Articulated on 1 October 1906, this historic commitment for separate electorates had evidently been thought through and decided upon by the Viceroy and his advisors a few days before that date.86 Even as the INC and most politically-conscious Hindus across India were busy demanding Bengal’s reunification, the Empire had enabled Sayyid Ahmed’s ideological successors to walk off with the prize of a separate Muslim electorate in India as a whole. Writing right away to the Viceroy, an unnamed British official said: ‘I must send Your Excellency a line to say that a very, very big thing has happened
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