Bengal Legislative Assembly

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This article is about the lower chamber of the legislature of Bengal Presidency. For the upper chamber, see Bengal Legislative Council. For the council of Eastern Bengal and Assam, see Eastern Bengal and Assam Legislative Council. For the modern Indian Bengal assembly, see West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
Bengal Legislative Assembly

বঙ্গীয় আইনসভা
East Bengal Legislative Assembly
West Bengal Legislative Assembly
Seats250
Meeting place
Calcutta, Bengal Presidency

The Bengal Legislative Assembly (

partition of British India
.

Many notable speeches were delivered by Bengali statesmen in this assembly. The records of the assembly's proceedings are preserved in the libraries of the

Parliament of Bangladesh
and the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

History

A. K. Fazlul Huq, the 1st Prime Minister of Bengal, with Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore
Tagore's letter to Prime Minister Nazimuddin regarding the release of a Jewish lecturer who had been detained by the British government
Mahatma Gandhi with the 3rd and last Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy

The assembly was the culmination of legislative development in Bengal which started in 1861 with the

permanent settlement.[2]

In 1941, the League withdrew support for Huq after he joined the

Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan.[4] In Bengal, Huq secured the support of Syama Prasad Mukherjee, the leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, and formed a second coalition government. Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin, a trusted confidante of Jinnah, became Leader of the Opposition.[5]
In 1943, the Huq ministry fell and Nazimuddin formed a Muslim League government.

Amid the outbreak of world war,

Santiniketan who was interned by the British colonial authority. Tagore had earlier requested the central home ministry of India to release Aronson but the request was turned down. Tagore then wrote a letter to Prime Minister Nazimuddin in Bengal. Prime Minister Nazimuddin intervened and secured the release of the lecturer.[6]

Nazimuddin led conservative elements in the Bengal Provincial Muslim League. As

H. S. Suhrawardy
-led faction took control of the provincial party.

The

Earl Mountbatten and Nehru.[11] The Hindu Mahasabha's legislators in the assembly demanded the partition of Bengal.[10]

Eve of partition

On 20 June 1947, the Bengal Legislative Assembly met to decide on the partition of Bengal. At the preliminary joint meeting, it was decided by 126 votes to 90 that the province, if it remained united, should join the "new Constituent Assembly" (Pakistan). At a separate meeting of legislators from West Bengal, it was decided by 58 votes to 21 that the province should be partitioned and that West Bengal should join the "existing Constituent Assembly" (India). At a separate meeting of legislators from East Bengal, it was decided by 106 votes to 35 that the province should not be partitioned and 107 votes to 34 that East Bengal should join the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in the event of partition.[12] On 6 July 1947, the region of Sylhet in Assam voted in a referendum to join East Bengal.[13]

Seats

The allocation of 250 seats in the assembly was based on the communal award. It is illustrated in the following.[14]

  • General elected seats- 78
  • Muslim
    electorate seats- 117
    • Urban seats- 6
    • Rural seats- 111
  • Anglo-Indian
    electorate seats- 3
  • European electorate seats- 11
  • Indian Christian
    electorate seats- 2
  • Commerce, Industries and Planting seats- 19
    • Port of Calcutta
    • Port of Chittagong
    • Bengal Chamber of Commerce
    • Jute Interest
    • Tea Interest
    • Railways
    • Traders Associations
    • Others
  • Zamindar seats- 5
  • Labour representatives- 8
  • Education seats- 2
  • Women seats- 5
    • General electorate- 2
    • Muslim electorate- 2
    • Anglo-Indian electorate- 1

Elections

The following results are recorded by the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.[14]

1937 general election

See also: 1937 Indian provincial elections
Party Congress Independent Muslims Muslim League Independent Hindus Krishak Praja Party Others Tripura Krishak Party Nationalist Hindu Mahasabha
Seats 54 42 40 37 35 32 5 3 2

1946 general election

See also: 1946 Indian provincial elections
Party Muslim League Congress Independent Hindus Independent Muslims Communist Party Others
Seats 113 86 13 9 3 26

Ministries

Further information: Prime Minister of Bengal
From left to right: Huq, Nazimuddin and Suhrawardy; the latter two became Prime Ministers of Pakistan; the former was East Bengal's chief minister and East Pakistan's governor
Prafulla Chandra Ghosh (left) and Mohammad Ali (right) in the Bengal Secretariat. The former became West Bengal's first chief minister; the latter became Pakistan's third Prime Minister

