By the s, many Indians began to question the style of the Congress. New leaders emerged who began to explore more radical objectives and methods. They argued that people should not believe on the so called good intentions of the government and must fight for swaraj.
Bengal was partitioned in by Viceroy Curzon. At that time, Bengal was the largest province of British India. It included Bihar and parts of Orissa. Administrative convenience was cited as the reason for the partition of Bengal. Most of the analysts believe that the partition was done to reduce the influence of Bengali politician and to split the Bengali people.
All sections of the Congress opposed it. Large public meetings and demonstrations were held to protest the decision. The partition of Bengal relieved the Muslims from competing with Hindus, who were more advanced in every field of life. The Hindus did not accept it, as it dealt a telling blow to their monopolies and exclusive hold on economic, social, Political life of the whole of Bengal.
They called it as a deliberate attempt by British Government. The Partition of Bengal had brightened the possibility of betterment of Muslims; while the Hindu landlords, capitalists and traders wanted status quo and to continue the exploitation of the Muslims.
Hindu lawyers also reacted to the partition of Bengal because they thought that the new province would have its separate courts and thus their practice would be affected. Hindu press was not different from that of Hindu advocates. Hindus had their monopoly over almost whole of the province press.
They were afraid that new newspapers would be established which would decrease their income naturally. The Hindus launched Swadeshi Movement whose sole purpose was to boycott of British goods. When Lord Hardinage assumed charge as Governor General of India Hindus again became active and sent a representation to him for the annulment of partition of Bengal. This decision was shattering blow to Muslims. It left them sullen and disillusioned. Their anger and indignation had widespread repercussions.
The Muslims leaders and intelligentsia condemned the decision as betrayal of worst kind. Even the Moslem Chronicle soon changed its attitude in favour of partition.
Some Muslims in Calcutta also welcomed the creation of the new province. The mohammedan literary society brought out a manifesto in signed by seven leading Muslim personalities.
The manifesto was circulated to the different Muslim societies of both west and east Bengal and urged the Muslims to give their unqualified support to the partition measure. The creation of the new province provided an incentive to the Muslims to unite into a compact body and form an association to voice their own views and aspiration relating to social and political matters. On 16 October the Mohammedan Provincial Union was founded.
All the existing organisations and societies were invited to affiliate themselves with it and Salimullah was unanimously chosen as its patron. Even then there was a group of educated liberal Muslims who came forward and tendered support to the anti-partition agitation and the Swadeshi Movement. Though their number was insignificant, yet their role added a new dimension in the thought process of the Muslims.
This broad-minded group supported the Indian National Congress and opposed the partition. The most prominent among this section of the Muslims was khwaja atiqullah , step-brother of Nawab Salimullah.
At the Calcutta session of the Congress , he moved a resolution denouncing the partition of Bengal. A section of the Muslim press tried to promote harmonious relations between the Hindus and the Muslims. Only a small section of Muslim intellectuals could rise above their sectarian outlook and join with the Congress in the anti-partition agitation and constitutional politics. The general trend of thoughts in the Muslim minds was in favour of partition. The traditional and reformist Muslim groups - the Faraizi, Wahabi and Taiyuni - supported the partition.
Consequently an orthodox trend was visible in the political attitude of the Muslims. The Bengali Muslim press in general lent support to the partition. The Islam Pracharak described Swadeshi as a Hindu movement and expressed grave concern saying that it would bring hardship to the common people.
The Muslim intelligentsia in general felt concerned about the suffering of their fellow religionists. They particularly disliked the movement as it was tied to the anti-partition agitation. Reputed litterateurs like mir mosharraf hossain were virulent critics of the Swadeshi Movement. The greater body of Muslims at all levels remained opposed to the Swadeshi Movement since it was used as a weapon against the partition and a religious tone was added to it.
The economic aspect of the movement was partly responsible for encouraging separatist forces within the Muslim society. The superiority of the Hindus in the sphere of trade and industry alarmed the Muslims.
Fear of socio-economic domination by the Hindus made them alert to safeguard their own interests. These apprehensions brought about a rift in Hindu-Muslims relations. In order to avoid economic exploitation by the Hindus, some wealthy Muslim entrepreneurs came forward to launch new commercial ventures. One such attempt was the founding of steamer companies operating between Chittagong and Rangoon in In the context of the partition the pattern of the land system in Bengal played a major role to influence the Muslim mind.
The absentee Hindu zamindars made no attempt to improve the lot of the raiyats who were mostly Muslims. The agrarian disputes between landlords and tenants already in existence in the province also appeared to take a communal colour. It was alleged that the Hindu landlords had been attempting to enforce Swadeshi ideas on the tenants and induce them to join the anti-partition movement.
