Bengal, known as the Vanga rajya in our puranas, was very big region, full of fertile land and was an important province of British India. It included the current region of West Bengal, Bangladesh, Parts of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura.
It was too large to be administered by a single governor and therefore a proposal to partition it on administrative grounds was made. It is even believed that, the partition was proposed as a part of 'Divide and Rule' policy with majority Muslim population being in East Bengal and Hindu population in West Bengal. This divide was supposed to weaken the Bengal dominance in Indian independence struggle.
This move was however, opposed by the Bengali population and it led to various agitations. Rabindranath Tagore wrote a song 'Amar Sonar Bangla' for regional integration that had later become the National Anthem of Bangladesh. After many such protests, Bengal continued to be a single region till 1947. However, in 1947, East Bengal was made East Pakistan and was given to Pakistan.
Due to the separation of East Bengal from Indian mainland, both the nations had to face many problems:
Dhaka faced a severe shortage of human resources. The majority of high ranking officers in British Indian administration of Bengal province were Hindu and they migrated to West Bengal. These posts had to be filled up by West Pakistani officers. East Pakistan, which was already poor, without proper education, coupled up with partition aftermath impacts soon became politically dominated by West Pakistan. Urdu was imposed upon the whole country. Economic disparities eventually led to struggle for separation. And even today, it continues to struggle a lot in-spite of having proper resources.
It was too large to be administered by a single governor and therefore a proposal to partition it on administrative grounds was made. It is even believed that, the partition was proposed as a part of 'Divide and Rule' policy with majority Muslim population being in East Bengal and Hindu population in West Bengal. This divide was supposed to weaken the Bengal dominance in Indian independence struggle.
This move was however, opposed by the Bengali population and it led to various agitations. Rabindranath Tagore wrote a song 'Amar Sonar Bangla' for regional integration that had later become the National Anthem of Bangladesh. After many such protests, Bengal continued to be a single region till 1947. However, in 1947, East Bengal was made East Pakistan and was given to Pakistan.
Due to the separation of East Bengal from Indian mainland, both the nations had to face many problems:
- East Bengal had the most-fertile land due to the Ganga -Brahmaputra Basin. West Bengal is the most industrialized region and it used to get raw material from the East. The products manufactured in west bengal were consumed by the east. Due to the partition, the trade and commerce was very much affected.
- West Bengal suffered from a great food shortage as the rice producing districts went to the eastern half. The shortage continued throughout 1950s and 1960s. Bengal used to be the most prosperous region till 1947. But after partition, Bengal lost its top place and lagged behind other Indian states in development. Political unrest, strikes and violence crippled the state machinery throughout the next three decade after partition. This is one of the reason why left is (used to be) strong in Bengal.
- Jute was the largest industry in Bengal at the time of partition. Every single jute mill went to West Bengal but 4/5th of the jute producing land is in East Bengal. India and Pakistan initially went into a trade agreement to import raw jute from East Bengal for West Bengal's mills. Pakistan had set up its own mills and put restrictions on raw jute export to India. Thus, West Bengal's mills faced severe shortage.
- Jute farmers in East Bengal had no market to sell the jute. Jute export to West Bengal suddenly became an anti-national act for Pakistan during the 1950s. West Bengal rapidly increased jute production and by mid to late fifties became largely self sufficient in jute. West Bengal's mills became less dependent on East Bengal for raw material. So, the jute in East Pakistan had no market.
- East Bengal was also famous for Bamboo production which is an important raw material for Paper Industry. Even this had to suffer a lot. Refugees across the border increased a lot due to these conditions that prevailed for over 15-20 years of partition.
- Next important problem is, the Assam railway, whose major portion went to East Pakistan. Due to this, the Indian Railways faced a great crisis. We need to get bamboo, jute etc from the North-East and the connection to NE states from Bengal is only through Siliguri since the Assam railway system is totally disrupted.
- The export of NE India's products, Assam Tea and the import of raw materials for the industry such as coal used to happen through Chittagong Port, which is very near to NE states and is easily accessible. This port used to be the major port in Bay of Bengal and is considered to be larger than Madras/Tuticorin Ports. After partition, Chittagong went to East Pakistan, and hence the total NE states trade relied on Kolkata Port which is really very very far.Exporting tea via the nearby Chittagong port was an option but after 1965's war, this was switched off by Pakistan.
- The whole of north eastern states of India suffer a lot due to this partition. Even today, if we need to go to Kohima or Imphal, we need to travel for atleast 16-20 hours from Kolkata across the perimeter of Bangladesh.
Dhaka faced a severe shortage of human resources. The majority of high ranking officers in British Indian administration of Bengal province were Hindu and they migrated to West Bengal. These posts had to be filled up by West Pakistani officers. East Pakistan, which was already poor, without proper education, coupled up with partition aftermath impacts soon became politically dominated by West Pakistan. Urdu was imposed upon the whole country. Economic disparities eventually led to struggle for separation. And even today, it continues to struggle a lot in-spite of having proper resources.
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