Greater Bangladesh

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This is the historical map of united Bengal and Bengali speaking region of South Asia. The Bengal region lies in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, but there are highlands in its north, northeast, and southeast. Politically, Bengal is now divided between the sovereign Republic of Bangladesh, and India's West Bengal, Tripura, and Asam. This map region is the map of Bengal Sultanate before the Battle of Plassey. The United Bengal proposal was formally made by the Last Prime minister of British Ruled Bengal Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Bengali Nationalist Sharat Chandra Bose in 1947.

Greater Bangladesh (Bengali: বৃহত্তর বাংলাদেশ, romanized: Brihôttôr Bangladesh;[1] among other names, see below) is a theory that the People's Republic of Bangladesh has aspirations of territorial expansion, to include the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak valley, Hojai and Undivided Goalpara as part of its own territory. Some proponents also claim that Sheikh Hasina, Prime minister of Bangladesh and Mamata Banerjee,[2][3] Chief minister of West Bengal, are involved in trying to create Greater Bangladesh.

Names

It is known by various names in Bengali. Bengali: বৃহত্তর বাংলাদেশ, romanized: Brihôttôr Bangladesh;[1] Bengali: বৃহৎ বাংলাদেশ, romanized: Brihôt Bangladesh;[4] Bengali: মহাবাংলাদেশ, romanized: Môhabangladesh;[5] Bengali: বড় বাঙ্গালা, romanized: Boro Bangala and Bengali: বিশাল বাংলা, romanized: Bishal Bangla[6]

Demography

Religions in Bengal region (Bangladesh and West Bengal including bengalis of other states) 2021

  Islam (55.11%)
  Hinduism (43.51%)
  Buddhism, Tribal, Christianity (1.38%)

Overall Bengal region is a Muslim majority province with significant Hindu population. Other religious composition like Buddhists, Christians, Animists etc together comprising a little percentage of population.

Religions in Bangladesh (East Bengal) 2021[7]
Religions Percent
Islam
 
 81%
Hinduism
 
 18%
others
 
 1%
Religions in West Bengal, India 2021
Religions Percent
Hinduism
 
 73%
Islam
 
 25%
others
 
 2%

West Bengal is Hindu majority with a large Muslim population, while East Bengal is Muslim majority with a significant Hindu population. Today Western part of Bengal is a part of India as its state, while Eastern part of Bengal is Republic of Bangladesh, an independent sovereign nation in South Asia.[8]

Bengal region religious diversity as per 2021 census[9][10][11]
Religion Population in million
Muslims () 157.7 million
Hindus () 110.6 million
Others (Buddhists, Christians, Animists etc) 3.7 million
Total 270 million

The Bengal region comprising West Bengal and East Bengal is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. With a population of 300 million, Bengalis are the third largest ethnic group in the world after the Han Chinese and Arabs.[note 1] The largest religions practiced in Bengal are Islam and Hinduism.[12] According to provisional results of 2021 Bangladesh estimation, the population of Bangladesh was 170 million;[13][14] however, CIA's The World Factbook gives 163,654,860 as its population in a July 2013 estimate. According to the provisional results of the 2021 Indian national census, West Bengal has a population of 100 million people.[15][16] "So, the Bengal region, as of 2011, has at least 250 million bengalis,with 10 million bengalis in Assam,Tripura and other states(excluding Khotta muslims of West Bengal,Surjapuri muslims of Dinajpur,Sylheti and Chittagongians)who have their own language. This figures give a population density of 1003.9/km2; making it among the most densely populated areas in the world.[17][18]

Life expectancy is around 72.49 years for Bangladesh[19] and 70.2 for West Bengal.[20][21] In terms of literacy, West Bengal leads with 77% literacy rate,[17] in Bangladesh the rate is approximately 72.9%.[22][note 2] The level of poverty in West Bengal is at 15%(2021), while in Bangladesh it stands at 12.9%[23][24][25] West Bengal has one of the lowest total fertility rates in India. West Bengal's TFR of 1.7 roughly equals that of Canada.[26]

The combined land of West Bengal and Bangladesh gives a total area of 237,212 sq² km.

