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19. On the other hand, one very grave and obvious objection has been raised in the past to the creation of a Governorship for Bengal, which we should fully share, were it not disposed of by the proposal which constitutes the key-stone of our scheme. Unquestionably a most undesirable situation might and would quite possibly arise if a Governor-General of India and a Governor of Bengal, both selected from the ranks of English public men, were to reside in the same capital and be liable to be brought in various ways into regrettable antagonism or rivalry. This indeed constitutes yet another, and in our opinion, a very cogent reason, why the head-quarters of the Government of India should be transferred from Calcutta to Delhi.
20. We now turn to the proposal to create a Lieutenant-Governorship in Council for Behar, Chota Nagpur and Orissa. We are convinced that if the Governor of Bengal is to do justice to the territories which we propose to assign to him, and to safeguard the interests of the Mahomedans of his Province, Behar and Chota Nagpur must be dissociated from Bengal. Quite apart, however, from that consideration, we are satisfied that it is in the highest degree desirable to give the Hindi-speaking people, now included within the Province of Bengal, a separate administration. These people have hitherto been unequally yoked with the Bengalis, and have never therefore had a fair opportunity for development. The cry of Behar for the Beharis has frequently been raised in connection with the conferments of appointments, an excessive number of offices in Behar having been held by Bengalis. The Beharis are a sturdy loyal people, and it is a matter of common knowledge that, although they have long desired separation from Bengal, they refrained at the time of the Partition from asking for it, because they did not wish to join the Bengalis in opposition to Government. There has, moreover, been a very marked awakening in Behar in recent years, and a strong belief has grown up among Beharis that Behar will never develop until it is dissociated from Bengal. That belief will, unless a remedy be found, give rise to agitation in the near future, and the present is an admirable opportunity to carry out on our own initiative a thoroughly sound and much desired change. The Ouriyas, like the Beharis, have little in common with the Bengalis, and we propose to leave Orissa (and the Sambalpur district) with Behar and Chota Nagpur. We believe that this arrangement will well accord with popular sentiment in Orissa and will be welcome to Behar as presenting a seaboard, to that Province. We need hardly add that we have considered various alternatives such as the making over of Chota Nagpur or of Orissa to the Central Provinces, and the creation of a Chief Commissionership instead of a Lieutenant-Governorship for Behar, Chota Nagpur and Orissa, but none of them seem to deserve more than passing consideration, and we have therefore refrained from troubling Your Lordship with the overwhelming arguments against them. We have also purposely refrained from discussing in this despatch questions of subsidiary importance which must demand detailed consideration when the main features of the scheme are sanctioned: and we are in a position to consult the local Governments concerned.
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