05-06-2006, 09:44 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-Bharatvarsh+May 6 2006, 07:17 PM-->QUOTE(Bharatvarsh @ May 6 2006, 07:17 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->united being the key word here. that united bengal would become a muslim majority proivince wasnt his fault - its a legacy of bengal's history. ever since bengal fell in muslim hands it was muslim marority. but at least it was very prosperous, and had east and west bengal been one single muslim majority state (under the union of india ofcourse, not pakistan), then economically bengal as a whoile would have been a lot better off, no 71 war and refugee problem would have happened etc. ofcourse all this while (since 47) bengal would simultaneously have been another touchy state in so far as communal violence and hindu-muslim tentions are concerned, like a up or a hyderabad.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually he was not proposing it to be under India but a "sovereign United Bengal" with a Muslim majority. Here is some info:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The decision to partition the province Bengal was a personal victory for Syama Prasad Mookerjee who had been indefatigably campaigning for such partition. The treatment that the Hindus got in the hands of the Muslims in East Pakistan after partition amply demonstrated his foresight in doing so. Jinnah was aghast at the proposal for partition and said that it was âa sinister move actuated by spite and bitternessâ[1]. At one point Mountbatten asked Jinnah about his views on Suhrawardyâs idea of âsovereign, independent Bengalâ and Jinnah said in reply without hesitation, âI should be delighted. What is the use of Bengal without Calcutta? They had much better remain united and independent. I am sure they would be on friendly terms with us.â[2] Stanley Wolpert, author of âJinnah of Pakistanâ observes that Liaquat Ali also agreed with Jinnah on this question and remarked to Sir Eric Mieville[3], âthat he was in no way worried about Bengal because he was convinced in his own mind that the province would never divideâ[4]. Obviously the expectation was that Muslim-majority independent Bengal, with its great city of Calcutta, would eventually get rid of its Hindu minority and become a part, or at least a satellite, of Pakistan. It is this dream of theirs that was shattered by Syama Prasad. Some years later when Nehru has remarked to Syama Prasad that he and his party had consented to the partition of the country, he had retorted âYou partitioned India ; I partitioned Pakistanâ[5].
This âsovereign, independent Bengalâ was the brainchild of a few Hindu leaders of the Bengal Congress who had sided with those leaders of the League who were staunchly opposed to partition of the province. Among these Hindu leaders the foremost was Sarat Chandra Bose ; among the Muslim League leaders none other than Suhrawardy, together with Abul Hashim, said to be a âprogressiveâ among the Leaguers in Bengal. Sarat Bose by this time had left the Congress (something that he did not do even when his brother Subhas left the party to form his Forward Bloc) and launched a party called the âSocialist Republican Partyâ. These gentlemen, in all their wisdom, thought of a sovereign, independent Bengal, which of course would have a Muslim majority.
The plan for sovereign independent Bengal was hatched in April 1947. According to Abul Hashim it would be a state where Hindus and Muslims would have equal rights and equal opportunity to conduct themselves in accordance with their own beliefs. A committee for preparation of a draft declaration for the formation of such a state was constituted at the residence of Suhrawardy in a meeting attended by Nazimuddin, Fazlur Rahman, Kiran Sankar Ray, Nalini Ranjan Sarker, Satya Baksi and others. The drafting was really done by Sarat Chandra Bose, who conceived it as a âSocialist Republicâ. Mountbatten and Burrows both considered the scheme with interest, and it was at their instance that the term âSocialistâ was omitted from the draft. The draft was finalised and signed by Sarat Bose and Abul Hashim on May 20. According to this draft, the state would first be ruled by an interim government in which the Prime Minister would be Muslim and the Home Minister Hindu. Later there would be a Constituent Assembly with 16 Muslim and 14 Hindu members.
What aberration overtook these supposedly sagacious, politically experienced men like Sarat Bose and Kiran Sankar Ray to join forces with a man like Suhrawardy who, just eight months ago had unleashed such untold horror on the Hindus of Calcutta and Noakhali? With Kiran Sankar Ray it was quite possibly his yearning to retain his extensive Zamindari at Teota in the district of Dacca â he knew for sure that the Muslims would make short shrift of him and his Zamindari (as they actually did) once Muslim majority East Bengal came into being, while he might have a fighting chance in sovereign Bengal. As for Sarat Bose, it was even more inexplicable. He was a West Bengali, very firmly entrenched in Calcutta. Was it a desperate measure to regain political ground in the province that he had lost through erroneous political decisions and lack of foresight? With Suhrawardy it was clearly the fact that he too was a West Bengali, and would not stand much chance of getting as much prominence in East Bengal (the Premiership of East Bengal went to Nazimuddin) as he might possibly get in United Bengal. It was also said that he dearly loved the city of Calcutta. For all the wrong reasons, of course.
Be that as it may, and Providence be thanked, there was to be no Muslim-majority Sovereign Independent United Bengal. Hindu opinion was very firmly against it. The Amrita Bazar Patrika, a nationalist English daily of Calcutta, ran an opinion poll towards the end of April 1947, which revealed that as many as 98% of the Hindus wanted partition of the province. Had there been a Muslim-majority Sovereign United Bengal as planned by Bose and Hashim, the plight of all Bengali Hindus today would have been like the Sindhi Hindus, with no part of the country to call their own.
http://bengalvoice.com/uproot_chapter4.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Now coming to his niece, she is Sharmila Bose, and she gained fame a few years ago by writing some paper about 1971 in which she claimed that there were very few rapes during 1971, the Paki press went crazy over this and devoted a lot of press time to this b*tch.
[right][snapback]50745[/snapback][/right]
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this one ppost made my respect for S.P mukherjee's foresight go up 10 fold and come down 10 fold for sarat bose. Netaji, no less correct in his vision than S.P.Mukherjee, seems to have had all the wroing kinds of relatives.
Actually he was not proposing it to be under India but a "sovereign United Bengal" with a Muslim majority. Here is some info:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The decision to partition the province Bengal was a personal victory for Syama Prasad Mookerjee who had been indefatigably campaigning for such partition. The treatment that the Hindus got in the hands of the Muslims in East Pakistan after partition amply demonstrated his foresight in doing so. Jinnah was aghast at the proposal for partition and said that it was âa sinister move actuated by spite and bitternessâ[1]. At one point Mountbatten asked Jinnah about his views on Suhrawardyâs idea of âsovereign, independent Bengalâ and Jinnah said in reply without hesitation, âI should be delighted. What is the use of Bengal without Calcutta? They had much better remain united and independent. I am sure they would be on friendly terms with us.â[2] Stanley Wolpert, author of âJinnah of Pakistanâ observes that Liaquat Ali also agreed with Jinnah on this question and remarked to Sir Eric Mieville[3], âthat he was in no way worried about Bengal because he was convinced in his own mind that the province would never divideâ[4]. Obviously the expectation was that Muslim-majority independent Bengal, with its great city of Calcutta, would eventually get rid of its Hindu minority and become a part, or at least a satellite, of Pakistan. It is this dream of theirs that was shattered by Syama Prasad. Some years later when Nehru has remarked to Syama Prasad that he and his party had consented to the partition of the country, he had retorted âYou partitioned India ; I partitioned Pakistanâ[5].
This âsovereign, independent Bengalâ was the brainchild of a few Hindu leaders of the Bengal Congress who had sided with those leaders of the League who were staunchly opposed to partition of the province. Among these Hindu leaders the foremost was Sarat Chandra Bose ; among the Muslim League leaders none other than Suhrawardy, together with Abul Hashim, said to be a âprogressiveâ among the Leaguers in Bengal. Sarat Bose by this time had left the Congress (something that he did not do even when his brother Subhas left the party to form his Forward Bloc) and launched a party called the âSocialist Republican Partyâ. These gentlemen, in all their wisdom, thought of a sovereign, independent Bengal, which of course would have a Muslim majority.
The plan for sovereign independent Bengal was hatched in April 1947. According to Abul Hashim it would be a state where Hindus and Muslims would have equal rights and equal opportunity to conduct themselves in accordance with their own beliefs. A committee for preparation of a draft declaration for the formation of such a state was constituted at the residence of Suhrawardy in a meeting attended by Nazimuddin, Fazlur Rahman, Kiran Sankar Ray, Nalini Ranjan Sarker, Satya Baksi and others. The drafting was really done by Sarat Chandra Bose, who conceived it as a âSocialist Republicâ. Mountbatten and Burrows both considered the scheme with interest, and it was at their instance that the term âSocialistâ was omitted from the draft. The draft was finalised and signed by Sarat Bose and Abul Hashim on May 20. According to this draft, the state would first be ruled by an interim government in which the Prime Minister would be Muslim and the Home Minister Hindu. Later there would be a Constituent Assembly with 16 Muslim and 14 Hindu members.
What aberration overtook these supposedly sagacious, politically experienced men like Sarat Bose and Kiran Sankar Ray to join forces with a man like Suhrawardy who, just eight months ago had unleashed such untold horror on the Hindus of Calcutta and Noakhali? With Kiran Sankar Ray it was quite possibly his yearning to retain his extensive Zamindari at Teota in the district of Dacca â he knew for sure that the Muslims would make short shrift of him and his Zamindari (as they actually did) once Muslim majority East Bengal came into being, while he might have a fighting chance in sovereign Bengal. As for Sarat Bose, it was even more inexplicable. He was a West Bengali, very firmly entrenched in Calcutta. Was it a desperate measure to regain political ground in the province that he had lost through erroneous political decisions and lack of foresight? With Suhrawardy it was clearly the fact that he too was a West Bengali, and would not stand much chance of getting as much prominence in East Bengal (the Premiership of East Bengal went to Nazimuddin) as he might possibly get in United Bengal. It was also said that he dearly loved the city of Calcutta. For all the wrong reasons, of course.
Be that as it may, and Providence be thanked, there was to be no Muslim-majority Sovereign Independent United Bengal. Hindu opinion was very firmly against it. The Amrita Bazar Patrika, a nationalist English daily of Calcutta, ran an opinion poll towards the end of April 1947, which revealed that as many as 98% of the Hindus wanted partition of the province. Had there been a Muslim-majority Sovereign United Bengal as planned by Bose and Hashim, the plight of all Bengali Hindus today would have been like the Sindhi Hindus, with no part of the country to call their own.
http://bengalvoice.com/uproot_chapter4.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Now coming to his niece, she is Sharmila Bose, and she gained fame a few years ago by writing some paper about 1971 in which she claimed that there were very few rapes during 1971, the Paki press went crazy over this and devoted a lot of press time to this b*tch.
[right][snapback]50745[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
this one ppost made my respect for S.P mukherjee's foresight go up 10 fold and come down 10 fold for sarat bose. Netaji, no less correct in his vision than S.P.Mukherjee, seems to have had all the wroing kinds of relatives.