East Bengal was a province in the
Dominion of PakistanThe Dominion of Pakistan was a federal country in South Asia that was established in 1947 as a result of the partition of British India into two sovereign dominions: the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The Dominion of Pakistan, which included modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh, was...
, and was in existence from August 15, 1947 to October 14, 1955. It came into being after the
partition of Bengal in 1947The Partition of Bengal in 1947, part of the Partition of India, was a partition that divided the British Indian province of Bengal between India and Pakistan, with West Bengal becoming a province of India and East Bengal becoming a province of Pakistan...
. It has the same boundaries as erstwhile
East PakistanEast Pakistan was a former province of Pakistan which existed between 1947 and 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal Province based on a plebiscite in what was then British India in 1947. Eastern Bengal chose to join the Dominion of Pakistan and became a province of Pakistan by the name East...
and the nation of
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
and borders the
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
n states of
West BengalWest Bengal is a state in eastern India. With Bangladesh, which lies on its eastern border, the state forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. To its northeast lie the states of Assam and Sikkim and the country Bhutan, and to its southwest, the state of Orissa...
,
MeghalayaMeghalaya is a small state in north-eastern India. The word "Meghalaya" literally means "The Abode of Clouds" in Sanskrit and other Indic languages. Meghalaya is a hilly strip in the eastern part of the country about 300 km long and 100 km wide, with a total area of about 8,700 sq mi...
,
AssamAssam ) is a northeastern state of India with its capital at Dispur located in the Guwahati city. Located south of the eastern Himalayas, Assam comprises the Brahmaputra and the Barak river valleys and the Karbi Anglong and the North Cachar Hills with an area of 30,285 square miles...
,
Tripura' is a state in North-East India, with an area of 4,051 sq. mi. or 10,491.69 km². Tripura has disputed borders and is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south, and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to the east. The capital is Agartala and the main languages spoken is Bengali...
and
MizoramMizoram is one of the Seven Sister States in North Eastern India. It shares land borders with the states of Tripura, Assam, Manipur, Bangladesh and the Chin State state of Myanmar. Mizoram became the 23rd state of India on 20 February 1987. Its population at the 2001 census stood at...
.
Before 1905
The first instance of the name was during the British rule of India. British governance of large swathes of Indian territory began with Robert Clive's victory over the
Nawab of BengalThe Nawabs of Bengal were the hereditary nazims or subadars of the subah of Bengal during the Mughal rule and the de-facto rulers of the province.-History:...
,
Siraj ud-DaulahMîrzâ Mohammad Sirâjud Dawla , more commonly known as Siraj ud-Daulah , was the last independent Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The end of his reign marks the start of British East India Company rule over Bengal and later almost all of South Asia...
, at the
Battle of PlasseyThe Battle of Plassey , 23 June, 1757, was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in India which expanded over much of South Asia for the next 190 years...
in 1757. The victory gave the
British East India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
dominion over
BengalBengal , is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent...
, which became the headquarters of British administration in the sub-continent. After the
Indian rebellion of 1857The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May, 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
(known as the "Mutiny"), the British government took direct control away from the East India Co., and established its imperial capital at
Calcutta, formerly , is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly. When referred to as Calcutta, it usually includes the suburbs, and thus its population exceeds 15 million, making it India's third-largest metropolitan area and...
, the city founded by the Company. By 1900, the British province of Bengal constituted a huge territory, stretching from the Burmese border to deep into the Ganges valley.
First Partition (1905-1911)
With the assumption of Lord Curzon to the office of
Governor-General of IndiaThe Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...
, British India was finally put under the charge of a man who considered himself an expert in Indian affairs. In 1905, citing various logistical problems associated with administering such the large Bengal province, Curzon carved out the new province of
Eastern Bengal and Assam consisting of the state of Hill Tripura, the Divisions of Chittagong, Dhaka and Rajshahi (excluding Darjeeling) and the district of Malda of Bengal province, and also Assam province in its entirety. Dacca was made the provincial capital. The new province had an area of 106,540 sq. miles with a population of 31 million, where 18 million would be Muslims and 12 million Hindus.
