SectionNo.

, Student Name, ID, Assignment Title

During the Mauryans and Gupta's reign, Bengal was a province in an All-Indian Empire,

hence, lacking autonomy. At the onset of the seventh century, the kingdom of Gaur emerged

under Sasanka (606-637 A.D.) as the first independent kingdom of Bengal. Brahminism and

Buddhism were the prominent religions among the popular but a minority of Jains were also

present. Sasaka had expanded his political influence far beyond the territories of Bengal. During

this time persecution of Buddhists was notable in Bengal. However, this was due to political

reasons instead of religious hostility since Sasanka’s two powerful adversaries were Buddhist

kings. Defending the kingdom against powerful invasions, Gaur’s strong central authority and

military prowess are evident. The contours of Bengal become manifested after his reign. The

death of King Sasanka marked the Matsyanyayam or the Dark Age as it was characterized by

anarchy and lawlessness, highlighting the issues of the absence of a strong central authority.

Visitors from China, including the renowned Buddhist monk Hiuen-Tsang and Chinese envoy

Wang-hiuen-tse, signify the political and religious connectivity of Bengal with China. 1 Internal

political feuds and multiple invasions into Bengal terrorized the people. Hence, a leader, Gopala,

was chosen as the ruler by the voluntary surrender of power by the numerous chieftains to restore

peace - this was the first time power was transferred in goodwill in Bengal’s political history.

Gopala founded the Pala Dynasty in the middle of the 8th century. The rulers

Dharmapala and Devapala had improved the military might of Bengal, exerting their influence in

North India through multiple conquests.2 Nonetheless, their military power declined with the

weakening of central authority under subsequent Pala rulers. The Pala Dynasty (eighth to twelfth

century) saw little trade and commerce; trading was mostly limited to local and bordering areas

1 Nitish K Sengupta, Land of Two Rivers : A History of Bengal from the Mahabharata to Mujib (New Delhi:
Penguin Books India, 2011), 37.
2 A F Salahuddin Ahmed and Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, Bangladesh, National Culture, and Heritage (Dhaka:
Independent University, Bangladesh, 2004), 60.
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while maritime trade suffered with the deterioration of the Tamralipti port. 3 Hence, agriculture

was the primary model for the economy.4 However, there was a short period of Varman rule in

the Chittagong-Comilla coastal regions, where overseas trade and economy flourished.5 While

the Palas patronized Buddhism, religious tolerance and co-existence existed between the Hindus

and Buddhists. With one religion integrating practices from the other, they evolved.6 For

instance, the Buddhist Pala rulers supported the Brahmanical caste system, albeit it was more

liberal.7 Notable for its artistic significance, terracotta art reached its zenith with the Pala School

of Sculptural Art’s growing assertion on Eastern Indian Art in the Pala era.8 Serving as the center

of Buddhist learning, the Imperial Palas endorsed two internationally-recognized universities,

namely Nalanda and Vikramasila, and preached Buddhist beliefs in surrounding territories like

Tibet and the Indian archipelago.9

After the Palas were ousted in the twelfth century, Vijaysena established the Sena

Dynasty. His son, Vallalasena, invaded north Bengal, conquered Magadha and Mithila, and

maintained close relations with south India through marriage with a Chalukya princess.10

Vallalasena revived orthodox Hindu practices and the caste system in Bengal, meaning that the

Brahmans dominated the social and power hierarchy and openly discriminated against non-