Partition of Bengal (1905)

During the Partition of Bengal 1905, (translated variously as Bengali: বঙ্গভঙ্গ, romanized: Bônggôbhônggô) - when the ruling British empire had the province of Bengal (of undivided India) split into two parts, many Bengali intellectuals joined cultural and political movement against the partition. The partition took place in October 1905 and separated the largely Muslim eastern areas from the largely Hindu western areas. The Hindus of West Bengal who dominated Bengal's business and rural life complained that the division would make them a minority in a province that would incorporate the Bihar and Orissa Province. It was during this time the Mother Bengal was an immensely popular theme in Bengali patriotic songs and poems and was mentioned in several of them, such as the song ″Dhana Dhanya Pushpa Bhara″ and ″Banga Amar Janani Amar″ (Our Bengal Our Mother) by Dwijendralal Ray. These songs were meant to rekindle the unified spirit of Bengal, to raise public consciousness against the communal political divide.

Partition of Bengal (1947)

Map of Bengal. The region is today divided between East Bengal (Bangladesh) and West Bengal. Also showing the state of Tripura and the two districts of Hailakandi and Karimganj; part of Barak Valley in Assam, India.

The Partition of Bengal in 1947, part of the Partition of India, divided the British Indian province of Bengal based on the Radcliffe Line between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The Hindu-majority West Bengal became a state of India, and the Muslim-majority East Bengal (now Bangladesh) became a province of Pakistan.

On 20 June 1947, the Bengal Legislative Assembly met to decide the future of the Bengal Presidency on being a United Bengal within India or Pakistan or divided into East and West Bengal. At the preliminary joint session, the assembly decided by 120-90 that it should remain united if it joined the new Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. Later, a separate meeting of legislators from West Bengal decided 58-21 that the province should be partitioned and that West Bengal should join the existing Constituent Assembly of India. In another separate meeting of legislators from East Bengal, it was decided 106-35 that the province should not be partitioned and 107-34 that East Bengal should join Pakistan in the event of Partition.

On 6 July 1947, the Sylhet referendum decided to sever Sylhet from Assam and merge it into East Bengal.

The partition, with power transferred to Pakistan and India on 14–15 August 1947, was done according to what has come to be known as the 3 June Plan, or the Mountbatten Plan. Indian independence, on 15 August 1947, ended over 150 years of British influence in the Indian subcontinent. East Bengal became the independent country of Bangladesh after the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.

United Bengal

See also: Partition of Bengal (1947) and United Bengal

After the Battle of Plassey, the region became an administrative division of British India with Bengal's capital Calcutta acting as the Indian capital. The Bengal Presidency was formed in 1765, and in 1905, the presidency was divided into Bengal province and Eastern Bengal and Assam province. Assam and the Lushai Hills became part of the Province of Assam in 1912. In 1912, Bengal was separated into two states of the British empire after the Indian independence movement began to arise. These new provinces were Bihar and Orissa and East Bengal and Assam. These provinces were partitioned again in 1947 into the Hindu-majority West Bengal and Muslim-majority East Bengal (now Bangladesh) to facilitate the creation of the separate Muslim state of Pakistan, of which East Bengal became a province.[27]

In January 1947, Father of Independent state of Bangalarastra Sarat Chandra Bose resigned from the Indian National Congress, partially in protest against the partition of Bengal. He called for an independent state of Bengal separate from both India and Pakistan.[28] Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Abul Hashem, two Bengali leaders of the Muslim League, also advocated for an independent state of Bengal comprising both the eastern and western parts of Bengal (now Bangladesh and West Bengal, respectively).[29]

