Number of words: 432

In the final analysis, it was more the fact rather than any prospects of a partitioning of Bengal that crystallised Muslim opinion against an anti-Partition agitation launched by the Hindus. This was largely a consequence of a stir amongst Hindus of rural Bengal, who opposed Partition, consistently, both before and after it had occurred; their appeal being based largely on popular Hindu religious sentiment. In historical terms, this division of Bengal and then a joining of the separated East Bengal with Assam, planted yet another poisonous seed which continues to bedevil the entire region till this day: of unchecked, illegal immigration in Assam, and of this destructive Muslim electorate politics of the region. For the Muslims of Bengal, adjoining areas of Assam and its rich, fertile lands were (are) a continuous temptation, a natural hinterland for their ballooning numbers to expand into; first to encroach upon, as almost by right and then to usurp. Political activism, separate identities, assertive claims of political equality with Hindus, (by Muslims) all had by now arrived, and all this within a half century of 1857. Then again, in less than fifty years from this reawakened Muslim and Hindu political activism, that is, from the beginning to mid-twentieth century, the logic of a sponsored and an unreal Hindu–Muslim political equalism led inevitably to the separation of the two. As you sow so shall you reap, we are told, trite no doubt to repeat this over-used axiom, but here it is nevertheless very apt, for having sown the seeds of separation, what started limitedly as separate electorates kept growing and spreading until it fi nally became a demand for a separate nation.

Let us pause in that fateful year of 1905. Once this new, Eastern Bengal, a Muslim majority province had got established, leading Muslims then began to see clearly its many advantages, and with this vision new self-interests took birth. That is why any Hindu led, anti-Partition agitation appeared (to the Muslims) as an interference in what they considered by then as already ‘theirs’, a rightful due, their own Muslim province. Limited issues like Minto’s acceptance of Fuller’s resignation 56 in August 1906, over the Government of India’s refusal to support reprisals against school agitators in Serajganj 57 came across as a victory for the Hindu agitators just when Muslims in this Muslim majority province were basking in the then unfamiliar sun of official favour. This eventually brought the Muslims of East Bengal politically nearer to their co- religionists in North India, again totally unexpectedly.

Excerpted from Page 44-45 of ‘Jinnah: India-Partition Independence’ by Jaswant Singh