Brahmans.11 The resulting animosity between Hinduism and Buddhism was instrumental in the

decline of Buddhism in Bengal.12 Moreover, trade with the outside world ceased and voyaging

was proscribed, crippling the economy; internal conflicts and lack of awareness of the outside
3 Ibid., 61.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid., 63-4.
6 Ibid., 62.
7 Ibid., 70.
8 Ibid. 62.
9 Sengupta, 45.
10 Ibid., 54.
11 Ibid., 55.
12 Ahmed and Chowdhury, 64-5.
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world weakened national strength.13 From a cultural and artistic point of view, a shift from the

prominent Buddhist motifs in the Pala period to widespread Hindu motifs is noticeable while a

return to the classical Sanskrit from the Pali-Prakrit language occurred.14 Sanskrit literature

evolved with the patronization of Sena rulers and the sculptural excellence of the Pala age

culminated in the apex of the Bengali School of sculptural arts during Sena rule with artists

embracing individuality and regional styles.15

Arabia experienced the rise of Islam in the seventh century AD. In the seventh and ninth

centuries, Arab merchants traded with coastal areas of Bengal, preaching Islam. 16 Moreover, in

the passion to preach Islam and pillage the resources of Hindustan, the Ghaznavid began in the

tenth century.17 Ultimately, Muhammad Bakhtiar Khilji conquered Bengal in the twelfth century

by taking advantage of the internal political feuds and the Hindu princes’ inferior tactics against

better horsemanship, swordsmanship, and gunnery of the Central Asian tribes to drive out

Lakshmansen.18 Bakhtiar Khilji’s principal nobles and military chiefs were assigned

administrative tasks, such as maintenance of law and order and collection of revenues.19 The

practice of building mosques and madrasas to proselytize for Islam was instituted.20 His success

in forming an Islamic society should be credited to the political unrest in Delhi, leading to the

immigration of Muslim chieftains, nobles, and ulemas into Bengal.21 The subsequent rulers after

Bakhtiar Khilji attempted to establish an independent Bengal sultanate only for the Delhi

sultanates to intervene. Due to the remoteness of Bengal from central Delhi, there was a trend of

13 Sengupta, 55.
14 Ibid., 57.
15 Ahmed and Chowdhury, 65.
16 Ibid., 95.
17 Sengupta, 59-60.
18 Ibid., 60.
19 Ahmed and Chowdhury, 96.
20 Ibid., 96.
21 Ibid., 97.
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Bengali rulers revolting against Delhi's sovereignty. During Ilyas Shah’s reign in the fourteenth

century, Bengal was an independent nation - he forced the Delhi sultan to acknowledge his

autonomy through strategic defeats in warfare - and his dynasty brought prosperity to Bengal.

Cultural development and improvements in foreign relations were prevalent during the Ilyas

Shahi dynasty alongside secular administration. Poets, sufis, and educated individuals were

patronized and cultural interaction with China occurred through gift exchanges and the

dispatching of Buddhist monks to China.2223

Raja Ganesh usurped the throne from the descendants of Ilyas Shah. Still, he was forced

to abdicate the throne to his converted Muslim son, Jalaluddin Muhammad, under pressure from

the sultan of Jaunpur. Under Jalaluddin’s secular rule (1418-1433), harmony existed and

exchanges of envoys occurred between Bengal and China, highlighting the improving diplomatic

relations.24 There was a short period of Abysinnian (Habshi) rule (1487-1493) in Bengal

characterized by oppression, anarchy, rebellions, and usurpation of power.25 The following

Hussein Shahi dynasty (1493 to 1538) introduced economic prosperity and political stability in

Bengal with secular treatment of his subjects.26 Hussein Shah consolidated the traditional

frontiers of Bengal, invading neighboring territories.27 Vaishnavism played a significant role in

bridging Hinduism and Islam. The shared religious devotion of Satya Pir is another example of

Hindu and Muslim unity. Mysticism attracted writers of both religions with Hindus composing

works on Islam while Muslims contributing to Vaishnavi literature. In addition, Hindu women

were welcomed to participate in religious activities, such as Kirtans, alongside men for the first

time. Furthermore, Bengal literature evolved with the translation of the Sanskrit epics,
22 Ibid., 100.
23 Sengupta, 77.
24 Ibid., 82.
25 Ahmed and Chowdhury, 101.
26 Ibid., 102.
27 Sengupta, 98.
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Mahabharata and Bagabata Gita, and the composition of many books in Bengali.28 The landed

aristocracy consisted of a substantial amount of non-Muslims by the 15th and 16th centuries - the

sultanates contributed to the growth of this Hindi middle class.29 Meanwhile, independent

sultanate ports in Satgaon, Sonargaon, and Chittagong, and mint towns boosted Bengal’s

economy through rising maritime trade.30

The main reason for the mass conversion to Islam was to avoid persecution under the

