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The Political Inheritance of Pakistan pp 130–143Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

A Doubtful Inheritance: The Partition of Bengal in 1947

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Abstract

On 28 May 1947 the Viceroy, Lord, Mountbatten, recorded two alternative broadcast statements in London. Broadcast ‘A’ was to be used if it appeared probable that Bengal would be partitioned; Broadcast ‘B’ if the balance of probability pointed in the direction of Bengal remaining unified. Alternative ‘B’ omitted a reference to ‘Bengal and part of Assam’, leaving Punjab alone a candidate for partition, and contained an additional paragraph which read:

Bengal was one of the Provinces for whom partition was demanded, but the newly formed Coalition Government of Bengal have asked for their case to be reconsidered…1

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Notes

  1. Nicholas Mansergh (ed.), India: the Transfer of Power 1942–7 (hereafter TP), vol. XI, (London, 1982) doc. no. 1.

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  2. Sarat Chandra Bose, I Warned My Countrymen (Calcutta, 1968) pp. 186–7, 191–2.

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  3. Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge, 1985) p. 241 and passim, and ‘Inheriting the Raj: Jinnah and the Governor-Generalship Issue’, Modern Asian Studies, 19, 1 (February 1985).

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  4. See Shila Sen, Muslim Politics In Bengal 1937–47 (New Delhi, 1976) pp. 223–33, 243–5.

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  5. See Sugata Bose, Agrarian Bengal: Economy, Social Structure and Politics, 1919–1947 (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 205–6;

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  6. Humaira Momen, Muslim Politics in Bengal: A Study of Krishak Praja Party and the Elections of 1937 (Dacca, 1972) pp. 62–8;

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  7. Shila Sen, Muslim Politics in Bengal, 1937–1947 (Delhi, 1974) pp. 88–93; Jalal, Sole Spokesman, pp. 26–7.

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  8. See Leonard A. Gordon, Bengal: the Nationalist Movement, 1876–1940 (New York, 1974) pp. 283–8.

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  9. Rajat Kanta Ray, Social Unrest and Political Conflict in Bengal 1875–1927 (New Delhi, 1984).

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  10. Bose, Agrarian Bengal. See also Partha Chatterjee, Bengal: the Land Question 1920–47 (Calcutta, 1984).

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  11. The long-term economic potential of east Bengal is implied in James Boyce, Agrarian Impasse in Bengal: Institutional Constraints to Technological Change (Oxford, 1987).

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  12. J. R. Andrus, The Economy of Pakistan (London, 1958) pp. 148–9.

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  13. See Abul Mansur Ahmed, Amar Dekha Rajnitir Panchas Bachhar (Fifty Years of Politics as I saw it), (Dacca, 1968)

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  14. and Ashrafuddin Ahmed Chaudhuri, Raj Birodhi (Opponent of the Raj) (Dacca, 1979).

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  15. Ayesha Jalal, The State of Martial Rule: Pakistan’s Political Economy of Defence (Cambridge, 1990).

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  16. See Abul Mansur Ahmed, Amar Dekha Rajniti; also A. K. Fazlul Huq, Shatabdir Konthaswer (Voice of the Century), S. M. Aqizal Huq, ed. (Dacca, 1980) pp. 513–14.

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Authors
  1. Sugata Bose
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. History of the British Commonwealth, University of Cambridge, UK

    D. A. Low (Smuts Professor) (Smuts Professor)

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© 1991 D. A. Low

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Bose, S. (1991). A Doubtful Inheritance: The Partition of Bengal in 1947. In: Low, D.A. (eds) The Political Inheritance of Pakistan. Cambridge Commonwealth Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11556-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11556-3_6

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-11558-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-11556-3

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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