The Partition Of Bengal – 1905 [Modern Indian History Notes For UPSC]
The conditions for the emergence of militant nationalism developed when in 1905, the partition of Bengal was announced, and the Indian national movement entered its second stage. On 20 July 1905, Lord Curzon issued an order dividing the province of Bengal into two parts: Eastern Bengal and Assam with a population of 31 million, and the rest of Bengal with a population of 54 million. It was said that the existing province of Bengal was too big to be efficiently administered by a single provincial government. However, Cúrzon’s plan had mainly other ends in view. He wanted to stem the rising tide of nationalism in Bengal.
The Congress and the nationalists of Bengal firmly opposed the partition. Within Bengal, different sections of the population- zamindars, merchants, lawyers, students, and even women-rose up in spontaneous opposition to the partition of their province.
The nationalists saw the act of partition more as a challenge to Indian nationalism than as an administrative measure. They saw it as a deliberate attempt to divide the Bengalis and to disrupt and weaken nationalism in Bengal. It would also be a big blow to the growth of the Bengali language and culture. Moreover, the official step had been taken in utter disregard of public opinion.
The Anti-Partition Movement or the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement
The Anti-Partition Movement was the work of the entire national leadership of Bengal and not of any one section of the movement. Its most prominent leaders at the initial state were Moderates like Surendranath Banerjee and Krishna Kumar Mitra; militant and revolutionary nationalists took over in the later stages.
The Anti-Partition Movement was initiated on 7th August 1905 by a massive demonstration against the partition, organised in the Town Hall in Calcutta. From this meeting, delegates dispersed to spread the movement to the rest of the province.
The partition took effect on 16 October 1905. The leaders of the protest movement declared it to be a day of national mourning throughout Bengal. There was a hartal in Calcutta. Raksha Bandhan was celebrated by tying rakhis on one another’s wrists symbolising the unbreakable unity of all Bengalis living in both halves. The streets of Calcutta were full of the cries of Bande Mataram which overnight became the national song of Bengal and soon became the theme song of the national movement.
The Partition Of Bengal : The Swadeshi and Boycott
The Bengal leaders felt that mere demonstrations, public meetings, and resolutions were not likely to have much effect on the rulers and more positive action only would reveal the intensity of opposition to the measure. The answer was Swadeshi and Boycott. Mass meetings were held all over Bengal where Swadeshi or use of Indian goods and boycott of British goods were proclaimed and pledged. In many places, public burnings of foreign cloth were organised and shops selling foreign cloth were picketed.
The Swadeshi movement gave a great deal of encouragement to Indian industries. Many textile mills, chemical factories, handloom weaving concerns, national banks etc. were opened. Acharya P.C. Ray organised his famous Bengal Chemical Swadeshi Stores. Even the great poet Rabindranath Tagore helped to open a Swadeshi store and opened a rural reconstruction institute at Serul.
The Swadeshi movement had several consequences in the realm of culture. There was a flowering of nationalist poetry, prose and journalism. The patriotic songs written at the time by poets like Rabindranath Tagore, Rajani Kant Sen, and Mukunda Das are sung in Bengal to this day. Nandlal Bose and Abanindranath Tagore revived the oriental style of painting. Another constructive activity undertaken was that of National Education. National educational institutions where literary and technical education was imparted, were opened by nationalists who regarded the existing system of education as denationalising and inadequate. On 15 August 1906, a National Council of Education was set up. A National College with Aurobindo Ghose as principal was started in Calcutta. Around the same time, Tagore set up the Shantiniketan.
A prominent part in the Swadeshi agitation was played by the students of Bengal. They practised and propagated swadeshi and took the lead in organising picketing of shops selling foreign cloth. Disciplinary action was taken against students who participated in the nationalist agitation. Many of them were fined, expelled from schools and colleges, arrested, and even beaten up by the police. The students, however, refused to be cowed down.
A remarkable aspect of the Swadeshi agitation was the active participation of women. The traditionally home-centred women of the urban middle class joined processions and picketing. This was their baptism into the arena of the nationalist movement.
Many prominent Muslims joined the Swadeshi movement including Abdul Rasul, the famous barrister, Liaquat Hussain, the popular agitator, and Guznavi, the businessman. Many other middle and upper-class Muslims, however, remained neutral, or, led by the Nawab of Dacca, even supported partition on the plea that East Bengal would have a Muslim majority. In this communal attitude, the Nawab of Dacca and others were encouraged by the officials.
