Partition of Bengal (1947)

Partition of Bengal into East Bengal and West Bengal in 1947

Not to be confused with Partition of Bengal (1905).

Partition of Bengal, 1947Part of Partition of India

Religious distribution of Bengal - 1941 Census of India, the basis for the partition (by CIA:1981)

Location| Bengal Presidency, British India
Cause| Indian Independence Act 1947
Outcome| Bengal Presidency divided into East and West Bengal
• Hindu-majority West Bengal becomes a state of India
• Muslim-majority East Bengal becomes a province of Pakistan

Part of a series on the

History of Bengal

Ancient Kingdoms

* Pundravardhana
* Vanga
* Suhma
* Rarha
* Samatata
* Anga
* Harikela
* Pragjyotisha

Classical Dynasties

* Gangaridai
* Bhulua
* Nandas
* Mauryans
* Shungas
* Guptas
* Varmanas
* Gaudas
* Kamarupa
* Jaintia
* Gour
* Laur
* Mallabhum
* Bhadras
* Khadgas
* Palas
* Kamboja Palas
* Senas
* Chandras
* Devas
* Pratapgarh
* Taraf

Islamic Bengal

* Delhi Sultanate
* Khalji dynasty
* Mamluk dynasty
* Tughlaq dynasty
* House of Balban
* City states:
* Sonargaon
* Lakhnauti
* Satgaon
* Bengal Sultanate:
* Ilyas Shahi dynasty
* House of Ganesha
* Hussain Shahi dynasty
* Karrani dynasty
* Sur Empire
* Twelve Bhuyan Confederacy
* Kingdom of Mrauk U
* Jaintia Kingdom
* Pratapgarh Kingdom
* Koch dynasty
* Kingdom of Tripura
* Kingdom of Bhurshut
* Mughal Empire:
* Bengal Subah
* Burdwan Raj
* Rajshahi Raj
* Nadia Raj
* Bettiah Raj
* Nawabs of Bengal
* Zamindars
* Maratha expeditions in Bengal

Colonial Bengal

* Portuguese Chittagong
* Dutch Bengal
* French Bengal
* Danish Bengal
* Austrian Bengal

* British Bengal
* Battle of Plassey
* Bengal famine of 1770
* Santal Revolt
* Chuar rebellion
* Indian Mutiny of 1857
* Bihar famine of 1873–74
* Partition of Bengal (1905)
* Eastern Bengal and Assam
* Bengali Renaissance
* Bengal famine of 1943
* Direct Action Day
* Radcliffe Line
* Partition of Bengal (1947)

Post-partition era

* East Bengal/East Pakistan(1947–1971)
* East Bengali refugees
* History of East Pakistan
* 1964 East Pakistan riots
* Bengali language movement
* Bangladesh Liberation War

Modern period

* West Bengal 1947–present
* Bangladesh 1971–present

Related

* Architecture of Bengal
* History of Bengali literature
* Bangamata
* History of the taka
* Muslin trade in Bengal
* List of governors of Bengal Presidency
* Prime Minister of Bengal
* Maritime history of Bengal

* v
* t
* e

Part of a series on the

Independence of Bangladesh
Events

* Partition of Bengal
* Bengali language movement
* Six point movement
* Agartala Conspiracy Case
* Eleven Points Programme
* East Pakistan mass uprising
* Pakistani general election
* Non-cooperation movement
* 7 March Speech
* Operation Searchlight
* Proclamation of Independence

Organisations

* East Pakistan Renaissance Society
* Awami League
* United Front
* East Pakistan Communist Party
* Sarbadaliya Chhatra Sangram Parishad
* Swadhin Bangla Biplobi Parishad
* Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra

Key persons

* Abul Kalam Shamsuddin
* Habibullah Bahar Chowdhury
* Mujibur Rahman Khan
* Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
* Serajul Alam Khan
* Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
* Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani
* Ataur Rahman Khan

Related

* Lahore Resolution
* United Bengal
* Bangladesh Liberation War
* International recognition

Bangladesh portal

* v
* t
* e

The Partition of Bengal in 1947, also known as the Second Partition of Bengal, part of the Partition of India, divided the British Indian Bengal Province along the Radcliffe Line between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The Bengali Hindu-majority West Bengal became a state of India, and the Bengali Muslim-majority East Bengal (now Bangladesh) became a province of Pakistan.

On 20 June 1947, the Bengal Legislative Assembly met to decide the future of the Bengal Province, as between being a United Bengal within India or Pakistan or divided into West Bengal and East Bengal as the homelands for the Bengali Hindus and the Bengali Muslims, respectively. At the preliminary joint session, the assembly decided by 126–90 that if it remained united, it should join the new Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. Later, a separate meeting of legislators from West Bengal decided by 58–21 that the province should be partitioned and that West Bengal should join the existing Constituent Assembly of India. In another separate meeting of legislators from East Bengal, it was decided by 106–35 that the province should not be partitioned and by 107–34 that East Bengal should join Pakistan in the event of Partition.[1]

On 6 July 1947, the Sylhet referendum decided to sever Sylhet from Assam and merge it into East Bengal in order to join Pakistan.

The partition, with power transferred to Pakistan and India on 14–15 August 1947, was done according to what has come to be known as the 3 June Plan, or the Mountbatten Plan. Indian independence, on 15 August 1947, ended over 150 years of British rule and influence in the Indian subcontinent. East Pakistan became the independent country of Bangladesh after the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.

## Background

[edit]

Louis Mountbatten discusses the partition plan with Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah Entrance to the Legislative Assembly in Kolkata (Calcutta)

Since 1866, there had been discussions about splitting up the Bengal Presidency, which had grown too large to be administered effectively from Calcutta. This was the official reason given in 1905 for the first partition of Bengal.[2] However, the geography of that partition had another, political, purpose, to weaken Bengali resistance to British rule.[3][4][5][6] The partition divided the province between West Bengal, whose majority was Hindu, and East Bengal, whose majority was Muslim, but left considerable minorities of Hindus in East Bengal and Muslims in West Bengal. While the Muslims were in favour of the partition, as they would have their own province, Hindus opposed it. The controversy led to increased violence and protest, and in 1911, the provinces were again united.[7]

However, the disagreements between Hindus and Muslims in Bengal that had sparked the Partition of Bengal in 1905 remained, and laws, including the Second Partition of Bengal in 1947, were implemented to fulfil the political needs of the parties involved.[citation needed]

## Assembly resolution about partition

[edit]

According to plan, on 20 June 1947, the members of the Bengal Legislative Assembly cast three separate votes on the proposal to partition Bengal:

* In the joint session of the house, composed of all the members of the Assembly, the division of the joint session of the House stood at 126 votes against and 90 votes for partitioning of Bengal and joining the existing Constituent Assembly (India).
* The members of the Muslim-majority areas of Bengal in a separate session then passed a motion by 106–35 against partitioning Bengal and instead joining a new Constituent Assembly (Pakistan) as a whole.
* A separate meeting of the members of the non-Muslim-majority areas of Bengal then decided 58–21 to partition the province.

Under the Mountbatten Plan, a single majority vote in favour of partition by either of the notionally divided halves of the Assembly would have decided the division of the province, and hence the proceedings on 20 June resulted in the decision to partition Bengal. That set the stage for the creation of West Bengal as a province of India and East Bengal as a province of the Dominion of Pakistan.

Also in accordance with the Mountbatten Plan, a referendum held on 6 July saw the electorate of Sylhet vote to join East Bengal. Further, the Boundary Commission, headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, decided on the territorial demarcation between the two newly created provinces. Power was transferred to Pakistan and India on 14 and 15 August, respectively, under the Indian Independence Act 1947.

