Decentering India’s Decolonization: Provincial Autonomy in Bengal, 1937–47

The grant of provincial autonomy, the key promise ensconced in the Government of India Act 1935, drew an invisible line between national and provincial politics in India. With the 1937 elections, autonomous indigenous ministries prepared to assume governance in provinces.  Indian National Congress which had been agitating for greater participation in the government, and Muslim League which had only recently started having a national presence had to wait for their slices of power. The Act was a recognition that the “Raj would end,” but its unraveling started in provinces like Bengal. Bengal, as a Muslim majority province, with a significant Hindu majority presented itself as a unique site where the decolonization project commenced. Through a study of Bengal’s practice of autonomy during the last colonial decade, this paper will make a case for the inclusion of provincial perspectives in studies on decolonization, in India as elsewhere.

Decolonization studies have always looked at the center for clues, causes and processes (Louis 1978, Singh 1984, Thornton 1985, Darwin 1991, Duara 2004, Hopkins 2008) resulting in an abysmal neglect of the experience of the province. This paper will argue that most of the Delhi-centric decolonization theories did not apply to how the Raj ended in Bengal. An extensive study of diaries, reports, official fortnightly letters, articles and speeches reveals that in Bengal the contours of decolonization were framed by skeptical British governors who initiated many reverse decolonization moves, through imposition of Section 93 (suspension of provincial autonomy) for instance, and ambitious provincial politicians trying to enhance their own scope of power versus national level leaders. The experience of decolonization in a province like Bengal adds to the layers of the decolonization debate, and in fact makes an excellent case for refocusing the debate on the provinces, as the site where it all began.