eastern Bengal that he envisioned the eastern province as Muslim.

The move also hurt the Bengali elites, most of whom resided in the western side.

After the partition, they realised they were a linguistic minority in the (western) Bengal presidency, which also included what is now Bihar and parts of Odisha.

Not surprisingly, they saw the move as an attempt to diminish their influence and power.

The Indian National Congress petitioned the British government against the move, but to little avail.

As the date drew closer, Surendranath Banerjee, one of the founders of the Indian National Congress in 1885, launched a Swadeshi movement, requesting the people to boycott British goods.

On October 16, 1905, offices and schools were blockaded and protests broke out in parts of Bengal, especially Calcutta.

Rabindranath Tagore, already a leading figure, urged the people to tie rakhis on each other, especially on Muslims, as a sign of brotherhood to show that the people of Bengal desired a united presidency.

Many Muslim leaders supported the move for a separate eastern Bengal, seeing an opportunity to gain political and educational advantages.

Many Biharis and Odias also liked the idea of a smaller western Bengal, finding that their voice had become louder and their influence greater.

Despite the support from some quarters, the opposition to the partition was loud and boisterous, kicking off strong nationalist sentiments, not just in Bengal, but across India. In Pune, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, already a renowned leader, was one of them.

The British, who seemed invincible till then, finally relented in the face of intractable opposition.

At the 1911 Delhi Durbar for King George V and Queen Mary, it was announced that Bengal would be reunited. However, two new provinces would be formed alongside: Bihar and Orissa, and Assam.

At the same durbar, another more impactful announcement was made: The capital of India would shift from Calcutta to Delhi.

For the Bengali elites, it was a bitter-sweet moment. The Bengali-speaking part had been reunited even as other non-Bengali speaking regions had been separated. But, perhaps more painful, Calcutta was no longer to remain the Empire's second most important city (after London).

Over the years, the legacy of the Bengal presidency's partition and reunification has been much debated.

There is little doubt the partition galvanised nationalist sentiments, particularly among the Hindus of undivided India.

The idea of swadeshi (boycotting British goods) also took root in the aftermath of the partition of Bengal, and was crafted into a fine weapon by Mahatma Gandhi a few years later.

The Congress, which appeared aimless a few years after its formation, was revitalised by the partition and would become the strongest enemy of the British raj.

But the partition and reunification also deepened the anxieties of Muslims, particularly its elites, who feared being dominated by Hindus in an undivided India -- not unlike the fears of the Bengali Hindus who worried about their status within (western) Bengal once eastern Bengal was separated.

Just a year after the Bengal presidency's partition, the Muslim League was formed in December 1906, in Dacca, then the capital of Eastern Bengal and Assam.

Forty years later, the Muslim League would recreate Lord Curzon's divide along religious lines with the formation of East Pakistan.

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff