Muslim reaction to partition of Bengal

Even then there was a group of educated liberal Muslims who came forward and tendered support to the anti- partition agitation and the Swadeshi Movement. Though their number was insignificant, yet their role added a new dimension in the thought process of the Muslims. This broad-minded group supported the Indian National Congress and opposed the partition. The most prominent among this section of the Muslims was khwaza atiqullah. At the Calcutta session of the Congress (1906), he moved a resolution denouncing the partition of Bengal. abdur rasul, Khan Bahadur Muhammad Yusuf (a pleader and a member of the Management Committee of . the Central National Muhamedan Association), Mujbur Rahrnan, AH abdul halim ghaznavi, ismail hossain shiraji, Muhammad Gholam Hossain (a writer and a promoter of Hindu-Muslim unity), Maulvi Liaqat Hussain (a liberal Muslim who vehemently opposed the ‘Divide and Rule’ policy of the British), Syed Hafizur Rahman Chowdhury of Bogra and Abul Kasem of Burdwan inspired Muslims to join the anti- Partition agitation. There were even a few Muslim preachers of Swadeshi ideas, like Din Muhammad of Mymensingh and Abdul Gaffar of Chittagong. It needs to be mentioned that some of the liberal nationalist Muslims like AH Ghaznavi and Khan Bahadur Muhammad Yusuf supported the Swadeshi Movement but not the Boycott agitation.

The general trend of thoughts in the Muslim minds was in favour of partition. The All India Muslim league, founded in 1906, supported the partition. In 1908, the Muslim League passed a resolution which viewed the anti-partition agitation with great anxiety and expressed the hope that the government would stick to its guns. As a result of this partition, there was political, social, and economic uplift of the Muslims as well as a revival of education, This marked the end of the hundred year exploitation of Muslims at the hands of the Hindus and also gave Muslims an edge in the new province. In the meeting of the Imperial Council in 1910 Shamsul Huda of Bengal and Mazhar-uI-Huq from Bihar spoke in favour of the partition.

While Hindu-Muslims relations deteriorated, political changes of great magnitude were taking place in the Government of India’s policies, and simultaneously in the relations of Bengali Muslim leaders with their non-Bengalee counter parts. Both developments had major repercussions on communal relations in eastern Bengal. The decision to introduce constitutional reforms culminating in the morley-minto reforms of 1909 introducing separate representation for the Muslims marked a turning point in Hindu-Muslim relations.

Consequently, the antagonism between the Hindus and Muslims became very acute in the new province. The Muslim leaders, now more conscious of their separate communal identity, directed their attention in uniting the different sections of their community to the creation of a counter movement against that of the Hindus. They keenly felt the need for unity and believed that the Hindu agitation against the Partition was in fact a communal movement and as such a threat to the Muslims as a separate community. They decided to faithfully follow the directions of leaders like Salimullah and Nawab Ali Chowdhury and formed organizations like the Mohammedan Provincial Union.

Though communalism had reached its peak in the new province by 1907, there is evidence of a sensible and sincere desire among some of the educated and upper class Muslims and Hindus to put an end to these religious antagonisms. A group of prominent members of both communities met the Viceroy Lord Minto on 15 March 1907 with suggestions to put an end to communal violence and promote religious harmony between the two communities.