Despite the popular character of the Anti-Partition Movement and of the desire of the Extremists to take the national movement to the masses, the movement did not really affect and involve the peasantry of Bengal. It was confined mainly to the towns and the upper and lower-middle classes of the province.
The cry of Swadeshi and Swaraj was soon taken up by other provinces of India. Movements of support for Bengal’s unity and boycott of foreign goods were organised in Bombay, Madras, and northern India. The leading role in spreading the Swadeshi movement to Maharashtra was played by Tilak while Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh took the message of Swadeshi to Punjab.
The leadership of the Anti-Partition Movement soon passed to the hands of Extremist leaders like Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, and Aurobindo Ghose as the early movement of protest led by the Moderates failed to yield the desired results.
As the Extremists came to the fore they gave the call for passive resistance in addition to Swadeshi and Boycott. They asked the people to refuse to cooperate with the government and to boycott government service, courts and government schools and colleges. The Extremists used the Swadeshi and Anti-Partition Agitation to arouse the people politically and gave the slogan of independence from foreign rule. Thus, the question of the partition of Bengal was superseded by the question of India’s freedom, as the central question of Indian politics. The Extremists also gave the call for self-sacrifice without which no great aim could be achieved and the youth of India responded enthusiastically to the call.
But even the militant nationalists failed to give a positive direction to the people. They were not able to give effective leadership or create a sound organisation to guide their movement. They aroused the people but did not know how to direct the newly released energies of the people. Moreover, though they believed in participation, they also failed to reach the real masses of the country, the peasants. Their movement remained confined to the urban lower and middle classes.
Consequently, the government succeeded to a large extent in suppressing them. Their movement could not survive the arrest of their main leader, Tilak, the deporting of Lala Lajpat Rai and the retirement from active politics of Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghose.
But the upsurge of nationalist sentiments could not die as the people had been aroused from their slumber and they had learned to take a bold and fearless attitude in politics. They now waited for a new movement to rise. The anti-partition agitation marked a great revolutionary leap forward for Indian nationalism.
The Partition Of Bengal : Growth of Revolutionary Terrorism
Government repression and frustration caused by the failure of the political struggle ultimately resulted in the rise of revolutionary terrorism. The youth of Bengal were angered by official repression and were filled with a burning hatred for foreign rule. They found all avenues of peaceful protest blocked and out of desperation, they fell back on violence. They no longer believed that passive resistance could achieve nationalist aims. The British must, therefore, be physically expelled. But the young revolutionaries did not try to generate a mass revolution. Instead, they decided to copy the methods of the Irish terrorists and the Russian Nihilists, that is, to assassinate unpopular officials and bring the British administration to its knees.
A beginning had been made in this direction when in 1897 the Chapekar brothers assassinated the unpopular British Commissioner called Rand at Poona. In 1904, V.D. Savarkar had organised the Abhinava Bharat, a secret society of revolutionaries.
In Bengal too, secret societies like the Anusilan Samiti were formed at Dacca with various branches to give moral and physical training, to teach bomb-making and also to plan attacks on targeted officials. After 1905, several newspapers had begun to advocate revolutionary terrorism. Sandhya and Yugantar in Bengal and Kal in Maharashtra were the most prominent among them.
In April 1908, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki threw a bomb at a carriage that they believed was occupied by Kingsford, the unpopular Judge at Muzaffarpur. Prafulla Chaki shot himself dead while Khudiram Bose was tried and hanged. In 1914, two famous revolutionaries, Rash Behari Bose and Sachin Sanyal boldly threw a bomb at the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge while he was riding on an elephant in a state procession at Delhi, injuring him.
The terrorists also established centres of activity abroad, In London, the lead was taken by Shyamji Krishnavarman who established the India House and was joined by V.D. Savarkar, and Lala Hardayal. Another young revolutionary, Madan Lal Dhingra shot dead an unpopular British official called Curzon Willie while in Europe, Madam Cama and Ajit Singh were the prominent leaders. Madam Cama, in fact, edited the newspaper Bande Mataram in Paris and unfurled the flag of free India at Stuttgart in Germany in 1907. Three young revolutionaries led by Mohd. Barkatullah tried to organise a revolt with the help of the ruler of Kabul.
Terrorism gradually petered out. It failed to achieve its objective of expelling the English. But the terrorists did make a valuable contribution to the growth of nationalism in India. Because of their heroism, the terrorists became immensely popular among their compatriots even though most of the politically conscious people did not agree with their political approach.