The Bengal assembly has made public the record of its proceedings from June 20, 1947, the day Bengal's legislature voted on the province's partition into West Bengal and East Pakistan. The records were released through the assembly's newly launched YouTube channel on Thursday.
Partition Vote Details
The records show non-Muslim majority districts voting 58 to 21 in favor of Partition, while Muslim majority districts voted 106 to 35 against it. The vote took place at a specially convened session as the British prepared to transfer power, against the backdrop of escalating communal tensions, the aftermath of the 1946 Great Calcutta Killings, and uncertainty over the Partition plan.
Minister's Address
State higher education minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay spoke at a gathering at Calcutta University on Friday, crediting Syama Prasad Mookerjee for his efforts at the time. In the historical discourse practiced over the past eight decades, I believe Mookerjee has remained neglected. If a nation begins to forget what it once was, a course correction becomes necessary, he said.
Historical Context
Chattopadhyay traced the lineage of the ambition to include all of Bengal in Pakistan despite the undivided province's roughly 45%-47% Hindu population as per the 1941 census to Muslim League's 1940 Lahore Resolution. Suhrawardy and his party thought Pakistan could not be created without Calcutta. When the Muslim League realized they had to take Calcutta by any means necessary, the consequence was Direct Action Day on Aug 16, 1946, he said.
How could Calcutta be saved? How could Purulia, Burdwan, Birbhum, Midnapore and Hooghly be saved? From this thought, the idea arose to divide the Hindu-dominated western part of Bengal, he noted, adding that the Hindu Mahasabha had launched a campaign for a separate Hindu province in February 1947.
