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How was the partition of Bengal done? |
Partition of Bengal
October 16, 1905 AD; At the end of the 19th century, the Bengal province included Assam, Bihar, and Orissa.
At that time its area was 189000 square miles and its population was 80 million.
Lord Curzon apparently presented an excuse for the administrative inconvenience, but the real reason was the separation of Hindus and Muslims in order to break the growing Bengali nationalism.
On July 20, 1905, Lord Curzon announced the partition of Bengal, which came into effect on October 16, 1905. Under this, a new province was formed by joining East Bengal and Assam, which was called East Bengal.
The headquarters of East Bengal (Muslim majority) was made in Dhaka.
East Bengal (Bangla Desh)
Area - 106540 square miles
Population - 3 crore 20 lakh
Muslim population - 1 crore 80 lakh
Hindu population - 1 crore 20 lakh.
West Bengal was formed by joining the western part of Bengal and Bihar and Orissa.
West Bengal
The headquarters of West Bengal remained as before - in Calcutta (Kolkata).
In protest against the partition of Bengal, on 7 August 1905, the resolution for the dissolution of Bengal was passed in the 'Town Hall' of Calcutta.
This caused a strong reaction among the nationalists and 16 October was observed as a day of mourning in Bengal.
The use of Swadeshi and boycott of foreign goods became the main tools of this movement and it was decided that the 'boycott' would continue till the 'Partition of Bengal' was canceled.
This movement was led by Surendra Nath Banerjee, Vipin Chandrapal, and Aurobindo Ghosh.
People fasted and bathed in the Ganges and tied Rakhi to each other as a symbol of unity.
Aurobindo Ghosh (1872–1950 AD) gave inspiration to the Banga-Bhang movement through his Vande Mataram letter.
Soon the dissolution movement intensified. Its intensity was such that in 1911, the movement stopped only after the partition was annulled.
Mahatma Gandhi has written in his book Hind Swaraj that "the real awakening took place in India only after the partition of Bengal and for this, we should congratulate Lord Curzon".
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