Partition of Bengal in 1947

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The division of Bengal in 1947 took place as part of the division of India into a Hindu part and a Muslim part according to the Mountbatten Plan .

history

The Bengal Presidency was established in 1684 and administered by the East India Company until it was annexed to the British Crown in 1858. The seat of government was in Fort William fortress in Calcutta . In 1877 Queen Victoria received the title of Empress of India and the British declared Calcutta the capital of the "Crown Colony of India". On October 16, 1905, India's most populous province of Bengal (one of the most active in the liberation struggle) was divided by the British for administrative reasons - into a western part of the country, including Bihars and Orissa, with an overwhelming Hindu majority, and an eastern part, including the province of Assam, with a clear Muslim majority . Indian nationalists saw this division as a means for the British colonial rulers to sow discord among the Bengali people, who had always formed a unity in language and history. After several violent unrest, the English revised the partition of Bengal in 1912. The Bengal presidency formalized its end with the Montague – Chelmsford reforms from 1919 to 1921.

When the former British colony of India was divided into a Hindu part and a Muslim part according to the Mountbatten Plan in 1947 , the second division of Bengal took place again along almost the same border lines as in 1905. From then on, the parts formed the Indian state of West Bengal and the Pakistani region of East Bengal which was renamed East Pakistan in 1958 .

By the end of the following decade, East Pakistan rebelled against West Pakistani military rule. The resulting struggle for independence led to the Bangladesh War and then in 1971 to the establishment of the independent Republic of Bangladesh .

literature

  • Christian Weiß, Hans-Martin Kunz: Golden Bengal? Essays on the history, social development and culture of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. Bonn: Bonner Siva Series 2002, 266 pages, ISBN 3-926548-20-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ N. Jayapalan: History Of India (from National Movement To Present Day) , Volume IV, page 15. ISBN 81-7156-917-X (English), ( preview in Google book search, accessed on October 15, 2011)