NEW DELHI.-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi reportedly told opposition leaders today that her Government wanted to watch developments for a while before deciding whether to recognize the government proclaimed by the Bengali independence movement in East Pakistan.

Official sources reported that all the opposition leaders with the exception of two-an independent and the president of the Moslem League-had pressed for immediate recognition or Bangla Desh (Bengal Nation), the name given East Pakistan by the insurgent Bengalis.

Mrs. Gandhi, according to these sources, said at the closed meeting that India was delaying a decision not because of the threat of war with Pakistan or out of fear of a confrontation with Communist China, but for "more weighty reasons."

Gandhi wanted to see if the Bengali independence fighters could establish effective administrative control over a sizable area.

What other governments do about recognition will also be a factor, but not the deciding one, these sources said.

Overwhelming public sympathy has arisen throughout India for the independence movement, which the Pakistan Army has been trying to crush since March 25, and Mrs. Gandhi has come under increasing pressure to recognize Bangla Desh.

The 53-year-old Prime Minister was said to have told the opposition leaders that India had sounded out several friendly countries on the recognition issue, but that at least for now these countries tended to regard the crisis as a Pakistani internal matter.

Mrs. Gandhi reportedly contended that Indian recognition now might hurt the Bengalis' cause by seeming to substantiate the Pakistani charge that the independence struggle was engineered by India and is being kept alive only by Indian arms aid.

India has been providing assistance to the Bengali insurgents, but unofficially. Knowledgeable sources here expect this aid to increase.