Within the scheme of partition, the province of Bengal also ceded to the Central Provinces the five Hindi-speaking states. On the western side it was offered Sambalpur and five minor Oriya-speaking states from the Central Provinces. Bengal would be left with an area of 141,580 sq. miles and population of 54 million, of which 42 million would be Hindus and 9 million Muslims.
While Curzon claimed the action was one merely founded upon administrative principles, the growing nationalist movement, which originated with the educated elite of Calcutta and the Bengali aristocracy, took the action as an attempt to cut off Bengal's majority Hindu intellectual leaders (based in Calcutta) from the majority Muslim agriculturalists of the east, dividing the nationalist movement along lines of class and religion. The partition of Bengal, effected on October 16, 1905, sparked a firestorm in the nationalist movement.
The Muslims in the new province had the impression that a separate region would give them more opportunity for education, employment etc. However, the partition was not liked by the people in the new Bengal province and a huge amount of nationalist literature was created there during this period. Opposition by the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
was led by Sir Henry John Stedman Cotton who had been Chief Commissioner of Assam, but Curzon was not to be moved. Later, Cotton, now Liberal MP for Nottingham East coordinated the successful campaign to oust the first lieutenant-governor of Eastern Bengal and Assam, Sir Bampfylde Fuller. In 1906,
Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, he reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
wrote
Amar Shonar BanglaAmar Shonar Bangla is a 1906 song written and composed by the poet Rabindranath Tagore, the first ten lines of which were adopted in 1972 as the Bangladesh national anthem....
as a rallying cry for proponents of annulment of Partition, which, much later, in 1972, became the
national anthemA national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
of Bangladesh.
Due to these political protests, the two parts of Bengal were reunited in 1911. A new partition which divided the province on linguistic, rather than religious, grounds followed, with the Hindi, Oriya and Assamese areas separated to form separate administrative units. The administrative capital of British India was moved from Calcutta to
New DelhiNew Delhi is the capital of India. It is situated within the metropolis of Delhi and serves as the seat of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi....
as well.
From 1911 to 1947
The
Non-cooperation movementThe non-cooperation movement , was the first-ever series of nationwide people's movements of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience, led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress...
, the
Revolutionary movement for Indian independenceThe Revolutionary movement for Indian independence is often a less-highlighted aspect of the Indian independence movement -- the underground revolutionary factions. The groups believing in armed revolution against the ruling British fall into this category. The revolutionary groups were...
and the
SatyagrahaSatyagraha is a philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance developed by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi . Gandhi deployed satyagraha in campaigns for Indian independence and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa. Satyagraha theory also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr...
movements all had their impact on East Bengal. From the provincial election in 1937 till independence in 1947, a period when the
Muslim LeagueThe All-India Muslim League , founded at Dhaka, Bengal, in 1906, was a political party in British India that played a role in the Indian independence movement and developed into the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state on the Indian subcontinent...
was in power (except during December 1941 to March 1943) politics was increasingly characterized by communal violence and polarization.
The
Krishak Praja PartyKrishak Praja Party , originally known as "Proja-Shamiti" , was a political party in British India. It struggled for the abolition of zamindari .In the late 1930s, A. K...
led by
A. K. Fazlul HuqSher-e-Bangla redirects here. For other uses of the term, see Sher-e-Bangla .Abul Kashem Fazlul Huq , often referred to as Sher-e-Bangla was a well-known Bengali statesman in the first half of the 20th...
emerged as the third largest party in the Bengal Legislative Assembly after the elections of 1937. After unsuccessful attempts to form a coalition government with the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
, the Krishak Praja Party and the Muslim League formed a government, and A. K. Fazlul Huq became the Chief Minister on April 1, 1937.
On 15 October 1937, at Lucknow, Huq formally subscribed to the Muslim League creed, and urged all the Muslim members of the Bengal Coalition to join the League, and made a strong plea for Muslim unity under the banner of the League. Although Huq did not openly sever his link with the Krishak Praja Party, but without Huq's leadership, for all practical purposes, the party lost its stature as also Fazlul Huq's popularity among the masses began to decline. As the Praja Party dissipated over time, the League found itself without rivals within the government, and the ministry's focus shifted from socio-economic reforms to communal issues.
