This article studies the impact of partition on the jute industry of Bengal. The new international border separating India and East Bengal put the jute producing areas and the jute mills in two separate countries. Though both the governments initially agreed to cooperate with each other in matters of jute cultivation and marketing, in reality jute diplomacy was complex and conflict-ridden. To become self-sufficient in the jute economy, East Bengal invested in jute mills and began to develop Chittagong port to export raw jute. India, on the other hand, encouraged jute cultivation. Both the countries set up customs and check posts at the border to curb smuggling of jute. Thus, the untangling of Bengal’s jute economy was integrally linked with nation-building initiatives. Moreover, the Indo–Pakistan jute diplomacy encouraged the worldwide shift from jute to jute substitutes in the 1950s.
