The socio-economic base of communalism in undevided Bengal was different from that of north western India. Similarly the north-west was almost totally differnt from south India in this regard.
In the northern belt of India from east to west i.e. rajasthan, panjab,UP, Madhyapradesh,Bihar and Bengal witnessed intense communal hatred , tension and occasional mass killing and rioting during 1870s onwards. In the north ,specially in Bengal,the bulk of the Hindus supported the Raj for the first hundred odd years
Taj Hashmi,Ph.D., FRAS
while the bulk of the Muslimswere fighting and non-cooperatingwith British upto the 1870s and later they reversed thier role. This the Muslims did under the influence of Sir Sayyid Khan (1818-1898), Maulana Karamat Ali Jaunpuri (1800-1873), Nawab Abdul Latif (1828-1893) and their likes upto the partition. On analysis it was found that all these were the creation of British for their imperialist interest. Put a coin in one side of the balance then the equilibrium will cease to exist.
Ofcourse, there were some genuin socio-economic reasons behind the all evils.
1. Permanent Settlement of land Revenue of 1793 : the british colonial act brought so much of suffering, pain, humiliation on the minds of the Hindus and Muslims by changing the total socio-economic structure of Bengal which were prevailent during 600 years of Muslim rule i.e. the permanent settlement of land revenue which Marx said "a caricature of British land system". From this period they had started a new class struggle unknown to the Bengalees by creating Zaminder and its tenant to safeguard their own interest of collecting taxes for their industrial revolution.
2. Change of Court Language : What followed, Mr. Taj Hashmi wrote, the disastrous Plassey, Permanent settlement, Resumption proceedings and the abolition of Persian as the court language was the sharp and rapid decline/disappearence of Muslim aristocracy, well-to-do peasants, artisans, professionals and scholars in Bengal and the equally fast ascendancy of the new classes of Hindu Zamindar-Bhadralok-Mahajan out of the Hindu middle and lower middle classes.The Muslim situation became so bad in Bengal by the 1870s that British civil servant and writer William Hunter observed in his book, Our Indian Musalman, that fifty years back it was impossible to find a poor Muslim in Bengal and in 1870 , due to lack of government patronage, it became impossible for them to remain rich. Dominant Hindu class ridiculed Bengali Muslims as Nerrey-Mlechha-Javan both in private and public discourse, including literary works of Ishwar Gupta and Bankim Chatterjee.Some Hindu zamindars of Faridpur, 24-parganas and Nadia even "imposed beard tax" on Mslim muslim peasants whom they called Chasa, in 1820s and 1830s. As a a movement known as FARAIZI was launched under the leadership of Sharatulla and Dudu Miyan in parts of Faridpur-pabna-Barisal-Dhaka and the militant uprising by Titumeer in Nadia and 24-parganas of Bengal.
The hindu Zamindar-Bhadralok-Mahajan always in opposition of any attempts of uplifting the condition of Muslim community in Bengal Through the Bengal Tenancy Act, educations and otherwise. that was why Muslims in Bengal and other parts of India readily responded to British overtures under the untitring leadership of ir Sayyed Ahmed Khan , Karamat ali Jaunpuri and Nawab Abdul Ltif in Bengal.
3. The period 1905 to 1947 witnessed the bitterest Hindu-Muslim antagonism and conflicts in Bengal with direct British support and patronage when Hindu revivalist Arya Samaj and Hindu opposition to Urdu in favour of Hindi was started.
