# The United Bengal proposal (April–June 1947)

URL: https://allhistories.com/bangladesh/timeline/1947-the-united-bengal-proposal
Location: Calcutta, Bengal Province
Themes: Migration, Minorities

In April and May 1947, as British India moved toward independence, Bengal's Muslim League premier Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy called for an independent, undivided and sovereign Bengal. Congress leader Sarat Chandra Bose and the League's provincial secretary Abul Hashim backed him. On 20 May a five-point scheme for a Free State of Bengal, sharing power between Hindus and Muslims, was drafted after consultations with the provincial governor. The idea grew out of fear that partition would split a shared language, economy and river system, and would leave Calcutta and the jute belt on opposite sides of a border. It never won its decisive audience. On 27 May Jawaharlal Nehru said Congress could accept a united Bengal only inside the Indian Union, and the Bengal Provincial Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha opposed a Muslim-majority state. On 20 June 1947 the Bengal Legislative Assembly met in separate and joint sessions. The joint session voted 126 to 90 to join Pakistan if the province stayed whole, but members from the western districts voted 58 to 21 for partition, while eastern members voted 106 to 35 against it. No vote on a united Bengal was ever held, and the province was divided in August. At this point in the timeline (1947), British India (including Bengal) was under Viceroy Louis Mountbatten, 1st Viscount Mountbatten of Burma (21 February 1947 – 15 August 1947), while Premier of Bengal Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy headed Bengal's provincial government. The main location of this event lies outside present-day Bangladesh.

## Why it matters
It was the last serious attempt to avoid dividing Bengal, and it shaped later Bengali claims that partition was imposed on a people who had not chosen it.

Ruler at the Time: [Louis Mountbatten, 1st Viscount Mountbatten of Burma](https://allhistories.com/bangladesh/rulers/louis-mountbatten-1st-viscount-mountbatten-of-burma)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — United Bengal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Bengal)
- [Wikipedia — Partition of India](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_India)
- [Wikipedia — Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huseyn_Shaheed_Suhrawardy)