BENGAL PROPER - 1894

What is India without Bengal? The origin of almost everything. The birth of East India Company's expansions, the literature that gave Indian written world a revolutionary meaning, the administration which made Bengal the richest province during Mughal era, the end of Ganga-Brahmaputra rivers, the largest delta in the world, etc., the list is countless. Writing Bengal's history would be futile here as it's beyond just the mere word 'vast'. But this post shall brush up this glorious land in as lucid way as possible.

Probably the ancient kingdoms of Vanga, Pndra, Suhma, Samata and Harikela consisted the present-day Bengal. Bengal came in conflict with various medieval dynasties such as the Maurya, the Gupta, the Gauda, Mallabhum, Sena, Chandra, Deva etc. that consisted the Hindu history of Bengal. As Islam emerged as a dominant religion in the area, dynasties such as Khalji, Mamluk, Balban, Tughlaq, Mahmud Shahi, Hussain Shahi, Karrani etc. covered up Bengal for a good 300 years. This was followed by the Mughals whose reign made Bengal both powerful and rich but vulnerable to foreigners. And thus starting from 1534, the European interest in Bengal started with the Portuguese (1534-1664), the Dutch (1625-1795), the Danish (1755-1848), the French (1746-1954) and finally, the British (1648-1947). Apart from these, there were Armenians as well but they were solely traders but never established any trading post nor any fort or garrisons.

It was the Bengali landmark place of Plassey (Palashi) where the 1757 battle between the British (under Robert Clive) and the Nawab Siraj ud-Daula transformed a joint-stock trading corporation into a mega-empire that would expand till 1947. The British Empire and East India Company lands benefited England with all kind of resources, draining so much that ended up Bengal, its source, in tatters several times. The constant famines and negligence of British authorities were fueled up with the historic Partition of Bengal (first; second was the 1947 one that made Bengal a bloodbath similar to Punjab) in 1905, which triggered numerous revolutions across the subcontinent. But this wasn't the first trigger that started in Bengal. The 1857 War of Indian Independence (known variously as Sepoy Mutiny, or Indian Mutiny or simply, The Mutiny) was initiated at Barrackpore (Barackpur) by Mangal Pandey where the platoon was forced to tear up gun cartridge made of pig and cow fat - both against Muslim and Hindu religions.

Bengal has given India numerous reformers, revolutionaries, poets - from Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Ramkrishna Paramhansa to Bimal Roy, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen - culture, music, cinema, art and almost everything a society requires to sustain. If Bengal Presidency's political boundaries should be considered which covered Orissa as well, then Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (born at Cuttack) was another revolutionary figure who needs no introduction. The city of Calcutta served as the capital of British India from 1772 to 1911, the ports of Hooghly (or Hugli) and Howrah profited both Bengal and England for centuries through their trade and commerce. It was the town of Serampore (Srirampur), a Danish colony that time, where Golak Chandra became the first Indian to design a steam engine in 1828 without any European assistance. The first newspaper in Asia was printed in Calcutta between 1780 to 1782 before it was banned by the East India Company (surprisingly, it was a British who had started it). There are tonnes of such pioneering anecdotes from the soil of Bengal.

Politically, Bengal was divided into various divisions by the British. The term 'Bengal Proper' was used to define divisions of Burdwan, Presidency, Dacca and Chittagong. The map here shows such divisions a couple of years before Bengal was partitioned.