Regional lens · India’s Freedom Struggle
Mass satyagraha, revolutionary action, labour, peasant and regional movements converge against colonial rule.
Boycott, indigenous production, public meetings and national education reshaped politics in Bengal after the province was divided. Revolutionary organisations also grew, pursuing methods distinct from constitutional agitation.
Surya Sen and the Indian Republican Army raided British police and auxiliary armouries in Chittagong, capturing weapons and cutting communications to proclaim an independent revolutionary government.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose established the Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind) in Singapore, assuming supreme command of the Indian National Army to liberate the subcontinent.
Quit India organisers in Midnapore formed the Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar, which coordinated relief and local administration before disbanding in 1944. Matangini Hazra became one of the region’s most remembered martyrs.
Rabindranath Tagore developed Santiniketan as an educational and cultural centre that joined teaching, the arts and engagement with its landscape. Its institutions became influential in modern Indian intellectual life while retaining a design distinct from conventional colonial campuses.
On 20 June 1947, members of the Bengal Legislative Assembly met in separate groupings to decide whether Bengal would remain united and which constituent assembly its parts would join. Those proceedings are a primary record of the political process that preceded the province's division and the creation of West Bengal at independence.
Source: West Bengal Legislative Assembly — Proceedings on Partition of Bengal, 20 June 1947