Question

The Lieutenant Governor of Bengal at the time of Partition of Bengal was
1. Sir Andrew Fraser
2. H. H. Risley
3. Brodrick
4. A. T. Arundel

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 1 : Sir Andrew Fraser

The correct answer is Sir Andrews Fraser.

• Sir Andrews Fraser
  • Sir Andrew was the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal from 1903 to 1908.
  • It is said that the idea of partitioning Bengal into two provinces in order to improve administrative efficiency came actually from Andrew Fraser.
  • Scholars also believe that the partition of Bengal (1905) was not really Curzon's idea.
  • However, official documents do indicate that Curzon had great reliance on Fraser who had a number of correspondences with him regarding the partition of Bengal for the sake of better governance.
  • Born on 14 November 1848, Andrew Henderson Fraser was educated at Edinburgh Academy.
  • He became a Barrister-at-Law from Middle Temple and later joined the Indian Civil Service in 1871.
  • Before he joined as Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, Fraser held the position of Chief Commissioner of Central Provinces (1899) and President of Police Commission (1902).
  • After the partition of Bengal, he continued to remain Lieutenant Governor of the other part of Bengal, what came to be known as Western Bengal (with Orissa and Bihar).

• H. H. Risley
  • Sir H. H. Risley was a British civil servant, anthropologist, and linguist who published widely on the customs and social structure of Indian society.
  • He proposed a theory of the caste system as a racial hierarchy of classification, which was highly influential in colonial administrative policy.
  • After qualifying for the Civil Service of India in 1871, Risley completed his bachelor’s degree at Oxford in January 1873 and arrived in Bengal later that year.
  • It was here that he became interested in anthropology and began to study the tribal inhabitants of the district of Midnapur, who was thought to be an ideal representation of primitiveness.
• Brodrick
  • Brodrick was a British Conservative and Irish Unionist Alliance politician.
  • He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1880 to 1906, as a government minister from 1886 to 1892 and from 1895 to 1900, and as a Cabinet minister from 1900 to 1905.
  • Midleton was sworn into the Privy Council as of 1897.
  • During his 1902 visit to Germany, he received the Grand Cross of the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle.
  • He was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick (KP) on 18 April 1916.
•  A. T. Arundel
  • Arundel was a British civil servant and colonial administrator.
  • Arundel was the second son of William Tagg and Rachel Mary Drew.
  • He was educated at University College School and University College London and entered the Indian Civil Service in 1865.
  • In 1870, he assumed the surname of Arundel.
  • In 1875, he was appointed Private Secretary to the Acting Governor of Madras.