What was the Curzon’s real motive in partitioning Bengal? Explain briefly.

The Province of Bengal had been a problem for the British as it was a huge territory with diverse population using various dialects and languages. Besides it was the Bengali speaking educated middle class of this province, who had led the National Movement in the Eastern part of India. Bengali’s were, in fact the pioneer in flourishing nationalistic and patriotic ideas. Curzon too therefore found Bengal as a sensitive point in the whole of Empire.The official assessment of Bengal was, ‘Bengal united is a power, Bengal divided will pull in several ways’.

In Curzon’s opinion regarding people ‘of Bengal were,”a formidable force and a source of increasing trouble in future”. The only option left for Curzon was to divide and weaken the united strength of Bengal. Moreover Curzon wanted to implement this policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ by creating a natural tension between the two major communities in Bengal the Hindus and the Muslims.

Bengal was a province of Hindu majority. Following their shrewd policy Curzon promised his support to the Muslims in their struggle for advancement with the Hindus. Curzon joined the territories of Muslim majority with Assam and formed anew capital with Dacca as its capital. By partitioning Bengal, create a Muslim majority province and to make use of Muslims to counter-balance Hindus. Thus, Curzon was out to crush the educated middle class nationalists by his policy of ‘Divide and Rule’,