SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PARTITION OF BENGAL

The Partition of Bengal 1905

A masterpiece of Curzon’s internal policy was the partition of Bengal into two provinces of Bengal proper and eastern Bengal and Assam in 1905.

The provinces of Bengal at the time comprised Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Curzon described the partition as ‘a mere readjustment of administrative boundaries’. It was explained that the Eastern districts of Mymen Sings and Backergange divisions were notorious for lawlessness and crime and the police arrangement was unable to cope with the situation. The lieutenant Governor who was in charge of the extensive areas could not properly look after these extensive areas. Besides there had been historical precedents of the creation of separate administrative units, as the setting up of Northwest Provinces in 2865 and separation of Assam under a high commissioner in 1874.

The new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam was to include Assam and the divisions of Dacca, Rajshahi and Chittagong.

The opposition to the partition of Bengal was great and vocal. The Bengal intelligentsia took it to be a subtle attack upon the growing solidarity of Bengali nationalism, an attempt to undermine the traditions, history and language of the Bengalis. The nationalists pointed out that the scheme was devised to divide the people on the basis of religion and to put the Muslims against the Hindus. Lord Curzon explained that one object of the partition proposal was to create a Mohammedan province where Islam could be predominant and its followers in ascendency.

Far more offensive was the manner in which the proposal of partition was carried out in the teeth of public opposition. The viceroy described the popular agitation as ‘partly unscrupulous and partly misinformed’, while Sir Andrew Fraser, the lieutenant Governor, attributed the agitation to vested interests of two provincial classes, the Calcutta Bar who feared a setback to other work due to the creation of a separate court at Dacca and the Calcutta journalists who feared the possibility of new newspapers being published from Dacca. Lord Morley, the new Secretary of State, declared in 1905 that the partition was a ‘settled fact’.

It was suggested to the government that united Bengal could be placed under a governor with a separate executive council as in Madras and Bombay. The viceroy turned down the proposal as unsatisfactory. Probably the best solution could be, what was done six years later, the separation of non-Bengali speaking parts of Bihar and Orissa from Bengal proper.

Sentiments on both sides clouded the real issue and poisoned the political atmosphere.  The partition was forced at a psychological moment, the year of Japan’s victory over Russia. The Indian opinion was utterly disregarded.

Curzon made it a prestige issue and decided not to yield to pressure. Bengali youth accepted it as a challenge to their nationalism and pledged to undo it.

Recent researches have proved that Curzon’s main motives were political and Machiavellian, to undermine the solidarity of politically advanced Bengalis and at lessening the political influence of Calcutta in Indian affairs. In a private confidential letter to the Secretary of State on 17 February 1904, Curzon wrote ‘If we are weak enough to yield to their clamor now, we shall not be able to dismember or reduce Bengal again and you will be cementing and solidifying, on the Eastern flanks of India, a force already formidable and certain to be a source of increasing trouble in future’.

The partition of Bengal, whatever its justification from the administrative viewpoint, was a cardinal blunder of Curzon. It embittered Indo British relations. It created a breach between Muslims and Hindus for the Muslims thought that they had been deprived by the Hindus of the opportunities possible from a Muslim majority province. However, the partition and the resultant agitation gave a great fillip to the nationalist movement. The annulment of the partition in 1911 gave India a ‘sense of power’, besides inculcating love for swadeshi.

THE BATTLE OF BUXAR – 1764

Buxar completed what Plassey had begun… Discuss

Outcome of Battle of Buxar

Importance of the Battle of Buxar

The war between Mir Kasim and the Company broke out in 1763. In the series of encounters that followed, Mir Kasim was worsted. He escaped to Oudh and organized a confederacy with the Nawab of Oudh and the Emperor in a final bid to oust the English from Bengal. The combined armies of the three powers numbering between 40,000 to 60,000 met an English army of 7072 troops commanded by Major Munro at the battlefield of Buxar on 22 October 1764. Casualties on both sides were heavy. The English won the day.

The Battle of Buxar was a closely contested battle in which the losses of the English numbered 847 killed and wounded while on the side of the Indian powers more than 2000 officers and soldiers were killed. If the victory of Plassey was the result of British conspiracy and diplomacy, the same can hardly be said of Buxar. Mir Kasim had made adequate preparations for the conflict and the Nawab of Oudh had mustered his best soldiers in the field. Evidently it was a victory of superior military power.

Buxar confirmed the decisions of Plassey. Now English powers in North India became unchallengable. The new Nawab of Bengal was their stooge, the Nawab of Oudh a grateful subordinate ally, the Emperor their pensioner. The whole territory upto Allahabad lay at their feet and the road to Delhi open. Never after Buxar did the Nawabs of Bengal or Oudh ever challenge the superior position of the Company; rather the years following witnessed the tightening of English grip over these regions.

If the Battle of Plassey had made the English a powerful factor in the politics of Bengal, the victor of Buxar made them a great power of norther India and contenders for the supremacy of the whole country. The English now faced the Afghans and the Marathas as serious rivals int eh final struggle for the Empire of Hindustan. If Plassey had imposed the European yoke on Bengal, the victory of Buxar riveted the shackles of bondage.

The Battle of Buxar proved to be a decisive struggle with far reaching political consequences in the destiny of India.

Opinions:

G. B. Malleson – Whether regarded as a duel between the foreigners and the native, or as an event pregnant with vast permanent consequences, Buxar takes rank amongst the most decisive battels ever fought. Not only did the victory of the English save Bengal, not only did it advance the British frontier to Allahabad, but it bound the rulers of Awadh to the conqueror by ties of admiration, of gratitude, of absolute reliance and trust.

