Bengal Presidency

Bengal Presidency
বেঙ্গল প্রেসিডেন্সি

Presidency of British India

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1765–1947

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Flag

The Bengal Presidency at its greatest extent in 1858

Historical era

New Imperialism

•

Battle of Buxar

1765

•

Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms

1947

Today part of

Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Burma, Singapore and Malaysia

The Bengal Presidency was once the largest colonial subdivision (presidency) of British India, with its seat in Calcutta, the capital of British-held territories in South Asia until 1911. At its territorial peak in the 19th century, the presidency extended from the present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan in the west to Burma, Singapore and Penang in the east. The Governor of Bengal was concurrently the Viceroy of India for many years. Most of the presidency's territories were eventually incorporated into other British Indian provinces and crown colonies. In 1905, Bengal proper was partitioned, with Eastern Bengal and Assam headquartered in Dacca and Shillong (summer capital). British India was reorganised in 1912 and the presidency was reunited into a single Bengali-speaking province.

The Bengal Presidency was established in 1765, following the defeat of the last independent Nawab of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Bengal was the economic, cultural and educational hub of the British Raj. It was the centre of the late 19th and early 20th century Bengali Renaissance and a hotbed of the Indian Independence Movement.

The Partition of British India resulted in Bengal's division on religious grounds, between West Bengal and East Bengal.

Administrative reform and the Permanent Settlement

1905 Partition of Bengal

Main articles: Partition of Bengal (1905) and Eastern Bengal and Assam

Eastern Bengal and Assam

A jute mill in Narayanganj, 1906. East Bengal accounted for 80% of the world's jute supply.^[2]

The partition of the large province of Bengal, which was decided upon by Lord Curzon, was carried into execution in October 1905. The Chittagong, Dhaka and Rajshahi divisions, the Malda District and the States of Hill Tripura, Sylhet and Comilla were transferred from Bengal to a new province, Eastern Bengal and Assam; the five Hindi-speaking states of Chota Nagpur, namely Changbhakar, Korea, Surguja, Udaipur and Jashpur State, were transferred from Bengal to the Central Provinces; and Sambalpur State and the five Oriya states of Bamra, Rairakhol, Sonepur, Patna and Kalahandi were transferred from the Central Provinces to Bengal.

The province of West Bengal then consisted of the thirty-three districts of Burdwan, Birbhum, Bankura, Midnapur, Hughli, Howrah, Twenty-four Parganas, Calcutta, Nadia, Murshidabad, Jessore, Khulna, Patna, Gaya, Shahabad, Saran, Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Monghyr, Bhagalpur, Purnea, Santhal Parganas, Cuttack, Balasore, Angul and Kandhmal, Puri, Sambalpur, Singhbhum, Hazaribagh, Ranchi, Palamau, and Manbhum. The princely states of Sikkim and the tributary states of Odisha and Chhota Nagpur were not part of Bengal, but British relations with them were managed by its government.

The Indian Councils Act 1909 expanded the legislative councils of Bengal and Eastern Bengal and Assam provinces to include up to 50 nominated and elected members, in addition to three ex officio members from the executive council.^[3]

Bengal's legislative council included 22 nominated members, of which not more than 17 could be officials, and two nominated experts. Of the 26 elected members, one was elected by the Corporation of Calcutta, six by municipalities, six by district boards, one by the University of Calcutta, five by landholders, four by Muslims, two by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, and one by the Calcutta Trades Association. Eastern Bengal and Assam's legislative council included 22 nominated members, of which not more than 17 be officials and one representing Indian commerce, and two nominated experts. Of the 18 elected members, three were elected by municipalities, five by district and local boards, two by landowners, four by Muslims, two by the tea interest, one by the jute interest, and one by the Commissioners of the Port of Chittagong.^[4]

The partition of Bengal proved highly controversial, as it resulted in a largely Hindu West Bengal and a largely Muslim East. Serious popular agitation followed the step, partly on the grounds that this was part of a cynical policy of divide and rule, and partly that the Bengali population, the centre of whose interests and prosperity was Calcutta, would now be divided under two governments, instead of being concentrated and numerically dominant under the one, while the bulk would be in the new division. In 1906–1909 the unrest developed to a considerable extent, requiring special attention from the Indian and Home governments, and this led to the decision being reversed in 1911.

Reorganization of Bengal, 1912

At the Delhi Durbar on December 12, 1911, King George V announced the transfer of the seat of the Government of India from Calcutta to Delhi, the reunification of the five predominantly Bengali-speaking divisions into a Presidency (or province) of Bengal under a Governor, the creation of a new province of Bihar and Orissa under a lieutenant-governor, and that Assam Province would be reconstituted under a chief commissioner. On March 21, 1912 Thomas Gibson-Carmichael was appointed Governor of Bengal; prior to that date the Governor-General of India had also served as governor of Bengal Presidency. On March 22, the provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and Assam were constituted.^[5]

The Government of India Act 1919 increased the number of nominated and elected members of the legislative council from 50 to 125, and the franchise was expanded.^[6]

Bihar and Orissa became separate provinces in 1936. Bengal remained in its 1912 boundaries until Independence in 1947, when it was again partitioned between the dominions of India and Pakistan.

