Author Description

Bengal has occupied a crucial place in the evolution of communal politics in the Subcontinent, both in terms of social geography and political developments. By the turn of the twentieth century, Bengal had one of the largest concentrations of Muslims in India, as well as one of the worstrecords of Hindu-Muslim conflict. The Bengal Muslims were among the first to be organized politically to voice their rights as Muslims. Bengal was the only state where the Muslim League managed to form relatively stable ministries in the two crucial decades preceding the end of British rule inIndia. Das's examination of communal riots in Bengal makes a significant contribution to the understanding of evolution and growth of communalism in India. The years 1905 and 1947 have been selected as analytical boundaries because they constitute important landmarks in the history of modernBengal--an unsuccessful attempt to divide the province in 1905 and its eventual partition in 1947.