However, Bengalis were also divided by religion due to the political situation in the rest of India. The leader of the expedition was Maharaja Raghuji of Nagpur. Mir Jafar paid a sum of Rs 17,700,000 as compensation for the attack on Calcutta to the Company and the traders of the city. Bengal received many immigrants from West Asia, Central Asia, the Horn of Africa and North India during the sultanate and Mughal periods. For one, it meant loss of revenue to the Bengal government. After the Conquest of Sylhet in the 14th century, the region was absorbed into Shamsuddin Firoz Shah 's independent principality based in Lakhnauti, Western Bengal. The citadel of Gauda served as capital of the Gauda Kingdom, the Buddhist Pala Empire (eighth to 11th century) and Sen Empire (11th–12th century). In 1919, they created different electorates for Muslims, Hindus and for other distinctive communities. Territories in Bengal and the Bay of Bengal were part of Danish India until 1845, when Danish colonies were ceded to Britain. In other words, Siraj was willing to let the Europeans remain as merchants but not as masters. The company consolidated their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and Battle of Buxar in 1764 and by 1793 took complete control of the region. The Chittagong Hill Tracts frontier region was made a tributary state of Mughal Bengal and a treaty was signed with the Chakma Circle in 1713. The Khadga dynasty was a Buddhist dynasty of eastern Bengal. Rise of British Power in Bengal During 18th century, Bengal was the richest province in India, attracted traders from Holland, France and England. Many of the early proponents of independence, and subsequent leaders in movement were Bengalis. A confederation of twelve zamindar families resisted the expansion of the Mughal Empire during the 16th and 17th centuries. The river Hooghly became the northern boundary of the Odishan kingdom. Welcome to HistoryDiscussion.net! [19][20] Other accounts speculate that the name is derived from Venga (Bôngo), which came from the Austric word "Bonga" meaning the Sun-god. The Arabs were among the earliest settlers, especially in coastal areas. 1, 1883. Chandragupta Maurya's embrace of Jainism increased social and religious renewal and reform across his society, while Ashoka's embrace of Buddhism has been said to have been the foundation of the reign of social and political peace and non-violence across the subcontinent. Control over Bengal played a decisive role in the Anglo-French struggle. The dynasty was founded by Alivardi Khan. M. Mufakharul Islam (2007), Bengal Agriculture 1920–1946: A Quantitative Study, Cambridge South Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press, Pages: 300. Mir Jafar soon discovered that it was impossible to meet the full demands of the Company and its officials who, on their part, began to criticize the Nawab for his incapacity in fulfilling their expectations. 237–240, World History in Context. According to the Indian epic Mahabharata, the Vanga Kingdom was located in Bengal. Provincial roots of Indian nationalism, however, may be traced to the beginning of the era of crown rule in Bombay, Bengal, and Madras. This can be seen in the sculptures and architectural style of the Sailendra (present-day Malay Peninsula, Java and Sumatra). An interesting theory of the origin of the name is provided by Abu'l-Fazl in his Ain-i-Akbari. [40], Bengal's oldest inscription – the Mahasthan Brahmi Inscription – dates from the Mauryan period. The Calcutta Stock Exchange was established in 1908. Instead of agreeing to pay taxes on their goods to the Nawab, they levied heavy duties on Indian goods entering Calcutta which was under their control. The emperor resided in the fort of Allahabad for six years as a virtual prisoner of the English. [10], Following the decline of the sultanate, Bengal came under the suzerainty of the Mughal Empire, as its wealthiest province. The Palas were followers of the Mahayana and Vajrayana schools of Buddhism. The Dutch East India Company operated a directorate in Bengal for nearly two centuries. Bengal in particular was not to know peace again until it had been bled white. The capital of the dynasty was Sonargaon. Ilyas Shahi dynasty (1342–1414 and 1435–1487), "But the most important development of this period was that the country for the first time received a name, ie Bangalah. Chandernagore was restored to the French in 1763. [42] The Hindu-Arabic numeral system, a positional numeral system, originated during Gupta rule and was later transmitted to the West through the Arabs. These kingdoms contributed a lot to the economic and cultural landscape of Bengal. A majority of members in the Bengal Legislative Assembly voted to keep Bengal undivided. Gopala I (750–770) was its first ruler. Others found Bengal's fertile land suitable for economic production and commerce. Getty Images. The members of the Bengal Council of the Company once again extracted nearly 15 lakhs of rupees from the new Nawab. It is proposed by some Bengali authors that Jayadeva, the famous Sanskrit poet and author of Gita Govinda, was one of the Pancharatnas or "five Gems" of the court of Lakshmana Sena. They met for battle on the field of Plassey, about 30 