Why did Lord Curzon want to partition Bengal at the beginning of the twentieth century and what happened next?
Bengal has throughout history been a large and powerful state with cultural institutions and practices of its own. Bengalis have a strong attachment to their homeland and this has become intensified and complicated by the presence of religious beliefs and attachments which both unite the majority of the Bengali people as a specific set of people while also separating them from their neighbours who are distinguished as different in another, important manner. The British colonization of India, of which Bengal was a part, was only ever achieved and maintained by superior administrative technology and, in particular, by the ability of the British to set one group of the Indian population against another so as to keep each weak, divided and ready to be ruled. Were all Indians to unite against the British, the imperialists would swiftly have been driven into the sea. But to make an Empire it is necessary to be not just bold but also clever and cunning in recognizing who can be rewarded and who should be suppressed in order to prevent that unification from taking place.
From an administrative point of view, the partition of Bengal was an effective solution to the growth in size and power of the regional unit that united it with Bihar and Orissa. This is an enormous area of land with a substantial level of population. Britain, represented by Lord Curzon, proposed to divide Bengal into Western and Eastern portions so as better to balance the management of the sub-continent. Curzon, Viceroy of India, had completed an early career of brilliance with a second period of grim struggle with the ‘uncouth and ruthless’ soldier Lord Kitchener and it was in the grip of this struggle that Curzon now acted. His decision outraged nationalists, who despised the British government’s division of the country according to its own priorities, the Muslims who feared what it represented for the safety and well-being of co-religionists and the Bengalis who feared that, divided, their influence and power would be greatly reduced. The partition took place in 1905 until the decision was reversed in 1911, although by that time it had created a generation of malcontents who had gone underground with their grievances and their willingness to strike back at the imperialists.
East Bengal, dominated by Muslims, would eventually separate from the Hindu-majority West Bengal when it became the basis for the state now known as Bangladesh. Yet these decisions are best made by the people of the states involved personally and, when they are imposed by an external force, they are hugely resented and store up a bitter harvest for the future.
