Bengal divided: Hindu communalism and partition, 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 Joy a Chatterji Trinity College, Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13,28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © 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 recordfor 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 0 52141128 9 1. Bengal (India) - History - Partition, 1947. 2. Communalism - India - Bengal - History. I. Title. II. Series. DS485.B493C49 1994 954'.140359-dc20 93-30544 CIP ISBN 0 52141128 9 hardback ISBN 0 52152328 1 paperback

Contents

List of maps List of tables Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Glossary

1

Introduction

1

Bengal politics and the Communal Award

18

2 The emergence of the mofussil in Bengal politics 3 The reorientation of the Bengal Congress, 1937-45 4 5

6

page viii ix xi xiii xiv

The construction of bhadralok communal identity: culture and communalism in Bengal

55 103 150

Hindu unity and Muslim tyranny: aspects of Hindu bhadralok politics, 1936-47

191

The second partition of Bengal, 1945-47

266

Conclusion

220

Appendix Bibliography Index

266 275 293

vn

Maps

1 2 3 4 5 6

Vlll

Bengal districts Distribution of Muslim population, by district Distribution of Hindu population, by district Geographical spread of the campaign for partition The organisational basis of the campaign for partition West Bengal and East Pakistan, 1947

page xviii 11 246 247 252 258

Tables

1 The Communal Award in Bengal 2 Caste and economic differentiation in rural Bengal 3 Sale and transfer of intermediary tenures: 1929-37 4 Commerce and landholders. 'Special interests' and the Congress: 1936-37 and 1945^6 5 Muslim membership in Local Boards in the 24 Parganas, 1930-31 to 1936-37 6 All-India electoral results of the Congress and the Muslim League: elections of 1945-46 7 Congress electoral results in Bengal, 1936-37 and 1945-46 8 Some Hindu volunteer organisations in Calcutta: 1945-47 9 Distribution of petitions demanding the partition of Bengal and the proportion of Hindu population, by district, 1947 10 Occupational breakdown of signatories of partition petitions (as returned from four different villages of Bengal)

20 37 66 147 218 224 228 235 245 257

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 examined 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

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 Cambridge - 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 Huq 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 grandfather, 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 encouragement. 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 DM 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 Xlll

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

korbani korfa krishak kutcheri lakh lakhpati lathi lathial madhyabitto madrassa mahajan matbar maulana maund maulvi mela memsaheb mlechha mofussil mohalla mukarari mullah naib nazar-salami paik panchayat pandal para patnidar peepul pir

pourasha praja puja Rabindra-sangeet raiyat rajdrohi rashtrapati sadar sadhubhasha

sacrifice (of cows on Bakr-Id) under-tenant peasant lower court hundred thousand millionaire bamboo stave zamindari servant, one who wields a bamboo stave middle classes traditional place of Islamic education moneylender village leader Islamic scholar measure of weight roughly equivalent to 82 lb. Muslim priest fair white woman untouchable district, countryside neighbourhood/locality permanent holding with fixed rent (Muslim) learned man landlord's employee, accountant landlord's transfer fee footman, peon village council marquee neighbourhood intermediate tenure-holder sacred tree (for Hindus),ficusreligiosa Muslim saint manhood, manliness tenant prayer, Hindu festival for goddesses Durga and Kali songs by Rabindranath Tagore peasant traitor, enemy of the state president headquarters formal and literary language

Glossary sahebi saheb Sakta salami samiti sampraday sanatan sangathan sangeet sangram sannyas sarbajanin sarki sarva satitva satyagraha shikshita/shikkhito shraddha shuddhi srijukta tabligh taluqdar tanzim tarun tatsama tazia thana ulema varnashramdharma vishayi bhadralok vyavasa zamindar zilla

xvn

anglicised European tradition of worship of the energy/power symbolised by the mother goddess landlord's transfer fee association community eternal organisation music struggle a life of renunciation open to all (castes), universal arrow all

chastity quest for truth educated funeral ceremony ritual purification honorific title (Hindu) conversion (to Islam) rent-receiving small land-holder (Islamic) organisation youth derived from Sanskrit (symbolic) bier, carried in procession by Muslims at Moharram police station persons versed in Islamic religious canon scriptural fourfold division of Brahmanical society, caste system respectable salaried class trade or business landlord subdivision, district

?

™ Demarcated provincial boundary

50miles

A

Undemarcated provincial boundary State boundary District boundary

100km

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Map 3. Distribution of Hindu population, by district. Number of Hindus per hundred of the total population, Census of 1931

— Demarcated provincial boundary — • — Undemarcated provincial boundary State boundary District boundary

50miles ~100km

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