: 156–157 The idea of the partition had been brought up only for administrative reasons. : 280 For decades British officials had maintained that the huge size created difficulties for effective management : 156 : 156 and had caused neglect of the poorer eastern region. : 157 With a population of 78.5 million it was British India's largest province. The Bengal Presidency encompassed Bengal, Bihar, parts of present-day Chhattisgarh, Orissa, and Assam. To appease Bengali sentiment, Bengal was reunited by Lord Hardinge in 1911, in response to the Swadeshi movement's riots in protest against the policy. The partition animated the Muslims to form their own national organization along communal lines.

Hindus were outraged at what they saw as a ' divide and rule' policy, : 248–249 even though Curzon stressed it would produce administrative efficiency. The Hindus of West Bengal complained that the division would make them a minority in a province that would incorporate the province of Bihar and Orissa. The nationalists saw the partition as a challenge to Indian nationalism and as a deliberate attempt to divide the Bengal Presidency on religious grounds, with a Muslim majority in the east and a Hindu majority in the west. Announced on 20 July 1905 by Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India, and implemented on 16 October 1905, it was undone a mere six years later. The reorganization separated the largely Muslim eastern areas from the largely Hindu western areas. The first Partition of Bengal (1905) was a territorial reorganization of the Bengal Presidency implemented by the authorities of the British Raj.

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