14-15. HIS 103 United Independent Bengal Movement & The Great Divide of 1947

Lecture 14-15: HIS 103: United Independent Bengal
Movement and The Great Divide of 1947
Dr. M Humayun Kabir

Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946
• The Cabinet Mission sent from Britain to India in March 1946 was a step of
transfer of power from the British Government to the Indian leadership
through granting independence.
• The three men who constituted the mission, Stafford Cripps, Pethick-
Lawrence and A.V. Alexander favoured India's unity for strategic reasons.
The main objectives of this mission were:

• Conduct preparatory discussions with elected representatives of British India and
various states of India to reach a compromise within the constitutional structure;
• Form a constitutional body;
• Formation of a working council consisting of representatives of the major political
parties of India.
• The mission found both parties, the Indian National Congress and the
Muslim League, more unwilling than ever to reach a settlement.
• The mission made its own proposals, after inconclusive dialogue with the
Indian leadership, The mission proposed a complicated system for India
with three tiers: the provinces, provincial groupings and the center.
• The center's power was to be confined to foreign affairs, defense, currency
and communications.
• The provinces would keep all the other powers and were allowed to
establish three groups.
Group A- UP, CP, Bombay, Bihar, Orissa and Madras
Group B- Sind, Punjab, Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan
Group C - Bengal and Assam
Reactions of AIML
• Despite preference for only two groups, the Muslim League's Council accepted the
mission's proposals on 6 June 1946 after securing a guarantee from Wavell that the
League would be placed in the interim government if the Congress did not accept
the plan.
Reactions of INC
• It accepted the proposals. the Congress position that a sovereign constituent
assembly would not be bound to the plan.
• Nehru's speech on 10 July 1946 rejected the idea that the provinces would be
obliged to join a group and stated that the Congress was neither bound nor
committed to the plan.
• Jinnah interpreted the speech as another instance of treachery by the Congress.
With Nehru's speech on groupings, the Muslim League rescinded its previous
approval of the plan on 29 July
• Disregarding Jinnah's veto, government authorized a cabinet in which
Nehru was the interim prime minister.
• Millions of Indian Muslim households flew black flags to protest the
installation of the Congress government.
Direct Action Day, 16 August 1946
• The 'Direct Action' also known as the 1946 Calcutta Killings announced by
the Muslim League Council to show the strength of Muslim feelings
towards its demand for an "autonomous and sovereign“ Pakistan, and
resulted in the worst communal riots that British India had seen.
• In the context of the worsening situation, Wavell was replaced by Lord
Mountbatten.
United Independent Bengal Movement
• United Independent Bengal Movement a proposal to solve the communal
question on the eve of the termination of British rule in India.
• In a press conference held in Delhi on 27 April 1947, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
put forward his plan for a united independent Bengal. A few days later, Sarat
Chandra Bose put forward his proposals for a Sovereign Socialist Republic of
Bengal.
• The move was protested by most Congress and Hindu Mahasabha leaders of the
province. Some Hindu and Muslim leaders of Bengal supported the move.
Prominent among them were Kiran Shankar Roy (Leader of the Congress
Parliamentary Party in Bengal Assembly), Satya Ranjan Bakshi (Sarat Bose's
Secretary), Abul Hashim(Secretary of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League), Fazlur
Rahman (Revenue Minister of the Province), Mohammad Ali Chaudhury (Finance
Minister in Suhrawardy's cabinet) and others. For a while, the proposal was
discussed both at private and public level and negotiations took place among
Bengal leaders.
United Independent Bengal Movement
• The British Declaration of February 1947 clearly foreshadowed the partition of India. As it became
clear to the Congress and Hindu Mahasabha leaders that the partition of the country was inevitable,
they insisted on retaining the Hindu-majority areas of Bengal and Hindu and Sikh majority areas of
Punjab within the union of India.
• During the days of April-May 1947, the Hindu press and politicians began an intense movement for
partitioning Bengal.
• A tentative agreement was reached at a meeting, held on 20 May 1947, in Calcutta among Bengali
leaders who were favourable to the move for a united and independent Bengal.
• The majority of the Congress and League leaders of Bengal denounced the terms of the agreement
outright. Influential Hindu dailies of Calcutta and the press belonging to the Khwaja group of the
Bengal League started campaigning against the terms of the agreement.
• The Bengal Provincial Congress Committee formally declared in favour of partition of the province
and the creation of a separate Hindu majority province (West Bengal) which included Calcutta within
the union of India. 11 Hindu majority district. (58-21 (80) voted for partition, and 16 Muslim majority
district 106-34 (145) were against the partition.
• The final blow to the concept was given when the Congress and the League High Commands
accepted Mountbatten Plan (the 3rd June Plan of 1947) for partition of India and for transfer of
power to the two Dominions of India and Pakistan.
INDIAN INDEPENDENCE ACT OF 1947
• An act to make provision for the setting up in India of two independent
Dominions, to substitute other provisions for certain provisions of the
Government of India Act 1935, which apply outside those Dominions, and to
provide for other matters consequential on or connected with the setting up
of those Dominions.
VICEROY AND GOVERNOR GENERAL LORD MOUNTBATTEN