## Opposition to the partition

[edit]

Main article: Opposition to the partition of India

Further information: Composite nationalism, Hindu-Muslim unity, and Religious harmony in India

In Bengal, the Krishak Praja Party's Syed Habib-ul-Rahman said that partitioning India was "absurd" and "chimerical".[8]

Rezaul Karim, a Bengali Muslim leader in the Indian National Congress, was a champion of Hindu-Muslim unity and a united India.[9] He "argued that the idea that Hindus and Muslims are two distinct nations was ahistorical" and held that outside of the subcontinent, Indian Muslims faced discrimination.[9] With respect to Indian civilization, Rezaul Karim declared that "Its Vedas, its Upanishads, its Rama, Sita, its Ramayana, and Mahabharat, its Krishna and Gita, its Asoka and Akbar, its Kalidas and Amir Khusru, its Aurangzeb and Dara, its Rana Pratap and Sitaram—all are our own inheritance."[9] In 1941, Rezaul Karim published a book Pakisthan Examined with the Partition Schemes that firmly rejected the two-nation theory and opposed the division of India.[9][unreliable source?] Karim advocated for composite nationalism, with historian Neilesh Bose of the University of Victoria stating that "Rezaul Karim developed a Bengali Muslim composite nationalism that aimed to connect religion, region and nation in the context of a subjunctive, possible future India."[9]

### United Bengal plan

[edit]

H. S. Suhrawardy, the last Prime Minister of Bengal, urged a separate independent status for the whole province Sarat Chandra Bose supported the United Bengal plan

After it became apparent that the division of India on the basis of the two-nation theory would almost certainly result in the partition of Bengal along religious lines, the Bengal provincial Muslim League leader Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy came up with a new plan to create an independent Bengal state, which would join neither Pakistan nor India and remain unpartitioned. Suhrawardy realised that if Bengal was partitioned, it would be economically disastrous for East Bengal,[10] as all coal mines, all but two jute mills, and other industrial plants would certainly go to the western part since they were in overwhelmingly Hindu areas.[11] Most importantly, Calcutta, the largest city in India and an industrial and commercial hub and the largest port, would also go to the western part.[citation needed] Suhrawardy floated his idea on 27 April 1947 at a press conference in Delhi.[12]

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League, wanted an undivided Bengal outside the Dominion of India. He had told Mountbatten only the day before, "What is the use of Bengal without Calcutta; they had better remain united and independent; I am sure that they would be on friendly terms with us".[13] Opinion among the Bengal provincial Muslim League leadership was divided on the question of a United Bengal. The leader Abul Hashim supported it,[14] but Khawaja Nazimuddin, Nurul Amin and Mohammad Akram Khan opposed it.[14][15] Suhrawardy lobbied Jinnah on 15 May for his support. Shortly thereafter, opponents of the proposal also met with Jinnah.[16] In letters, he privately entertained the idea,[17] but did not publicly endorse either side.[18][19] Notwithstanding his earlier comment to Mountbatten, historians are divided as to whether he supported a United Bengal outside of Pakistan, and, if so, to what degree.[20] Bidyut Chakrabarty and Sirajul Islam wrote that Jinnah consented to or defended the scheme, perhaps believing that an independent Bengal could be a first step towards an undivided Bengal within a greater Pakistan.[21][22] Others say he either didn't support or opposed the plan.[23][24]

For the Congress, only a handful of leaders agreed to the plan, such as the influential Bengal provincial Congress leader Sarat Chandra Bose, the elder brother of Netaji and Kiran Shankar Roy. However, most other leaders and Congress leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel, rejected the plan. The nationalist Hindu Mahasabha, under the leadership of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, vehemently opposed it[25] and considered it nothing but a ploy by Suhrawardy to stop the partition of the state so that its industrial west, including the city of Kolkata, would remain under League control. It also claimed that even if the plan was for a sovereign Bengal state, it would be a virtual Pakistan, and the Hindu minority would always be at the mercy of the Muslim majority.[25][26]

Although the chance of the proposal seeing light without the Congress central committee's approval was slim, Bose and Suhrawardy continued talks to reach an agreement on the political structure of the proposed state. Like Suhrawardy, Bose also felt that partition would severely hamper Bengal's economy, and almost half of the Hindus would be left stranded in East Pakistan.[27] The agreement was published on 24 May 1947,[28] but was largely political. The proposal had little support at the grassroots level, particularly among Hindus.[29] The Muslim League's continuous propaganda for the two-nation theory during the past six years, as well as the marginalisation of Hindus in the Suhrawardy ministry and the vicious 1946 riots, which many Hindus believed to have been sponsored by the state, left little room for trust by the Bengali Hindus.[30] Soon, Bose and Suhrawardy were divided on the nature of the electorate: separate or joint. Suhrawardy insisted upon maintaining the separate electorates for Muslims and non-Muslims. Bose opposed the idea and withdrew. The lack of any other significant support by the Congress caused the United Bengal plan to be discarded.[31] Still, the relatively unknown episode marked the last attempt among Bengali Muslim and Hindu leadership to avoid Partition and to live together.

## Displacement

[edit]

### 1946–1951

[edit]

Following the partition of Bengal between the Hindu-majority West Bengal and the Muslim-majority East Bengal, there was an influx of Bengali Hindu/Bengali Muslim refugees from both sides. An estimation suggests that before the Partition, West Bengal had a population of 21.2 million, of whom 5.3 million, or roughly 25 percent, were Muslim minorities. Most of the Muslim population were native Bengali Muslims, whereas East Bengal had 39.1 million people, of whom 10.94 million or roughly 28 percent were Hindu minorities, i.e. predominantly native Bengali Hindus. Nearly 2.04 million Bengali Hindus left Pakistan's East Bengal for India's West Bengal region, and 1.72 million Bengali Muslims left India's West Bengal for Pakistan's East Bengal region immediately after the Partition because of violence and rioting resulting from mobs supporting West Bengal and East Bengal. However, most Muslims who left in 1947 returned soon after to India's West Bengal before Liaquat–Nehru Pact, which was signed in 1950.[32]

Unlike Punjab, where a full population exchange between Punjabi Muslims and Punjabi Sikhs/Punjabi Hindus during the partition happened, the same complete population exchange did not happen in Bengal (the population transfer between Bengali Hindus and Bengali Muslims was gradually slower due to the occurrence of less violence); overall it was one-sided, i.e. most of the Bengali Hindus, mainly from upper caste left East Bengal, but most of the Bengali Muslims didn't leave West Bengal.[33] During Partition, Hindu Mahasabha leader Shyama Prasad Mukherjee demanded a full exchange of population—an exchange of the Bengali Muslim population of West Bengal with that of Bengali Hindus of East Bengal—but it didn't happen due to the lack of interest of Central Government leaders of that time.[34][35] Presently, only 8 percent of Bangladesh (then East Bengal) is Hindu, whereas West Bengal is still 27 percent Muslim, compared to 25 percent at the time of Partition.[36]

### 1960

[edit]

An estimated one million Hindu refugees had entered West Bengal by 1960, and close to 700,000 Muslims left for East Pakistan. The refugee influx in Bengal was also accompanied by the fact that the government was less prepared to rehabilitate them, which resulted in huge housing and sanitation problems for the millions, most of whom were owners of large property back in East Bengal.[37]

### 1964

[edit]

During the East Pakistan riot of 1964, it is estimated, according to Indian authorities, 135,000 Hindu refugees arrived in West Bengal from East Pakistan, and the Muslims started to migrate to East Pakistan from West Bengal. According to Pakistani figures, by early April, 83,000 Muslim refugees had arrived from West Bengal.[38]

### 1971

[edit]

In 1971, during the Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan, a large group of refugees numbering an estimated 7,235,916 arrived from Bangladesh to India's West Bengal. Nearly 95% of them were Bengali Hindus, and, after the independence of Bangladesh, nearly 1,521,912 Bengali Hindu refugees decided to stay in West Bengal.[39] The Bangladeshi Hindus were mainly settled in the Nadia, North 24 Parganas, and South 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal after 1971.[40]

## Aftermath

[edit]

Before the official Radcliffe Line was drawn in 1947, these were the religious demographics in Bengal:

* Muslim-majority districts: Dinajpur, Rangpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Rajshahi, Bogra, Pabna, Mymensingh, Jessore, Nadia, Faridpur, Dhaka, Tippera, Bakerganj, Noakhali and Chittagong.
* Hindu-majority districts: Calcutta, Howrah, Hooghly, Birbhum, Burdwan, Bankura, Midnapore, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, 24 Pargan and Khulna
* Buddhist-majority district: Chittagong Hill Tract

Final division:

* Pakistan: East Dinajpur, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Bogra, Pabna, Mymensingh, Sylhet (except Karimganj), Khulna, Bakerganj, Tippera (plain Tripura), Noakhali, Chittagong, Jessore, East Nadia, Chittagong Hill Tracts.
* India: West Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Malda, Murshidabad, West Nadia, Calcutta, 24 Pargana, Burdwan, Birbhum, Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly and Karimganj district in Assam.

