Partition of Bengal

PARTITION OF BENGAL They hoped to stem the rising tide of nationalism • The Anti-Partition Movement was initiated on 7 in Bengal, considered at the time to be the rerve centre August 1905. On the day a massive demonstration of Indian nationalism. against partition was organised in the Town Hall Risely, Home Secretary to the Government of in Calcutta. India, broke in an official note on 6 December 1904 as • From this meeting delegates dispersed to spread Bengal united is a power. Bengal divided will pull the movement to the rest of the province. in several different ways. One of our main objective is • The partition took effect on 16 October 1905. to split up and thereby to weaken a solid body of • The leaders of the protest movement declared it opponents to our rule. to be a day of national mourning throughout The Indian National Congress and the Nationalists Bengal. of Bengal firmly opposed the partition. • It was observed as a day of fasting. There was a Within Bengal, different sections of the population Hartal in Calcutta. - zamindars, merchants, lawyers, students, the city poor, • People walked barefooted and bathed in the Ganga and even women - rose up in spontaneous opposition in the morning hours. to the partition of their province. • Rabindranath Tagore composed the national song, The nationalists saw the act of partition as a Amar Sonar Bangla\’, for the occasion which was challenge to Indian nationalism and not merely an sung by huge crowds parading the streets. administrative measure. • This song was adopted as its national anthem by They saw that it was a deliberate attempt to divide Bangladesh in 1971 after Liberation. the Bengali territorial and on religious grounds - for in • The streets of Calcutta were full of the cries of the Eastern part Muslims would be in a big majority \’Bande Mataram\’ which overnight became the and in the western part Hindus - and thus to disrupt national song of Bengal and which was sung to and weaken nationalism in Bengal. become the theme song of the national movement. It would also be a big blow to the growth of • The ceremony of Raksha Bandhan was utilized Bengali language and culture. in a new way. They pointed out that administrative efficiency • Hindus and Muslims tied the rakhi on one could have been better secured by separating the Hindi another\’s wrists as a symbol of the unbreakable speaking Bihar and the Oriya-speaking Orissa from the unity of the Bengalis and of the two halves of Bengali speaking part of the province. Bengal. Moreover, the official step had been taken in utter • In the afternoon, there was a great demonstration disregard of public opinion. when the veteran leader Ananda Mohan Bose laid Thus the vehemence of Bengal\’s protest against the foundation of a Federation Hall to mark the the partition is explained by the fact that it was a blow indestructible unity of Bengal. to the sentiments of very sensitive and courageous The Swadeshi and Boycott people. • The Bengal leaders felt that more demonstrations, The Anti-Partition Movement public meetings and revolutions were not likely • The Anti-Partition Movement was the work of the to have much effect on the rulers. entire national leadership of Bengal and not of • More positive action that would reveal the any one section. intensity of popular feelings and exhibit them at • Its most prominent leaders at the initial stage were their best was needed. moderate leaders like Surendra Nath Banerjee and • The answer was Swadeshi and Boycott. Krishna Kumar Mitra; militants and revolutionary • Mass meetings were held all over Bengal where nationalists took over in the later stages. Swadeshi or the use of Indian goods and the • In fact, both the moderate and militant nationalists boycott of British goods were proclaimed and co-operated with one another during the course pledged. of the movement. 69 • In many places public burning of foreign cloth permitted to compete for scholarships and were were organised and shops selling foreign cloth to be barred from all services under the were picketed. The Swadeshi Movement was an government. immense success. • Disciplinary action was taken against students • An important aspect of the Swadeshi Movement found guilty of participating in the nationalist was the emphasis placed on self-reliance or agitation. Many of them were fined, expelled from ‘Atmasakti’. schools and colleges, arrested and sometimes • Self-reliance meant assertion of national dignity, beaten by the police with lathis. honour and self-confidence. • A remarkable aspect of the Swadeshi agitation was • In the economic field, it meant fostering the active participation of women in the indigenous industrial and other enterprises. movement. • Many textile mills, soda and match factories, • The traditionally home-centred women of the handloom weaving concerns, national banks and urban middle classes joined processions and insurance companies were opened. picketing. From then on they were to take an active • Acharya P.C. Ray Organised his famous Bengal part in the nationalist movement. Chemical Swadeshi Stores. • Many prominent Muslims joined the Swadeshi • Even the great Rabindranath Tagore helped to Movement including Abdul Rasul, the famous open a Swadeshi store. barrister, Liaquat Hussain, the popular agitator and • The Swadeshi Movement had several Guznavi, the businessman. consequences in the realm of Culture. • Maulana Abul Kalam Azad joined one of the • There was a flowering of nationalist poetry, prose revolutionary terrorist groups. and journalism. • Many other middle and upper class Muslims, • The patriotic songs written at the time by poets however, remained neutral or, led by the Nawab like Rabindranath Tagore, Rajani Kant Sen. Syed of Dhaka (who was given a loan of Rs. 14 lakh by Abu Mohammed and Mukunda Das are sung in the Government of India), even supported Bengal to this day. Partition on the plea that East Bengal would have • Another self-reliant, constructive activity a Muslim majority. undertaken at the time was that of National • In this communal attitude, the Nawab of Dhaka Education. National Educational Institutes where and others were encouraged by the officials. literary, technical or physical education was • In a speech at Dhaka, Lord Curzon declared that imparted were opened by nationalists who one of the reasons for the partition was to invest regarded the existing system of education as the Mohammedams in Eastern Bengal with a unity denationalising and, in any case, inadequate. which they had not enjoyed since the days of the • On 15 August 1906, a National Council of old Musalman Viceroys and Kings. Education was set up. A National College with All-India Aspect of the Movement Aurobindo Ghose as Principal was started in • The cry to Swadeshi and Swaraj was soon taken Calcutta. up by other provinces of India. Role of Students, Women, Muslims and the Masses • Movements in support of Bengal’s unity and • A prominent part in the Swadeshi agitation was boycott of foreign goods were organised in played by the students of Bengal. Bombay, Madras and northern India. • They practised and propagated Swadeshi and took • The leading role in spreading the Swadeshi the lead in organising picketing of shops setting Movement to the rest of the country was played foreign cloth. by Tilak. • The government made every attempt to suppress • Tilak quickly saw that with the inauguration of the students. this movement in Bengal a new chapter in the • Orders were issued to penalise those schools and history of Indian rationalism had opened. colleges whose students took an active part in the • Here was a challenge and an opportunity to lead Swadeshi agitation; their grants-in-aid and other to a popular struggle against the British Raj and privileges were to be withdrawn, they were to be to unite the entire country in one bond of common disaffiliated, their students were not to be sympathy. 70.

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