Partition of Bengal - Clarity Desk Hub IAS

🌍 Background – Why was Bengal partitioned?

At that time, Bengal was a very large province including Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, and Assam. Its population was about 80 million — the largest in India. The official justification was administrative convenience: one government could not efficiently manage such a vast and diverse territory.

On 19 July 1905, Lord Curzon announced the partition:

Eastern Bengal & Assam → 31 million people.
Western Bengal + Bihar + Orissa → 54 million people (18 million Bengalis + 36 million Biharis & Oriyas).

On paper, this looked like a measure for efficiency. But the nationalists saw the hidden agenda.

🎭 Opposition by Nationalists – Why were they angry?

Nationalists, especially in Bengal, immediately opposed the move. Why?

They argued: if administration was really the problem, Curzon could have separated Bihar and Orissa (non-Bengali speaking) from Bengal. Why divide Bengali-speaking people themselves?
The real motive, they said, was “divide and rule” — to weaken the growing nationalist sentiment in Bengal.

🎯 The Hidden Motives Behind Partition

Curb Bengali dominance → Bengalis, being politically conscious, were at the forefront of nationalism. By splitting them, their strength would be diluted.
Communal angle → In Eastern Bengal & Assam, Muslims would form a majority, while Hindus dominated Western Bengal. This was designed to create a Hindu-Muslim divide, so that Muslims would be used as a counterweight against Hindu nationalists.
Weaken Calcutta → Calcutta was the nerve-centre of Indian nationalism. Curzon wanted to reduce its influence by dividing Bengal.

Thus, what was justified as administrative reform was seen as a political conspiracy.

🔥 The Anti-Partition Movement – The Swadeshi & Boycott Era

The decision was announced in December 1903, and protests began immediately. Let’s divide the movement into phases:

Phase 1: Moderate leadership (1903–1905)

Leaders: Surendranath Banerjee, K.K. Mitra, Prithwishchandra Ray.
Methods: petitions, public meetings, pamphlets, press campaigns.
Aim: to create strong public opinion in India and Britain so that the decision would be cancelled.

But despite protests, Curzon went ahead. So, moderates realised: petitions alone will not work.

Phase 2: The launch of Swadeshi & Boycott (1905 onwards)

On 7 August 1905, a historic meeting at Calcutta Town Hall declared:

Boycott of British goods.
Adoption of Swadeshi — use of Indian goods, support for Indian industries.

The campaign spread across Bengal with passionate mass participation:

Foreign cloth was burnt in public bonfires.
Shops selling British goods were picketed.
Women gave up foreign bangles and utensils.
Washermen refused to wash foreign clothes.
Priests refused offerings made with foreign sugar.

👉 The boycott of foreign goods turned out to be the most successful weapon — it hit the British economy directly and gave a boost to Indian industry.

Phase 3: 16 October 1905 – The Partition comes into effect

This day was observed as a day of national mourning.

Hartals were observed in Calcutta.
People bathed in the Ganga, walked barefoot, sang patriotic songs.
“Bande Mataram” became the anthem of the movement.
Rabindranath Tagore composed “Amar Sonar Bangla”, which later became the national anthem of Bangladesh.
Raksha Bandhan was celebrated as a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity — people tied rakhis to one another to show the bond of a united Bengal.
Leaders like Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose laid the foundation stone of a Federation Hall in Calcutta to symbolise Bengal’s unity.

🌟 Significance of the Anti-Partition Agitation

Instead of dividing Bengalis, the Partition united them even more strongly.
It marked the formal beginning of the Swadeshi and Boycott movements, which later spread to the whole country.
It showed mass participation — students, women, workers, peasants all joined.
It brought moderates and extremists together on a common platform, at least initially.
It gave the freedom struggle a new emotional and cultural depth — Bande Mataram, Rakhi, Swadeshi schools, indigenous industries.

In short: Curzon wanted to weaken nationalism, but ended up intensifying it. The Partition of Bengal became the turning point that transformed Indian nationalism from polite petitioning to mass struggle based on self-reliance and sacrifice.