The second partition of Bengal left behind a legacy of violence that has continued ever since. As Bashabi Fraser put it, "There is the reality of the continuous flow of 'economic migrants'/'refugees'/'infiltrators'/'illegal immigrants' who cross over the border and pan out across the subcontinent, looking for work and a new home, settling in metropolitan centres as far off as Delhi and Mumbai, keeping the question of Partition alive today".[41]

### Displacement crisis

[edit]

Gandhi in Noakhali, 1946

A massive population transfer began immediately after partition. Millions of Hindus migrated to India from East Bengal, and most of them settled in West Bengal. A significant number even went to Assam, Tripura and other states. However, the refugee crisis was markedly different from Punjab at India's western border. Punjab had witnessed widespread communal riots immediately before partition. As a result, the population transfer in Punjab happened almost immediately after Partition, as terrified people left their homes from both sides. Within a year, the population exchange had been largely complete between East and West Punjab, but in Bengal, violence was limited to Kolkata and Noakhali. Hence, in Bengal, the migration occurred much more gradually and continued over the three decades after partition.[42][43] Although riots were limited in pre-independence Bengal, the environment was communally charged. Both Hindus in East Bengal and Muslims in West Bengal felt unsafe and had to take a crucial decision on whether to leave for an uncertain future in another country or to stay in subjugation under the other community.[44] Among Hindus in East Bengal, those who were better placed economically left first. Government employees were given a chance to swap their posts between India and Pakistan. The educated urban upper and middle classes, the rural gentry, traders, businessmen and artisans left for India soon after partition. They often had relatives and other connections in West Bengal and settled with less difficulty. Muslims followed a similar pattern. The urban and educated upper and middle classes left for East Bengal first.[45]

However, poorer Hindus in East Bengal, most of whom are Dalits found it much more difficult to migrate. Their only property was immovable land holdings. Many sharecroppers had no skills other than farming. As a result, most of them decided to stay in East Bengal. However, the political climate in Pakistan deteriorated soon after partition, and communal violence started to rise. In 1950, severe riots occurred in Barisal and other places in East Pakistan, causing a further exodus of Hindus. The situation was vividly described by Jogendra Nath Mandal's resignation letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. Mandal was a dalit leader and despite being of a depressed class, he supported the Muslim League as a protest to the subjugation of lower-castes by their higher-caste coreligionists.[46] He fled to India and resigned from his cabinet minister's post. For the next two decades, Hindus left East Bengal whenever communal tensions flared up or the relationship between India and Pakistan deteriorated, as in 1964. The situation of the Hindu minority in East Bengal reached its worst in the months preceding and during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, when the Pakistani Army systematically targeted ethnic Bengalis, regardless of religious background, as part of Operation Searchlight.

In independent Bangladesh, state-sponsored discrimination of Hindus largely stopped. However, like India, the two communities' relationship remains tense and occasional communal violence occurred, such as in the aftermath of Babri Mosque demolition.

Though Muslims in post-independence West Bengal faced some discrimination[citation needed], it was unlike the state-sponsored discrimination faced by the Hindus in East Bengal. Most Hindus fled from East Bengal, but Muslims largely stayed on in West Bengal. Over the years, however, the community became ghettoised and was socially and economically segregated from the majority community.[47] West Bengali Muslims are highly marginalised, as can be seen from social indicators like literacy and per capita income.[48]

Apart from West Bengal, thousands of Bihari Muslims also settled in East Bengal. They had suffered terribly in severe riots before partition. However, they supported West Pakistan during the Liberation War and were subsequently denied citizenship in independent Bangladesh. Most of the Bihari refugees have remained stateless.

#### Statistics

[edit]

The 1951 census in India recorded 2.523 million refugees from East Bengal, 2.061 million of whom settled in West Bengal. The rest went to Assam, Tripura and other states.[49] By 1973, their number reached over 6 million. The following table shows the major waves of refugee influx and the incident that caused it.[50][note 1]

Year | Reason | Number in lakhs

|
|

1947 | Partition | 3.44
1948 | Hyderabad annexation by India | 7.86
1956 | Pakistan becomes an Islamic Republic | 3.20
1964 | Riots over Hazratbal incident | 6.93
1971 | Bangladesh Liberation War | 15

The 1951 census in Pakistan recorded 671,000 refugees in East Bengal, the majority of whom came from West Bengal. The rest were from Bihar.[49] By 1961, the numbers reached 850,000. Crude estimates suggest that about 1.5 million Muslims migrated from West Bengal and Bihar to East Bengal in the two decades after partition.[51]

#### Government response

[edit]

In Punjab, the Indian government anticipated a population transfer and was ready to take proactive measures. Land plots that were evacuated by Muslims were allotted to incoming Hindu and Sikh refugees.[citation needed] The government allocated substantial resources for the rehabilitation of refugees in Punjab. In contrast, there was no such planning in the eastern part of the country. Neither the central nor the West Bengal state governments anticipated any large-scale population exchange, and no co-ordinated policy was in place to rehabilitate millions of homeless people. The newly independent country had few resources, and the central government was exhausted in resettling 7 million refugees in Punjab. Instead of providing rehabilitation, the Indian government tried to stop and even to reverse the refugee influx from East Bengal. India and Pakistan signed the Liaquat–Nehru Pact in 1950 to stop any further population exchange between West and East Bengal.[43][52] Even after it became clear that refugees were determined not to be sent back, the central government failed to provide any significant assistance.[53] The government policy of East Bengal refugee rehabilitation mostly consisted of sending them to empty areas, mostly outside of West Bengal. One of the most controversial schemes was the government's decision to settle the refugees by force in Dandakaranya, a barren plot of land in Central India.[54]

#### Social impact

[edit]

Without the government's assistance, the refugees often settled themselves. Some found jobs in factories. Many took small businesses and hawking. Numerous refugee colonies sprang up in Nadia, 24 Paraganas and Kolkata's suburbs. It has been argued recently that the refugees facilitated an incremental urbanization without accumulation, in the frontiers of Calcutta. The process has been termed as 'urbanization with de-accumulation'.[55]

#### Tripura's tribal insurgency

[edit]

Main article: Insurgency in Northeast India § Tripura

The princely state of Tripura had a predominantly-tribal population, but educated Bengalis were welcomed by the King and were prominent in the state's administration in pre-independence India. However, after partition, thousands of Bengali Hindus migrated to Tripura, which changed the state's demography completely. Tripura's tribes became a minority in their own homeland and lost their land holdings. As a result, a tribal insurgency began, causing violent riots among tribes and Bengalis in 1980. A low-scale insurgency has continued ever since.[56]

Many Bengalis migrated from East Bengal side during Partition and the Liberation War, but half of the Bengali community of Tripura has lived in Tripura for hundreds of years, according to the 1901 census report, which clearly stated that Bengali and Tripura had numbers that were almost equal.

### Economic impact

[edit]

#### West Bengal

[edit]

Radcliffe's line split Bengal, which had always historically been a single economic, cultural and ethnic (Bengali-Hindu or Bengali-Muslim) zone, into two halves. Both halves were intricately connected. The fertile East produced food and raw materials, which the West consumed, and the industrialised West produced manufactured goods, which were consumed by the East. According to the POV, this was either considered an exploitative or a mutually beneficial trade and exchange. This was, naturally, severely disrupted by Partition. Rail, road and water communication routes were severed between them.

After Partition, West Bengal suffered from a substantial food shortage as the fertile rice-producing districts went to East Bengal. The shortage continued into the 1950s and the 1960s. By 1959, West Bengal faced an annual food shortage of 950,000 tones. Hunger marches became a common sight in Kolkata.[57]

Prafulla Chandra Ghosh (left), the first chief minister of West Bengal, with Mohammad Ali of Bogra

Jute was the largest industry in Bengal at Partition. The Radcliffe Line left every single jute mill in West Bengal but four fifths of the jute-producing land in East Bengal. The best-quality fibre yielding breeds of jute were cultivated mostly in East Bengal. India and Pakistan initially agreed to a trade agreement to import raw jute from East Bengal for West Bengal's mills. However, Pakistan had plans to set up its own mills and put restrictions on raw jute export to India. West Bengal's mills faced an acute shortage, and the industry faced a crisis.[58] On the other hand, jute farmers in East Bengal were now without a market to sell their produce. Exporting jute to West Bengal suddenly became an anti-national act for Pakistan. Smuggling of raw jute shot up across the border,[59] but West Bengal rapidly increased jute production and in the mid-to-late 1950s became largely self-sufficient in jute.[60] West Bengal's mills became less dependent on East Bengal for raw materials. Pakistan also set up new factories to process its local produce instead of exporting to India.[61] The following table shows jute production details in both countries in 1961:[60]

