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United Bengal AI simulator
(@United Bengal_simulator)
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United Bengal AI simulator
(@United Bengal_simulator)
United Bengal
United Bengal was a proposal to transform Bengal Province into an undivided, sovereign state at the time of the Partition of India in 1947. It sought to prevent the division of Bengal on religious grounds. The proposal originated in the pre-partition political leadership of the province, and found some cross-communal support.
The proposed state was to be called the Free State of Bengal. A confessionalist political system was mooted. The proposal was not put up for a vote. The British government proceeded to partition Bengal in accordance with the Mountbatten Plan and Radcliffe Line.
In the first few centuries of the second millennium, the level of independence of Bengal was fought over by the governors of Bengal and by the rulers of Delhi. Bengal finally emerged as an independent polity with the establishment of the Sultanate of Bengal, formed from the unification of three principalities; Satgaon (western Bengal), Lakhnauti (northern Bengal) and Sonargaon (eastern Bengal), by Sultan Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah in 1352.
A watershed in the Bengali sultanate's history was the rise of the Sur and Mughal empires, which greatly weakened Bengal, with the two empires formally annexing Bengal in 1538 and 1576, respectively. Despite the loss of independence, a loose confederacy of fiercely independent zamindars led by Isa Khan refused to submit to Mughal hegemony, thus extending the complete conquest of Bengal to as late as the mid-17th century. The Bengal Subah emerged as the most prosperous province of the Mughal Empire, but as a result of the empire weakening, it re-emerged as an independent state under the Nawabs of Bengal from 1717 onwards. Bengal was lost to British powers after 1772, which reorganised the borders of the former Bengal Subah. The Treaty of Yandabo in 1826 facilitated the transfer of the former Bengal Subah's southeastern frontier (which stretched up to Akyab and the Kaladan River) to British Burma. Following the British annexation of Assam in 1838, the Bengali districts of Goalpara and Sylhet were transferred to the newly established North-East Frontier (later Assam Province).
The partition in 1905 reunited these districts with eastern Bengal through the formation of two new provinces: Eastern Bengal and Assam and Western Bengal. However, this was strongly protested by Bengalis, and the authorities assented to reversing this partition in 1912.
On 27 April 1947, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the Prime Minister of Bengal and a Muslim League leader, addressed a press conference in New Delhi outlining his opposition to the looming partition of Bengal under the British government's plans. At the press conference, Suhrawardy made an impassioned plea for setting aside religious differences in order to create an "independent, undivided, and sovereign Bengal".
Let us pause for a moment to consider what Bengal can be if it remains united. It will be a great country, indeed the richest and the most prosperous in India capable of giving to its people a high standard of living, where a great people will be able to rise to the fullest height of their stature, a land that will truly be plentiful. It will be rich in agriculture, rich in industry and commerce and in course of time it will be one of the powerful and progressive states of the world. If Bengal remains united this will be no dream, no fantasy.
Suhrawardy, a lawyer from Midnapore, did not want to lose western Bengal to the opposing side of the Hindu-Muslim divide. The proposal elicited support from Bengali Hindu leaders Sarat Chandra Bose of the Indian National Congress, Kiran Saankar Roy (Leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Bengal Assembly), and Satya Ranjan Bakshi. Prominent Bengali Muslims in support of Suhrawardy included Bengal Finance Minister Mohammad Ali Chaudhury, Bengal Revenue Minister Fazlur Rahman, Islamic scholar Shamsul Huda Panchbagi, Tippera politician Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury, Mayor of Calcutta Syed Badrudduja and Bengal Muslim League secretary Abul Hashim. For a while, the proposal was subject to significant negotiations.
United Bengal
United Bengal was a proposal to transform Bengal Province into an undivided, sovereign state at the time of the Partition of India in 1947. It sought to prevent the division of Bengal on religious grounds. The proposal originated in the pre-partition political leadership of the province, and found some cross-communal support.
The proposed state was to be called the Free State of Bengal. A confessionalist political system was mooted. The proposal was not put up for a vote. The British government proceeded to partition Bengal in accordance with the Mountbatten Plan and Radcliffe Line.
In the first few centuries of the second millennium, the level of independence of Bengal was fought over by the governors of Bengal and by the rulers of Delhi. Bengal finally emerged as an independent polity with the establishment of the Sultanate of Bengal, formed from the unification of three principalities; Satgaon (western Bengal), Lakhnauti (northern Bengal) and Sonargaon (eastern Bengal), by Sultan Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah in 1352.
A watershed in the Bengali sultanate's history was the rise of the Sur and Mughal empires, which greatly weakened Bengal, with the two empires formally annexing Bengal in 1538 and 1576, respectively. Despite the loss of independence, a loose confederacy of fiercely independent zamindars led by Isa Khan refused to submit to Mughal hegemony, thus extending the complete conquest of Bengal to as late as the mid-17th century. The Bengal Subah emerged as the most prosperous province of the Mughal Empire, but as a result of the empire weakening, it re-emerged as an independent state under the Nawabs of Bengal from 1717 onwards. Bengal was lost to British powers after 1772, which reorganised the borders of the former Bengal Subah. The Treaty of Yandabo in 1826 facilitated the transfer of the former Bengal Subah's southeastern frontier (which stretched up to Akyab and the Kaladan River) to British Burma. Following the British annexation of Assam in 1838, the Bengali districts of Goalpara and Sylhet were transferred to the newly established North-East Frontier (later Assam Province).
The partition in 1905 reunited these districts with eastern Bengal through the formation of two new provinces: Eastern Bengal and Assam and Western Bengal. However, this was strongly protested by Bengalis, and the authorities assented to reversing this partition in 1912.
On 27 April 1947, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the Prime Minister of Bengal and a Muslim League leader, addressed a press conference in New Delhi outlining his opposition to the looming partition of Bengal under the British government's plans. At the press conference, Suhrawardy made an impassioned plea for setting aside religious differences in order to create an "independent, undivided, and sovereign Bengal".
Let us pause for a moment to consider what Bengal can be if it remains united. It will be a great country, indeed the richest and the most prosperous in India capable of giving to its people a high standard of living, where a great people will be able to rise to the fullest height of their stature, a land that will truly be plentiful. It will be rich in agriculture, rich in industry and commerce and in course of time it will be one of the powerful and progressive states of the world. If Bengal remains united this will be no dream, no fantasy.
Suhrawardy, a lawyer from Midnapore, did not want to lose western Bengal to the opposing side of the Hindu-Muslim divide. The proposal elicited support from Bengali Hindu leaders Sarat Chandra Bose of the Indian National Congress, Kiran Saankar Roy (Leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Bengal Assembly), and Satya Ranjan Bakshi. Prominent Bengali Muslims in support of Suhrawardy included Bengal Finance Minister Mohammad Ali Chaudhury, Bengal Revenue Minister Fazlur Rahman, Islamic scholar Shamsul Huda Panchbagi, Tippera politician Ashrafuddin Ahmad Chowdhury, Mayor of Calcutta Syed Badrudduja and Bengal Muslim League secretary Abul Hashim. For a while, the proposal was subject to significant negotiations.