Brahmanical caste system. Islam’s universal brotherhood was irresistible to the lower-caste

Hindus and Buddhist minority whereas its progressive treatment of widows drew in women

converts from Brahminical restrictions.31 Armed dervishes also contributed to spreading Islam, as

in the case of Shah Jalal’s conquest of Sylhet.32 Additionally, easier appointment to government

jobs also facilitated the conversion.33 With Muslim governance, Persian and Arabic languages

were embedded into the Sanskrit-influenced Bengali. Muslim writers advanced Bengali literature

through the usage of Persian words. However, due to generations of living with non-Muslims

and half-converts from Hinduism, Muslims deviated to practicing innovations, such as the Caste

system and Saint Worship.34

In 1526 AD, Babar defeated Ibrahim Lodi of the Lodi Dynasty at Panipat, establishing

the Mughal Dynasty. The riverine geography of Bengal deterred the Mughal conquest; hence,

resistance from independent and semi-independent Baro Bhuiyans, Rajas, and Afghan chiefs was

possible.35 Finally, it was integrated into the Mughal Empire as a province under the conquest of

Islam Khan Chishti by 1612. Akbar had a secular policy, abolishing the Jizya, and endorsed arts,
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid., 103.
30 Ibid.
31 Sengupta., 88.
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid., 91.
34 Ahmed and Chowdhury, 106.
35 Ibid., 109.
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culture, and learning. The Subahdari system he established was continued up to the British Raj.

The farmers lived better lives during his rule than the British Raj since the farmers had rights

over their lands under the contemporary Zamindari system. Moreover, in case of famines, taxes

would be waved and granaries would be distributed to the needy for cooking in communal

stoves. Bengal reaches the pinnacle of wealth under Mughal rule through the overseas trade of

muslin, fine sugar, jute, etc. with the outside world.

Before 1500 CE, the world was divided into three systems: the Capitalist World;

Mercantilist Empires; and Sub-systems. However, the latter two systems were forcibly integrated

into the former by the Europeans. With the European colonialism of the Americas, gold and

silver flowed into Europe. However, the independent Chinese and Mughal Mercantilist Empires

and sub-systems required the Europeans to pay with gold and silver bullion for their high-end

product. Therefore, Europe experienced a ‘European Gold Drain’, motivating them to find

opportunities to colonize these regions. To add to this, the Industrial Revolution in the 18th

century granted Britain superior weaponry. The transatlantic slave trade from Africa to cultivate

plantations in the Americas financed the Industrial Revolution in Britain, vouching for its leading

advantage.

The Portuguese arrived at Chittagong in the early 16th century to conquer and spread

Christianity. They were notorious for looting, enslaving, and forcefully evangelizing people.

Following them, the Dutch, British, and French arrived in Bengal. After the factory of the East

India Company was established in Calcutta, the officials engaged in corruption, evading tax on

personal goods. This would lead to clashes with Bengal revenue officials that would culminate in

the Battle of Plassey. After Aurangzeb died, central control disintegrated, making way for

Murshid Quli Khan, the chief financial administrator of Bengal, to establish his own Nawabate in
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1717. The weakening Mughal authority also served as an opportunity for the British and French

to recruit their own mercenary armies. Murshid Quli Khan replaced the corrupt Muslim landlords

with Hindu merchants and officials for zamindari and administrative tasks. This Hindu

aristocracy comprising zamindars, high government officials, and wealthy merchants dominated

Bengal society during British rule up to the 20th century.36 In subsequent years, Bengal would be

infested by Maratha invasions under Alivardi Khan’s governance, yet Bengal continued to thrive

from lucrative trade with the Europeans. Once sensing the rising hostility between the British

and French, Alvardi Khan proscribed them from militarily fortifying their trading bases. In the

background of the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), Siraj-ud-Daulah and his French allies would

lose to the British in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, paving the way for British Imperialism of the

Indian subcontinent.

