Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition, 1932-1947 (Cambridge South Asian Studies, Series Number 57)

Whereas previous studies of the end of British rule in 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 history of Bengal focusing on the political and social processes that led to the demand for partition in 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 influence and to wrest power from the Muslim majority. 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. Contents......Page 8 Maps......Page 9 Tables......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 12 Abbreviations......Page 14 Glossary......Page 15 Introduction......Page 20 1 Bengal politics and the Communal Award......Page 37 2 The emergence of the mofussil in Bengal politics......Page 74 3 The reorientation of the Bengal Congress, 1937-45......Page 122 4 The construction of bhadralok communal identity: culture and communalism in Bengal......Page 169 5 Hindu unity and Muslim tyranny: aspects of Hindu bhadralok politics, 1936-47......Page 210 6 The second partition of Bengal, 1945-47......Page 239 Conclusion......Page 285 Appendix I......Page 288 Bibliography......Page 294 Index......Page 312 By 1929, British policy-makers in London and New Delhi could see that the constitutional arrangements devised by Montagu and Chelmsford ten years before would have to be reviewed. Joya Chatterji. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.