🌍 Stand of the Congress

The Indian National Congress (INC) was united in opposing the Partition of Bengal. But internally, there were sharp differences on how far to push the movement:

At the Benaras Session (1905) under Gopal Krishna Gokhale:
- Congress condemned Curzon’s policies.
- Supported Swadeshi and Boycott — but largely confined to Bengal and foreign goods.
Extremist leaders (Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal, Aurobindo Ghose) wanted:
- To spread the Swadeshi-Boycott beyond Bengal to all of India.
- To extend boycott to every association with the colonial government (courts, schools, administration).
Moderates, however, resisted this expansion. They wanted to restrict boycott only to foreign goods and only within Bengal.

👉 To avoid a split, Dadabhai Naoroji was chosen president at the 1906 Calcutta Session. There, under pressure from Extremists, the Congress finally declared “Swaraj” (self-government within the British Empire, like Canada or Australia) as its goal.

But tensions continued, and eventually, at the Surat Session (1907), the Congress formally split into Moderates and Extremists.

🔥 Movement under Extremists

After 1905, leadership of the Anti-Partition movement shifted decisively to the Extremists. Why?

Moderate petitions had failed to stop the partition.
Repressive policies of the British pushed people towards radical politics.

The Extremists introduced Passive Resistance along with Swadeshi-Boycott. This meant:

Refusing to cooperate with the colonial government.
Boycotting schools, courts, administration.
Making governance impossible by organised non-cooperation.

👉 The focus moved from merely reversing the Partition to demanding Swaraj — independence from foreign rule.

⚔️ Government Repression in East Bengal

The British responded harshly:

Bande Mataram slogan was banned in public.
Press was silenced through repressive laws.
At the Barisal Conference (1906), peaceful delegates were attacked by police — this became symbolic of colonial intolerance.

This repression only increased public anger and drew more support to Extremist leaders.

✊ New Innovative Forms of Struggle

The Swadeshi Movement was creative in its methods, combining political activism with cultural and social mobilisation:

1. Public Meetings and Processions

Became the most visible way of mobilising masses, turning politics into a public, popular expression.

2. Samitis (Volunteers’ Corps)

Example: Ashwini Kumar Dutta’s Swadesh Bandhab Samiti in Barisal.
They spread the message of boycott and Swadeshi, but also did:
- Relief work during famines/epidemics.
- Physical training and moral education.
- Organised crafts, arbitration committees, national schools.
- Encouraged folk songs and plays (jatras) with Swadeshi themes.

👉 These samitis combined social service + political training, grooming a new generation of activists.

3. Use of Traditional Festivals and Melas

Tilak’s Ganapati festival (1893) and Shivaji festival (1895) were now used widely to spread nationalist messages.
Songs, speeches, and plays made politics accessible to common people, even those who were illiterate.

4. Emphasis on Self-Reliance (Atmashakti)

The movement stressed Swadeshi enterprises:

Acharya P.C. Ray’s Bengal Chemical Stores (1901).
Chidambaram Pillai’s Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company (1906, Tuticorin), which directly challenged British monopoly shipping.
Many Indian-owned textile mills, soap factories, match factories, insurance companies and banks were set up.

👉 Economic nationalism became a powerful weapon against foreign domination.

5. National Education

Boycott of colonial schools led to the rise of parallel Indian education:

Bengal Technical Institute (25 July 1906).
National Council of Education (15 August 1906).
National College in Calcutta, with Aurobindo Ghose as principal.
- Inspired by Tagore’s Shantiniketan (1901).

This education aimed to produce patriotic, self-reliant youth instead of clerks for colonial offices.

6. Constructive Social Reform

The Swadeshi spirit also included campaigns against caste oppression, early marriage, dowry, and alcohol consumption.
👉 The movement thus became not only political, but also social and cultural, laying the foundations of a modern Indian nation.