km from Murshidabad, on 23 June 1757. The Prime Minister of Bengal was a member of the assembly. Moreover, the Company’s servants illegally sold the dastaks or free passes to friendly Indian merchants who were thereby able to evade the internal customs duties. The Bengali calendar traces its origin to Shashanka's reign. The English refused to comply as they felt strong after their victory over the French in south India. The Portuguese settlers in Chittagong included bureaucrats, merchants, soldiers, sailors, missionaries, slave traders and pirates. They demanded the re-imposition of duties on Indian traders. It firmly established the British as masters of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and placed Awadh at their mercy. In 1935, it became the upper house of the provincial legislature alongside the lower house in the Bengal Legislative Assembly. When the East India Company began strengthening the defences at Fort William (Calcutta), the Nawab, Siraj Ud Daulah, at the encouragement of the French, attacked. These kingdoms also helped introduce new music, painting, dancing and sculpture into Bengali art-forms as well as many temples were constructed during this period. Among the Hindu independence leaders from Bengal were Chittaranjan Das, Surendranath Banerjee, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chaki, Bagha Jatin, Khudiram Bose, Surya Sen, Binoy–Badal–Dinesh, Sarojini Naidu, Aurobindo Ghosh, Rashbehari Bose and many more. The British Army storms the batteries at Battle of Badli-ki-Serai near Delhi. He recovered control over all of Bengal and expanded the empire. It was created by the Government of India Act 1935 as the lower house of the provincial parliament. Famine had been a recurrent feature of life the Indian sub-continental countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, most notoriously during British rule.Famines in India resulted in more than 60 million deaths over the course of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Historian Nitish Sengupta describes it as having started with reformer and humanitarian Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1775–1833), and ended with Asia's first Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941). From Madras came a strong naval and military force under Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive. No ruler could possibly accept this position. The fourth Sena king, Lakshmana Sena, son of Ballala Sena, was the greatest king of his line. Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah also pursued the Reconquest of Arakan to reinstall Arakan's king to the throne after he had been deposed by Burmese forces. In contrast to the Pala dynasty who championed Buddhism, the Sena dynasty were staunchly Hindu. The Pala dynasty lasted for four centuries and ushered in a period of stability and prosperity in Bengal. [27], Stone Age tools found in the region indicate human habitation for over 20,000 years. He ordered both the English and the French to demolish their fortifications at Calcutta and Chandernagore and to desist from fighting each other. A later ruler of the dynasty Ariraja-Danuja-Madhava Dasharatha-Deva extended his kingdom to cover much of East Bengal. According to Pala copperplate inscriptions, his successor Devapala exterminated the Utkalas, invade the Kamarupa Kingdom of Assam, shattered the pride of the Huna people and humbled the lords of Gurjara-Pratihara and the Rashtrakuta dynasty. [53] Gradually, eastern Bengal was absorbed into Muslim rule by the 14th century, such as through the Conquest of Sylhet. The French transferred sovereignty in 1952. The first European colonial settlement in Bengal was the Portuguese settlement in Chittagong. [62] From Bengal, saltpetre was also shipped to Europe, opium was sold in Indonesia, raw silk was exported to Japan and the Netherlands, and cotton and silk textiles were exported to Europe, Indonesia and Japan. It also received the zamindari of the 24 Parganas near Calcutta. [88] A cosmopolitan, eclectic cultural atmosphere took shape. The largest mosque in India was built in Bengal to project the new sultanate's imperial ambitions. The earlier British struggle with the French in south India had been but a dress rehearsal. [70] There were also many Turkic immigrants. [12] The capital Dhaka had a population exceeding a million people, and with an estimated 80,000 skilled textile weavers. But the alien merchants were not willing to tolerate equality between themselves and Indians. But the Delhi Sultanate managed to suppress Bengal's Muslim separatists for a century. [82], The French establishments in India included colonies and factories in Bengal. [13] Its wealth and economic developments are believed to have waved the period of proto-industrialization.[14]. Dhaka was also named in honour of Emperor Jahangir as Jahangirnagar. East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan, and later became the independent nation of Bangladesh after the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. Under the Mughal Empire, Bengal was an affluent province with a Muslim majority and Hindu minority. 4 In an 1883 Volume on Rural Bengal 5, W. 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