Mohammad Akram Khan and Khawaja Nazimuddin, two other Muslim League leaders, wanted a United Bengal as part of Pakistan. Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha and Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh which later was succeeded by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), opposed the idea of an independent Bengal or a United Bengal.[30] Hindu Mahashabha and Mookerjee were concerned about Bose and Suhrawardy discussing a sovereign state of Bengal.Jawaharlal Nehru, then a leader of the majority faction of the Congress, was opposed to a United Bengal unless it was connected to the Union.[31]

Theories

Lebensraum theory

Achieving a "Greater Bangladesh" as Lebensraum (additional living space) is alleged to be the reason for large-scale illegal immigration from Bangladesh into India's states.[32] Similarly it is alleged that illegal immigration is actively encouraged by some political groups in Bangladesh as well as the state of Bangladesh to convert large parts of India's northeastern states, particularly Assam and West Bengal into Muslim-majority areas that would subsequently seek to separate from India and join Muslim-majority Bangladesh.[32] The proposition is that the state of Bangladesh is pursuing a territorial design seeking a Lebensraum for its teeming population and trying to establish a Greater Bangladesh.[33]

Migration theory

See also: Illegal immigration in India

At the turn of the 21st century, Indian political circles started to take a serious look at Bangladeshi illegal immigration into India.[33] According to Jyoti M. Pathania of South Asia Analysis Group the reasons for Bangladeshi immigration to India are: basic need theory i.e. food, shelter and clothing, economic dictates i.e. employment opportunity, better wages and comparatively better living conditions, demographic disproportion especially for minorities (Hindus) in this densely populated country having roughly a density of 780 per km2 as against half that number on Indian side of the border, and being cheap labor the Bangladeshis find easy acceptance as "domestic helps" in Indian homes, which keeps proliferating by ever increasing demand for domestic helps.[34] The Centre for Women and Children Studies estimated in 1998 that 27,000 Bangladeshis have been forced into prostitution in India.[35][36]

Though about 1.2 million Indians are living in Bangladesh illegally.[37][38]

Militancy theory

See also: Bangladesh–India relations

A number of Indian politicians and journalists alleged that advocates of a Greater Bangladesh seek the expansion of Bangladeshi hegemony in Northeastern India, including the states of Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura, as well as the Arakan Province of Burma (Myanmar), where there is a considerable population of Rohingya Muslims.[1][32] It was also alleged that United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) conspired with state of Bangladesh to secede four to five Muslim majority districts of Assam to form a Greater Bangladesh, though Bangladesh in the contrary arrested a number of ULFA leaders,[39] including Ranju Chowdhury, Arabinda Rajkhowa and Anup Chetia, to support Indian action against militancy.[40]

In 2002, nine Islamic groups including Indian militant organizations Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA), Muslim United Liberation Front of Assam (MULFA) and Muslim Volunteer Force (MVF), Pakistani militant organization Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), Myanmar groups Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front of Myanmar (ARIFM), and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, a pan-South Asian militant organization outlawed in Bangladesh with leaders sentenced to death,[41] formed a coalition that declared the formation Greater Bangladesh as one of their aims.[1][42]

Basis of theories

Nellie massacre

Main article: Nellie massacre

In Assam, agitation against immigrants started as early as 1979, led by All Assam Students Union.[43] Their demand was to put a stop on the influx of immigrants and deportation of those who have already settled.[44] It gradually took violent form and ethnic violence started between Assamese and Bengalis, mostly Muslim. It eventually led to the infamous Nellie massacre in 1983 due to a controversy over the 1983 election.[45] In 1985 Indian Government signed the Assam accord with the leaders of the agitation to stop the issue.[44][46] As per the accord India started building a fence along the Assam-Bangladesh border which is now almost complete.[47] However Assam also has a large number of genuine Indian Muslim Bengalis. It is difficult to distinguish between illegal Bangladeshis and local Bengali speakers.[48] In some cases genuine Indian citizens have been discriminated[49]

