The following article is from Banglapedia.org.
United Bengal Movement a political proposal to solve the communal
question on the eve of the termination of British rule in India. In
April-May 1947 it became clear that the Partition of India was
ineviatable. huseyn shaheed suhrawardy, the Premier of the province
of Bengal, formally launched his idea of a sovereign state for
undivided Bengal. Almost simultaneously sarat chandra bose came
forward with his proposal for a Sovereign Socialist Republic of
Bengal. There had been differences of opinion between Suhrawardy and
Sarat Bose regarding the sovereign status of Bengal, but the primary
motive of both of them was to resist the partition of the province.
While the former wanted a completely independent state for united
Bengal outside the union of India, the latter visualised Bengal to be
a sovereign socialist republic within the Indian union.
Both, however, vehemently protested the move for the partition of
Bengal, initiated by most Congress and hindu mahasabha leaders of the
province. Some Hindu and Muslim leaders of Bengal supported
Suhrawardy and Sarat Bose in their move. Prominent among them were
Kiran Shankar Roy (Leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party in
Bengal Assembly), Satya Ranjan Bakshi (Sarat Bose's Secretary), abul
hashim (Secretary of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League), Fazlur
Rahman (Revenue Minister of the Province), mohammad ali chaudhury
(Finance Minister in Suhrawardy's cabinet) and others. For a while,
the proposal was discussed both at private and public bodies and
important negotiations took place among Bengal leaders.
In fact, the concept of a sovereign independent Bengal had its
origins in the past. The adoption of the lahore resolution in March
1940 was a significant step towards highlighting the demand for
separate homelands for the Muslims of the two Muslim majority zones
of India. But the Lahore Resolution remained undefined until April
1946. To the Bengal League leaders, the Pakistan scheme was mainly a
proposal for the establishment of two sovereign and independent
states in the two Muslim majority zones of India. The majority
opinion, represented by Suhrawardy and Abul Hashim, favoured some
kind of Greater Bengal consisting of the whole of Bengal and Assam
plus an adjacent part of the district of Purnea in Bihar which had a
Muslim majority.
khwaja nazimuddin (an influential member of the working committee of
Bengal as well as of All India muslim league) and Maulana mohammad
akram khan (President of Bengal Muslim League) were the exponents of
the minority opinion. They wanted a more homogeneous Pakistan
excluding the Hindu-majority Burdwan Division and including the rest
of Bengal, the whole of Assam, and some portion of the Purnea
District in Bihar.
mohammed ali jinnah came out officially with his views on the issue
in the Muslim Legislators' Convention at Delhi held on 7-9 April
1946. His definition of Pakistan led his followers in Bengal to
reconsider their earlier stand on Pakistan. They now began to support
Jinnah's stand for Akhand Pakistan comprising the whole of Bengal and
Assam in the North East and the Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan and the
North West Frontier Province in the North West of India. But it seems
probable that the Hashim-Suhrawardy group of the Bengal League
conceived the idea of East Pakistan in terms of an independent and
sovereign Greater Bengal since it was fully consistent with the
scheme of Pakistan as envisaged in the Lahore Resolution. Sometime
later both Suhrawardy and Hashim, being influenced by this ideal,
initiated the move for a united independent Bengal through
negotiations with provincial Congress leaders like Sarat Bose and
Kiran Shankar Roy. Indeed, Suhrawardy was imbued with such an idea
long before some Hindus organised a movement for partition and even
before the calcutta riot (1946).
After Attlee's February Declaration (1947) and the arguments advanced
by the indian national congress for the partition of the Punjab and
Bengal following the declaration, a few politicians of Bengal,
including Suhrawardy, thought of maintaining the integrity of the
province as a sovereign state. They felt the necessity of making
Bengal a self-sufficient state with its own constitution. The Premier
of Bengal emphasised the formation of a coalition ministry in the
province. He further emphasised that Bengal belonged to the Bengalis
and was indivisible. One portion of the province depended on the
other and all were entitled to participate in its administration. He
hoped that all sections of the people of the province would want to
live and work for making Bengal a glorious land. Suhrawardy
maintained that independence would usher in a new era of peace and
prosperity in Bengal. Hashim urged upon the Congress and the Muslim
leaders of Bengal to make joint efforts for the settlement of their
affairs peacefully and happily outside the aegis of the British
administration. Among the Congress leaders of the province, Sarat
Bose shared the Premier's view on an undivided Bengal.
