Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition, 1932–1947

207 Pages·1994·2.379 MB·English

by  Joya Chatterji

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SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES 57
Bengal divided
Hindu communalfsm and parti ti on,
1932-1947
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Previous studies of the Partition of India have concentrated on the negotiations of the transfer of
power at the all-India level or have considered the emergence of separatist politics amongst India's
Muslim minorities. This study provides a re-evaluation of the events of 1946-47 focusing on the
political and social processes that led to the demand for partition in a Mulsim-majority province,
Bengal, and tracing the rise of Hindu communalism. In its most startling revelation, the author
shows how the demand for a separate homeland for the Hindus, which was fuelled by a large and
powerful section of Hindu society within Bengal, was seen as the only way to regain their
influence. The picture which emerges is one of a stratified and fragmented society moving away
from the mainstream of Indian nationalism, and increasingly preoccupied with narrower, more
parochial concerns.
In this original and thoughtful interpretation of the history of Bengal, Joya Chatterji shows herself
to be one of a new generation of scholars prepared to access a wider range of source materials and to
question the conventional assumptions of earlier historians.
Cambridge South Asian Studies
Bengal divided
Cambridge South Asian Studies Editorial Board
C. A. Bayly, G. P. Hawthorn, Gordon Johnson, S. J. Tambiah
A list of the books in the series will be found at the end of the volume
Bengal divided
Hindu communalism and partition, 1932-1947
Joya Chatterji
Trinity College, Cambridge
,,.. ...., CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
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© Cambridge University Press 1994
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may
take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1994
First paperback edition 2002
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress
Cataloguing in Publication data
Chatterji, Joya.
Bengal divided: Hindu communalism and partition, 1932-1947 / Joya Chatterji.
p. cm. - (Cambridge South Asian studies (no. 57)) Includes bibliographical
references and index.
ISBN O 52141128 9
I. Bengal (India) - History- Partition, 1947.
2. Communalism - India - Bengal - History.
I. Title. II. Series. DS485.B493C49 1994 954'.140359-dc20
93-30544 CIP
ISBN O 521411289 hardback
ISBN O 521 52328 I paperback
Contents
List of maps page viii
List of tables IX
Acknowledgements xi
List of abbreviations Xlll
Glossary xiv
Introduction
Bengal politics and the 18
Communal Award
2 The emergence of the 55
mofussil in Bengal politics
3 The reorientation of the 103
Bengal Congress, 1937--45
4 The construction of bhadralok
communal identity:
culture and communalism in 150
Bengal
5 Hindu unity and Muslim
tyranny:
aspects of Hindu bhadralok 191
politics, 1936---47
6 The second partition of 266
Bengal, 1945--47
Conclusion 220
Appendix 266
Bibliography 275
Index 293
vii
Maps
1 Bengal districts page xviii
2 Distribution of Muslim 11
population, by district
3 Distribution of Hindu 246
population, by district
4 Geographical spread of the 247
campaign for partition
5 The organisational basis of 252
the campaign for partition
6 West Bengal and East 258
Pakistan, 1947
viii
Tables
1 The Communal Award in 20
Bengal
2 Caste and economic 37
differentiation in rural Bengal
3 Sale and transfer of 66
intermediary tenures: 1929-37
4 Commerce and landholders. 147
'Special interests' and the
Congress: 1936-37 and
5 1945--46 218
Muslim membership in Local
Boards in the 24 Parganas,
1930-31 to 1936-37
6 All-India electoral results of 224
the Congress and the Muslim
League: elections of 1945--46
7 Congress electoral results in 228
Bengal, 1936-37 and 1945--46
8 Some Hindu volunteer 235
organisations in Calcutta:
1945--47
9 Distribution of petitions 245
demanding the partition of
Bengal
and the proportion of Hindu
IO population, by district, 1947 257
Occupational breakdown of
signatories of partition
petitions (as returned from
four different villages of
Bengal)
ix
Acknowledgements
This book first took shape as a fellowship dissertation submitted to Trinity College in 1989. A more
finished version was presented as a doctoral thesis to the University of Cambridge in 1990. At each
stage, its author incurred many debts of gratitude, and it is a pleasure to be able to thank all those who
assisted in its creation.
Generous funding by the Master and Fellows of Trinity College sustained me, first as a graduate
student and later as a Fellow, through five years of research, writing and travel. The Smuts Fund
made it possible for me to make trips to archives and libraries in India and Bangladesh.
My supervisor at Cambridge, Dr Anil Seal, took an interest in the progress of this work that went
well beyond the call of duty. His constant encouragement spurred me into writing it more quickly than
I might otherwise have done, while his thorough supervision and eye for detail prevented many errors
of style and argument from entering the final version. Dr Rajnarayan Chandavarkar, Professor
Ravinder Kumar, and Dr Tanika Sarkar read through early drafts. Their advice was most helpful.
Professor Tapan Raychaudhuri and Dr Gordon Johnson exam ined both the fellowship and doctoral
dissertations on which this book is based. Their critical suggestions were valuable and encouraging.
Discussion and argument with friends not only enlivened the process of writing this book, but also
stimulated new ideas and helped to make old ones clearer. I am especially grateful to Samita Sen,
Subho Basu and Sujata Patel for the many hours spent debating various aspects of my argument.
Subho and Samita also assisted me with translation, and shared with me their knowledge of Bengali