In , the Muslims organised an Islamic conference at Keraniganj in Dhaka as a move to emphasise their separate identity as a community. The Swadeshi Movement with its Hindu religious flavour fomented aggressive reaction from the other community. A red pamphlet of a highly inflammatory nature was circulated among the Muslim masses of Eastern Bengal and Assam urging them completely to dissociate from the Hindus. It was published under the auspices of the anjuman mufidul islam under the editorship of a certain Ibrahim Khan.
Moreover, such irritating moves as the adoption of the Bande Mataram as the song of inspiration or introduction of the cult of Shivaji as a national hero, and reports of communal violence alienated the Muslims. One inevitable result of such preaching was the riot that broke out at Comilla in March , followed by similar riots in Jamalpur in April of that year. These communal disturbances became a familiar feature in Eastern Bengal and Assam and followed a pattern that was repeated elsewhere.
The riots represent a watershed in the history of modern Bengal. While Hindu-Muslims relations deteriorated, political changes of great magnitude were taking place in the Government of India's policies, and simultaneously in the relations of Bengali Muslim leaders with their non-Bengalee counterparts.
Both developments had major repercussions on communal relations in eastern Bengal. The decision to introduce constitutional reforms culminating in the morley-minto reforms of introducing separate representation for the Muslims marked a turning point in Hindu-Muslim relations.
The early administrators of the new province from the lieutenant governor down to the junior-most officials in general were enthusiastic in carrying out the development works. Bampfylde Fuller was accused by the anti-Partition movement leaders as being extremely partial to Muslims.
He, because of a difference with the Government of India, resigned in August His resignation and its prompt acceptance were considered by the Muslims to be a solid political victory for the Hindus. The general Muslim feeling was that in yielding to the pressure of the anti-Partition agitators the government had revealed its weakness and had overlooked the loyal adherence of the Muslims to the government. Consequently, the antagonism between the Hindus and Muslims became very acute in the new province.
The Muslim leaders, now more conscious of their separate communal identity, directed their attention in uniting the different sections of their community to the creation of a counter movement against that of the Hindus. They keenly felt the need for unity and believed that the Hindu agitation against the Partition was in fact a communal movement and as such a threat to the Muslims as a separate community.
They decided to faithfully follow the directions of leaders like Salimullah and Nawab Ali Chowdhury and formed organisations like the Mohammedan Provincial Union. Though communalism had reached its peak in the new province by , there is evidence of a sensible and sincere desire among some of the educated and upper class Muslims and Hindus to put an end to these religious antagonisms. A group of prominent members of both communities met the Viceroy Lord Minto on 15 March with suggestions to put an end to communal violence and promote religious harmony between the two communities.
The landlord-tenant relationship in the new province had deteriorated and took a communal turn. The Hindu landlords felt alarmed at the acts of terrorism committed by the anti-partition agitators. To prove their unswerving loyalty to the government and give evidence of their negative attitude towards the agitation, they offered their hands of friendship and co-operation to their Muslim counterparts to the effect that they would take a non-communal stand and work unitedly against the anti-government revolutionary movements.
Though several factors were responsible for the formation of All-India Muslim League, the Partition of Bengal and the threat to it was, perhaps, the most important factor that hastened its birth. At its very first sitting at Dacca the Muslim League, in one of its resolutions, said: 'That this meeting in view of the clear interest of the Muhammadans of Eastern Bengal consider that Partition is sure to prove beneficial to the Muhammadan community which constitute the vast majority of the populations of the new province and that all such methods of agitation such as boycotting should be strongly condemned and discouraged'.
To assuage the resentment of the assertive Bengali Hindus, the British government decided to annul the Partition of Bengal. As regards the Muslims of Eastern Bengal the government stated that in the new province the Muslims were in an overwhelming majority in point of population, under the new arrangement also they would still be in a position of approximate numerical equality or possibly of small superiority over the Hindus.
The interests of the Muslims would be safeguarded by special representation in the Legislative Councils and the local bodies. According to the suggestion of the Governor-General-in-Council, King George V at his Coronation Darbar in Delhi in December announced the revocation of the Partition of Bengal and of certain changes in the administration of India. Firstly, the Government of India should have its seat at Delhi instead of Calcutta. By shifting the capital to the site of past Muslim glory, the British hoped to placate Bengal's Muslim community now aggrieved at the loss of provincial power and privilege in eastern Bengal.
The area of this province would be approximately 70, sq miles with a population of 42 million.
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