The British rapidly rose to the center of the world system after conquering Bengal. A set

of social, cultural, and religious rebellions oppose the Raj. For example, the Fakir Sanyasi

movement, stemming from the religious and financial restrictions on the ascetics, the Faraidi

movement to restore the principle values of Islam, and Titumir’s revolt to empower the Muslim

peasantry, all took place. Nevertheless, there was a net outflow of gold and silver bullion from

Bengal to Britain until the Bengal treasury ceased to exist in 1769. Under the Permanent

Settlement Act of 1793, the peasants’ conditions worsened only to be exploited by the

Zamindars. The revenue from the Indian subcontinent would fund Britain’s Industrial Revolution

and the mercenary army, making Britain a formidable leader at the top of the world system. The

council bill served as a disguise to smuggle money out of Bengal. Two courts were established

with the help of Muslim and Hindu scholars, who made biased laws for their religion. Racism

exists in the inability of the court to penalize Europeans. The transition from the Mughal

36 Sengupta, 162.
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Faujdars to the police occurred in 1843. To incite religious communalism, the mercenary army

was rearranged into regiments of different religions and castes. Local industries, such as muslin,

were destroyed, leading to the desolation of sub-systems. One notable Hindu-Muslim unity was

the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, partially driven by religious antipathy towards the use of cow and

pork fat in cartridges.

The Bengal Renaissance gave rise to a Hindu middle-class with the Hindus readily

accepting education and job opportunities from the Raj. On the contrary, Muslim participation in

Western education and government jobs declined after the exile of Bahadur Shah Zafar,

lamenting the loss of political power. In fact, the British favored the Hindus over the Muslims,

whom they blamed for the Sepoy Mutiny. Fort William College was established in 1800. Bengali

literature evolved into its modern version inspired by Western literature in the works of several

authors, including Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. While the British

reign cast a shadow of oppression over India, it came with its fair share of merits. For instance,

Sati was abolished, widow remarriage was legalized, and women’s education was endorsed by

the Brahmo Samaj. Though initially, only Hindu upper-class women attended educational

institutes, Bengali Muslim women would join with the guidance of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain.

Some Muslim leaders, such as Syed Amir Ali and Delawar Hossain Ahmed, realized the ripple

in the Muslim community and advocated for Muslims to accept educational services and job

opportunities from the British Raj. With the increasing literacy of the Hindu middle class, they

became politically conscious and turned seditious; so, the British decided to favor the Muslims

instead, establishing the Aligarh College in 1875. Youths of the Anglo-Indian community

deviated from social norms, embracing Western values like drinking alcohol or disrespecting

Hinduism. In an attempt to revive the traditional values of Hinduism in society, religious

reformation movements were held but its religious imaginary, such as the idealization of the past,

led to communal conflicts between the Hindus and Muslims. Moreover, the poor condition of the

Muslim community aroused envy among the Muslims towards the successful Hindu community,

which made them vulnerable to manipulations by the Raj. The All Indian National Congress and

the All Indian Muslim League were initiated to represent primarily the Hindus and Muslims

respectively in politics. To further separate the Hindus and Muslims, the Raj announced the

partition of Bengal in 1905. In the medieval period of India, elites among the Muslims and

Hindus competed for political power but their struggle was never religious; aligning with the

