Bengal Presidency

The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal and later Bengal Province, was a territorial unit of British India. It was the largest presidency among all the presidencies of British India.[5] At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and Southeast Asia. Bengal proper covered the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal (present-day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal). Calcutta, the city which grew around Fort William, was the capital of the Bengal Presidency. For many years, the Governor of Bengal was concurrently the Governor-General of India and Calcutta was the de facto capital of India until 1911.

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Presidency of Fort William in Bengal (1699–1935)[1] Province of Bengal (1935–1947)[2]
1699–1947
Flag
The jurisdiction of the Bengal Presidency at its peak in the mid 19th-century.
Capital	Calcutta
Official languages	English Bengali
Governor
• 1699–1701 (first)	Sir Charles Eyre
• 1946–1947 (last)	Sir Frederick Burrows
Premier
• 1937–1943 (first)	A. K. Fazlul Huq
• 1946–1947 (last)	H. S. Suhrawardy
Legislature	Legislature of Bengal
• Upper house	Bengal Legislative Council (1862–1947)
• Lower house	Bengal Legislative Assembly (1935–1947)
History
• Mughal permission to trade in Bengal Subah	1612
• Battle of Plassey[3]	1757
• Division of Bengal during the Partition of India	1947
Population
• 1770	30,000,000[4]
Currency	Indian rupee, Pound sterling, Straits dollar
Preceded by Succeeded by Bengal Subah Konbaung Dynasty Dutch Malacca Kedah Sultanate Dutch Bengal French India Danish India Ahom Kingdom Dimasa Kingdom Matak Kingdom Jaintia Kingdom 1853: Punjab Province 1867: Straits Settlements 1902: United Provinces 1905: Eastern Bengal and Assam 1912: Bihar and Orissa Province 1947: East Bengal West Bengal

