The decision to effect the partition of Bengal was announced on 7th July, 1905 by the then Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. The devilish plan was to separate the Muslim dominated eastern areas from the Hindu dominated western areas. This caused widespread dissent across Bengal and there was an atmosphere of tension and mutual animosity everywhere. The reason behind the partition that was officially announced was that the Bengal province was too large to be administered by a single governor and so it would be partitioned on administrative purpose. The real reason behind the partition was political and not administrative. East Bengal was dominated by the Muslims and West Bengal by the Hindus. Partition was yet another part of the divide and rule policy. The following excerpts from Curzon's letter of 2 February 1905 to St. John Brodrick, Secretary of State for India, give an idea of his aims in partitioning Bengal:
"Calcutta is the centre from which the Congress Party is manipulated throughout the whole of Bengal, and indeed the whole of India. Its best wire pullers and its most frothy orators all reside here. The perfection of their machinery, and the tyranny which it enables them to exercise are truly remarkable. They dominate public opinion in Calcutta; they affect the High Court; they frighten the local Government, and they are sometimes not without serious influence on the Government of India. The whole of their activity is directed to creating an agency so powerful that they may one day be able to force a weak government to give them what they desire. Any measure in consequence that would divide the Bengali-speaking population; that would permit independent centres of activity and influence to grow up; that would dethrone Calcutta from its place as the center of successful intrigue, or that would weaken the influence of the lawyer class, who have the entire organisation in their hands, is intensely and hotly resented by them. The outcry will be loud and very fierce, but as a native gentleman said to me – 'my countrymen always howl until a thing is settled; then they accept it'."
There were widespread protests everywhere especially in the form of resistance by the Hindus which sparked off the Swadeshi movement entailing a complete boycott of British goods and services. However the Muslims in East Bengal hoped that a separate region would give them more control over education and employment, which were previously availed by the Hindu gentry and landlords, hence they opposed those movements. The plot hatched to divide Bengal along communal lines was beginning to succeed.
A lot of eminent figures from the political and literary arena protested against Government's partition policy. Apart from the Boycott which was in full swing, the opposition to the movement manifested itself in multifarious ways. One person who played a prominent role in this movement was the Country's renaissance giant, Rabindranath Tagore. He spearheaded a number of protest rallies, organized the grieving sections to launch a full fledged movement against the British. He was extremely vocal about the issue and also channelized his literary endeavours as a weapon of this agitation. He wrote Banglar Mati Banglar Jol as a rallying cry for proponents of annulment of Partition.
During August, when the vehement opposition was gaining a strong foothold amongst the political machinery, the festival of Rakshabandhan arrived. Although it was a Hindu festival, Tagore deftly used the concept of brotherhood, togetherness and ‘the thread of protection’ as a medium to protest against British’s partition policy by showing a picture of unity among the two communities.
He was again the steward of the movement and with a band of likeminded co-agitators went straight to Nakhoda Masjid in Kolkata on foot to give effect to his intentions. A lot of well-wishers forbade Tagore to do it as it might not go well with the Muslim community. They feared that amidst this environment of turmoil and distrust, even a request for participation in a Hindu festival for the Muslims can trigger hostility. When he reached the Mosque, the Imam himself came out and to everyone's dismay expressed his desire to get knotted with the blissful thread. Following Tagore’s call, Hindus and Muslims in Kolkata, Dhaka and Sylhet came out in large numbers to tie Rakhi threads as a symbol of unity. He transformed the religious tradition of Raksha Bandhan to a secular motif of unity among diversity and resisted Banga Bhanga (Partition of Bengal). A string of protests ensued in the upcoming years in both parts of Bengal and the British Government finally withdrew its plan in the year 1911.
However on account of a short lived vision of the movement, it ultimately failed to prevent the amputation of the Nation in 1947.