Year 1961 | Area Harvested (Ha) | Yield (Hg/Ha) | Production (tonnes)

|
|
|

East Pakistan | 834000 | 15761 | 1314540
India | 917000 | 12479 | 1144400

West Bengal's paper and leather industry faced similar problems. The paper mills used East Bengal's bamboo, and the tanneries consumed leather, which was also mainly produced in East Bengal. Like jute, the lack of raw materials pushed both industries into decline.[62]

The pressure of millions of refugees, food shortages and industrial decline after independence put West Bengal in a severe crisis.[63] Dr. B. C. Roy's government tried to cope with the situation by initiating several projects. The government built irrigation schemes such as the Mayurakshi project and undertook construction of the Durgapur Steel Plant, but they failed to arrest West Bengal's decline.[64] Poverty rose, and West Bengal lost its top place and lagged well behind other Indian states in industrial development. Massive political unrest, strikes and violence crippled the state for the three decades after Partition.[65]

#### North East India

[edit]

Rail and road links connecting North East India to the rest of the country passed through East Bengal territory. The lines connecting Siliguri in North Bengal to Kolkata and Assam to Chittagong were severed. The whole Assam Railway was cut off from the rest of the Indian system.[66] Those lines carried almost all freight traffic from those regions. The most important commodities were tea and timber. The tea industry in Assam depended on the Chittagong Port to export its produce and import raw materials for the industry, such as coal, which was used as the fuel to dry the tea leaves. The industry was severely hit, as Chittagong went to Pakistan. Initially, India and Pakistan reached an agreement to allow cross-border transit traffic, but India now had to pay a tariff. By 1950, India had reconnected Assam to the rest of the country's rail network by building a 229 km meter gauge rail link through the Siliguri Corridor,[66] but now the Tea chests from Assam's gardens would have to be carried over a much longer distance to reach the Port of Kolkata. Exporting tea via the nearby Chittagong port was still an option, but after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, all transit traffic was switched off by Pakistan.[67]

East Pakistan became independent Bangladesh in 1971, but cross-border railway traffic did not resume until 2003. By the 1990s, India upgraded the Assam rail link to 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) broad gauge up to Dibrugarh, thereby easing the traffic problem in the Brahmaputra Valley region, but the southern section of the area, which comprises Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Barak valley of Assam, still faces serious connectivity problems. Talks between both countries are underway to allow transit traffic between the area and Mainland India through Bangladesh. In 2023, a new cross-border rail line through Bangladesh connecting Tripura to Kolkata was established, with the aim of reducing travel time to 12 hours.[68]

#### East Bengal

[edit]

Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin, the first chief minister of East Bengal

At Partition, East Bengal had no large industry. There were few mineral resources in this region. Its economy was completely agrarian. The main produce was food grains and other crops, jute, bamboo, leather and fish. The raw materials were consumed by factories in and around Kolkata. Kolkata was the centre of Bengal's economic and social development for both Hindus and Muslims. All large industries, military bases and government offices, and most of the institutions of higher education were in Kolkata.[citation needed] Without Kolkata, East Bengal was decapitated.[69] It lost its traditional market for agricultural products. It also lost Kolkata, the most important port of the country. East Bengal had to begin from nothing. Dhaka was then only a district headquarters. Government offices had to be placed inside makeshift buildings. Dhaka also faced a severe human resource crisis. The majority of high-ranking officers in British Indian administration were Hindu and migrated to West Bengal. Often, the posts had to be filled up by West Pakistani officers. Desperately poor, East Bengal soon became politically dominated by West Pakistan. Economic disparities and subjugation of Bengalis by the Punjabi elite eventually led to a struggle for separation in 1971.

## In popular culture

[edit]

Chinnamul (The Uprooted), a 1950 Bengali film directed by Nemai Ghosh, first dealt with the theme of the partition of Bengal. This was followed by Ritwik Ghatak's trilogy, Meghe Dhaka Tara (Cloud-covered Stars) (1960), Komal Gandhar (1961), and Subarnarekha (1962), all dealing with the aftermath of the partition.[70] Deepa Mehta's (2012) film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's (1981) novel Midnight's Children captures the uncertainty of partition in both the Punjab and Bengal context, subsequent violence, the transition of independent India and Pakistan stripped of British rule, and the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 from West Pakistan. The film Rajkahini (2015), directed by Srijit Mukherji is based on the theme of the partition of Bengal in 1947. Tanvir Mokammel's (2017) documentary Seemantorekha (The Borderline) "documents the journey of four individuals to their erstwhile homes in Bangladesh and West Bengal".[71]

There are other contemporary films as well that capture the aftermath of partition, however, mostly set in the context of Punjab and other parts of the subcontinent. Notably, Chandraprakash Dwivedi's (2003) period drama titled Pinjar, based on the Punjabi novel of the same name by Amrita Pritam, portrays the horrors of partition, communal violence, and the predicament of women during the years preceding and succeeding 1947. The film Manto (2018), directed by Nandita Das on the life of the Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto portrayed the impact of partition, mass displacement, and communal violence in the northern and western parts of the Indian subcontinent. The web series Jubliee (2023), created by Vikramaditya Motwane and Soumik Sen, featuring Prosenjit Chatterjee, Aparshakti Kurana, and Aditi Rao Hydari depicted the partition of India and its impact on cities like Lucknow and Bombay with communal riots and mass frenzy.

## See also

[edit]

* Bengali Hindu Homeland Movement
* Bengali Hindus in Assam
* Greater Bengal
* India–Bangladesh enclaves
* The Partition Museum, Amritsar
* The 1947 Partition Archive