Ethnic and religious tensions in the Indian North East had led to massacre of Bengali-speaking Muslims in Nellie in February 1983.[50] The greatest carnage against immigrants occurred on 18 February when 990 in Nellie and 585 in Barbori were killed.[51] Villages were burned while women and children identified as immigrant Muslims were hacked into pieces.[52] Smuggling and illegal immigration along the Indian-Bangladeshi border has been identified as major cause of killing of more than 3,000 people in the massacre.[53] The Nellie Massacre has been argued as one of the cases of ethnic cleansing, that was followed by similar incidents of carnages in Delhi (1984), Bhagalpur (1989), Kashmir (1990s), Mumbai (1993) and Gujarat (2002).[52]

The Sinha Report

See also: India–Bangladesh border

In 1998, Lieutenant General S.K. Sinha, then the Governor of Assam and later the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, wrote a report to K.R. Narayanan, then the President of India claiming that massive illegal immigration from Bangladesh was directly linked with "the long-cherished design of Greater Bangladesh," and also quoted pre-1971 comments from late Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and late President of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman endorsing the inclusion of Assam into East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).[32][54] Anxiety and popular anger over illegal immigration prompted political unrest in the state of Assam, and criticism has increased over the Indian government's failure to secure its borders with Bangladesh and stop the illegal immigration.[32][54]

Notes

  1. ^ Roughly 163 million in Bangladesh and 100 million in the Republic of India (CIA Factbook 2014 estimates, numbers subject to rapid population growth); about 3 million Bangladeshis in the Middle East, 1 million Bengalis in Pakistan, 0.4 million British Bangladeshi.
  2. ^ CRI do not give a breakdown by gender or state the age bracket for the data

References

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  2. ^ PTI (28 January 2021). "Mamata Banerjee wants to create 'Greater Bangladesh': Dilip Ghosh". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  3. ^ "TMC's goal is to separate West Bengal, make 'Greater Bangladesh': WB BJP chief". www.aninews.in. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  4. ^ Mahendra Gaur, Indian affairs annual (Volume 2), 2007, ISBN 81-7835-434-9
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  8. ^ Bhattacharya, A. K. (22 March 2007). "A tale of two Bengals". Business Standard India.
  9. ^ Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2011). "Population & Housing Census" (PDF). Bangladesh Government. p. xiii. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 September 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2015. Population By Religion (%) Muslim 90.39 Hindu 8.54 Buddhist 0.60 Christian 0.37 Others 0.14
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  34. ^ Jyoti M. Pathania, India & Bangladesh - Migration Matrix- Reactive and not Proactive Archived 18 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Paper no. 632, South Asia Analysis Group
  35. ^ Donna M. Hughes, Laura Joy Sporcic, Nadine Z. Mendelsohn and Vanessa Chirgwin, Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation Archived 15 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
  36. ^ Bimal Kanti Paul; Syed Abu Hasnath, "Trafficking in Bangladeshi Women and Girls", Geographical Review, p.268-276, April 2000
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  43. ^ From 1979 to 1985: The Anti-Foreigners Movement in Assam Archived 25 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  44. ^ a b Report on illegal migration into assam
  45. ^ Nellie 1983: A series by TwoCircles.net
  46. ^ "Full text of the accord" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 January 2006. Retrieved 28 November 2010.
  47. ^ Achievements of Assam accord
  48. ^ Indifference, impotence, and intolerance:transnational Bangladeshis in India, Sujata Ramachandran Archived 23 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  49. ^ Report on illegal migration into Assam
  50. ^ K. Warikoo, Himalayan Frontiers of India, page 174, Taylor & Francis, 2009, ISBN 0-415-46839-6
  51. ^ Hemendra Narayan, 25 years on Nellie Still haunts, Nellie India Massacre Assam, 2008, ISBN 81-7525-942-6
  52. ^ a b Harsh Mander, "Nellie: India’s forgotten massacre", The Hindu, 2008-12-14
  53. ^ Gupta, Basu and Chattarji, Globalization in India: Contents and Discontents, page 66, Pearson Education India, 2010, ISBN 81-317-1988-X
  54. ^ a b Arup Chandra (13 February 1999). "Assam governor asks Centre to seal Bangladesh border". Retrieved 21 August 2010.
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