Know the history
The Bengal Muslim League leader H.S. Suhrawardy in 1947 on April 27 proposed that Bengal should be an independent and sovereign State. Party’s General Secretary Abul Hashim, and Forward Bloc leaders Sarat Bose and Kiron Shankar Roy gave their all out supports.
The Bengal Muslim League working committee adopted a formula that a Constituent Assembly (CA) would be formed by the adult franchise. “If the majority members of the CA support joining Pakistan, it shall be implemented. And if the majority members vote for India, it will be executed, and if the CA by a majority votes decides to remain independent and sovereign, the decision shall be respected.”
With this formula, Suhrawardy and Sarat Bose traveled to Delhi for talks with the Muslim League and the Congress leaders because the British Government insisted that no formula would be workable without the approval of the two parties’ central committees.
As advised by MC Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the Forward Bloc leader Sarat Bose met Sardar Ballov Bhai Patel, who said: Sarat Babu! Leave your madness. We do want Calcutta. Contrarily, ML leader M.A.Jinnah said: I have no objection if Congress agrees.
Both Suhrawardy and Sarat Bose returned to Calcutta disappointed. The Forward Bloc leader issued a statement accusing the Congress leaders for failure of the mission. The statement said that Jinnah accepted the plan.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in his book ‘Ausamto Atmajiboni’ wrote that many Bengal Muslim League leaders, who firstly supported the formula, tried to defame the initiative of making Bengal an independent and sovereign state in 1947.
Ameer Hamzah
Dhaka
