Explain how the migration in Bengal was more protracted?
After the partition, Muslim families kept migrating to Pakistan for many years. This migration was more protracted in Bengal as compared to other parts of the country. This meant that the Bengali division produced a process of suffering that may have been less concentrated but was as agonising. Furthermore, unlike Punjab, the exchange of population in Bengal was not near-total. Many Bengali Hindus remained in East Pakistan while many Bengali Muslims continued to live in West Bengal. Finally, Bengali Muslims (East Pakistanis) rejected Jinnah’s two-nation theory through political action, breaking away from Pakistan and creating Bangladesh in 1971-72. Religious unity could not hold East and West Pakistan together.
