Bengal Partition 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. The partition, with the power transferred officially to Pakistan and India on August 14-15, 1947, was done according to what has come to be known as the 3 June Plan or Mountbatten Plan. India’s freedom on August 15, 1947 ended almost 350 years of British prescence in the Indian subcontinent. East Bengal, which became a province of Pakistan according to the provisions set forth the Mountbatten Plan, later became the independent country of Bangladesh after the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.



Background


In 1905, the first partition in Bengal was implemented as an administrative preference, making governing the two provinces, West and East Bengal easier. While the partition split the province between West, in which the majority was Hindu, and the East, where the majority was Muslim, the 1905 Partion of Bengal left considerable minorities of Hindus in East Bengal and Muslims in the West Bengal.While the Muslims were in favor of this partition, due to thier obtainment of their own province, Hindus were not. This controversary led to increased violence and protest and, in 1911, the two provinces were once again united.


However, the disagreements between Hindus and Muslims in Bengal which had sparked the Partition of Bengal in 1905 still remained and laws, including the Partition of Bengal in 1947, had to be implemented in order to fulfill the political needs of the parties involved.


The Partition


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


  1.In the joint session of the house, comprising 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 joining the present Constituent Assembly (i.e, India)
  2.Then the members of the Muslim-majority areas of Bengal in a separate session passed a motion by 106-35 votes against partitioning Bengal and instead joining a new Constituent Assembly (i.e, Pakistan) as a whole.
  3.This was followed by the separate meeting of the members of the non-Muslim-majority areas of Bengal who by a division of 58-21 voted for partition of the province.


Under the Mountbatten Plan, a single majority vote in favour of partition by either notionally divided half of the Assembly would have decided the division of the province, and hence the house proceedings on 20 June resulted in the decision to partition Bengal. This set 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 Pakistan.


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.


The Aftermath


The second partition of Bengal left behind a legacy of violence which continues to this day. 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 sub-continent, looking for work and a new home, setting in metropolitan centres as far off as Delhi and Mumbai, keeping the question of the Partition alive today. “