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Etymology Timeline Traditional Urheimat
Ancient Neolithic, c. 7600 – c. 3300 BCE Bronze Age, c. 3300 – c. 1200 BCE Iron Age, c. 1200 – c. 200 BCE Janapada, c. 1200 – c. 600 BCE Northern Black Polished Ware, c. 700 – c. 200 BCE Pundra Kingdom, c. 700 – c. 200 BCE Bengal in Mahabharata, c. 400 – c. 325 BCE Gangaridai Kingdom, c. 350 – c. 325 BCE Mauryan Empire, c. 325 – c. 185 BCE Samatata Kingdom, c. 232 BCE – c. 800 AD Shunga-Kushan Period, c. 185 BCE – c. 75 AD Southwestern Silk Road, c. 114 BCE – c. 1450 AD Indo-Roman trade relations, c. 30 BCE – c. 600 AD
Classical Gupta Empire, c. 240 – c. 550 AD Harikela Kingdom, c. 600 - c. 650 Gauda Kingdom, c. 590 – c. 626 Gour (Sylhet), c. 600 – c. 1303 Khadga dynasty, c. 650 – c. 750 Pala Empire, c. 750 – c. 1100 Arrival of Islam, c. 800 – c. 1050 Candra dynasty, c. 900 – c. 1050 Sena dynasty, c. 1070 – c. 1320 Deva dynasty, c. 1100 – c. 1250
Medieval Bhulua (Noakhali), c. 1203 – c. 1600s Delhi Sultanate, c. 1204 – c. 1338 Mamluk Dynasty Khalji Dynasty Tugluq Dynasty Sonargaon Sultanate, c. 1338 – c. 1352 Bengal Sultanate, c. 1352 – c. 1576 Ilyas Shahi dynasty Hussain Shahi dynasty Karrani dynasty Suri Dynasty, c. 1540 – c. 1556 Twelve Bhuyans, c. 1550 – c. 1620 Porto Grande de Bengala, c. 1528 – c. 1666 Chittagong-Arakan Kingdom, c. 1530 – c. 1666 Mughal Empire, c. 1576 – c. 1717 Bengal Subah
Modern Nawabs of Bengal, c. 1717 – c. 1757 Company Raj, c. 1757 – c. 1858 Bengal famine of 1770 Faraizi Movement, c. 1818 – c. 1884 The Great Rebellion, c. 1857 – c. 1858 British Raj, c. 1858 – c. 1947 Bengal Renaissance Partition of Bengal (1905) Eastern Bengal and Assam Bengal famine of 1943 Prime Minister of Bengal Noakhali riots East Bengal, c. 1947 – c. 1955 Partition of Bengal (1947) East Bengali refugees Bengali Language Movement East Pakistan, c. 1955 – c. 1971 1964 East Pakistan riots Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Six Point Movement 1969 uprising in East Pakistan Pakistani general election, 1970 Non-cooperation movement, 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, c. 1971 Declaration of Independence Provisional Government of Bangladesh 1971 Bangladesh Genocide (Rape) Bangladesh Forces Surrender of Pakistan
Contemporary Post-independence years, 1972 – 1975 Bangladesh famine of 1974 Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Jail Killing Day Military rule, 1975 – 1990 Military coups in Bangladesh Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict 1990 Mass Uprising Transition to democracy, 1991 – 2008 Caretaker government of Bangladesh Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord 2006–08 Bangladeshi political crisis Present parliamentary era, 2009– present Vision 2021 and Digital Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal Quota reform movement 2021 Bangladesh Communal Violence Smart Bangladesh
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The Bengal Presidency emerged from trading posts established in Mughal Bengal during the reign of Emperor Jahangir in 1612. The East India Company (HEIC), a British monopoly with a Royal Charter, competed with other European companies to gain influence in Bengal. After the decisive overthrow of the Nawab of Bengal in 1757 and the Battle of Buxar in 1764, the HEIC expanded its control over much of the Indian subcontinent. This marked the beginning of Company rule in India, when the HEIC emerged as the most powerful military force in the subcontinent. The Bengal Army was made up of recruits from Bengal, Bihar and Oudh.[6] The British Parliament gradually withdrew the monopoly of the HEIC.[7] Charles Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement in 1793.[8] After the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the British government assumed direct administration of India. The Bengal Presidency was re-organized. In the early 20th century, Bengal emerged as a hotbed of the Indian independence movement and the Bengali Renaissance. From the late eighteenth century till the early twentieth century, Bengal was the center of the British colonial administration in India,[9] as well as education, politics, law, science and the arts. It was home to the largest city in British India and the second-largest city in the British Empire.[10]

At its territorial height in the mid nineteenth century, the Bengal Presidency extended from the Khyber Pass to Singapore.[11][12][13][14][15] In 1853, the Punjab was established as a province. In 1866, Assam was separated from Bengal.[16] The Straits Settlements became a Crown Colony in 1867.[17] In 1886, Burma became a province. In 1902, the North Western Provinces were separated from Bengal and became the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. In 1905, the first partition of Bengal resulted in the short-lived province of Eastern Bengal and Assam (1905-1912). In 1912, Bengal was reunited while Bihar and Orissa became a separate province. In 1947, voters in the Sylhet referendum opted to leave Assam and merge with Bengali areas during the final months before the partition of India.[18][19][20][21][22]

In 1862, the Bengal Legislative Council became the first legislature in British India with native representation, after a petition from the British Indian Association of Calcutta.[23][24] As part of efforts towards home rule, the Government of India Act, 1935 created a bicameral legislature, with the Bengal Legislative Assembly becoming the largest provincial assembly in India in 1937. The office of the Prime Minister of Bengal was established as part of growing provincial autonomy. After the 1946 election, rising Hindu-Muslim divisions across India forced the Bengal Assembly to decide on partition, despite calls for a United Bengal. The Partition of British India in 1947 resulted in the second partition of Bengal on religious grounds into East Bengal (present-day Bangladesh) and West Bengal.