East Bengal

“ We feel that this Government of East Bengal have not shown any indication of having such an enlightened democratic outlook as to look upon us from proper perspective. We do very keenly feel that we have entered a critical juncture of our life. ”

“ Bengal, including the delta of the Ganges, was one of the most fertile regions in the world, whilst the inhabitants were most submissive and easily governed. For centuries the Bengalis had been oppressed by foreigners—Turk, Afghan, Abyssinian and Mogul. The revenues, however, had been collected by Hindu officials, as being at once more exacting in their demands, and more easily stripped of their ill-gotten gains. ”

“ But life has its side which is vigorously destructive and full of uncertainties and contradictions. The signs of perturbation so evident in Bengal, in her social and religious life, in her intellectual adjustments, only show that creative ideas are at work in the centre of her being. I trust I do not merely prove my patriotic bias by saying that, of all countries in the East, Bengal is most earnestly engaged in the exploration of life's ideal. ”

“ They were known as the Upper Provinces, whilst Bengal, Behar, and Orissa were known as the Lower Provinces. But a territory which extended from Assam to the Punjab was too vast for the supervision of the Governor-General of Bengal in Council. Accordingly the North-West Provinces were separated from Bengal and placed under a Lieutenant-Governor, [128] without a Council, but with a separate Sudder Court and Board of Revenue. [22]
Hindu village communities.
The Hindu people in the North-West Provinces are more masculine and independent than those of Bengal. ”

“ By far the greater portion of the subsoil throughout Bengal, at least, in that wide expanse reaching from Gogra to Dacca, on the north-east, and from the Soane, along the plains at the foot of the hills, to the debouchure of the Hoogly, (which, together, form the limits of our richest, and most populous, purgunnahs, or districts,) is a loose, gritty sand, very like what farmers term a lush ”

“ No sane man would turn from Orissa to conquer Southern Gujarat or Berar and then return to the East to conquer East Bengal, after which he turns back to the West to defeat Mahīpāla in North Bengal and again rushes to North Gujarat or Berar to conquer it. The more natural explanation is that Rājendra Coḷa defeated Raṇaśūra, the ruler of Southern Rāḍhā, and then passed on through that country to invade Vaṅga. From very early times a part of Bengal has been called Rāḍhā. It occurs in a dated inscription of the Indo-Scythian period as Rārā. ”

“ From the great centres of population of Upper India went to and from the coast an unceasing stream of traffic, creating at a hundred points along the river's course important marts to which merchants from near and far resorted. In Bengal itself was the seat of many industries and the home of a numerous population whose exploitation offered openings of a promising kind to a great commercial organization of the character of the East India Company. To such a quarter it was inevitable that the English should sooner or later turn their serious attention. ”

“ No special theory is required to account for the physical and mental qualities of the Mongolo-Dravidians of Bengal. No doubt the original population was Dravidian with a strong intermixture of Tibeto-Burmese blood, especially in the east and north-east. But the Hindu religion, developed in the sacred Midlands round Benares, spread to Bengal, bringing with it the Indo-European speech which in medieval times became the copious and supple Bengali tongue. From the west too came what we in Europe would call the gentry, the priestly and professional castes. ”

“ The District of Darjeeling and so much of the District of Jalpaiguri as lies north of this line shall belong to West Bengal, but the Thana of Patgram and any other portion of Jalpaiguri District which lies to the east or south shall belong to East Bengal.
2. A line shall then be drawn from the point where the boundary between the Thanas of Haripur and Raiganj in the District of Dinajpur meets the border of the Province of Bihar to the point where the boundary between the Districts of 24 Parganas and Khulna meets the Bay of Bengal. ”

“ Mr. Colebrooke’s Digest Of Hindu Law, is indispensable; and I strongly recommend his Treatise on the Husbandry and Internal Commerce of Bengal. Sale’s Koran will supply the fullest information xiregarding the fundamental principles of the Mahomedan religion; and Reynell’s Memoirs, united with his Atlas, and Map, or Arrowsmith’s Map of India, on a larger scale, will prove the best guides in acquiring the geography, together with many local matters extremely interesting to persons travelling in any part of our territory, but especially in Bengal. ”

“ When I say ‘civilized,’ it is in deference to a British divine, who has been pleased to represent the people of Bengal in such terms as might lead persons who never visited India to set them down for a cruel, barbarous, ignorant, vindictive, senseless, and sanguinary race; whose civilization is 314‘devoutly to be wished.’ How far they merit such a character, may be understood from their forbearing to massacre all the Europeans in India; a work that might be effected by only one in thousands of their population striking the deadly blow! ”

“ In Bengal the Hindu village communities had nearly faded away under the domination of zemindars. In the North-West Provinces the village communities had survived every revolution, and have been compared to little commonwealths, each having an individual and domestic life of its own, unchanged by the storms and troubles of the outer world. The village community paid a yearly revenue,—a share of the crops or a commutation in money,—to whatever power might be uppermost, Mogul or Mahratta, Mohammedan or Hindu. ”

“ The Bengal establishment was greatly strengthened and additional factories were created at Balasor, Cassimbazar and Patna in subordination to Hooghly. The death of Shah Jehan in September, 1657, with the fratricidal war which followed leading up eventually to Aurungzebe's accession on July 22, 1658, had a very injurious effect on the Company's interests in India, and markedly in Bengal where the administrative confusion of the Interregnum was taken advantage of by native officials to prefer extortionate demands upon the factors. ”

“ The question of drawing a satisfactory boundary line under our terms of reference between East and West Bengal was one to which the parties concerned propounded the most diverse solutions. The province offers few, if any, satisfactory natural boundaries, and its development has been on lines that do not well accord with a division by contiguous majority areas of Muslim and non-Muslim majorities. ”