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ During the Bangladesh Liberation War, 11 million people from both communities took shelter in India. After the war 1.5 million decided to stay.[43]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Bose 1986, p. 230.
2. ^ Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (2004). From Plassey to Partition: A history of modern India. Orient Longman. pp. 251–253\. ISBN 81-250-2596-0.
3. ^ Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (2004). From Plassey to Partition: A history of modern India. Orient Longman. p. 253\. ISBN 81-250-2596-0.
4. ^ Schendel, Willem van (2009). A History of Bangladesh. Cambridge University Press. p. 79\. ISBN 978-0-521-86174-8.
5. ^ Lewis, David (2011). Bangladesh: politics, economics, and civil society. Cambridge University Press. p. 54\. ISBN 978-0-521-88612-3.
6. ^ Hardiman, David (2018). The Nonviolent Struggle for Indian Freedom, 1905-19. Oxford University Press. p. 23\. ISBN 978-0-19-092067-8.
7. ^ Baxter 1997, pp. 39–40: "The new province had a Muslim majority of about three to two... The partition was widely welcomed by Muslims and sharply condemned by Hindus. Hindu opposition was expressed in many forms, ranging from boycott of British goods to revolutionary activities.... protests eventually bore fruit, and the partition was annulled in 1911."
8. ^ Singh, Kewal (1991). Partition and aftermath: memoirs of an ambassador. New Delhi: Vikas Pub. House. p. 30\. ISBN 978-0-7069-5811-9.
9. ^ a b c d e Salim, Saquib; Khosa, Aasha (2022). "Rezaul Karim fought against the Partition of India". Awaz The Voice.
10. ^ Tripathi 1998, p. 87.
11. ^ Chakrabarty 2004, p. 138.
12. ^ Chakrabarty 2004, p. 132.
13. ^ Jalal 1994, p. 265.
14. ^ a b Chakrabarty 2004, p. 135.
15. ^ Jalal 1994, p. 266: "The president of the Bengal League, Maulana Akram Khan, publicly rejected any notion of a Bengali nation in which Muslims and Hindus would share power.... The speaker of the Bengal assembly, Noorul Amin, was confident that he could become the chief minister of east Bengal and so wanted partition".
16. ^ Sen 1976, pp. 236–237.
17. ^ Franda 1970, p. 594.
18. ^ Harun-or-Rashid 2003, p. 286.
19. ^ Shamshad 2017, p. 126.
20. ^ Ullah 2013, p. 86.
21. ^ Chakrabarty 2004, pp. 138–139.
22. ^ Islam 1992, pp. 412, 419.
23. ^ McDermott et al. 2014, p. 838.
24. ^ Mahmood 1972, p. 248.
25. ^ a b Chakrabarty 2004, pp. 140–147.
26. ^ Tripathi 1998, p. 86.
27. ^ Chakrabarty 2004, p. 142.
28. ^ Chakrabarty 2004, p. 141.
29. ^ Chakrabarty 2004, p. 149.
30. ^ Tripathi 1998, pp. 86, 186.
31. ^ Chakrabarty 2004, p. 143.
32. ^ Kamal, Nahid (2009). The Population Trajectories of Bangladesh and West Bengal During the Twentieth Century: A Comparative Study (PDF) (PhD thesis). London School of Economics.
33. ^ "Nothing new in persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh: This time we are talking about it openly and firmly". Firstpost (Opinion). 18 October 2021.
34. ^ "Calcutta's Muslims after Partition". The Daily Star. 14 February 2022.
35. ^ "The Nehru-Liaquat Pact failed refugees from Bangladesh – but so would the Citizenship Bill". Scroll.in. 11 December 2019.
36. ^ "The Partition of Bengal & Assam".
37. ^ "Voices of Partition: A Dhaka Hindu and a Kolkata Muslim recount what Independence meant to them". The Indian Express. 15 August 2017. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
38. ^ Brady, Thomas F. (5 April 1964). "Moslem-Hindu Violence Flares Again". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
39. ^ "When Indira Gandhi said: Refugees of all religions must go back – Watch video". Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
40. ^ "Why Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh are a key component of the BJP's West Bengal expansion strategy". Scroll.in. 10 August 2017. Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
41. ^ Fraser 2006, p. 40.
42. ^ Chatterji 2007, p. 111.
43. ^ a b c "A home... far from home?". The Hindu. 30 July 2000. Archived from the original on 5 March 2007.
44. ^ Chatterji 2007, pp. 107–108, 110–111.
45. ^ Chatterji 2007, pp. 115, 168–169.
46. ^ Chakrabarty 2004, p. 113.
47. ^ Chatterji 2007, p. 181.
48. ^ Rajinder Sachar (2006). Sachar Committee Report (PDF) (Report). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 January 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
49. ^ a b Hill et al. 2005, p. 13.
50. ^ Chatterji 2007, p. 112.
51. ^ Chatterji 2007, p. 166.
52. ^ Chatterji 2007, pp. 128–130.
53. ^ Chatterji 2007, p. 128.
54. ^ Chatterji 2007, pp. 135–136.
55. ^ Bandyopadhyay, Ritajyoti (2022). Streets in Motion: The Making of Infrastructure, Property, and Political Culture in Twentieth-century Calcutta. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-009-10920-8. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
56. ^ Manorama Yearbook 1998
57. ^ Chatterji 2007, pp. 244–245.
58. ^ Chatterji 2007, p. 240.
59. ^ Schendel 2005, pp. 158–159.
60. ^ a b "Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations". Archived from the original on 19 June 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
61. ^ Schendel 2005, p. 159.
62. ^ Chatterji 2007, pp. 241–242.
63. ^ Chatterji 2007, p. 251.
64. ^ Chatterji 2007, pp. 255–256.
65. ^ Chatterji 2007, pp. 238–239, 296, 313.
66. ^ a b "History of Indian railways". Archived from the original on 21 June 2019. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
67. ^ Schendel 2005, p. 150.
68. ^ "Explained: How New India-Bangladesh Rail Link Will Bring Northeast Closer". NDTV News.
69. ^ Jalal 1994, p. 3: "Stripped of Calcutta and western Bengal, eastern Bengal was reduced to the status of an over-populated rural slum."
70. ^ Roy & Bhatia 2008, pp. 66–68.
71. ^ Mukhopadhyay, Sumallya (2021). "Memories of the 1947 Bengal Partition and Its Aftermath: Tanvir Mokammel's Seemantorekha". Studies in People's History. 8 (1): 135–146\. doi:10.1177/2348448921999039. S2CID 235337005.

## Sources

[edit]

* Baxter, Craig (1997). Bangladesh: From a Nation to a State. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-2854-3.
* Bose, Sugata (1986). Agrarian Bengal: Economy, Social Structure and Politics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-30448-1.
* Chakrabarty, Bidyut (2004). The Partition of Bengal and Assam, 1932-1947: Contour of Freedom. RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-415-32889-6. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
* Chatterji, Joya (2007). The Spoils of Partition: Bengal and India, 1947–1967. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-46830-5.
* Franda, Marcus F. (July 1970). "Communism and Regional Politics in East Pakistan". Asian Survey. 10 (7): 588–606\. doi:10.2307/2642957. JSTOR 2642957.
* Fraser, Bashabi (2006). Bengal Partition Stories: An Unclosed Chapter. New York: Anthem Press. ISBN 978-1-84331-299-4.
* Harun-or-Rashid (2003). The Foreshadowing of Bangladesh: Bengal Muslim League and Muslim Politics, 1906-1947 (Rev. and enl. ed.). Dhaka: The University Press. ISBN 984-05-1688-4.
* Hill, K.; Seltzer, W.; Leaning, J.; Malik, S. J.; Russell, S. S. (2005). The Demographic Impact of Partition: Bengal in 1947. International Union for the Scientific Study of Population XXV International Population Conference, Tours, France, 18–23 July 2005. pp. 1–25\. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 September 2006. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
* Islam, Sirajul, ed. (1992). History of Bangladesh: 1704 - 1971. Dhaka: Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN 984-512-337-6.
* Jalal, Ayesha (1994) [First published 1985]. The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-24462-6.
* Mahmood, Safdar (1972). A Political Study of Pakistan. Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf. OCLC 12188985.
* McDermott, Rachel Fell; Gordon, Leonard A.; Embree, Ainslie T.; Pritchett, Frances W.; Dalton, Dennis, eds. (2014). Sources of Indian Traditions (3rd ed.). Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13830-7.
* Roy, Anjali Gera; Bhatia, Nandi (2008). Partitioned lives : narratives of home, displacement, and resettlement. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley (India). ISBN 9788131714164. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
* Schendel, Willem van (2005). The Bengal Borderland: Beyond State and Nation in South Asia. Anthem Press. ISBN 978-1-84331-145-4.
* Sen, Shila (1976). Muslim Politics in Bengal, 1937-1947. New Delhi: Impex India. OCLC 2799332.
* Shamshad, Rizwana (2017). Bangladeshi Migrants in India: Foreigners, Refugees, or Infiltrators?. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-947641-1.
* Tripathi, Amales (1998). স্বাধীনতার মুখ [Svādhīnatāra mukha] (in Bengali). Ananda Publishers. ISBN 9788172157814.
* Ullah, Asma Zia (2013). "Abul Hashim: The Unsung Hero of the Freedom Movement". Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies. 5 (2).
* Chattopadhyay, Subhasis (2016). "Review of Bengal Partition Stories: An Unclosed Chapter edited by Bashabi Fraser". Prabuddha Bharata or Awakened India. 121 (9): 670–672\. ISSN 0032-6178. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
* Harun-or-Rashid (2012). "Suhrawardy, Huseyn Shaheed". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
* Harun-or-Rashid (2012). "Partition of Bengal, 1947". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 2 July 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
* Tan, Tai Yong; Kudaisya, Gyanesh (2000). The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-17297-7.
* Prasad, Rajendra (1947). India Divided (3 ed.). Bombay: Hind Kitabs.
* Hashim S. Raza Mountbatten and the partition of India. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 1989. ISBN 81-7156-059-8
* Singh, J. J. (15 June 1947). "Partition of India: British Proposal Said to be Only Feasible Plan Now". The New York Times (Letter to editor). p. E8.
* Pandey, Gyanendra (2001). Remembering Partition: Violence, Nationalism, and History in India. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00250-8.
* Mookerjea-Leonard, Debali. (2017). Literature, Gender, and the Trauma of Partition: The Paradox of Independence London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1138183100

* v
* t
* e

Indian independence movement

History|

* Colonisation
* Porto Grande de Bengala
* Dutch Bengal
* East India Company
* British Raj
* French India
* Portuguese India
* Battle of Plassey
* Battle of Buxar
* Anglo-Mysore Wars
* First
* Second
* Third
* Fourth
* Anglo-Maratha Wars
* First
* Second
* Third
* Gwalior
* Polygar Wars
* Vellore Mutiny
* First Anglo-Sikh War
* Second Anglo-Sikh War
* Sannyasi rebellion
* Rebellion of 1857
* Radcliffe Line
* more

Philosophies
and ideologies|

* Ambedkarism
* Gandhism
* Hindu nationalism
* Indian nationalism
* Khilafat Movement
* Muslim nationalism in South Asia
* Satyagraha
* Socialism
* Swadeshi movement
* Swaraj