🌟 Significance of this Phase

The movement broadened from Bengal to other provinces.
It brought masses, students, women, and workers into active politics.
It demonstrated economic nationalism, parallel education, and cultural symbols as tools of resistance.
It shifted the goalpost from “undoing partition” to demanding Swaraj.

In short: the Swadeshi and Boycott Movement under Extremist leadership transformed India’s freedom struggle into a mass-based, multi-dimensional campaign.

🌍 Extent of Mass Participation

1. Students

Students in Bengal played a leading role:
- They picketed shops selling foreign cloth, spread the Swadeshi message, and became the most energetic section of the movement.
- The colonial state retaliated harshly: schools and colleges were penalised, students were fined, expelled, beaten, and even jailed.
- Yet, students stood firm — showing that nationalism had gripped India’s youth.

2. Women

Traditionally confined to the home, women of the urban middle classes now came out into the streets, joining processions and picketing.
This was a breakthrough in Indian politics — the Swadeshi movement opened the doors for women’s participation in the freedom struggle.

3. All-India Spread

The agitation was not confined to Bengal:
- In Andhra, it was known as the Vandemataram Movement.
- Tilak spread it to Maharashtra and other provinces.
This was India’s first truly pan-national movement, sowing the seeds of nationwide mass mobilisation.

🌟 Impact of the Swadeshi Movement

1. Nationalism Deepened

For the first time, nationalism spread beyond the elite circles into the masses — students, women, workers, and sections of peasants became politically active.
It introduced new techniques of struggle: boycott, swadeshi, passive resistance, public meetings, cultural mobilisation.

2. Cultural Renaissance

The movement inspired a flowering of Indian art, literature, music, and science.
Tagore wrote Amar Sonar Bangla, later the national anthem of Bangladesh.
The Indian Society of Oriental Art (1907) promoted artists like Nandalal Bose, who pioneered modern Indian art rooted in nationalist culture.
Science and industry too benefited from a new wave of indigenous enterprises.

⚠️ Drawbacks and Limitations

1. Reluctance of Muslims

The movement failed to win broad Muslim support, especially among the Muslim peasantry.
Reasons:
- British communal strategy — portraying partition as a “gift” to Muslims.
- Nawab of Dacca, financially supported by the British (loan of ₹14 lakhs), backed the partition, claiming East Bengal would benefit from Muslim majority.
- Thus, while some Muslims joined, the larger middle and upper-class Muslim leadership remained neutral or pro-British.
To further encourage separation, the British facilitated the creation of the All India Muslim League (1906) at Dacca, which openly supported partition and opposed INC.

2. Limited Reach among Peasants and Workers

The rural poor and working classes remained mostly uninvolved.
The movement largely remained urban, middle-class led, without deep roots in villages.

3. Ineffective Leadership

Extremist leaders could arouse the people but struggled to channelise energy into sustained organisation.
There was no strong party structure or long-term programme — enthusiasm often fizzled out.

4. Leaderless Movement by 1908

By mid-1908, the movement had lost momentum because:
1. Surat Split (1907) divided the Congress.
2. Heavy repression by the colonial state.
3. Weak organisation and lack of nationwide coordination.
4. Mass agitations by nature cannot sustain indefinitely without fresh strategy.

🔥 Repression by the Government

After the Surat Split, the government launched a massive crackdown on Extremists:

Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh exiled to Burma (1907).
Tilak imprisoned (1908), sent to Mandalay for six years.
Ashwini Kumar Dutta’s Swadesh Bandhab Samiti banned.
Chidambaram Pillai arrested under sedition (1908).
Aurobindo Ghosh jailed in the Alipore conspiracy case (1908); later retired from politics to pursue spirituality.
Bipin Chandra Pal withdrew from active politics.
Ajit Singh had earlier led Pagdi Sambhal Jatta agitation (1906) in Punjab against anti-farmer laws.

👉 By 1908, the movement was virtually crushed through repression.

