A Partition of Contingency? Public Discourse in Bengal 1946–1947
The historiography on the Partition of Bengal has tended to see it as a culmination of long term trends Hindu and Muslim communalism within the province. This essay offers a counter narrative to the ‘inevitability’ of the Partition by focusing on Bengali public discourse in the months leading up to...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Cambridge University Press
2010
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/51358 |
| _version_ | 1811095543078715392 |
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| author | Roy, Haimanti |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Humanities. History Section |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Humanities. History Section Roy, Haimanti |
| author_sort | Roy, Haimanti |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The historiography on the Partition of Bengal has tended to see it as a culmination of long term trends Hindu and Muslim communalism within the province. This essay offers a counter narrative to the ‘inevitability’ of the Partition by focusing on Bengali public discourse in the months leading up to the Partition. The possibility of a division generated a large-scale debate amongst the educated in Bengal and they articulated their views by sending numerous letters to leading newspapers, district political and civic organizations and sometimes published pamphlets for local consumption. A critical examination of this public debate for and against Partition reveals the countdown to August 1947 as a period of multiple possibilities. Understanding the genesis provides the starting point and the necessary corrective to evaluate India’s path to post –colonial nationhood. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:19:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/51358 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:19:08Z |
| publishDate | 2010 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/513582022-10-02T07:40:29Z A Partition of Contingency? Public Discourse in Bengal 1946–1947 Roy, Haimanti Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Humanities. History Section Roy, Haimanti Roy, Haimanti The historiography on the Partition of Bengal has tended to see it as a culmination of long term trends Hindu and Muslim communalism within the province. This essay offers a counter narrative to the ‘inevitability’ of the Partition by focusing on Bengali public discourse in the months leading up to the Partition. The possibility of a division generated a large-scale debate amongst the educated in Bengal and they articulated their views by sending numerous letters to leading newspapers, district political and civic organizations and sometimes published pamphlets for local consumption. A critical examination of this public debate for and against Partition reveals the countdown to August 1947 as a period of multiple possibilities. Understanding the genesis provides the starting point and the necessary corrective to evaluate India’s path to post –colonial nationhood. 2010-02-04T14:25:10Z 2010-02-04T14:25:10Z 2009-02 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/SubmittedJournalArticle 0026-749X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/51358 HAIMANTI ROY (2009). A Partition of Contingency? Public Discourse in Bengal, 1946–1947. Modern Asian Studies, 43 , pp 1355-1384 doi:10.1017/S0026749X08003788 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X08003788 Modern Asian Studies Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf Cambridge University Press Haimanti Roy |
| spellingShingle | Roy, Haimanti A Partition of Contingency? Public Discourse in Bengal 1946–1947 |
| title | A Partition of Contingency? Public Discourse in Bengal 1946–1947 |
| title_full | A Partition of Contingency? Public Discourse in Bengal 1946–1947 |
| title_fullStr | A Partition of Contingency? Public Discourse in Bengal 1946–1947 |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Partition of Contingency? Public Discourse in Bengal 1946–1947 |
| title_short | A Partition of Contingency? Public Discourse in Bengal 1946–1947 |
| title_sort | partition of contingency public discourse in bengal 1946 1947 |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/51358 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT royhaimanti apartitionofcontingencypublicdiscourseinbengal19461947 AT royhaimanti partitionofcontingencypublicdiscourseinbengal19461947 |