When did the Partition of Bengal take place?

The British Government executed a territorial rearrangement of the Bengal Presidency during the First Partition of Bengal (1905). The rearrangement divided the predominantly Hindu western portions from the predominantly Muslim eastern areas. It was announced by Lord Curzon, the viceroy of India at the time, on July 19 and put into effect on October 16 of the same year. It was reversed just six years later.

The nationalists believed that the division represented a threat to Indian nationalism and was an intentional attempt to divide Bengal along religious lines, with the eastern portion having a majority of Muslims and the western portion having a majority of Hindus.

Facts about the Partition of Bengal

• There were about 80 million people living in the provincial state of Bengal at the time.
• It includes the Bihar regions that speak Hindi, the Odisha regions that speak Odia, and the Assamese-speaking territory of Assam.
• In January 1904, the administration proposed a public partition.
• Henry John Stedman Cotton, the Chief Commissioner of Assam, was against the notion.
• However, Viceroy Curzon went ahead and divided Bengal on October 16, 1905.
• The ancient province of Bengal was split into two new provinces: Eastern Bengal and Assam, with Dacca serving as its capital, and Bengal (which includes western Bengal and the provinces of Bihar and Orissa).