Huq resigned on 2 December 1941 but was able to form a broad-based progressive coalition government which included the progressive, secular elements of the Praja Party, most Hindu members, including the Bose group of the Congress, and the rightist radicals of the Hindu Mahasabha. The new ministry, known as Shyama-Huq ministry, was commissioned, on 12 December 1941, only after the governor's personal initiative to install a League dominated ministry had failed. After establishing his second ministry, Fazlul Huq campaigned vigorously against the Two Nation Theory
During his second ministry, the rift between Fazlul Huq and the provincial governor Sir John Herbert kept increasing. To enforce his writ, the governor asked Huq to sign a prepared letter of resignation on 28 March 1943 and assigned himself the responsibility of administering the province. On 24 April 1943 a Muslim League dominated ministry was commissioned with
Khawaja NazimuddinHajji Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin, KCIE was the second Governor-General of Pakistan, and later the second Prime Minister of Pakistan as well.-Early life:...
as the Chief Minister. This Cabinet was dissolved on 28 March 1945.
Provincial elections were again held in 1946 and on July 3, 1946 the Muslim League formed the provincial government in Bengal with
Huseyn Shaheed SuhrawardyHuseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was a politician from Bengal in undivided India, and later in East Bengal, who served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 until 1957. He is also known for his controversial role in the Direct Action Day of August 16, 1946...
as the Chief Minister. Under Suhrawardy's direction, the Bengal Government declared August 16, 1946 to be a public holiday to celebrate the
Direct Action DayDirect Action Day, also known as the Great Calcutta Riot, was on 16 August 1946—a day of widespread riot and manslaughter in the city of Calcutta in the Bengal province of British India...
called by Jinnah to protest against the Cabinet Mission plan for the independence of India.
Suhrawardy's government allegedly provided support to Muslim League mobs who attacked Hindus en masse to press their demand for Pakistan. The intensity of Direct Action Day was at its worst in the capital Calcutta. There was also a genocide of Bengali Hindus in the Noakhali district. Suhrawardy was widely blamed for either orchestrating or not taking steps to prevent the carnage and for trying to suppress the news of the same from the media. The physical and emotional scars of Direct Action Day linger among millions of Bengalis even today. Suhrawardy remained in power till the eve of the partition of Bengal.
Second partition (1947)
The second partition of Bengal, part of the
partition of IndiaThe Partition of India was the partition of British India that led to the creation, on August 14, 1947 and August 15, 1947, respectively, of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India...
, was done according to what has come to be known as the 3 June Plan or Mountbatten Plan. As per the plan, on 20 June, 1947, the notionally divided Bengal Legislative Assembly voted to divide the province, setting the stage for the creation of West Bengal as a province of the Union of India and East Bengal as a province of the
Dominion of PakistanThe Dominion of Pakistan was a federal country in South Asia that was established in 1947 as a result of the partition of British India into two sovereign dominions: the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The Dominion of Pakistan, which included modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh, was...
.
Also in accordance with the Mountbatten Plan, in a referendum held on 7 July, the electorate of Sylhet gave a verdict in favor of joining East Bengal. Further, the Boundary Commission headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe decided on the territorial demarcation between the two newly created provinces. The power was finally officially transferred to Pakistan and India on 14 and 15 August, respectively, under the Indian Independence Act, 1947.
After 1947
With the partition of 1947, East Bengal became a province of the Dominion of Pakistan. The Muslim League formed the provincial government and on August 15, 1947,
Khawaja NazimuddinHajji Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin, KCIE was the second Governor-General of Pakistan, and later the second Prime Minister of Pakistan as well.-Early life:...
became the first Chief Minister of East Bengal. The Muslim League held on to power till April 3, 1954. Post-independence politics in East Bengal was characterized by the struggle for power between the Muslim League and the Sramik-Krishak Dal and the emergence of the Bengali Language Movement.
Tensions between East Bengal and the western wing of Pakistan led to the One-Unit policy. In 1955, most of the western wing was combined to form a new
West PakistanWest Pakistan was the popular and sometimes official name of the western wing of Pakistan until 1971, when the eastern wing became independent as Bangladesh...
province while East Bengal became the new province of
East PakistanEast Pakistan was a former province of Pakistan which existed between 1947 and 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal Province based on a plebiscite in what was then British India in 1947. Eastern Bengal chose to join the Dominion of Pakistan and became a province of Pakistan by the name East...