Events and
movements|

* Partition of Bengal (1905)
* Partition of Bengal (1947)
* Revolutionaries
* Direct Action Day
* Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy
* The Indian Sociologist
* Singapore Mutiny
* Hindu–German Conspiracy
* Champaran Satyagraha
* Kheda Satyagraha
* Rowlatt Committee
* Rowlatt Bills
* Jallianwala Bagh massacre
* Noakhali riots
* Non-cooperation movement
* Christmas Day Plot
* Coolie-Begar movement
* Chauri Chaura incident, 1922
* Kakori conspiracy
* Qissa Khwani massacre
* Flag Satyagraha
* Bardoli
* 1928 Protests
* Nehru Report
* Fourteen Points of Jinnah
* Purna Swaraj
* Salt March
* Dharasana Satyagraha
* Vedaranyam March
* Chittagong armoury raid
* Gandhi–Irwin Pact
* Round table conferences
* Act of 1935
* Aundh Experiment
* Indian Legion
* Cripps Mission
* Quit India
* Bombay Mutiny
* Royal Air Force strikes
* Coup d'état of Yanaon
* Provisional Government of India
* Independence Day
* Praja Mandala movement
* Lucknow Pact

Organisations|

* All India Kisan Sabha
* All-India Muslim League
* Anushilan Samiti
* Arya Samaj
* Azad Hind
* Berlin Committee
* Ghadar Movement
* Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
* Indian National Congress
* India House
* Indian Home Rule movement
* Indian Independence League
* Indian National Army
* Jugantar
* Khaksar movement
* Khudai Khidmatgar
* Swaraj Party
* more

Social
reformers|

* Ashfaqulla Khan
* A. Vaidyanatha Iyer
* Ayya Vaikundar
* Ayyankali
* B. R. Ambedkar
* Baba Amte
* Bal Gangadhar Tilak
* Dayananda Saraswati
* Dhondo Keshav Karve
* G. Subramania Iyer
* Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty
* Gopal Ganesh Agarkar
* Gopal Hari Deshmukh
* Gopaldas Ambaidas Desai
* Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
* J. B. Kripalani
* Jyotirao Phule
* Kandukuri Veeresalingam
* Mahadev Govind Ranade
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Muthulakshmi Reddy
* Narayana Guru
* Niralamba Swami
* Pandita Ramabai
* Periyar
* Ram Mohan Roy
* Rettamalai Srinivasan
* Sahajanand Saraswati
* Savitribai Phule
* Shahu
* Sister Nivedita
* Sri Aurobindo
* Syed Ahmad Khan
* Vakkom Moulavi
* Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
* Vinoba Bhave
* Vitthal Ramji Shinde
* Vivekananda

Independence
activists|

* Abul Kalam Azad
* Accamma Cherian
* Achyut Patwardhan
* A. K. Fazlul Huq
* Alluri Sitarama Raju
* Annapurna Maharana
* Annie Besant
* Ashfaqulla Khan
* Babu Kunwar Singh
* Bagha Jatin
* Bahadur Shah II
* Bakht Khan
* Bal Gangadhar Tilak
* Basawon Singh
* Begum Hazrat Mahal
* Bhagat Singh
* Bharathidasan
* Bhavabhushan Mitra
* Bhikaiji Cama
* Bhupendra Kumar Datta
* Bidhan Chandra Roy
* Bipin Chandra Pal
* C. Rajagopalachari
* Chandra Shekhar Azad
* Chetram Jatav
* Chittaranjan Das
* Dadabhai Naoroji
* Dayananda Saraswati
* Dhan Singh
* Dukkipati Nageswara Rao
* Gopal Krishna Gokhale
* Govind Ballabh Pant
* Har Dayal
* Hemu Kalani
* Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi
* Jatindra Mohan Sengupta
* Jatindra Nath Das
* Jawaharlal Nehru
* K. Kamaraj
* Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi
* Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
* Khudiram Bose
* Shri Krishna Singh
* Lala Lajpat Rai
* M. Bhaktavatsalam
* M. N. Roy
* Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi
* Mahadaji Shinde
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Mangal Pandey
* Mir Qasim
* Mithuben Petit
* Mohammad Ali Jauhar
* Muhammad Ali Jinnah
* Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari
* Nagnath Naikwadi
* Nana Fadnavis
* Nana Saheb
* P. Kakkan
* Prafulla Chaki
* Pritilata Waddedar
* Purushottam Das Tandon
* Rafi Ahmed Kidwai
* R. Venkataraman
* Rahul Sankrityayan
* Rajendra Prasad
* Ram Prasad Bismil
* Rani Lakshmibai
* Rash Behari Bose
* Sahajanand Saraswati
* Sangolli Rayanna
* Sarojini Naidu
* Satyapal Dang
* Shuja-ud-Daula
* Shyamji Krishna Varma
* Sibghatullah Shah Rashidi
* Siraj ud-Daulah
* Subhas Chandra Bose
* Subramania Bharati
* Subramaniya Siva
* Surya Sen
* Syama Prasad Mukherjee
* Tara Rani Srivastava
* Tarak Nath Das
* Tatya Tope
* Tiruppur Kumaran
* Ubaidullah Sindhi
* V. O. Chidamabaram
* V. K. Krishna Menon
* Vallabhbhai Patel
* Vanchinathan
* Veeran Sundaralingam
* Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
* Virendranath Chattopadhyaya
* Yashwantrao Holkar
* Yogendra Shukla
* more

British leaders|

* Wavell
* Canning
* Cornwallis
* Irwin
* Chelmsford
* Curzon
* Ripon
* Minto
* Dalhousie
* Bentinck
* Mountbatten
* Wellesley
* Lytton
* Clive
* Outram
* Cripps
* Linlithgow
* Hastings

Independence|

* Cabinet Mission
* Constitution
* Republic of India
* Indian annexation of Goa
* Indian Independence Act
* Partition of India
* Political integration
* Simla Conference

* v
* t
* e

Bangladesh articles

History|

* Timeline
* Outline
* Topics:
* Bengal
* Aviation
* Literature
* Military
* Maritime
* Postal
* Rulers
* Cyclones
* Years

| Ancient|

* Vedic period
* Anga
* Vanga
* Pundra
* Suhma kingdom
* Magadha
* Pradyota
* Shaishunaga
* Nanda
* Gangaridai
* Maurya Empire
* Shunga Empire
* Kanva dynasty
* Gupta Empire

|

Classical and Medieval|

* Founding kingdom:
* Gauda Kingdom
* Classical empires:
* Pala
* Kamboja
* Sena
* Sultanates:
* Islamic rulers
* Delhi Sultanate
* Khalji dynasty
* Bengal Sultanate
* Sur Empire
* Baro-Bhuyan
* Mughal period:
* Bengal Subah
* Nawabs of Bengal
* Battle of Plassey

Colonial and Pakistan era|

* Portuguese Bengala
* British Bengal:
* Famine of 1770
* Sepoy Rebellion
* Bengal Renaissance
* Partition of Bengal (1905)
* Prime Minister of Bengal
* Lahore Resolution
* Famine of 1943
* Direct Action Day
* Partition of Bengal (1947)
* East Pakistan:
* Language Movement
* Legislative election in 1954
* Six point movement
* 1969 Uprising
* General election in 1970
* Proclamation of Independence
* Bangladesh Liberation War:
* Provisional Government
* Genocide
* Rape
* Timeline

Republic of Bangladesh|

* Famine of 1974
* Military coups
* 1975
* 1981
* 1982
* 1990 Uprising
* Political crisis in 2006–08
* Bangladesh Rifles revolt
* Battle of Begums
* Protests in 2013
* Student–People's uprising
* Quota reform movement
* Non-cooperation movement
* Massacre

Regional|

* Chittagong
* Dhaka
* Jessore
* Noakhali
* Rangpur
* Sylhet

Geography|

* Administrative:
* Divisions
* Districts
* Sub-districts
* Cities and towns
* Borders
* Nature:
* Islands
* Lakes
* Mountains
* National parks
* Rivers
* Places:
* Bay of Bengal
* Bengal Fan
* Chittagong Hill Tracts
* Cox's Bazar
* Ganges Basin
* Ganges Delta
* Hatirjheel
* Sundarbans
* World Heritage Sites