🏛 Annulment of Partition (1911)

Finally, in 1911, the British annulled the Partition of Bengal — not because of nationalist pressure alone, but to curb revolutionary militancy that had grown out of the Swadeshi agitation.

Bengal was reunited, but simultaneously:
- Bihar and Orissa were separated from Bengal.
- Assam was made a separate province.
To appease Muslims, the British shifted the capital from Calcutta to Delhi, associating it with the glory of the Mughal Empire.
Ironically, even Muslim elites were not happy, since they had supported Partition as beneficial.

✨ Significance in Retrospect

Strengths
First true mass nationalist movement involving students, women, and sections of peasants.
Spread nationalism across India beyond Bengal.
Introduced new forms of struggle later used by Gandhi — boycott, swadeshi, passive resistance, constructive programmes.
Sparked a cultural awakening in art, literature, music, education, and science.
Weaknesses
Communal divide deepened, as the British successfully cultivated separatist tendencies.
Movement lacked long-term organisation and leadership continuity.
Failed to sustain peasant and working-class participation.

🎯 Conclusion

The Swadeshi and Boycott Movement was both a great success and a partial failure.

It failed in its immediate aim (to prevent or reverse Partition until 1911), and by 1908 it was leaderless and suppressed.
But it succeeded historically — it politicised the masses, broadened nationalism beyond elites, and gave India new methods of resistance.

In a way, it was the dress rehearsal for Gandhiji’s mass movements after 1919.

👑 Delhi Durbars (Coronation Durbars)

🌍 What were Delhi Durbars?

Delhi Durbar = a grand coronation ceremony held by the British in India to proclaim the succession of a new monarch as Emperor/Empress of India.
It was basically the British way of displaying imperial authority in the Indian setting, using Delhi (the old Mughal capital) for its symbolic resonance.
Three Durbars were held → 1877, 1903, and 1911.

👑 Delhi Durbar 1877

Background: In 1876, Queen Victoria assumed the additional title “Empress of India”.
Viceroy Lord Lytton was asked to proclaim this across India.
So, on 1 January 1877, he organised a grand “Imperial Assemblage” at Delhi.
This was not just a celebration — it was meant to legitimise British power in the idiom of Indian kingship, showing the Queen as successor to the Mughals.

👑 Delhi Durbar 1903

Occasion: Succession of Edward VII as Emperor of India.
It was attended by the Duke of Connaught on behalf of the King (Edward himself did not come).
Again, the focus was pomp, pageantry, and demonstration of British supremacy.

👑 Delhi Durbar 1911 — The Most Significant

Occasion: Succession of George V.
Importance: This was the only Durbar actually attended by the reigning monarch himself (George V and Queen Mary came in person).
Two historic decisions were announced here:
1. Shifting the capital from Calcutta to Delhi.
  - Delhi carried the prestige of the Mughal past, and shifting the capital symbolically strengthened British authority.
  - It also helped reduce the influence of Bengal (the “nerve centre” of nationalism).
2. Annulment of the Partition of Bengal.
  - The 1905 partition had provoked the Swadeshi and Boycott movements.
  - By 1911, British officials decided to undo it to weaken revolutionary nationalism.
  - But to still check Bengal’s influence, Bengal was reorganised: Bihar and Orissa were carved out, and Assam made a separate province.

✨ Significance of the Durbars

They reflected the imperial style of legitimacy — mimicking Mughal grandeur to portray British monarchs as rightful rulers of India.
But politically, the 1911 Durbar was the most crucial because it directly altered the geography of Indian politics (new capital in Delhi, Bengal restructured).
Symbolically, it showed how the British tried to balance repression with concessions — crushing Extremists after 1907, but also pacifying moderates and Muslims with gestures like annulment and capital shift.

Wonderful — we’ve now entered the story of the Indian National Congress between 1905 and 1914, which revolves around the struggle between Moderates and Extremists, the famous Surat Split (1907), and the Government’s “Carrot and Stick” policy. Well, that will be the story for the next section.