During the days of April-May 1947, the Hindu press and politicians
began an intense movement for partitioning Bengal. The British
Declaration of February 1947 clearly foreshadowed the partition of
India. As it became clear to the Congress and Hindu Mahasabha leaders
that the partition of the country was inevitable, they insisted on
retaining the Hindu-majority areas of Bengal and Hindu & Sikh
majority areas of Punjab within the union of India. The Bengal
Provincial Congress Committee formally declared in favour of
partition of the province and the creation of a separate Hindu
majority province (West Bengal) which included Calcutta within the
union of India. Almost simultaneously, the Bengal Provincial Hindu
Mahasabha took a resolution proclaiming its firm resolve that the
Hindus of Bengal, at least the ones in Hindu majority areas, should
remain within the Union of India and should not be separated from the
rest of India. shyama prasad mukherjee was able to win the majority
of Bengal Congress and Bengal Hindu representatives in the Central
and Provincial Legislative Assemblies to his side. In a press
conference held in Delhi on 27 April 1947, Suhrawardy put forward his
plan for a united independent Bengal. Following him Abul Hashim
declared his views on the same issue through a statement issued in
Calcutta on 29 April 1947. A few days later, Sarat Bose put forward
his proposals for a Sovereign Socialist Republic of Bengal.
These schemes were launched in an atmosphere of mutual distrust
between the two major communities of India in general and Bengal in
particular. The Pakistan movement led by Jinnah had become popular
among the Muslims of Bengal in the post-Lahore Resolution days. The
Bengal Provincial Muslim League began to mobilise Muslim public
opinion in support of the demand for Pakistan. Congress and Hindu
Mahasabha leaders of the province were alarmed at the prospect of
the 'Pakistanisation' of the whole of Bengal. The inevitable increase
in communal tensions made it difficult for a Congress-League accord
in the province. The situation was aggravated by the All India Muslim
League's recourse to the strategy of 'Direct Action' to achieve
Pakistan. While direct action day was observed peacefully in other
provinces, it turned violent in Calcutta where the Government was
under the control of the Muslim League. It had a major impact on the
formation of Hindu public opinion in favour of the demand for the
partition of the province.
Ultimately, Bengal Provincial Hindu Mahasabha and the majority of the
Congress leaders of the province set aside the scheme of a sovereign
Bengal. They mobilised a large section of Bengali Hindus against
Suhrawardy's move. They were of the opinion that it was nothing but a
political strategy to establish Pakistan in the whole of Bengal. The
Hindu press did everything it could to convince Hindu opinion against
the united Bengal formula. The Hindu Mahasabha influenced Bengali
Congressmen to campaign against the move for an independent Bengal.
While the majority of the Bengal Congressmen were opposed to
Suhrawardy's scheme for an independent Bengal, the opinion in the
League circles also came in favour of the partion. The majority of
the Bengal Muslim Leaguers, led by Khwaja Nazimuddin and Maulana
Akram Khan, wanted Bengal to be an integral part of the single state
of Pakistan, and not an independent state. Nazimuddin, Akram Khan and
their followers were just as adamant as Jinnah about Pakistan. They
firmly believed in Jinnah's Two Nations Theory.
In spite of the opposition from most Congress and League leaders,
Suhrawardy and Hashim continued their efforts to reach an agreement
with Hindu leaders of the province on the basis of their schemes.
Suhrawardy met Frederick Burrows, Jinnah and Lord mountbatten, at
different times and had satisfactory talks with them. Sarat Bose
raised a voice of protest against the AICC's March resolution. Kiran
Shankar was convinced that if League leaders were prepared to come
forward with some offer to the Hindus, the province could still be
kept unified. From the beginning of May 1947, the Bengal
unificationists thus came closer to each other. They met Gandhi with
their proposals during the latter's visit to Calcutta and sought his
suggestions. They also tried to persuade the Congress and the League
High Commands to accept their views. Finally, a tentative agreement
was reached at a meeting, held on 20 May 1947, in Calcutta among
Bengali leaders who were favourable to the move for a united and
independent Bengal. The following were the terms of the agreement:
1. Bengal would be a Free State. The Free State of Bengal would
decide its relations with the rest of India.
2. The Constitution of the Free State of Bengal would provide for
election to the Bengal Legislature on the basis of a joint electorate
and adult franchise, with reservation of seats proportionate to the
population among Hindus and Muslims. The seats set aside for Hindus
and Scheduled Caste Hindus would be distributed amongst them in
proportion to their respective population, or in such manner as may
be agreed among them. The constituencies would be multiple
constituencies and the votes would be distributive and not
cumulative. A candidate who got the majority of the votes of his own
community cast during the elections and 25 percent of the votes of
the other communities so cast, would be declared elected. If no
candidate satisfied these conditions, that candidate who got the
largest number of votes of his own community would be elected.
3. On the announcement by His Majesty's Government that the proposal
of the Free State of Bengal had been accepted and that Bengal would
not be partitioned, the present Bengal Ministry would be dissolved. A
new interim Ministry would be brought into being, consisting of an
equal number of Muslims and Hindus (including Scheduled Caste Hindus)
but excluding the Chief Minister. In this Ministry, Chief Minister
would be a Muslim and the Home Minister a Hindu.