SALIENT FEATURES
• The Act provided for two dominion states : India and Pakistan
• 15 August 1947 was declared as the appointed date for the partition.
• The boundaries between the two dominion states were to be determined
by a Boundary Commission which to be headed by Sir Radcliff.
• The Act provided for partition of the Punjab and Bengal, and separate
boundary commissions to demarcate the boundaries between them.
• Pakistan was to comprise the West Punjab, East Bengal, territories of the
Sind, North West Frontier Provinces, Sylhet District of Assam, Bhawalpur,
Khairpur, Baluchistan and 8 other princely states of Baluchistan.
• The province of Bengal as constituted under the Government of India Act
1935 ceased to exist.
• Alternately two new provinces were to be constituted to be known
respectively as East Bengal and West Bengal.
• The fate of the District of Sylhet in the province of Assam was to be
determined by a referendum.
• The authority of the British Crown over the princely states to be ceased
and they were free to join either India or Pakistan or remain independent.
• Both the dominions of India and Pakistan were to have Governor Generals
to be appointed by the British Crown. The Act also provided for a Common
Governor General if both of them agreed.
• The Constituent Assemblies of both the States were free to make
constitutions of their respective countries.
• For the time being till the constitution was made, both of them would be
governed in accordance with the Government of India Act 1935.
• Any modification or omission could be done by the Governor General.
• The Governor General was invested with adequate powers until March
1948 to issue orders for effective implementation of the provisions of the
Indian Independence Act 1947.
• Division of territories, powers, duties, rights, assets, liabilities, etc. was
the responsibility of the Governor General.
• Governor General was given the power to make any changes in the Act
until 31 March 1948, after that it was open to the Constituent Assembly
to modify or adopt the same Act.
• Governor General will have full powers to give assent to any law.
• The title of “Emperor of India” was dropped from the titles of British
Crown.
• The suzerainty of His Majesty’s Government over the Indian States lapsed
and lost all the responsibility to the new dominions.
RESPONSES
• The Congress though initially reacted against the Act but later accepted it.
• Muslim League welcomed it from the very beginning and Jinnah left for
Karachi on August 7, 1947.
• The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan met on 11 August 1947 and elected
Jinnah the President and was revered as the Quaid-i-Azam.
• Three days later he was sworn as the Governor General and Liaqat Ali Khan
became the Prime Minister.
• On the midnight of 14 August 1947 and 15 August 1947 Pakistan and India
came into existence
• The Constituent Assembly of India appointed Lord Mountbatten as the
First Governor General of Indian Dominion. In the morning of 15 August
1947, a new cabinet was formed headed by Jawahar Lal Nehru who was
sworn in as the Prime Minister of India.
• Thus the British presence in India came to an end after nearly three and a
half centuries of trading, two centuries of political power, and a hundred
and thirty years of general supremacy.
The Impact of Partition

14-15. HIS 103 United Independent Bengal Movement & The Great Divide of 1947

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

14-15. HIS 103 United Independent Bengal Movement & The Great Divide of 1947

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

14-15. HIS 103 United Independent Bengal Movement & The Great Divide of 1947

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lecture 14-15: HIS 103: United Independent Bengal

Movement and The Great Divide of 1947

Dr. M Humayun Kabir

The main objectives of this mission were:

VICEROY AND GOVERNOR GENERAL LORD MOUNTBATTEN

You might also like