WEST BENGAL at a glance

Brief history:

The traces of 4000 years old civilisation in the greater Bengal (the combined area of West Bengal and Bangladesh) region are found, when the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, and Austro-Asiatic people. The exact origin of the word 'Bangla' (in english Bengal) is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe 'Bang' that settled in the area around the year 1000 B.C. The kingdom of Magadh comprising of Bengal and Bihar region was formed in 7th Century B.C. after arrival of Indo-Aryans. Magadh was one of the four main kingdoms of ancient India at the time of Mahavira and Gautam Budhha. The Magadha Empire extended over nearly all of South Asia during the rule of Maurya dynasty. A part of Persia and Afganistan came under Ashoka the Great in the 3rd century B.C. One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 B.C. Alexander the Great had to give up his dream of conquring Hindustan after fighting against the army of Bengal (Gangaridai)

The first recorded independent king of Bengal was Sasanka, reigning around early 7th century. After a period of anarchy, theBuddhist Pala dynasty ruled the region for about four hundred years, followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sen dynasty. Islam was introduced to Bengal in the 12th Ccentury by Sufi missionaries. Subsequently Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region. Bakhtiar Khilji, a Trukic general of the Slave dynasty of Delhi Sultanate, defeated Lakhsman Sen of the Sen dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of Sultans and feudal lords under the Delhi Sultanate for the next few hundred years. In the sixteenth century, Mughal general Islam Khan conquered Bengal. However, administration by governors appointed by the court of the Mughal Empire gave way to semi-independence of the area under the Nawab of Murshidabad, who nominally respected the sovereignty of the Mughals in Delhi.

European traders arrived late in the 15th Century. Their influence grew until the British East India Company gained taxation rights in Bengal or province, following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, when Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab, was defeated by the British. The Bengal Presidency was established by 1765, eventually including all British territories north of the Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh), from the mouths of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra to the Himalayas and the Punjab. The Bengal Famine of 1770 claimed millions of lives. Calcutta was named the capital of British India in 1772. The Bengal Renaissance and Brahmo Samaj socio-cultural reform movements had great impact on the cultural and economic life of Bengal. The failed Indian rebellion of 1857 (Sepoy Mutiny) started near Calcutta and resulted in transfer of authority to the British Crown, administered by the Viceroy if India. Between 1905 and 1911, an abortive attempt was made to divide the province of Bengal into two zones. Bengal suffered from the great Bengal Famine in 1943 that claimed 3 million lives.

Bengal played a major role in the Indian Independence Movement, in which revolutionary groups such as Anushilan samity and Jugantar were dominant. Armed attempts against the British Raj from Bengal reached a climax when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army from South East Asia against the British. When India gained independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned along religious lines. The western part went to India (and was named West Bengal) while the eastern part joined Pakistan as a province called East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan, giving rise to Bangladesh in 1971). In 1955, the former French Enclave of Chandannagar, which had passed into Indian control after 1950, was integrated into West Bengal; portions of Bihar (Part of Manbhum and Purnea) were subsequently merged with West Bengal.

Last Updated on Thursday, 04 March 2010 23:11