Bengal Divided

Title: Bengal Divided – The Unmaking of a Nation (1905 – 1971)

Author: Nitish Sengupta

Publisher: Penguin Viking, 2007 (First)

ISBN: 9780670999132

Pages: 260

India’s partition in 1947 basically involved the division of the two provinces of Bengal and the Punjab, as the other provinces went in as a whole to either of the two sister nations. Large scale violence erupted in Punjab and minority populations were exchanged across the new border. Bengal remained calm but tense due to the healing touch provided by Gandhiji’s physical presence there. As a result of this, a large number of Muslims stayed on in Indian Bengal and a similar number of Hindus in East Pakistan. Cultural, social and industrial interactions were subsequently more active in Bengal than Punjab. If we look back in history, the partition of Bengal occurred first in 1905 and then in 1971, when the region obtained independence from Pakistan after an armed struggle with the help of Indian arms. This book covers a period of 66 years from 1905 to 1971 that unmade the nation of Bengal on religious lines. It follows the events when the two parts of Bengal stayed united, and when they were separated. Nitish Sengupta is an academician, administrator, politician and writer who was a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1957 to 1992. After retirement, he headed the International Management Institute in New Delhi and has been director on the boards of several private and public sector companies. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999 and served on several committees of Parliament. He has authored many books and is currently based in Delhi.

The turn of fortunes for the religious communities of Bengal in the nineteenth century was dramatic. Till 1871 – when the first ever census was conducted in India – everyone thought that Bengal was a Hindu-majority province. The census report came as a surprise to all to learn that the Muslim community enjoyed a numerical supremacy among the people. Conversion to Islam had begun in Bengal in the twelfth century itself and had continued in full swing for another three centuries. Sengupta notes with secularist relish that the lower castes changed their religion to ‘get out of the concentration camp type existence in Hindu society’. He accuses the orthodox Hindus of not admitting women forcibly abducted by Muslims back to the fold as one of the reasons for the drop in numbers. If this is true, the perpetual fear and threat under which the Hindu community stayed under Muslim rule is terrifying. The Muslims wanted to have greater control of the administrative machinery as a corollary to their superiority in number.

This presented another problem. After the British had defeated the sultans and usurped power, the Muslims withdrew into a cocoon and harboured separatist visions of a free Muslim state. With the loss of political, economic, social and educational prominence, they had begun wholesale downgrading of the emerging society. They were averse to English which rose to occupy the position which Persian had adorned as the state language. The Bengali Hindus quickly stepped in to exploit the available opportunities to the full and replace Muslims in the revenue, taxation, police, judiciary and army departments which were till then monopolized by them. Bengal was partitioned in 1905 between Hindu and Muslim majority areas, which was strangely opposed by the nationalists but supported by Muslims. It annulment in response to vociferous protests alienated the Muslims in East Bengal. It was only natural then to extend more privileges to Muslims in the re-integrated Bengal. Irrational opposition emerged from the Hindus as well, who even opposed provision of financial assistance to the newly constituted Dhaka University. Chittaranjan Das was a respected leader whose admirers were in both communities. He introduced the Bengal Pact in 1923, under which 55 per cent of the jobs were reserved for Muslims. Congress vehemently rejected it and after Das’ death in 1925, it was no longer an item in the political agenda. We get a feeling that perhaps if the partition of Bengal in 1905 was allowed to stand, Hindus and Muslims would have been happy in their respective provinces and the fateful partition of 1947 could’ve been avoided.

The author notes that the unmaking of the nation began in the period 1927-37. Muslim mass organizations like the Krishak Praja Party (KPP) earned the support of workers and peasants, while the bhadralok was marginalized further and further. When election to the provincial assembly was carried out according to the provisions of the Government of India Act 1935, the Congress refused to ally with the KPP to form a government. Sengupta suggests that this decision was taken by Gandhiji himself under the selfish influence of the well known industrialist G D Birla. He reproduces a letter written by Subhas Chandra Bose rebuking Gandhi for this irrational decision. The reason for Birla’s aversion to KPP was their orientation to the workers, against the class interests of the zamindars and large businessmen.

This book provides ample proof to denote the Congress party as a Hindu outfit prior to independence, after which they donned the mantle of secularism. Its early leaders like Tilak organized Ganapati and Shivaji festivals on behalf of the party. The Pirpur Committee (1938), commissioned by the Muslim League to study the atrocities against Muslims in Congress-ruled states, reported that the Congress insisted on singing Vande Mataram, which they alleged to be an ‘anti-Islamic’ and idolatrous song. It also accused the Congress of withholding licenses for cow-slaughter in provinces which they ruled. Doing politics was a tiresome occupation in those days as the politicians were always on tenterhooks to ensure that their every action was to promote cordiality and amity between the two communities which fought against each other at the slightest pretext. Reading these lines, we might wonder that partition of the country on religious lines ensured some benefit on this front. However, the Fazlul Haq – Shyama Prasad Mukherjee coalition government in 1941-43 provided a great example of accommodation between the two communities.

Even though Bengal excelled other Indian provinces in literary and social reforms, the Bengali society was riddled with communalism of the worst kind. The atmosphere was always explosive, waiting for the slightest spark. The author mentions that between the five years from 1922 to 1927, a total of 112 communal riots occurred in which 450 people were killed and about 5000 were injured. Hindu processions which played music near mosques automatically triggered riots, while the public slaughter of cows engendered retaliatory strikes. Sometimes, the hatred surpassed all rational barriers such as the Muslim opposition to the word ‘shri’ and the symbol of the lotus in Calcutta University’s motif. Riots in Dhaka saw hundreds killed and tens of thousands fleeing to West Bengal. The Direct Action Day (August 1946) and Noakhali Riots (October 1946) were the two large scale riots before independence.

The book is quite interesting to read only in Part 1 which covers till 1947 and the remaining part is included only as an afterthought as to cover the history of the Bengali nation in full. The narration is left open in the present age. A major point reiterated by the author is that the destiny of Bengal was not decided by its own leaders. At the end of the freedom struggle, the partition of the province was finalized by a committee which didn’t include a single Bengali leader both on the Hindu and Muslim sides. Subhas Chandra Bose was its tallest leader after the death of C R Das, but he fell foul with Gandhiji over finer points of the way forward in the struggle. His exit left the way clear for Nehru and his cronies to make a mess of free India. Another factor to note is the sad predicament of the Dalit leadership during partition. Arraigning fellow Hindus for the discrimination they suffered, Dalits established alliance with the Muslim leaders and followed them to East Pakistan. Jogender Nath Mandal became the first law minister of Pakistan. However, his disillusionment after just two years at the sad plight of Dalits and Hindus in general was pathetic. He ran back for his life to India and sought asylum. This book reproduces the letter of resignation written by him to Pakistan’s president. Today’s Dalit leaders should read this at least once! In the letter, Mandal voices concern about the status of Dhimmis assigned to Hindus as per Islamic law. It negates all civic rights to minorities as citizens of the nation, but offers basic protection to life upon payment of a tax.

The book is very attention-grabbing and the narration is uncluttered. It includes a good bibliography and a commendable index.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star