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The Proposed Reconstruction of Bengal*
PARTITION
OR ANNIHILATION?
IN
THE
excitement and clamour that has followed the revolutionary proposal of Lord
Curzon's Government to break
Bengal into pieces, there is some danger of the new
question being treated only in its superficial aspects and the grave and
startling national peril for which it is the preparation being either entirely
missed or put out of sight. On a perusal of the telegrams which pour in from
Eastern Bengal one is struck with the fact that they mainly deal with certain
obvious and present results of the measure, not one of which is really vital.
The contention repeatedly harped on that Assam is entirely different to us in
race, language, manners etc. is in the first place not altogether true, and even
if true, is very bad political strategy. In these days when the whole tendency
of a reactionary Government is to emphasize old points of divisions and create
new ones, it should plainly be the policy of the national movement to ignore
points of division and to emphasize old and create new points of contact and
union. The Assamese possess the same racial substratum as ourselves though the
higher strata may be less profoundly Aryanised and their language is a branch of
Bengali which but for an artificial diversion would have merged into the main
stream of Bengali speech. Why then should we affront our brothers in Assam and
play the game of our opponents by declaring them outcast from our sympathies?
The loss by
Eastern Bengal of a seat on the Legislative Council is again the
loss of a delusion and does not really concern its true national welfare. Even
separation from the Calcutta High Court if it should come about, means very
little now that the High Court has definitely ceased to protect the liberties of
the people and become an informal department of the Government. The dislocation
of trade caused by its diversion from
Calcutta
to
Chittagong
might be a calamity of the first magnitude to
Calcutta
but its evil effects
*
An
incomplete article found among early manuscripts.
Page-76
on
Eastern Bengal would, the enemy might well argue, be of a very
temporary character. The transfer of advanced provinces to a backward Government
is, no doubt, in itself a vital objection to the measure but can be at once met
by elevating the new province to the dignity of a Lieutenant-Governorship with a
Legislative Council and a
Chief Court. Indeed by this very simple though costly
contrivance the Government can meet every practical objection of a political
nature that has been urged against their proposal. There are signs which seem to
indicate that this is the expedient to which Government will eventually resort
and under the cover of it affect an even more extended amputation than it was at
first convenient to announce; for Rajshahi as well as Faridpur and Backergunje,
are it appears also to be cut away from us. There would remain the violation of
Bengali sentiment and the social disturbance and mortal inconvenience to
innumerable individuals which must inevitably accompany such a disruption of old
ties and interests and severance from the great centre of Bengali life. But our
sentiments the Government can very well afford to ignore and the disturbance and
inconvenience they may politely regret as deplorable incidents indeed but after
all minor and temporary compared with the great and permanent administrative
necessities to be satisfied. Will then the people of Eastern Bengal finally,
seeing the Government determined pocket the bribe of a separate Lieutenant-Governorship,
a Legislative Council and High Court and accept this violent revolution in our
national life? Or will
Western Bengal submit to lose
Eastern Bengal on such terms? If not, then to nerve them for the
struggle their refusal will involve they must rely on something deeper than
sentiment, something more potent than social and personal interests, they must
have a clear and indelible consciousness of the truth that this measure is no
mere administrative proposal but a blow straight at the heart of the nation. The
failure to voice clearly this, the true and vital side of the question can arise
only from want of moral courage or from that fatal inability to pass beyond
superficialities and details and understand in their fulness deep truths and
grand issues in politics which has made our political life for the last fifty
years so miserably barren and ineffective. That it springs largely if not
altogether from the
Page-77
latter
is evidenced by the amazing apathy which allows Western Bengal to sit with
folded hands and allow Eastern Bengal to struggle alone and unaided. Eastern
Bengal is menaced with absorption into a backward province and therefore
struggles; Western Bengal is menaced with no such calamity and can therefore sit
lolling on its pillows, hookah-pipe in hand, waiting to see what happens; this
apparently is how the question is envisaged by a race which considers itself the
most intelligent and quick-witted in the world. That it is something far other
than this, that the danger involved far more urgent and appalling, is what I
shall try to point out in this article.
Unfortunately, to do this is impossible without treading on Lord Curzon's
corns and indeed on the tenderest of all the crop. We have recently been
permitted to know that our great Viceroy particularly objects to the imputation
of motives to his Government — and
not unnaturally; for Lord Curzon is a vain man loving praise and sensitive to
dislike and censure; more than that, he is a statesman of unusual genius who is
following a subtle and daring policy on which immense issues hang and it is
naturally disturbing him to find that there are wits in India as subtle as his
own which can perceive something at least of the goal at which he is aiming. But
in this particular instance he has only himself and Mr. Risley to thank, if his
motives have been discovered -- or let us say, misinterpreted. The extraordinary
farrago of discursive ineptitudes which has been put forward...
(Incomplete)
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