literature. Samita shared her equally formidable knowledge of the word processor, and took a great
deal of time off her own work to help me out of tricky processing problems.
The staff of various libraries - the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, the National Archives and
the Jawaharlal Nehru University Library in Delhi, the West Bengal State Archives, the Centre for
Studies
XI
xii Acknowledgements
in Society and History and the National Library in Calcutta, the Bangla Academy and the Asiatic
Society of Bangladesh in Dhaka, the India Office Library and Records in London, the Bodleian
Library in Oxford and the University Library in Cambricige - gave me ready access to the
materials upon which this research is based. I owe special thanks to Dr Lionel Carter of the Centre
for South Asian Studies, Cambridge, Mr. M. Mujadded of the Bangla Academy, Dhaka, and Mr
Kanai Lall Sardar of the Special Branch Record Room, Calcutta, who went out of their way to
assist me in every possible way.
In Dhaka, Mr and Mrs Ata-ul Hug welcomed me into their home. Professor Taluqder
Maniruzzaman, Professor Abdur Rezzak and Shiraz Mannan shared with me their knowledge of
the history of Bengal. I am particularly grateful to Badruddin Umar and Feroze Ahsan for making
available to me materials from Mr Umar's private collection.
A special word of thanks to Tina Bone and Laura Cordy at Trinity College, and to Marigold
Acland and Mary Richards at Cambridge University Press for their invaluable assistance in the
production of this book.
My family has indulged and supported my passion for history for several years, and has
followed my progress as a research student with great interest (and not a little bemusement). Sara
and Peter McManus and Jhupu and Shona Adhikari made my long stays in Calcutta very pleasant
by providing me with a most congenial home environment. My grand father, Frederick Sawyer,
and my mother, Psyche Abraham, read through the manuscript with great care, and pointed out
many typographical and stylistic errors. Miti and Ramona Adhikari, and Joy and Zygmund
Warwick helped me in innumerable ways during my years at Cambridge. Vandana and Arun
Prasad have been a constant source of encourage ment. Archana Prasad assisted me with archival
research when pregnancy and motherhood restricted my movements.
My greatest debt is to my husband, Prakash. Without his constant interest and involvement in
my work, this book would have been a much poorer effort. He shared all the burdens of child-care
and domestic life willingly and cheerfully, and took time off his own research to allow me to pursue
mine. Our son, Kartik, was always cooperative and put up with his mother's academic
preoccupations with unfailing good humour.
My father supported and encouraged me at every point. His own lively interest in modern
Bengali history and strongly-held (if controversial) views first aroused my interest in the subject.
This book is dedicated to him.
Abbreviations
AICC AIML BPCC
BPHM
cc
CPI DCC DIG OM FB FR FSR GB HCPB INA IOLR IPP KPP
LOFCR MLA NAI NBPS NMML OT
PS RSS UMP SB SP SSR TKS
WBSA
All India Congress Committee
All India Muslim League
Bengal Provincial Congress Committee Bengal Provincial Hindu Mahasabha Congress
Committee
Communist Party of India District Congress Committee Deputy Inspector
General District Magistrate
Forward Bloc Fortnightly Report
Fortnightly Secret Report Government of Bengal
Home Confidential Political Branch Indian National Army
India Office Library and Records Independent Proja Party
Krishak Praja Party
Local Officers Fortnightly Confidential Reports Member of the Legislative Assembly
National Archives of India Nikhil Banga Praja Samity
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Oral Transcript
Police Station
Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangha United Muslim Party
Special Branch Superintendent of Police Survey and Settlement Report Tippera
Krishak Samity
West Bengal State Archives
xiii
Glossary
abhadra abhijata abwab
acharan ail aimadar
akhara amal anushilan apamaan ashraf ashram atrap atyachar babu
Bania baralok bargadar bari barkandaz basha bhadra bhadralok bhagchashi bhakti biplab boniyadi
bratachari
xiv
vulgar, crude notable
traditional, arbitrary exaction above the formal rent
character
landmark distinguishing two plots of land intermediate tenure holder, particularly in
Burdwan
gymnasium, physical culture club revenue collector
practice insult
(Muslim) nobility hermitage
(Muslim) commoners cruelty, oppression
traditional (Hindu) title or respect,
Anglo-Indian term (pejorative) for educated Hindus
member of a trading and money-lending Caste lit. 'big people', elites
sharecropper home messenger lodgings
polite, cultivated gentle-folk sharecropper devotion rebellion
traditionally propertied, aristocratic traditional form of physical culture, dance
Glossary
brittibhogi bustee byayam chakuri chaukidar chash chashadi crorepati dadni
dal
dalan-bari dalil patra dar-patnidar Dar-ul-Islam desh
dewan dhal dharma
dharmaablamban dhoti
dhyana fatka gaddi gamcha
go korbani goalas gomasta goonda grihastha hartal ijaradar itarta jabana jalachal
jati jotedar khansama
khas khamar khas mahal khas
kooli-majur
xv
professional slum, settlement exercise
service watchman cultivation
cultivation et cetera multi-millionaire moneylending party, faction
brick-built pucca house certificate, document intermediate tenure-holder
Islamic state
nation, native place manager
shield religion, duty
religious practice lower garment meditation speculation
seat, throne
towel used by Brahmins cow sacrifice
caste of milkmen landlord's steward hoodlum householder
strike leaseholder
lit. otherness; pop. baseness, meanness foreigner (pejorative)
intermediary caste from whom Brahmins may accept water without being 'polluted'
caste, race tenure-holder cook
personal demesne government land personal labourers
xvi Glossary