powerful and progressive states of the world. If Bengal remains united this will be no dream, no fantasy.
Anyone who can see what her resources are and the present state of its development will agree that this must come to pass if we ourselves do not commit suicide. I have visualized all along, therefore, Bengal as an independent state and not part of any union of India. Once such states are formed, their future rests with them. I shall never forget how long it took for the Government of India to realize the famine conditions in Bengal in the year 1943, how in Bengal's dire need it was denied food grains by the neighboring province of Bihar, how since then every single province of India has closed its doors, and deprived Bengal of its normal necessities, how in the councils of India Bengal is relegated to an undignified corner while other provinces wield undue influence.
No, if Bengal is to be great, it can only be so if it stands on its own legs and all combine to make it great. It must be master of its own resources and riches and its own destiny. It must cease to be exploited by others and shall Dot continue to suffer any longer for the benefit of the rest of India. ... To those, therefore, of the Hindus who talk so lightly of the partition of Bengal, I make an appeal to drop this movement so fraught with unending mischief. Surely, some method of government can be evolved by all of us sitting together which will satisfy all sections of the people and revivify the splendor and glory that was Bengal's.
- (SOURCE: Morning News, 28 April 1947. The Hindu, 29 April 1947)
