File:Bengal in 1947 Partition of Bengal.svg

English: The United Kingdom Cabinet Mission of 1946 to British Raj aimed to discuss the transfer of power from the British government to the Indian leadership. Bengali Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and nationalist leader Sarat Chandra Bose wanted to found a united and independent nation-state of Bengal. The proposal was floated as an alternative to the partition of Bengal on communal lines. The initiative failed due to British diplomacy and communal conflict between Muslims and Hindus that eventually led to the second partition of Bengal.

The Partition of Bengal Presidency in 1947 resulted in Bengal's division on religious grounds, between the India and Pakistan prominently called Radcliffe's line.

• Pakistan( Todays Independent Bangladesh): East Dinajpur, Rangpur, Dhaka, Rajshahi, Bogra, Pabna, Mymensingh, Sylhet (except Barak valley), Khulna, Bakerganj, Tippera, Noakhali, Chittagong, Jessore, East Nadia, Chittagong Track Hills.
• India: West Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Malda, Murshidabad, West Nadia, Calcutta, 24 Pargana, Burdwan, Birbhum, Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly, Assam,

and the Princely state of Tripura, Naga hills, Manipur,coch Bihar, Khasi state under the protection of India.

Radcliffe's line split Bengal, which historically was always a single economic zone, single cultural and ethnic (Bengali-Hindu or Bengali-Muslim) zone, into two halves. The two-halves were intricately connected with each other. The fertile East produced food and raw materials which the West consumed and the industrialized West produced manufactured goods which were consumed by the East. This mutually beneficial trade and exchange was severely disrupted by the partition. Rail, road and water communication routes were severed between the two.

Bengal at a times an independent regional empire, the historical region was a leading power in Southeast Asia and later the Islamic East, with extensive trade networks. In antiquity, its kingdoms were known as seafaring nations. Bengal was known to the Greeks as Gangaridai, The Bengali Pala Empire was the last major Buddhist imperial power in the subcontinent,Islam was introduced during the Pala Empire, through trade with the Abbasid Caliphate.The Islamic Bengal Sultanate, founded in 1352, was absorbed into the Mughal Empire in 1576. The Mughal Bengal Subah province became a major global exporter,a center of worldwide industries such as muslin, silk, pearl,cotton textiles, and shipbuilding. It was conquered by the British East India Company in 1757 and became the Bengal Presidency, which experienced deindustrializationand famines under British rule.[Upon independence, the partition of Bengal 1947 split the region into India and Pakistan. East Bengal renamed by Pakistan as east Pakistan the latter becoming the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971]