Explain the following statement with reasons. - Lord Curzon decided to partition Bengal.
Answers
"When Lord Curzon came to Bengal, it was whole area including Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
This whole area was under one administration.
The area was extremely big in size and the population was almost double that of England.
Lord Curzon thought it is foolish to keep such a big area under single province and hence he decided to partition Bengal.
The eastern half was named “Eastern Bengal and Assam” with capital Dacca and western half contained Bihar and Orissa with capital Calcutta.
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The British decided to use the policy of 'Divide and Rule' to create a rift between Hindu-Muslim community. The then Viceroy Lord Curzon contributed to it. Bengal was a very large province. To carry out the work of this province was difficult from administrative point of view. By putting up this reason, in 1905, he declared the partition of Bengal province. With this partition, arrangement was made such that majority Muslims will remain in East Bengal and West Bengal for majority of Hindus. The hidden strategy of the British was, if the Hindu-Muslims were divided, due to partition, then the freedom will be weakened.