In early 1947, the movement of creation of West Bengal as a Bengali Hindu homeland gained momentum. The mainstream Bengali Hindu leadership was equivocal in their demand for West Bengal, irrespective of the Partition of India. Intense petitioning and lobbying convinced the Congress leadership at the centre and the British administration that Bengal was an indeed a case for partition along with the Partition of India. Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, encumbered with the herculean task of transfer of power no later than June 1948, was convinced.
That the possibility of Kolkata not becoming a part of Pakistan had not been ruled out yet, set off reactions ranging from exasperation to more sombre resolve at across the rank and file of the Muslim Leadership. Jinnah, for one, couldn’t hide his frustration when he dubbed eastern Bengal without Kolkata as a ‘rural slum’, making it amply clear that his interest in East Pakistan was wholly focussed on grabbing Kolkata, the business capital of British India.
The Idea Of A ‘Sovereign’ Bengal Emerged In 1947
The Muslim League leadership in Bengal worried inasmuch the loss of Kolkata would incur to the economy of East Pakistan; the leadership based out of what is West Bengal today, were more worried about their political future in an East Pakistan without Kolkata. The latter therefore started looking for an alternative solution in terms of a political entity that would both retain Kolkata and allow them to wield the same political influence as Muslim League leaders. That was how the idea of a sovereign United Bengal that would neither be a part of India nor Pakistan was born.
Both of the two pre-eminent Muslim League leaders namely Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Abul Hashim, who strongly espoused the idea of a United Bengal belonged to what is now West Bengal. Inputting forward their argument for United Bengal, they put emphasis on the commonality of Bengali language and culture that was shared by Hindus and Muslims alike, while they themselves came from elite ashraf families that not only spoke Urdu at home but also studied Persian and Arabic in seminaries and also proudly traced their lineage to Islamic preachers from the Middle East that arrived in Bengal in the medieval period.
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy’s family based in Midnapore was descended from Abu Bakr, the first caliph, through Shaykh Shihab-al-Din Umar Suhrawardi, the 13th century Sufi from Baghdad. Similarly, Abul Hashim’s family based in Burdwan was descended from Makhdoom Shah Badruddin Badr who along with eleven other preachers arrived in Chittagong in early 15th century. Their hypothesis of common culture also kept silent on the increasing number of ethnic disturbances in the last three decades where the Bengali Hindus were persistently at the receiving end and the Muslims were the aggressors.
The idea of United Bengal beset with all its contradictions was nevertheless successful enough to draw a few Bengali Hindu leaders from the fringe, each of whom subscribed to the idea from their individual persuasions. Sarat Bose, who was already sidelined in the Bengal Congress, came in support of the idea to gain prominence once again. Kiran Shankar Ray was worried about his landed estates in eastern Bengal.
Satya Ranjan Bakshi supported the idea for reasons best known to him. While the plan was being formally drawn up, these fringe leaders proved themselves selfish enough to agree on a compromise where the Prime Minister of the Free State of Bengal would always be Muslim and the constituent assembly have 16 Muslim members against 14 Hindus. The plan, however, failed to convince the powers that be and finally, the British administration under Mountbatten went ahead with the partition of Bengal.
Bengal’s Existential Crisis
With the establishment of West Bengal on 20th June 1947, the United Bengal plan might have suffered a premature death, but its idea lingered on. The Communists believed that every British Indian province, except those of which would form Pakistan, had the right to self-determination and if they wished they should be allowed to constitute a sovereign state. However, as British India went through the phase of transfer of power, the Communists had their hopes dashed. Post-independence, they resorted to popular slogan-mongering, ‘Yeh Azaadi Jhuti Hai’ (this independence is fake).
In Bengal, the Communists had wanted the entire province to go into Pakistan. But when the Bengali Hindu homeland got established in West Bengal, they found the dream of United Bengal handy, as it was a province didn’t constitute Pakistan and therefore had the right to self-determination. The dream of United Bengal was quickly gobbled up by the anarchist elements within the Left, who in no time began cooking up a broth that generated the toxic aroma of Centre’s perennial neglect of Bengal.
Post the emergence of Bangladesh, the Left anarchists resorted to a power play. A couple of decades were spent to prepare the groundwork for a Bangladesh-centric Bengali ethnonationalism, through literature, drama, cinema and music. The Bengali identity was carefully reconstructed to as one who spoke Bengali, totally disregarding the religious and even the cultural aspects that had shaped the five-millennium old Bengaliness.
Bangladesh is projected as the sole protector of the Bengali language and the land of the real Bengalis, while India is projected as the Hindi hegemonic state that is out to destroy the Bengali language. In order to save their Bengali identity, the ultimate goal of the Bengalis of West Bengal should be to secede from India and merge with Bangladesh. The 21st century has seen the emergence of radical fringe groups who have nourished themselves in these ideas. While some of these groups openly flaunt their hobnobbing with Islamist elements in Bangladesh, others openly espouse the removal of barbed wire between West Bengal and Bangladesh.
The rapid increase in homegrown and cross-border Islamist activities has already resulted in an existential crisis of West Bengal. The activities of these homegrown anarchists only add further fuel to the fire. While the leadership of these anarchist fringe groups is provided by Bengali Hindu elites, the presence of Islamist elements among ground-level cadre base is palpable. It will not be a surprise if the situation escalates into a Khalistan-like scenario in early next decade. The crisis if not addressed today will result in a much bigger crisis tomorrow. West Bengal, if allowed to fall, will not fall alone. It will take India along with it.