October 16, 1905 is an important date for Bengal. The then Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon decided to divide the region in a way that the western part was home to the Hindu majority area and the eastern part for the Muslim majority.
Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa had formed a single province of British India since 1765. By 1900 the province had grown too large to handle under a single administration. East Bengal, because of isolation and poor communications, had been neglected in favour of west Bengal and Bihar. Curzon chose one of several schemes for partition: to unite Assam, which had been a part of the province until 1874, with 15 districts of east Bengal and thus form a new province with a population of 31 million. The capital was Dacca, and the people were mainly Muslim.
But by the 1900s the province had grown too large to handle under a single administration. East Bengal, because of isolation and poor communication, had been neglected in comparison to west Bengal and Bihar. Thus the partition was promoted for administrative regions.
However, it must be taken into account that Bengalis were one of the first to benefit in the area of education under the British Raj. As a result, they were also given better posts in the government. Lord Curzon, the architect of the partition, knew that splitting Bengal, would weaken their influence and divide the nationalist movement.
The Hindus of west Bengal, who controlled most of Bengal’s commerce and professional and rural life, complained that the Bengali nation would be split in two, making them a minority in a province including the whole of Bihar and Orissa. They regarded the partition as an attempt to strangle nationalism in Bengal, where it was more developed than elsewhere. Agitation against the partition included mass meetings, rural unrest, and a swadeshi (native) movement to boycott the import of British goods. The partition was carried through despite the agitation, and the extreme opposition went underground to form a terrorist movement.
When the announcement was made in July 1905, leaders in Bengal urged the people to boycott British goods. They wanted to put economic pressure on England. The movement spread like wildfire all over Bengal. Students forced shopkeepers to stop selling British goods. They also boycotted government schools and colleges.All classes of Bengali people participated in the anti-partition movement. Despite several protest meetings and campaigns against the proposal, the government remained unmoved.
October 16, 1905 was a day of national mourning. People fasted and observed a general strike. The song “ Amar Sonar Bangla”, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, was sung by many. Many were seen walking bare foot to the Ganga singing Vande mataram. Hindus and Muslims tied rakhis on each other’s hand as a symbol of unity.
The partition lasted for only about six years. But the result of it proved a thorn in the flesh to the government. The boycott blossomed into a full fledged swadeshi movement. People felt both Boycott and Swadeshi were inseparable to the anti-partition movement. The products of British industries sold widely in India caused in a severe blow to Indian handicraft and cottage industries. So, production and sale of Swadeshi goods was given importance. Though the government resorted to a reign of terror to suppress their anti-partition movement they failed to curb it.
In 1911, the year that the capital was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi, east and west Bengal were reunited; Assam again became a chief commissionership, while Bihar and Orissa were separated to form a new province. The aim was to combine appeasement of Bengali sentiment with administrative convenience. This end was achieved for a time, but the Bengali Muslims, having benefitted from partition, were angry and disappointed. This resentment remained throughout the rest of the British period. The final division of Bengal at the partitioning of the subcontinent in 1947, which split Bengal into India in the west and East Pakistan in the east, was accompanied by intense violence.
