TILL A FEW years ago, I was unaware that June 20th is observed as West Bengal Day. The commemoration was a relatively fringe phenomenon, confined to a small section of the erstwhile refugee community. Its importance grew after Mamata Banerjee initiated moves to change the name of the state from West Bengal to Banga, secured endorsement from the state Assembly and pressed the Government of India to approve the name change. So far, the Centre has sat on the proposal, not least because the name change has been vehemently opposed by a section of Bengalis who have become emboldened after the growth and prominence of the BJP in the state after the 2019 General Election.
What is the significance of June 20th and why is it observed as West Bengal Day? To answer that question, a history lesson is imperative.
On that day in 1947, the Bengal Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution sanctioning the partition of Bengal into East Bengal—which subsequently became East Pakistan and, after 1971, Bangladesh—and West Bengal. The vote wasn’t unanimous: the Muslim members voted against the Partition while Hindu legislators endorsed the creation of West Bengal. Although the international boundary had to await the publication of the Radcliffe Award on August 16th, 1947, the decision that the whole of undivided Bengal—which had a Muslim majority—wouldn’t go entirely to Pakistan was taken on June 20th. In effect, the state of West Bengal came into existence that day.
In 1905, when Lord Curzon first partitioned Bengal, the opposition to the move came from the Hindu minority. Although the Muslim majority hadn’t actively sought a division of the huge province, the emerging Muslim middle classes took solace in the emergence of Dacca (as Dhaka was then spelt) as an alternative to the Hindu bhadralok and European-dominated Calcutta. Although the partition of Bengal was rescinded in 1911—with Bengal paying the political price of having the national capital shifted to Delhi—the experience widened the Hindu-Muslim faultlines.
In 1947, when confronted with the choice of living as a permanent minority in Muslim-dominated Pakistan or making do with a truncated province that was a part of India, Hindu Bengalis chose differently from 1905. When challenging Curzon and the British Raj, they had put a premium on the cultural integrity of the united province, despite it being a Muslim-majority one. However, once the creation of Pakistan became inevitable 42 years later, they sacrificed living space to uphold their religio-cultural identity.
The political transformation of Bengal in the final year of British rule is one of the most under-researched facets of the Partition saga. While reams have been written about the complex constitutional and political negotiations involving the British, the Congress and the Muslim League over Partition in the west, the division in the east has been relatively neglected. Yet, between the Muslim League’s Direct Action Day on August 16th, 1946 and Independence Day, almost exactly a year later, Bengal witnessed a huge political churning that led to nearly all Hindus—whether in the Congress, Hindu Mahasabha or unaffiliated—coming together to salvage the cultural personality and inheritance of Bengal.
In this bid to deny Muhammad Ali Jinnah a total victory creating a ‘moth-eaten Pakistan’, minus the city of Calcutta, Syama Prasad Mookerjee—the subsequent founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the precursor of the BJP—played the leading role. It was Mookerjee who transcended the blind opposition to any vivisection of India and addressed the awkward issue of the plight of the Hindu minority in Pakistan. He was clear in his mind that it was only a matter of time before Hindus in Pakistan would be confronted with the question of physical, cultural and religious survival. They needed a space to survive and prosper and, under the circumstances, the creation of a West Bengal was inescapable. For a change, the Bengal political leadership set aside their petty internal differences and responded to Mookerjee’s lead.
The history of how and why West Bengal was created has been obscured from both history and popular memory because it raises uncomfortable questions. First, there is the obvious issue of India being the natural home of all non-Muslim minorities of Pakistan—an issue that resurfaced in the wake of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Second, there is the self-belief of Bengali Hindus that they are the real custodians of the authentic Bengali cultural inheritance—from Poyla Boishak and Durga Puja to
Bankimchandra and Rabindranath.
West Bengal Day underlines the fact that Bengalis and Bangladeshis chose to travel down different roads.
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