Editing Pakistan Movement (section)

=== Bengal ===
[[File:Map of Bengal.svg|thumb|250px|Map of United Bengal]]

Dhaka was the birthplace of the [[All India Muslim League]] in 1906. The Pakistan Movement was highly popular in the Muslim population of Bengal.<ref name="Ahmed2004">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Szfqq7ruqWgC&pg=PA129|title=Bangladesh: Past and Present|author=Salahuddin Ahmed|publisher=APH Publishing|year=2004|isbn=978-81-7648-469-5|pages=129–|access-date=8 January 2018|archive-date=4 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204131359/https://books.google.com/books?id=Szfqq7ruqWgC&pg=PA129|url-status=live}}</ref> Many of the Muslim League's notable statesmen and activists hailed from [[East Bengal]], including [[Khabeeruddin Ahmed]], [[Abdul Halim Ghaznavi|Sir Abdul Halim Ghuznavi]], Anwar-ul Azim, [[Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy]], [[Jogendra Nath Mandal]], [[Khawaja Nazimuddin]], and [[Nurul Amin]], many among whom later became Prime ministers of Pakistan. Following the [[Partition of Bengal (1947)|partition of Bengal]], violence erupted in the region, which was mainly contained to [[Kolkata]] and [[Noakhali]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Jalal |first=Ayesha |author-link=Ayesha Jalal |year=1985 |title=The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the demand for Pakistan |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=3 |isbn=978-0-521-45850-4}}</ref>

It is documented by Pakistani historians that Suhrawardy wanted Bengal to be an independent state that would neither join Pakistan or India but would remain unpartitioned. Despite the heavy criticism from the Muslim League, Jinnah realised the validity of Suhrawardy's argument and gave his tacit support to the idea of an Independent Bengal.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jalal |first=Ayesha |author-link=Ayesha Jalal |year=1985 |title=The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the demand for Pakistan |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=266 |isbn=978-0-521-45850-4}}</ref><ref name="Ahmed2005">{{cite book |author=Akbar S. Ahmed |author-link=Akbar Ahmed |year=2005 |orig-year=First published 1997 |title=Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqyniTHXFxUC&pg=PG342 |publisher=Routledge |page=235 |isbn=978-1-134-75022-1 |access-date=2 February 2019 |archive-date=7 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207010352/https://books.google.com/books?id=RqyniTHXFxUC&pg=PG342 |url-status=live }}</ref> Nevertheless, the Indian National Congress decided for partition of Bengal in 1947, which was additionally ratified in the subsequent years.