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The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule and later a province of India. [5]
Jamalpur was the headquarters of the subdivision of Monghyr District during the British period. Situated 299 miles from Calcutta, "Jamalpur is the head-quarters of the locomotive department of the East Indian Railway and contains the largest manufacturing workshops in India". (Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908)
- 151 m (495 ft)
- Jamalpur
- 25.3°N 86.5°E
- Bihar, Bengal wikipedia
By the mid-18th century, the three principal trading settlements including factories and forts, were then called the Madras Presidency (or the Presidency of Fort St. George), the Bombay Presidency, and the Bengal Presidency (or the Presidency of Fort William)—each administered by a governor.
The presidencies in British India were provinces of that region under the direct control and supervision of, initially, the East India Company and, after 1857, the British government. The three key presidencies in India were the Madras Presidency, the Bengal Presidency, and the Bombay Presidency.
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- Famines and Other Natural Disasters
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Background
In 1599, a Royal Charter was granted by Queen Elizabeth I to allow the creation of a trading company in London for the purposes of trade with the East Indies. The governance of the company was placed in the hands of a governor and a 24-member Court of Directors. The corporation became known as the Honourable East India Company (HEIC). It became the most powerful corporation of its time, with control over half of world trade. Edmund Burke described the company as "a state in the guise of a mer...
Administrative changes and the Permanent Settlement
Under Warren Hastings, the consolidation of British imperial rule over Bengal was solidified, with the conversion of a trade area into an occupied territory under a military-civil government, while the formation of a regularised system of legislation was brought in under John Shore. Acting through Lord Cornwallis, then Governor-General, he ascertained and defined the rights of the landholders over the soil. These landholders under the previous system had started, for the most part, as collect...
Charter Acts of 1833 and 1853
In 1833, the British Parliament enacted the Charter Act of 1833 abolishing the monopoly rights of the Company and converting it into a purely governing body holding its territories in India in trust of the Crown. The Act relieved the Governor-in-Councils of Bombay and Madras of their legislative duties and consolidated all legislative functions to the Governor-General-in-Council of India at Calcutta and created a Supreme Government of India at Calcutta with the office of Governor-General of I...
The Presidency's principal maritime gateway was the Bay of Bengal. The following maps illustrate its territorial evolution. 1. Maps of the Bengal Presidency 2. Bengal Presidency, 1776 3. Bengal Presidency, 1786 4. Map showing northern regions of the Presidency in 1858, including princely states of Kashmir, Rajputana Agency, and the Punjab 5. Map sh...
Initially, Bengal was under the administration of the East India Company, which appointed chief agents/presidents/governors/lieutenant governors in Fort William. The governor of Bengal was concurrently the governor-general of India for many years. The East India Company maintained control with its private armies and administrative machinery. Nevert...
British rule saw the establishment of liberal arts collegesin many districts of Bengal. There were only two full-fledged universities in Bengal during British rule, including the University of Calcutta and the University of Dacca. Both universities were represented in the Bengal Legislative Assembly under the Government of India Act, 1935. Primary ...
In Bengal, the British inherited from the Mughals the biggest revenue earnings in the Indian subcontinent. For example, the revenue of pre-colonial Dhaka alone was 1 million rupees in the 18th century (a high amount in that era). Mughal Bengal accounted for 12% of the world's GDP and was a major exporter of silk, cotton, saltpeter, and agricultural...
Railways
After the invention of railways in Britain, British India became the first region in Asia to have a railway. The East Indian Railway Company introduced railways to Bengal. The company was established on 1 June 1845 in London by a deed of settlement with a capital of £4,000,000. Its first line connected Calcutta with towns in northern India. By 1859, there were 77 engines, 228 coaches and 848 freight wagons. Large quantities of sal tree wood were imported from Nepal to design the sleepers. In...
Roads and highways
In the 1830s the East India Company began to rebuild the ancient Grand Trunk Road into a paved highway. The company required the road for commercial and administrative purposes. It linked Calcutta to Peshawar in the North-West Frontier Province. For the project, the company founded a college to train and employ local surveyors, engineers, and overseers.In the east, the road extended to Sonargaon, Comilla and Chittagong. After the first partition of Bengal in 1905, newly built highways connect...
Waterways
A ghat in Bengal refers to a river port. The busiest river ports included the Port of Calcutta, the Port of Dhaka, the Port of Narayanganj and Goalundo Ghat. After the first partition of Bengal in 1905, a number of new ferry services were introduced connecting Chittagong, Dhaka, Bogra, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Jalpaiguri, Maldah and Rajshahi. This improved communication network boosted trade and commerce.
The Bengal Army was one of the Presidency Armies of British India. It was formed by the East India Company. The Commander-in-Chief of the Bengal Army was concurrently the Commander-in-Chief, India from 1853 to 1895, as the Bengal Army was the largest of the Presidency Armies. Recruits initially included Europeans and soldiers of the former Nawabs' ...
Colonial India as well as the Bengal Presidency suffered from the numerous famines and epidemics throughout the British Rule. The Great Bengal famine of 1770 lasted until 1773 and killed approximately 10 million Bengalis. The East India Company was heavily criticized for neglecting the population's food security. The repeated bouts of famine in Ind...
Literary development
The English language replaced Persian as the official language of administration. The use of Persian was prohibited by Act no. XXIX of 1837 passed by the President of the Council of India in Council on 20 November 1837, bringing an end to six centuries of Indo-Persian culture in Bengal. The Bengali language received increased attention. European missionaries produced the first modern books on Bengali grammar. In pre-colonial times, Hindus and Muslims would be highly attached to their liturgic...
Media
Numerous newspapers were published in British Bengal since the 18th century. Many were in English. Hicky's Bengal Gazette was a major weekly publication. The first Bengali periodicals appeared in the 19th century. The Calcutta Journal became the first daily newspaper in British India. Other newspapers included the Dacca News and The Bengal Times. Radiochannels began transmitting in 1927.
Visual arts
The Company School of Painting in Calcutta, Murshidabad, and Patna saw Mughal miniatures absorb images of British colonial officials in place of Mughal officials. European painters produced numerous works in Bengal since the 18th century. European photographers also worked in the region. The modernist Bengal school of painting evolved in the province. European sculptures were widely imported by wealthy Zamindars. In the 1940s, Zainul Abedinemerged as a modernist painter depicting poverty and...
9 hours ago · During Clive's era, the weakening Mughal authority in Bengal allowed the East India Company, under Robert Clive's cunning leadership, to strengthen its position. This power vacuum enabled local leaders to compete for dominance, while Britain and France exploited India's disunity for their own gain. The Bengal of the early 18th century was ...
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Aug 1, 2020 · A brief history of the extraordinary role of Bengal Presidency in shaping the destiny of modern India