Alfred Lyall – The eventual and secondary consequences of the Battle of Buxar were very important. The success of the English brought the Emperor into their camp, intimidated the Vizier, carried the armed forces of the Company across the Ganges to Benares and Allahabad, and acquired for them a new, advanced and commanding position in relation to the principalities north west of Bengal, with whom they now found themselves for the first time in contact. By this war the English were drawn into connection with upper India, and were brought out upon a scene of fresh operations that grew rapidly wider.

THE ENGLISH AND THE NAWABS OF BENGAL

 Historical Facts

Job Charnock laid the foundation of Calcutta.

Siraj ud Daulah ordered the English to demolish their fortifications at Chandarnagore.

After Siraj ud Daulah’s attack on Fort St. William, the English escaped and took refuge in Fulta.

Calcutta was renamed Alinagar after its capture by Siraj ud Daulah in 1756.

Mir Jafar was the Mir Bakshi in Siraj ud Daulah’s court.

Khadim Khan commanded the largest number of Nawab Siraj Ud Daulah’s troops.

Manik Chand was the officer in charge of Calcutta during Nawab Siraj ud Daulah’s regime in Bengal.

Jagath Seth was the biggest banker of Bengal during Nawab Siraj ud Daulah’s time.

Black hole tragedy – Siraj ud Daulah on his attack on Fort St. William captured 146 Britishers and put them in a small chamber leading to the death of 123 Britishers.

By the Treaty of Alinagar 1757, Siraj ud Daulah granted the British to mint coins, to fortify Calcutta and recognize their previliges.

Treaty of Alinagar was signed between Siraj ud Daulah and Robert Clive.

Battle of Plassey was fought on the banks of River Bhagirathi.

Robert Clive led the British forces in the Battle of Plassey 1757.

Mir Jafar was commander in chief of Siraj ud Daula’s troops.

On Mir Jafar’s mal-intentious advice, Siraj ud Daulah suspended the fight in the Battle of Plassey.

Casualties in the Battle of Plassey 1757 – about 65 on the English side and around 500 on the Nawab’s side.

Miran was the son of Mir Jafar.

Zamindari of 24 parganas were granted to the British by Mir Jafar.

Bengal, Bihar and Orrisa were areas where the British were granted undisputed right to trade by Mir Jafar.

Shah Alam II gave Mir Jafar the title of ‘Omrah’.

Mir Jafar gave the monopoly of salt and pepper trade in Bengal to the British.

By Treaty of Allahabad 1765, the British got the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orrisa from Shah Alam II.

Mir Jafar was called as Col. Clive’s Jackal.

Alivardi Khan was the Nawab of Bengal who gave permission to the English East India Company to fortify their settlements in Bengal.

The Dutch army helped Mir Jafar against the British in 1759.

Burdwan, Midnapur and Chittagong – the districts ceded to the East India Company by Mir Qasim.

Mir Qasim (Nawab of Bengal) transferred the capital from Murshidabad to Monghyr.

Mir Qasim gave permission to the English East India Company to mint coins in Bengal.

Mir Qasim protested the misuse of Dastaks by the English servants.

Mir Qasim suspended Ram Narayan, the Deputy Governor of Bengal and put him to death.

Mir Qasim admitted the English traders a share in the internal trade provided the English pay 9% duty on the cost of goods.

Mir Qasim restarted collecting Khajirijama which had earlier been stopped.

Mir Qasim abolished duties in Bengal for all traders in protest against the misuse of dastaks by the English servants.

Internal duties were levied in Bengal at the rate of 2.5%.

Drain of wealth from India to Britain started in the reign of Mir Jafar

Read more about the Drain of Wealth by clicking the link:Drain Theory

Mir Qasim formed a confederation to oust the English from Bengal with Shuja ud Daula, the Nawab of Oudh and Shah Alam II, the then Mughal Emperor.

Major Hector Munro commanded the English forces int eh Battle of Buxar of 1764.

Allahabad and Kara were areas which Shuja ud Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal had to cede to the British by the Treaty of Allahabad 1765.

Rupees 26 lakhs per annum was the annual payment made by the Company to the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II in lieu of the Diwani Right of Bengal secured by the Company.

Warren Hastings stopped the annual payment of Rupees 26 lakhs to Shah Alam II in lieu of the Diwani Right of Bengal.

Mir Jafar became Nawab of Bengal for the second time.

After Mir Jafar’s death, the English appointed Najim ud Daulah as the Nawab of Bengal.

For the exercise of Diwani, the English appointed two deputy Diwans – Mohammed Reza Khan in Bengal and Raja Shitab Roy in Bihar.

Robert Clive held the title of ‘Salbat Jung’.

The government of Bengal between 1765-72 was called as dual government because the Nizam performed the Nizamat functions and the English Company enjoyed Diwani rights.

Warren Hastings abolished dual government in Bengal since the Court of Directors desired so.

Robert Clive became Governor of Bengal twice. The tenures of his governorship were 1757-60 and 1765-67.

1765-72 was the period of dual governorship in Bengal.

Verelvt was the Governor of Bengal from 1767-69.

Cartier was the Governor of Bengal from 1769-72.

Warren Hastings became the Governor of Bengal in 1772.

Robert Clive divided his army and stationed them at three different places – Bankipur, Allahabad and Monghyr.

Dual system of Government was abolished by Regulating Act of 1772.

Governor of Bengla who committed suicide after returning back to England was Robert Clive. He committed suicide because he was declared guilty by the House of Commons.

Warren Hastings was the first Governor-General of India.

British secured the rights of duty free trade after Bengal in Awadh.

Warren Hastings transferred the state treasury from Murshidabad to Calcutta.