First Huq ministry

The first ministry was formed by Prime Minister A. K. Fazlul Huq lasted between 1 April 1937 and 1 December 1941. Huq himself held the portfolio of Education, Sir

H. S. Suhrawardy was Commerce and Labour Minister, Nalini Ranjan Sarkar was Finance Minister, Sir Bijay Prasad Singh Roy was Revenue Minister, Khwaja Habibullah was Agriculture and Industry Minister, Srish Chandra Nandy was Irrigation, Works and Communications Minister, Prasana Deb Raikut was Forest and Excise Minister, Mukunda Behari Mallick was Cooperative, Credit and Rural Indebtedness Minister, Nawab Musharraf Hussain was Judicial and Legislature Minister and Syed Nausher Ali
was Public Health and Local Self Government Minister.

Second Huq ministry

The second Huq ministry lasted between 12 December 1941 and 29 March 1943. It was known as the Shyama-Huq coalition, named due to the inclusion of the Hindu Mahasabha member Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, who was the Finance Minister. It also included Khwaja Habibullah, Khan Bahadur Abdul Karim, Khan Bahadur Hashem Ali Khan, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Santosh Kumar Bose, Pramath Nath Banarji and Upendranath Barman

Nazimuddin ministry

The Nazimuddin ministry lasted between 29 April 1943 and 31 March 1945.

Suhrawardy ministry

The Suhrawardy ministry lasted between 23 April 1946 and 14 August 1947. Suhrawardy was himself Home Minister.

Mohammad Ali of Bogra was Finance, Health and Local Self Government Minister. Syed Muazzemuddin Hossain was Education Minister. Ahmed Hossain was Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries Minister. Nagendra Nath Roy was Judicial and Legislative Minister. Abul Fazal Muhammad Abdur Rahman was Cooperatives and Irrigation Minister. Abdul Gofran was Civil Supplies Minister. Tarak Nath Mukherjee was Waterways Minister. Fazlur Rahman was Land Minister. Dwarka Nath Barury
was Works Minister.

Speaker of the assembly

The legislative assembly elected its own Speaker.

Sir Azizul Haque was the first speaker of the assembly.[15] His successors included Syed Nausher Ali and Nurul Amin
.

No Speakers Term Start Term End
Legislative Assembly under the Government of India Act, 1935.
1 Sir Azizul Haque 7 April 1937 27 April 1942
2 Syed Nausher Ali 1 March 1943 14 May 1946
3 Nurul Amin 14 May 1946 15 August 1947

See also

References

  1. JSTOR 4415309
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0-521-45850-4
    .
  3. ISBN 978-81-250-2596-2
    .
  4. ^ Kamruddin Ahmad (1967). The Social History of East Pakistan. Raushan Ara Ahmed. p. 56.
  5. ^ Mohammad Alamgir (2012). "Nazimuddin, Khwaja". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. On 1 December 1941 he resigned from the cabinet because of dissension between Huq and Jinnah. During the Shyama-Huq coalition (1942 to 1943) he acted as the Leader of the Opposition.
  6. ^ "The official web site of the Dhaka Nawab Family: Things You Should Know". Archived from the original on 2020-10-20. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  7. ISBN 978-0-521-45850-4
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-521-52328-8
    .
  9. ISBN 978-1-84331-299-4
    .
  10. ^
    ISBN 978-0-521-45850-4
    . The Hindu Mahasabha's demand for partition ... Suhrawardy's only hope was ... asking for an united and independent Bengal. Paradoxically he had a greater chance of getting Jinnah's endorsement for this scheme than of getting it ratified by the Congress High Command ... Jinnah told Mountbatten ... 'What is the use of Bengal without Calcutta; they had better remain united and independent.'
  11. ISBN 978-0-521-45850-4
    . Agreement was reached between Sarat Bose, Kiran Shankar Roy, Suhrawardy and a few other Leaguers ... although Mountbatten had persuaded London to make an exception for Bengal and allow it to become an independent Dominion, he quickly dropped his plan once Nehru had rejected the proposition.
  12. ISBN 978-0-521-30448-1
    .
  13. ^ "History - British History in depth: The Hidden Story of Partition and its Legacies". BBC. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  14. ^ a b Sirajul Islam (2012). "Bengal Legislative Assembly". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  15. ^ "Kolkata on Wheels". Kolkata on Wheels. Archived from the original on 27 July 2017. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
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