4. Pending the final emergence of a Legislature and a Ministry under
the new constitutions, Hindus (including Scheduled Caste Hindus) and
Muslims would have an equal share in the Services, including military
and police. The Services would be manned by Bengalis.
5. A Constituent Assembly composed of 30 persons, 16 Muslims and 14
non-Muslims, would be elected by Muslim and non-Muslim members of the
Legislature respectively, excluding Europeans.
After arriving at an agreement among themselves, Suhrawardy, Kiran
Shankar Roy and Sarat Chandra Bose tried to secure the approval of
the Congress and the League High Commands for the terms of the
tentative agreement. But the prevailing misunderstanding between the
Congress and the League leaders and the changing political situation
completely unnerved the authors of the agreement. The majority of the
Congress and League leaders of Bengal denounced the terms of the
agreement outright. Influential Hindu dailies of Calcutta and the
press belonging to the Khwaja group of the Bengal League started
campaigning against the terms of the agreement. While the Khwaja
group thought that the agreement would amount to a complete surrender
to the Hindus, Congress and Hindu Mahasabha leaders felt that it was
designed entirely to extend the frontiers of Pakistan. On 28 May
1947, the Working Committee of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League at
its meeting under the Presidentship of Akram Khan denounced the terms
of the tentative agreement and reiterated its adherence to the League
demand for Pakistan and expressed full confidence in the leadership
of Jinnah. The Bengal unity formula received a further setback when,
following the statement of the Congress Working Committee, Kalipada
Mukherjee, the General Secretary of the Bengal Congress discarded it
through a statement issued on 1 June 1947.
In all-India politics, the main opposition to the proposal for a
sovereign independent Bengal came from the Indian National Congress.
The Congress High Command was frightened of the possibility of
permanent domination of Hindus by Muslims in a united Bengal. Both
Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel were totally opposed to
the concept of a sovereign Bengal. Nehru thought that through this
scheme the Muslim League in Bengal would force practically the whole
of Bengal to join Pakistan. He further held the view that if Bengal
were to remain united it should continue to be a part of the Union of
India. He made it clear that Congress would regard a separate state
of Bengal as an extension of Pakistan. Sardar Patel too offered
determined resistance to the move for Bengal unity. His
correspondence with influential Hindu leaders of Bengal during April-
June 1947 indicates his role in directing Hindus to the partition of
the province as well as his fanatical opposition to the idea of a
sovereign Bengal. He condemned those Hindu leaders of Bengal who had
got themselves involved in negotiations with the Muslim League
leaders of the province.
The approach of the Muslim League High Command to the terms of the
tentative agreements was also not favourable. True, Jinnah, was not
totally opposed to the proposition. It is evident that he had once
offered some encouragement to the scheme. Considering the arguments
of Mountbatten that in case of a division of India there should be a
partition of the Punjab and Bengal, Jinnah initially was ready to
agree to the proposal of a united independent Bengal. His primary
consideration was to avert the partition of Bengal; the possibility
of a potential alliance between an independent Bengal and Pakistan in
the future was of secondary importance to him. But he could not
finally settle his mind in favour of the issue. Although apparently
he had given his blessings to the move, several factors seemed to
have been responsible for making Jinnah reconsider his stand. He
rejected the idea in the end, perhaps he felt that it was after all a
deviation from the creed of Pakistan. He was not interested in
offering any concessions such as joint electorate etc, as
incorporated within the terms of the tentative agreement.
The Premier of Bengal had sincerely felt that the formation of a
coalition Ministry in the province would be an important step towards
bringing the Hindus and Muslims of Bengal closer together as well as
preventing the province from being partitioned. But Jinnah never
considered these issues to be matters of great urgency. His veto to a
coalition cabinet in Bengal proved to be fatal to the Suhrawardy-Bose
Formula.
The British were never totally allergic to the idea of a sovereign
independent Bengal. Burrows, the Governor of the province, was not at
all in favour of the partition of the province. In fact, he was
inclined to the Suhrawardy- Bose Formula and had tried his best for
its implementation to the last. The Viceroy was also not unwilling to
offer united Bengal the status of a Dominion along with India and
Pakistan. He had assured Suhrawardy that the British would accept any
settlement about Bengal approved by the League and the Congress High
Commands. But the British had to look at the question from an all
India point of view. They were not eager to compromise the safety of
the whole of India for the interest of one province. Hence in the
long run the failure of the scheme was inevitable.The final blow to
the concept was given when the Congress and the League High Commands
accepted Mountbatten Plan (the 3rd June Plan of 1947) for partition
of India and for transfer of power to the two Dominions of India and
Pakistan. [Chitta Ranjan Misra]
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