Alternate partition of India

What if in the partition of India, an United Bengal composed of West Bengal, East Bengal and Tripura was created and the Northeast was given to Myanmar? How would Bengal and Myanmar be in terms of power and economy? Note: The United Bengal proposal did exist in our timeline.
 

Deleted member 116192

It's kinda hard as Bengal was the birth place of modern Indian nationalism and the entire idea of partition was around religious lines not linguistics lines or ethinc lines .

Well in terms of economic power the country would be poor much like how modern day country of Bangladesh but slightly better off due to coal in West Bengal and would inturn become economically dominated by it's larger neighbor, India plus Bengal was also home to communist movement so you could have a communist Bengal
 

Deleted member 116192

BTW the person who penned the Indian national anthem is a Bengali and the number of bengalis in the Indian independence movement are in such large number and so prominent that mentioning a few would offend some guy cause I didn't mention a freedom fighters name who he thinks played a more important role
 
Well in terms of economic power the country would be poor much like how modern day country of Bangladesh but slightly better off due to coal in West Bengal and would inturn become economically dominated by it's larger neighbor
Without the damage from partition and the war of independence. A United Bangladesh should be far wealthier.
 

Deleted member 116192

Yes may be , but you need raw material for those industries and if India of this time line imposes export tariff much like was the case in our time line I don't think those industries would be working for long plus there are the communists they would ruin it with their revolutionary movements
 
It's kinda hard as Bengal was the birth place of modern Indian nationalism and the entire idea of partition was around religious lines not linguistics lines or ethinc lines .

Well in terms of economic power the country would be poor much like how modern day country of Bangladesh but slightly better off due to coal in West Bengal and would inturn become economically dominated by it's larger neighbor, India plus Bengal was also home to communist movement so you could have a communist Bengal

An influent Muslim in East Bengal supported United Bengal and was against the partition of Bengal because he realized, that, it would be economically disastrous for East Bengal since all the industries were in West Bengal. Calcutta was the only major city in the area and an import port. Without it, the area was doomed to poverty. It could also be correctly argued, that, the Muslims of Pakistan and the ones of Bengal were far too different to be part of one nation. Jinnah also expressed support for the proposal.

For Myanmar nothing changes expect the country gets more insurgencies
I'm not sure, Northeast India has historically been connected to Burma/Myanmar and would probably be part of it if the British had not conquered Burma.
 
I'm not sure, Northeast India has historically been connected to Burma/Myanmar and would probably be part of it if the British had not conquered Burma.
A lot of the ethnic groups in Northeast India are also found in Myanmar have insurgencies against the Myanmar government. Not to mention the history between the Myanmar government and it's various minority groups is atrocious with the majority of minority group rebelling against the government.
 

Deleted member 116192

An influent Muslim in East Bengal supported United Bengal and was against the partition of Bengal because he realized, that, it would be economically disastrous for East Bengal since all the industries were in West Bengal. Calcutta was the only major city in the area and an import port. Without it, the area was doomed to poverty. It could also be correctly argued, that, the Muslims of Pakistan and the ones of Bengal were far too different to be part of one nation. Jinnah also expressed support for the proposal.


I'm not sure, Northeast India has historically been connected to Burma/Myanmar and would probably be part of it if the British had not conquered Burma.
Jinnah expressed support for a lot of proposals so long as it weakens India, when Baluchistan petitioned India to join the union of India instead of Pakistan he was quite prompt in sending in the Armed Forces to remove the Kalat of Baluchistan while he condemned the Armed Forces Operations of the Indian army against the nizam of Hyderabad so saying Jinnah supported the idea is not enough
Plus the dominant community of Bengal were the Hindu sen community and other Hindu banker merchant community plus the Hindu landlords who were quite pro British or pro India, when lord curzon divided Bengal in 1905 along religious lines quite few of these elites supported the idea so I don't know how a few Muslim elite would stop the wish of Hindu Bengali elite who had desires to spread their influence through out east India after independence and for a time were quite successful at it Until the communist party took over Bengal in 1969 when the brief period of industrialization came to a crashing halt

As for burma I have to agree with @Noscoper and I have nothing more to add.
 

Deleted member 116192

During Partition didn't most of the raw materials come from east Bangladesh ?


Would be countered by East Bangladesh
Nah Bangladesh doesn't have any raw materials other than agricultural products most of coal and iron ore and other raw materials come from India

No the leftist movement was quite active in Bangladesh as well together they would turn entire Bengal communist
 
Jinnah expressed support for a lot of proposals so long as it weakens India, when Baluchistan petitioned India to join the union of India instead of Pakistan he was quite prompt in sending in the Armed Forces to remove the Kalat of Baluchistan while he condemned the Armed Forces Operations of the Indian army against the nizam of Hyderabad so saying Jinnah supported the idea is not enough
Plus the dominant community of Bengal were the Hindu sen community and other Hindu banker merchant community plus the Hindu landlords who were quite pro British or pro India, when lord curzon divided Bengal in 1905 along religious lines quite few of these elites supported the idea so I don't know how a few Muslim elite would stop the wish of Hindu Bengali elite who had desires to spread their influence through out east India after independence and for a time were quite successful at it Until the communist party took over Bengal in 1969 when the brief period of industrialization came to a crashing halt

As for burma I have to agree with @Noscoper and I have nothing more to add.

