---
title: "Partition of Bengal 1905: Causes & Effects | Model Diplomat"
description: "The Partition of Bengal 1905 divided Bengal under Lord Curzon, sparking the Swadeshi movement and influencing India's struggle for independence."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/partition-of-bengal-1905"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- The Partition of Bengal 1905 was Viceroy Lord Curzon's administrative division of Bengal Presidency into two provinces, effective 16 October 1905, which catalysed the Swadeshi movement.
- Why did Lord Curzon partition Bengal in 1905?
- How was the Partition of Bengal connected to the Swadeshi movement?
- When and why was the Partition of Bengal annulled?
- How did the Partition of Bengal affect Hindu-Muslim politics?

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## Timeline

1. 16 October 1905

   The Partition of Bengal 1905 was Viceroy Lord Curzon's administrative division of Bengal Presidency into two provinces, effective , which catalysed the Swade…

2. 19 July 1905

   The Partition of Bengal 1905 was the administrative reorganisation of the Bengal Presidency under the British Raj, formally announced by the Government of In…

3. 12 December 1911

   On , at the Delhi Durbar, King George V announced the annulment (samvilopan) of the partition: Bengal was reunited on linguistic lines, Bihar and Orissa were…

## Positions at a glance

### Indian National Congress

The Swadeshi and Boycott agitation reshaped the Indian National Congress itself. At the Calcutta session of 1906, presided over by Dadabhai Naoroji, the Congress for the first time adopted self-government (swaraj) as its goal, and the resolutions on Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education and Swaraj were affirmed. The movement exposed the rift between Moderates, who favoured constitutional petition, and the Extremists led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Pal and Lajpat Rai (the "Lal-Bal-Pal" trio), a tension that erupted into the Surat Split of 1907. The agitation also fed a revolutionary undercurrent — the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar groups in Bengal turned to political assassination and arms, exemplified by the Muzaffarpur bombing of 1908 by Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki.

### All-India Muslim League

The Partition of Bengal must be distinguished from the later Partition of India in 1947 and from the radical Mountbatten boundary settlement that created East Pakistan. The 1905 measure was a provincial administrative division within a single colonial state, not a sovereign separation, though its communal geography prefigured later cleavages. It should also be distinguished from the Morley–Minto Reforms (Indian Councils Act 1909), which introduced separate electorates for Muslims; the partition and those reforms together advanced the institutionalisation of communal representation, a development the All-India Muslim League — founded at Dacca in December 1906 — welcomed insofar as Eastern Bengal and Assam offered Muslims a province of their own.

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Example

Viceroy Lord Curzon brought the Partition of Bengal into effect on 16 October 1905, dividing Bengal Presidency and creating the new Muslim-majority province of Eastern Bengal and Assam with its capital at Dacca.

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