About the partition of Bengal, the statement 'The partition announcement fell like a bombshell' was made by:

Surendranath Banerjea, the Moderate leader of Bengal, wrote that the announcement of the partition of Bengal "fell like a bombshell" on the people of Bengal.

Context:

• The decision to partition Bengal was announced in July 1905.
• Surendranath Banerjea wrote in his autobiography that "we felt that we had been insulted, humiliated and tricked".
• He played a leading role in the anti-partition movement, organising meetings and protests across Bengal.
• He urged people to boycott British goods and use Swadeshi goods.
• He took a vow at a great meeting at the Calcutta Town Hall (7 August 1905), where the boycott resolution was passed.

About Surendranath Banerjea:

• He was born in 1848 in Calcutta.
• He passed the Indian Civil Service examination in 1869, but was dismissed from the service in 1874 on a minor technical ground, which he felt was due to racial discrimination.
• He then became a teacher, journalist and political leader.
• He founded the Indian Association (1876), with Ananda Mohan Bose; it was one of the most important political organisations before the Congress.
• He organised an all-India agitation against the reduction of the maximum age for the ICS examination (1877).
• He organised the Indian National Conference (1883 and 1885), which later merged with the Congress.
• He edited the newspaper "The Bengalee".
• He was President of the Congress twice: 1895 (Poona) and 1902 (Ahmedabad).
• He was called "Rashtraguru" and "Surrender Not" (a play on his name).
• He was a Moderate, and later left the Congress and formed the Indian National Liberal Federation (1918), as he supported the constitutional reforms of 1919.
• He wrote his autobiography "A Nation in Making" (1925).
• He died in 1925.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh were Extremist leaders of Bengal.
• ✗Lala Lajpat Rai was an Extremist leader of Punjab.