Politics|

| Government|

* Executive:
* President
* List
* Prime Minister
* List
* Cabinet
* Elections:
* Election Commission
* General elections
* Presidential elections
* Political parties
* Foreign relations
* Foreign policies
* Jatiya Sangsad (parliament):
* Constituencies
* Speaker
* Local government:
* City corporations
* Municipalities
* Upazila Parishads
* Union councils
* Law:
* Constitution
* Supreme Court
* High Court Division
* International Crimes Tribunal
* Chief Justice
* Attorney General
* Human rights:
* Forced disappearance
* Freedom of religion
* LGBT rights
* Women

|

Military and enforcement|

* Armed Forces:
* Army
* Navy
* Air Force
* Paramilitary:
* Border Guard
* Coast Guard
* Ansar
* Village Defence Party
* President Guard Regiment
* Special Security Force

* Intelligence:
* NSI
* DGFI
* CTIB
* Special Branch
* Police:
* APBn
* CID
* CTTC
* PBI
* RAB
* SPBn

Economy|

* Bangladesh Planning Commission
* Industries:
* Automotive
* Ceramics
* Electronics
* Food
* Pharmaceutical
* Textile
* Shipbuilding
* Steel
* Tea production
* Finance sectors:
* Banking
* Bangladesh Bank (central bank)
* Bangladeshi taka (currency)
* Financial system
* Stock Exchange:
* Chittagong
* Dhaka
* 2011 scam
* Energy and resources:
* Energy policy
* Electricity
* Natural gas and petroleum
* Nuclear energy
* Renewable energy
* Export Processing Zones
* Agriculture:
* Rice
* Poultry
* Fishing
* Forestry
* Tourism
* Poverty
* Infrastructure:
* Post
* Telecommunications
* Real estate
* Water supply and sanitation
* Transport:
* Airports
* Airlines
* Railway
* Roads
* Ports

Society|

| Demographics|

* Ethnic groups
* Bangladeshis
* Bengalis
* Names
* Crime
* Corruption
* Human trafficking
* Terrorism
* Education
* Schools
* Universities
* Health
* Hunger
* Religion
* Society

|

Culture|

* Architecture
* Bangaliana
* Baul
* Bangladeshi nationalism
* Bengalization
* Calendars
* Cinema
* Cuisine
* Language
* Bengal studies
* Literature
* Music
* Public holidays
* Sports
* Traditional
* Theatre
* Radio stations
* Television
* Sexuality
* Marriage

Symbols|

* Amar Shonar Bangla
* Bangamata
* Bengal fire
* Bengal tiger
* Bungalow
* Flag
* Government Seal
* Ilish
* Jackfruit
* Kabaddi
* Bengal cat
* Mango tree
* National Emblem
* National Martyrs' Memorial
* Notuner Gaan
* Oriental magpie-robin
* Water lily
* Inventions and discoveries

* Outline
* Index

* Category
* Portal

* v
* t
* e

Pakistan Movement

History of Pakistan (timeline: 1947–present)

History|

* East India Company
* Indian Rebellion of 1857
* Deobandi movement
* Barelvi movement
* Aligarh Movement
* Urdu movement
* Partition of Bengal
* Lucknow Pact
* Khilafat Movement
* Shuddhi movement
* Nehru Report
* Fourteen Points of Jinnah
* Allahabad Address
* Now or Never pamphlet
* World War II
* Two-nation theory
* Round Table Conferences
* Lahore Resolution
* Direct Action Day
* Muslim nationalism in South Asia
* Cabinet Mission
* Indian Independence Act
* Partition of India
* Partition of Bengal
* Partition of Punjab
* Radcliffe Line
* Durand Line
* Objectives Resolution
* Independence
* Monarchy of Pakistan
* Pakistan Day
* Kashmir conflict
* National symbols
* Constitution of Pakistan
* British influence
* Protestant Islam

The leaders of the Muslim League, 1940. Jinnah is seated at centre.
Flag of Pakistan
State emblem of Pakistan

Organisations|

* Muslim League
* Punjab Branch
* Bengal Branch
* Unionist
* Student Federations
* Khaksar movement
* Renaissance Society
* Philosophical Congress
* Print media
* Dawn
* Daily Jang
* Nawa-i-waqt
* Contractor

Leaders|

* Sir Syed Ahmad Khan
* Aga Khan III
* Khwaja Salimullah (Nawab Salimullah)
* Syed Ameer Ali
* Mohammad Ali Jauhar
* Maulana Shaukat Ali
* Hakim Ajmal Khan
* Muhammad Iqbal
* Muhammad Ali Jinnah
* Fatima Jinnah
* Liaquat Ali Khan
* Sadeq Mohammad Khan V
* Mian Muhammad Shafi
* Mian Abdul Rashid
* Nawab Waqar-ul-Mulk Kamboh
* Mohsin-ul-Mulk
* Bahadur Yar Jung
* Baba-e-Urdu Maulvi Abdul Haq
* Abdul Qayyum Khan
* Abdur Rab Nishtar
* Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman
* Choudhry Rahmat Ali
* A. K. Fazlul Huq
* Jamaat Ali Shah
* G. M. Syed
* Ghazanfar Ali Khan
* Mir Jaffar Khan Jamali
* Ghulam Bhik Nairang
* Hasrat Mohani
* Nawab Mohammad Ismail Khan
* Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
* Jogendra Nath Mandal
* K. H. Khurshid
* Khawaja Nazimuddin
* Mahmud Husain
* Mohammad Amir Ahmed Khan (Raja Saheb of Mahmudabad)
* Muhammad Zafarullah Khan
* Qazi Muhammad Isa
* Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan
* Ashraf Ali Thanwi
* Shabbir Ahmad Usmani
* Zafar Ali Khan
* more

Activists|

* Hamid Nizami
* Abdullah Haroon
* Yusuf Haroon
* Mahmoud Haroon
* Altaf Husain
* Adamjee Haji Dawood
* Muhammad Shafi
* Zafar Ahmad Usmani
* Abul Hassan Ispahani
* Ahmed Ali Lahori
* Malik Barkat Ali
* Aslam Khattak
* Yusuf Khattak
* Mian Iftikharuddin
* M.A. Zuberi
* Shahnawaz Khan Mamdot
* Iftikhar Hussain Khan Mamdot
* Sikandar Hayat Khan
* Shaukat Hayat Khan
* Muhammad Asad
* Ziauddin Ahmad
* Abu Bakr Ahmad Haleem
* Maulana Ghulam Rasool Mehr
* Hakeem Muhammad Saeed
* Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas
* Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan
* Sardar Ibrahim Khan
* Fida Mohammad Khan
* Sheikh Sir Abdul Qadir
* M. M. Sharif
* Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum
* Jalaludin Abdur Rahim
* Z. A. Suleri
* G. Allana
* Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi
* Jalal Baba of NWFP
* Mohammad Abdul Ghafoor Hazarvi
* Karam Shah al-Azhari
* Amin ul-Hasanat (Pir of Manki Sharif)
* Syed Wajid Ali
* Hafeez Jalandhari
* Jahanara Shahnawaz
* Lady Abdullah Haroon
* Muhammad Ismail Zabeeh
* Fatima Begum
* Naseer Ahmad Malhi
* Ahmed Saeed Nagi
* Niaz Ali Khan
* Amir Habibullah Khan Saadi
* Habib Rahimtoola
* Sharif al Mujahid
* Fatima Sughra Begum
* Abdul Sattar Khan Niazi
* Viqar-un-Nisa Noon
* Amir Abdullah Khan Rokhri
* Abdul Hamid Qadri Badayuni
* Sardar Aurang Zeb Khan
* Abdullah Ropari
* Muhammad Ibrahim Mir Sialkoti
* more

Literature|

* Allahabad Address (Idea of Pakistan)
* Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence
* Notes on Afghanistan and Baluchistan
* Pakistan: A Personal History
* The Myth of Independence
* Pakistan: A Hard Country
* Pakistan Declaration (Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?)
* Causes of Indian Mutiny of 1857

Architecture|

* Minar-e-Pakistan
* Bab-e-Pakistan
* Pakistan Monument
* Mazar-e-Quaid
* Quaid-e-Azam / Ziarat Residency
* Iqbal's Tomb
* Wazir Mansion
* National Library
* Khaliq Dina Hall
* Bab-e-Khyber
* Jinnah Terminal

In Memory|

* Youm-e-Pakistan (23 March)
* Youm-e-Dastur (10 April)
* Youm-e-Takbir (28 May)
* Youm-e-Azadi (14 August)
* Youm-e-Difah (6 September)
* Youm-e-Tasees (24 October)
* Youm-e-Iqbal (9 November)
* Youm-e-Viladat (25 December)