The proposal also had an Hindu backer Sarat Chandra Bose. As for Baluchistan, IMO, joining India would be unfeasible as it was overwhelmingly Muslim and separated from India by Pakistani territory.

It's kinda hard as Bengal was the birth place of modern Indian nationalism and the entire idea of partition was around religious lines not linguistics lines or ethinc lines .

Well in terms of economic power the country would be poor much like how modern day country of Bangladesh but slightly better off due to coal in West Bengal and would inturn become economically dominated by it's larger neighbor, India plus Bengal was also home to communist movement so you could have a communist Bengal

An United Bengal would be way better than the bizarre two headed Pakistan of our timeline. Calcutta would also add to its wealth.
 

Deleted member 116192

The proposal also had an Hindu backer Sarat Chandra Bose. As for Baluchistan, IMO, joining India would be unfeasible as it was overwhelmingly Muslim and separated from India by Pakistani territory.



An United Bengal would be way better than the bizarre two headed Pakistan of our timeline. Calcutta would also add to its wealth.
Well the better idea would be to create a separate Muslim state for Muslim Bengali's, you have to remember the spirit of 1940s India and not look back on those days with what we know today and say It could work , the fact remains the Hindu elite of Bengal prefers the British rule and in its absence a secular Indian rule, and only those Hindu elites who had interests in what is today Bangladesh opposed any divsion and preferred a united Bengal and their numbers were in the minority plus you have to contend with the Bengali middle class who saw themselves as a part of India rather than a separate Bengali state

About Baluchistan yes it's Muslim and faraway from mainland India but guess what so was the nizam of Hyderabad and Jinnah wished it to join Pakistan and even had plans to send weapons to aid the nizam through Goa so Jinnah is a hypocrite.
further you had east Pakistan which separated by 2000 miles of India so Baluchistan joining India did not look so stupid back then where their elites prefer India to Pakistan plus you have see to the fact that India portrayed itself as a secular state and Baluch people were keen on preserving their culture and identity and they saw Punjabi and sindi dominated Pakistan as a threat back then
In my opinion it's a alternate partition of India can be done with a division of Bengal and a separate homeland for Muslim Bengal
 
I think it would be more likely that East Bengal would become a third independent country, instead of staying united with West Bengal, given the religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims.

If Northeast India was joined with Burma, well like someone else said, it would only expand the scale of that country's 70-year-long civil war.
 
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Well the better idea would be to create a separate Muslim state for Muslim Bengali's, you have to remember the spirit of 1940s India and not look back on those days with what we know today and say It could work , the fact remains the Hindu elite of Bengal prefers the British rule and in its absence a secular Indian rule, and only those Hindu elites who had interests in what is today Bangladesh opposed any divsion and preferred a united Bengal and their numbers were in the minority plus you have to contend with the Bengali middle class who saw themselves as a part of India rather than a separate Bengali state

About Baluchistan yes it's Muslim and faraway from mainland India but guess what so was the nizam of Hyderabad and Jinnah wished it to join Pakistan and even had plans to send weapons to aid the nizam through Goa so Jinnah is a hypocrite.
further you had east Pakistan which separated by 2000 miles of India so Baluchistan joining India did not look so stupid back then where their elites prefer India to Pakistan plus you have see to the fact that India portrayed itself as a secular state and Baluch people were keen on preserving their culture and identity and they saw Punjabi and sindi dominated Pakistan as a threat back then
In my opinion it's a alternate partition of India can be done with a division of Bengal and a separate homeland for Muslim Bengal

I think it would be more likely that East Bengal would become a third independent country, instead of staying united with West India, given the religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims.

If Northeast India was joined with Burma, well like someone else said, it would only expand the scale of that country's 70-year-long civil war.
Which would simply make the idea of a united Bengal during those days impossible. bengal had already been split up and all ther eligious tensions would not make a union popular.

The problem, that, I see for an independent East Bengal is that it was a poor and small area. I have my doubts, that, it would be considered viable at the time. Also, while there was intercommunal violence in Bengal, it wasn't as bad as in Punjab. The Mislims of East Bengal tended to be more moderate.
 

Deleted member 116192

The problem, that, I see for an independent East Bengal is that it was a poor and small area. I have my doubts, that, it would be considered viable at the time. Also, while there was intercommunal violence in Bengal, it wasn't as bad as in Punjab. The Mislims of East Bengal tended to be more moderate.
True true, BTW why don't you acknowledge the strong possibility of a communist Bengal if this time line is possible
 
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