Karwa Saach - Bitter Truth - A Little History Behind Partition of Bengal...
Lord Curzon undertook a tour in East Bengal "ostensibly with the object of ascertaining public opinion, but really to overawe it."
He was soon convinced of the strength and solidarity of public opposition to any scheme for partitioning Bengal.
This evidently confirmed his views about the strength of Bengali nationalism and the danger it spelled to British rule in India.
He, therefore, decided to remove this danger, before it was too late, by effectively destroying the solidarity of the Bengalis. He now conceived the much more comprehensive plan of dividing the Bengali-speaking area into two separate Provinces - the whole of Northern and Eastern Bengal with Assam forming the Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, and. Western Bengal with Bihar and Orissa 'constituting the Province of Bengal.
The motive behind it was quite clear. In East Bengal, the Muslims, politically less advanced and more loyal to the British than the Hindus, would be in a majority, while, in Bengal. the Bengalis would form a minority by the inclusion of Bihar and Orissa.
Thus the Bengalis would be divided from their kith and kin; the Bengali Hindus hated and dreaded by Curzon for their advanced political ideas, would form a minority in both Provinces; and a thin wedge would be driven between the Hindus and Muslims of Bengal.
It was undoubtedly a master plan to destroy the nascent nationalism in Bengal.
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