* v
* t
* e

Segregation in countries by type (in some countries, categories overlap)

Religious|

* Partition of India
* Northern Ireland
* Israel
* Serbia
* Greece and Turkey
* Partition of Bengal
* Portugal
* Saudi Arabia
* Spain
* Bahrain
* Myanmar

Ethnic and racial|

* Canada
* Bahrain
* Brazil
* Bulgaria and Romania
* Bulgaria
* Czechoslovakia and Hungary
* Dominican Republic
* Fiji
* France
* Germany
* Israel
* Malaysia
* Portugal
* Rhodesia
* Apartheid in South Africa
* Spain
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Civil War
* Separate but equal
* School segregation
* Brown v. Board of Education
* Massive resistance
* Anti-miscegenation laws

Gender|

* Islam
* Afghanistan
* Iran
* Saudi Arabia
* Judaism
* Sex segregation in public restrooms
* Separatist feminism

Dynamics|

* Auto-segregation
* Balkanization
* Ethnic cleansing
* Ethnic federalism
* Bantustan
* Ethnopluralism
* Ethnocracy
* Exclusionary zoning
* Forced migration
* Internment
* labor camps
* Residential segregation in the United States
* Segregation academy (United States)
* Social exclusion

Related
topics|

* Apartheid
* laws
* Anti-miscegenation laws
* Black Codes
* Corporative federalism
* Discrimination
* Ghetto benches
* Hafrada
* Jim Crow laws
* Majority minority
* Nativism
* Nuremberg Laws
* Racism
* Rankism
* Religious intolerance
* Reservation in India
* Second-class citizen
* Separate school (Canada)
* Shunning
* Social apartheid
* White Australia policy
* Xenophobia

* See also: Pillarisation
* Category
* caste
* gender
* racial
* Commons

Authority control databases

National|

* United States
* Israel

Other|

* Yale LUX

* v
* t
* e

State of West Bengal

Capital: Kolkata

State symbols|

* Emblem: Emblem of West Bengal
* Anthem: Banglar Mati Banglar Jol
* Animal: Fishing cat
* Bird: White-throated kingfisher
* Flower: Night-flowering jasmine (Shiuli)
* Tree: Devil's tree (Saptaparni)
* Fish: Ilish

History|

* Gauda Kingdom
* Shashanka
* Pala Empire
* Sena dynasty
* Mallabhum kingdom
* Cooch Behar State
* Sher Shah Suri
* Mughal Empire
* Nawabs of Bengal
* East India Company
* Battle of Plassey
* Bengal Presidency
* Great Bengal famine of 1770
* Indian Rebellion of 1857
* Bengal Renaissance
* Bardhaman Raj
* Nadia Raj
* Jhargram Raj
* Sovabazar Raj
* Partition of Bengal (1905)
* Revolutionary movement for Indian independence
* Anushilan Samiti
* Jugantar
* Bengal famine of 1943
* Direct Action Day
* Noakhali riots
* Partition of Bengal (1947)
* Bengali Language Movement (Manbhum)
* Bangladesh Liberation War
* Naxalite–Maoist insurgency
* Maritime history of Bengal

Geography|

* Bengal Basin
* Darjeeling Himalayan hill region
* Terai
* North Bengal plains
* Dooars
* Rarh region
* Sundarbans
* Western plateau and high lands
* Ganges Delta
* Climate
* Sandakphu (Highest point)
* Protected areas of West Bengal
* Rivers of West Bengal
* Ganga
* Damodar River
* Brahmaputra River
* Teesta River
* Hooghly River
* Khoai
* Tiger Hill, Darjeeling
* Siliguri Corridor

Governance|

* Chief Ministers
* Governor
* Legislative Assembly
* Human Rights Commission
* Political parties (All India Trinamool Congress
* Communist Party (Marxist)
* Indian National Congress
* Bharatiya Janata Party)
* Parliamentary constituencies
* Assembly constituencies
* CID West Bengal
* Kolkata Police

Rights groups|

* Matua Mahasangha
* Bangla Pokkho

Divisions and
districts|

| Burdwan division|

* Birbhum
* Hooghly
* Paschim Bardhaman
* Purba Bardhaman

|

Jalpaiguri division|

* Alipurduar
* Cooch Behar
* Darjeeling
* Jalpaiguri
* Kalimpong

Malda division|

* Berhampore (declared)
* Dakshin Dinajpur
* Jangipur (declared)
* Malda
* Murshidabad
* Uttar Dinajpur

Medinipur division|

* Bankura
* Bishnupur (declared)
* Jhargram
* Paschim Medinipur
* Purba Medinipur
* Purulia

Presidency division|

* Basirhat (declared)
* Howrah
* Ichamati (declared)
* Kolkata
* Nadia
* North 24 Parganas
* Ranaghat (declared)
* South 24 Parganas
* Sundarbans (declared)

Cities and
towns|

* Alipore
* Asansol
* Berhampore
* Balurghat
* Bankura
* Barasat
* Bardhaman
* Bishnupur
* Hugli-Chuchura
* Cooch Behar
* Darjeeling
* Durgapur
* Haldia
* Howrah
* Jalpaiguri
* Jaynagar Majilpur
* Jiaganj Azimganj
* Kalimpong
* Kharagpur
* Kolkata
* Krishnanagar
* Kurseong
* Malda
* Midnapore
* Murshidabad
* Purulia
* Raiganj
* Siliguri
* Siuri
* Tamluk
* List of cities in West Bengal by population
* Cities and towns by district

Culture|

* Bengal Renaissance
* Bengali calendars
* Patachitra
* Chalchitra
* Arts of West Bengal
* Baul
* Bhadu
* Gombhira
* Chhau dance
* Cuisine
* Bengali
* Rabindra Sangeet
* Rabindra Nritya Natya
* Holi
* Dol Purnima
* Prostitution in Kolkata
* Pohela Boishakh
* Durga Puja
* Bhai Dooj
* Raksha Bandhan
* Ratha Yatra
* Architecture of Bengal
* Bengal temples
* Bengali language
* Bengali literature
* Feluda
* Lalmohan Ganguly
* Professor Shonku
* Tarini Khuro
* Kakababu
* Kiriti Roy
* Pather Panchali (novel)
* Bengali cinema
* Jatra
* Ghosts in Bengali culture

GI products|

* Baluchari sari
* Banglar Rosogolla
* Banglar Muslin
* Banglar Nolen Gur Sandesh
* Bankura horse
* Baruipur Guava
* Bengal Patachitra
* Bishnupur Motichur Laddu
* Chhau mask
* Darjeeling tea
* Dhaniakhali Sari
* Dhokra
* Fazli (mango)
* Garad Saree
* Gobindobhog
* Himsagar
* Jaynagarer Moa
* Kamarpukur Sada Bode
* Madurkathi
* Malda Nistari Silk Yarn
* Manasa chali
* Mihidana
* Murshidabad Chhanabora
* Nakshi kantha
* Radhunipagal rice
* Santiniketan Leather Goods
* Shantipuri sari
* Sitabhog
* Sundarban Honey
* Tangail Saree
* Tulaipanji

Demographics|

* Bengali people
* Bihari people
* Economy of West Bengal
* Gurkha
* Adivasi
* Rajbanshi
* Anglo-Indian people
* Ethnic communities in Kolkata
* List of West Bengal districts ranked by literacy rate
* Discrimination against Bengalis in India

People|

* Rabindranath Tagore
* Satyajit Ray
* Kazi Nazrul Islam
* Anil Kumar Gain
* Ritwik Ghatak
* Subhas Chandra Bose
* Jamini Roy
* Bidhan Chandra Roy
* Jyoti Basu
* Nandalal Bose
* Jagadish Chandra Bose
* Meghnad Saha
* Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
* Sarat Chandra Bose
* Jnanadanandini Devi
* Abanindranath Tagore
* Satyendranath Tagore
* Satyendranath Dutta
* Raja Ram Mohan Roy
* Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
* Rani Rashmoni
* Ramakrishna
* Swami Vivekananda
* Sarada Devi
* Dwarkanath Tagore
* Sukumar Ray
* Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury
* Michael Madhusudan Dutt
* Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
* Sister Nivedita
* Mother Teresa
* Amartya Sen
* Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
* Nihar Ranjan Gupta

Image gallery at Wikimedia Commons
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template