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BANGLADESH: ANOTHER VICTORY OVER COLONIALISM
MARY TERRELL
The recent war which broke out between East and West Pakistan represented Act II of a drama which had its genesis in Britain colonial policies.
The British in India capitalized on the diversity in the racial origins, religious beliefs, and caste among the Indian people which manifested themselves in communal an local loyalties. Because they had held state power in India for over 300 years, the British were particularly apprehensive of the Muslim population. The Muslims, therefore, were systemically cut off from their historical function of directing the political and economic development in India when the British seized state power in the later half of the 18th century. 
The Muslim community, encouraged by the British, organized the Aligarh Movement which was aimed at creating a Muslim intelligentsia loyal to the British government. This movement endeavored to counter Muslim participation in the Indian nationalist movement which was only in a nascent stage in the latter part of the 19th century. Another tactic used by the British to drive a wedge between the Hindu and Muslim communities was the partition of Bengal Province in 1904 along communal lines. The British were able to convince large segments of the Muslim community that such a partition would ensure Muslim unity, political control, and economic gains because in the newly created "East Bengal" they would be in majority. The people of Bengal thoroughly disapproved of the partition and initiated Swadashi (boycott of British goods by buying only goods manufactured in India) to annul it. However, after having successfully kindled the flames of communalism the partition was annulled.
The contradictions in the British tactics began to work against British rule and work for Hindu-Muslim Unity. The Muslim community, enraged by what they termed British betrayal and amazed 

[[footnote]]Mary Terrell spent two years in the Peace Corps in India (1966-68). She is currently Professor of Asian History at the Antioch Graduate School of Education, Washington, D.C.[[/footnote]]
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by the gains of the Hindu community, began to adopt the techniques of the Hindu in waging struggle against the British. Western education which was initially used by the British to divide the Hindu and Muslim communities eventually served to bring these communities closer together because it provided them with a common culture and language. It further created the same awakening among the Muslims as it had done among the Hindu concerning their economic exploitation. This growing sense of national consciousness among Muslims made them inclined to join the Indian National Congress which was demanding the establishment of democratic institutions, reduction of land revenue, protective tariffs for Indian industries, appointment of Indians to higher government posts, plus many other demands that would improve the general conditions of the Indian people.
As self-government became closer to a reality for India, the Muslim League met in Lahore on March 23, 1940, to issue a resolution demanding that areas in the northwestern and northeastern zones of India with a Muslim majority should be grouped to constitute independent states with each unit being autonomous. Once the Muslim population was exposed to the possibility of a separate Muslim state neither Gandhi nor the Indian National Congress through various compromises from 1940-46 could stop the inevitable partition. However, there is ample evidence that as of 1046 there was sufficient Muslim support for the Congress which enabled it to emerge as the most influential party as a result of the central and provincial legislative assemblies elections of November 1045. Around the issue of "Pakistan" only in Bengal Province did the Muslim League win a sufficiently large number of seats to form a government. Muslim constituency in North Frontier Province supported the Indian National Congress. In the Panjab the vote was divided. In the Sind the larger segment broke away from the Muslim League and entered into a bloc with the Indian National Congress. In total, in the provincial legislatures the Indian National Congress won 930 seats and the Muslim League 497.
In 1046, when an interim government was set up with Jawaharlal Nehru as the Deputy Prime Minister, the Muslim League refused to enter the government. The Muslim League leaders and the British were not satisfied with the result of the elections for most of the delegates from the North-West Frontier Province and Assam were against communal divisions which made it difficult to cede this province to the Muslim zone. Therefore, under the guise that the interest 
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