‘Divide and Rule’ strategy of the British Raj, the elites of both religious societies sparked

communalism to suppress the voices of the lower-caste, who demanded equal status,

representation and humanitarian way of life.37

In 1900, the British Empire was the main powerhouse, lying in the core of the world

system. Its antagonist was another core nation, Imperial Germany. These two countries had

significant industrial capacity and derived resources from the countries at the periphery (that had

not undergone the Industrial Revolution yet)—in Britain's case, India. The USSR and Ottoman

Empire, with decent military-industrial capacity, joined the British and Germans respectively as

part of the semi-periphery in World War I (1914-1918). Revolutionary organizations like the

Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar maintained close relations with Berlin to topple British

colonialism. With the failure of the Ghadr Mutiny, World War II (1939-1945) opened another

route for Indian Independence through Subash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army. After the

fall of the Axis Forces, Bose planned to ally with the USSR but failed due to an aviation

accident, resulting in his death. Unable to contain the fostering nationalistic sentiment in the
37 Dr. Dnyaneshwar Suryawanshi, British Rule and Its Impact on India (Atharva Publications, 2018), 52-3,
[Link]
324273614_British_Rule_and_Its_Impact_on_India/links/5b6af51e92851ca65051520c/British-Rule-and-Its-Impact-
[Link]#page=53.
 SectionNo., Student Name, ID, Assignment Title

mercenary army, the Raj proposed the partition of India into a Dominion India and Dominion

Pakistan on June 3, 1947. The families received less than 11 weeks for relocation, leading to

heavy casualties in communal violence for both Hindus and Muslims.

The Dominion Pakistan was formed on 15th August 1947 based on an irrational divide of

a multi-ethnic region into a Muslim-majority Pakistan, with its racial and religious

discrimination. From a social point of view, Ila Mitra led the protest for Santal rights in 1948 but

was detained and heinously tortured by the police. Owing to the West Pakistani majority in the

former British Indian Army and influential zamindars being from West Pakistan, the central

authority was located there. The early form of censorship of Bengali culture was in the

imposition of Urdu as the state language despite Bengali being the language of the majority. To

the West Pakistanis, Bengalis were ‘lesser Muslims’ because of the lack of participation in North

Indian cultural practices, which they considered as properly Islamic, and Bengali having evolved

from Sanskrit and the prevalence of elements of Hinduism in Bengali literation made it

displeasing to them.38 The losses of the Language Movement of 1952 culminated in a call for

independence of Bangladesh in 1971 after years of exploitation of economic resources from East

Pakistan. The Pakistani administration practiced Mercantilism within East Pakistan with

restrictions on the import of foreign products, resulting in a monopoly by West Pakistani

vendors. The inflow of money from the East was used to finance the purchase of military

equipment from the USA. Non-Bengalis controlled most of East Pakistan’s economic activities

and private investments, primarily due to the weak entrepreneurship of the Bengali Muslims. 39 At

the same time, the Cold Wars were taking place between the US and its allies and the USSR and

38 Willem Van Schendel, A History of Bangladesh (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 111.
39 Rehman Sobhan, From Two Economies to Two Nations : My Journey to Bangladesh (Dhaka: Daily Star Books,
2016), 239.
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its allies. In this background, Bangladesh received economic, military, and diplomatic support

from India and the USSR against Pakistan and the hypocrisy of the US and China.

Bibliography
 SectionNo., Student Name, ID, Assignment Title

Ahmed, A F Salahuddin, and Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury. Bangladesh, National Culture,

Rehman Sobhan. From Two Economies to Two Nations : My Journey to Bangladesh.

Sengupta, Nitish K. Land of Two Rivers : A History of Bengal from the Mahabharata to
Mujib. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2011.

Suryawanshi, Dr. Dnyaneshwar. British Rule and Its Impact on India. Atharva
Publications, 2018.
[Link]
324273614_British_Rule_and_Its_Impact_on_India/links/5b6af51e92851ca65051520c/
[Link]#page=53.

Willem Van Schendel. A History of Bangladesh. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.