. This system lasted until 1971 when East Pakistan declared independence during the Liberation War of Bangladesh and the new nation of
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
was formed. However Pakistan did not recognize Bangladesh until 1974, and diplomatic relations were established in 1976.
Government
After absorption into the Dominion of Pakistan, the province of East Bengal was administered by a ceremonial
GovernorA governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
and an indirectly-elected
Chief MinisterA Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British overseas territory that has attained self-government...
. During the year from May 1954 to August 1955, executive powers were exercised by the Governor and there was no Chief Minister.
| Tenure |
Governor of East Bengal |
| 15 August 1947 - 31 March 1950 |
Sir Frederick Chalmers |
| 31 March 1950 - 31 March 1953 |
Sir Feroz Khan NoonMalik Sir Feroz Khan Noon, KCSI, KCIE, Kt was a politician from Pakistan.-Early life:He was educated at Oxford University and belonged to the...
|
| 31 March 1953 - 29 May 1954 |
Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman was an Indian Muslim politician and leader of the All India Muslim League in the United Provinces . A strong supporter of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Pakistan movement, Khaliquzzaman migrated to Pakistan in 1947....
|
| 29 May 1954 - May 1955 |
Iskandar Ali Mirza |
| May 1955 - June 1955 |
Muhammad Shahabuddin The Chief Justice of Pakistan heads the Supreme Court of Pakistan. These are the names of the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of Pakistan .-List:...
(acting) |
| June 1955 - 14 October 1955 |
Amiruddin Ahmad |
| 14 October 1955 |
Province of East Bengal dissolved |
| Tenure |
Chief Minister of East Bengal |
Political Party |
| 15 August 1947 - 14 September 1948 |
Khawaja NazimuddinHajji Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin, KCIE was the second Governor-General of Pakistan, and later the second Prime Minister of Pakistan as well.-Early life:...
|
Muslim LeagueThe All-India Muslim League , founded at Dhaka, Bengal, in 1906, was a political party in British India that played a role in the Indian independence movement and developed into the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state on the Indian subcontinent...
|
| 14 September 1948 - 3 April 1954 |
Nurul Amin Nurul Amin was a prominent Bengali leader of the Pakistan's Muslim League, and served as Chief Minister of East Pakistan and both Prime Minister and Vice President of Pakistan.-Early life:...
|
Muslim League |
| 3 April 1954 - 29 May 1954 |
A. K. Fazlul Huq Sher-e-Bangla redirects here. For other uses of the term, see Sher-e-Bangla .Abul Kashem Fazlul Huq , often referred to as Sher-e-Bangla was a well-known Bengali statesman in the first half of the 20th...
|
United Front |
| 29 May 1954 - August 1955 |
Governor's Rule |
|
| August 1955 - 14 October 1955 |
Abu Hussain Sarkar |
Krishak Sramik Party |
| 14 October 1955 |
Province of East Bengal dissolved |
|
See also
- Partition of Bengal (1947)
The Partition of Bengal in 1947, part of the Partition of India, was a partition that divided the British Indian province of Bengal between India and Pakistan, with West Bengal becoming a province of India and East Bengal becoming a province of Pakistan...
- British India
- West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in eastern India. With Bangladesh, which lies on its eastern border, the state forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. To its northeast lie the states of Assam and Sikkim and the country Bhutan, and to its southwest, the state of Orissa...
- History of Pakistan
The first known inhabitants of the modern-day Pakistan are believed to have been the Soanian - Homo erectus which setteled in the Soan Valley and Riwat almost 2 million years ago. Over the next several thousand years, the region would develop into various civilizations like Mehrgarh and the Indus...
- History of Bangladesh
Bangladesh became one of the large nation states in 1971 when it seceded from Pakistan. Prior to the creation of Pakistan in 1947, modern-day Bangladesh was part of ancient, classical, medieval and colonial India. Since independence, the government has experienced periods of democratic and...