“ But pride of caste had its disadvantages, and for years the Bengal sepoys had displayed a laxity of discipline, and a spirit of insubordination towards their European officers, which had been unknown [192] in the older days. They had been pampered and humoured to an extent which diminished their efficiency, and many officers of experience lamented the change. But any report to that effect was naturally offensive to the higher military authorities; and those who were most alive to the growing evil found that it was best for their own interests to keep their opinion to themselves. ”

“ About Bengal, especially in the Sunderbund-passages, 396decoits, or water-robbers, are sometimes numerous. These often assemble in fleets, composed of long narrow boats, rowing from twelve to thirty oars, or paddles, at pleasure, and carrying from thirty to sixty, or seventy, men. Sometimes their fleets have been so formidable, and have so effectually put a stop to all commerce, as to call the attention of government, and to demand the presence of a strong establishment, backed by liberal offers of rewards, before the rivers could be resorted to in safety. ”

“ Not only would the six non-Muslim thanas of Sylhet be completely divorced from the rest of Assam if the Muslim claim to Hailakandi were recognised; but they form a strip running east and west whereas the natural division of the land is north and south and they effect an awkward severance of the railway line through Sylhet, so that, for instance, the junction for the town of Sylhet itself, the capital of the district, would lie in Assam, not in East Bengal. ”

“ This title is also bestowed on military commanders.
‘In the upper provinces, the ladies and gentlemen, at least among the Sheeaus, [5] generally eat together; but in Bengal this is not the case; there the wife does not even presume to eat in the husband’s presence, and never partakes of any of his amusements. In the upper provinces the social qualities are better understood; for when the company consists of persons admissible into the zenanah, they all go in; the men and women dine together, and, in general, sit on opposite sides. ”

“ If we contemplate the extreme inattention prevalent throughout Hindostan, respecting literary attainments, and the great cunning practised by the priesthood, in their sedulous endeavors to prevent the natives from receiving the least information regarding philosophy in general, it must appear surprizing that so much has been done by the artizans of Bengal towards the adaptation of their labors to the convenience of the British residents. ”

“ A British brigade was posted hard by, and the officer in command would not allow him to support his imperial dignity by beating the imperial kettledrums, because of the noise.
Agony of Bengal, 1765-72.
The arrangements as regards the Bengal provinces, known in India as the acquisition of the Dewanny, were carried out in 1765. In 1767 Lord Clive returned to England, and the Bengal provinces were reduced to greater misery than ever. There was no one to control the native officials, and they accumulated riches at the expense of the masses. ”

“ I believe foreign readers, while reading this book, will find much to think of in the fact that Bengal's response through literature to the call of the West is something unique in the history of the modern East. It has a future, for it is quickened with life, and it carries within itself a hope that one day it will become a great channel for communication of ideas between the adventurous West and the East of the immemorial tranquillity. ”

“ Most probably Anantavarmman Coḍagaṅga led another raid into Western Bengal, but was repulsed by Vijayasena. Vijayasena's dominions comprised of Eastern Bengal, Western Bengal and Northern Bengal. An unpublished copper-plate grant of this King was issued from the victorious camp at His Kingdom.Vikramapura, and so it must be admitted that Eastern Bengal formed a part of his kingdom, and also that the Varmman Dynasty had ceased to reign. The kingdom was bounded on the East by that of Nānyadeva in Mithila and that of Madanapāla in Magadha. ”

“ His aid appears to have been invoked not in vain in reference to the Bengal affairs of the Company. Largely as a result it would seem of concessions which he obtained the Company in 1650 set on foot measures for the opening of a new factory further inland than Balasor, at Hooghly. In the following year it was actually established and thenceforward it became a centre of the Company's Bengal trade. But at the outset the natural difficulties of conmiunication with this place, a hundred miles up one of the most dangerous rivers in the world, prevented a full development of its capabilities. ”

“ But in the eighteenth century all were closed. Rajput rebels and outlaws stopped all travelling between Surat and Agra; the Jhat brigands of Bhurtpore stopped it between Bengal and Delhi; and Sikhs and Afghans cut off all trade with Persia and Turkistan.
Water-ways.
In Northern India the ordinary route from Calcutta to the north-west was by water. The rivers Jumna and Ganges flow from the Himalayas in a south-easterly direction until they meet at Allahabad in the centre of Hindustan. The Jumna flows past Delhi and Agra; the Ganges flows past Cawnpore ”

“ Conciliation only provoked them to insolence and [121] aggression. They seized an island belonging to the British. They overran the intervening countries of Munipore and Assam, and demanded the cession of Chittagong. Finally, they invaded British territory and cut off a detachment of sepoys, and threatened, with all the bombast of barbarians, to conquer Bengal, and bring away the Governor-General in golden fetters.
Expedition to Rangoon, 1824.
At last Lord Amherst sent an expedition under Sir Archibald Campbell to the port of Rangoon, the capital of the Burmese province of Pegu. ”

“ In the Hindu College he established the tradition of an enthusiastic study of English literature which, on sounder and more scholarly lines, was carried on by David Lester Richardson.
To this teacher modern Bengal owes much. Like many Englishmen whose names are still alive in the East, he came to India as a soldier in the army of the Company. On his return to England in search of health, he engaged in literary work in London, published his poems and started a paper called The Weekly Review. ”

“ It is not only to the voyager fresh from home that the ascent of the Ganges is novel and interesting. These things are as new to the resident of Madras as are the scenes of Italy to the Englishman. The people of Bengal differ from those of Southern India in language, dress, and looks, as well as in other respects. In frame, they are more slightly built, and less manly; indeed, they have the reputation of being the most effeminate of the Hindu races. ”