Dyarchy (1920–37)

British India's Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919, enacted in 1921, expanded the Bengal Legislative Council to 140 members to include more elected Indian members. The reforms also introduced the principle of dyarchy, whereby certain responsibilities such as agriculture, health, education, and local government, were transferred to elected ministers. However, the important portfolios like finance, police and irrigation were reserved with members of the Governor's Executive Council. Some of the prominent ministers were Surendranath Banerjee (Local Self-government and Public Health 1921-1923), Sir Provash Chunder Mitter (Education 1921-1924, Local Self-government, Public Health, Agriculture and Public Works 1927-1928), Nawab Saiyid Nawab Ali Chaudhuri (Agriculture and Public Works) and A. K. Fazlul Huq (Education 1924). Bhupendra Nath Bose and Sir Abdur Rahim were Executive Members in the Governor's Council.^[7]

Provincial Autonomy

The Government of India Act 1935 made the Bengal Presidency into a regular province, enlarged the elected provincial legislature and expanded provincial autonomy vis a vis the central government. In the elections held in 1937, the Indian National Congress won a maximum of 54 seats but declined to form the government. The Krishak Praja Party of A. K. Fazlul Huq (with 36 seats) was able to form a coalition government along with the All-India Muslim League.^[8]^[9]

Minister	Portfolio
A. K. Fazlul Huq	Prime Minister of Bengal, Education
Khawaja Nazimuddin	Home
Nalini Ranjan Sarkar	Finance
Bijoy Prasad Singh Roy	Revenue
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy	Commerce and Labour
Khwaja Habibullah	Agriculture and Industry
Srish Chandra Nandy	Irrigation, Communications and Works
Prasanna Deb Raikut	Forest and Excise
Mukunda Behari Mallick	Cooperative, Credit and Rural Indebtedness
Nawab Musharraf Hussain	Judicial and Legislature
Syed Nausher Ali	Public Health and Local Self Government

Huq's government fell in 1943 and a Muslim League government under Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin as Prime Minister was formed. After the end of World War II, elections were held in 1946 where the Muslim League won a majority of 113 seats out of 250 in the assembly and a government under Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was formed.^[10]

Minister	Portfolio
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy	Prime Minister of Bengal, Home
Mohammad Ali Bogra	Finance, Health, Local Self-government
Syed Muazzemuddin Hosain	Education
Ahmed Hossain	Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries
Nagendra Nath Ray	Judicial and Legislative Department
Abul Fazal Muhammad Abdur Rahman	Cooperatives and Irrigation
Shamsuddin Ahmed	Commerce, Labour and Industries
Abdul Gofran	Civil Supplies
Tarak Nath Mukherjee	Irrigation and Waterways
Fazlur Rahman	Land, Land Revenue and Jails
Dwarka Nath Barury	Works and Building

References

↑ "Railway".
↑ "Bast and Other Plant Fibres".
↑ Ilbert, Sir Courtenay Peregrine (1907). "Appendix II: Constitution of the Legislative Councils under the Regulations of November 1909", in The Government of India. Clarendon Press. pp. 431.
↑ Ilbert, Sir Courtenay Peregrine (1907). "Appendix II: Constitution of the Legislative Councils under the Regulations of November 1909", in The Government of India. Clarendon Press. pp. 432-5.
↑ Ilbert, Sir Courtenay Peregrine (1922). The Government of India, Third Edition, revised and updated. Clarendon Press. pp. 117-118.
↑ Ilbert, Sir Courtenay Peregrine (1922). The Government of India, Third Edition, revised and updated. Clarendon Press. p. 129.
↑ The Working Of Dyarchy In India 1919 1928. D.B.Taraporevala Sons And Company.
↑ Jalal, Ayesha (1994). The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-0-521-45850-4.
↑ Sanaullah, Muhammad (1995). A.K. Fazlul Huq: Portrait of a Leader. Homeland Press and Publications. p. 104.
↑ Nalanda Year-book & Who's who in India.

Works cited

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bengal". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

C. A. Bayly Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire (Cambridge) 1988
C. E. Buckland Bengal under the Lieutenant-Governors (London) 1901
Sir James Bourdillon, The Partition of Bengal (London: Society of Arts) 1905
Susil Chaudhury From Prosperity to Decline. Eighteenth Century Bengal (Delhi) 1995
Sir William Wilson Hunter, Annals of Rural Bengal (London) 1868, and Odisha (London) 1872
P.J. Marshall Bengal, the British Bridgehead 1740-1828 (Cambridge) 1987
Ray, Indrajit Bengal Industries and the British Industrial Revolution (1757-1857) (Routledge) 2011
John R. McLane Land and Local Kingship in eighteenth-century Bengal (Cambridge) 1993

External links

Coins of the Bengal Presidency

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bengal Presidency.

Presidencies and provinces of the British Raj (Italics = outside present Indian & Pakistan

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Europe

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3. Gave up self-rule in 1934, but remained a de jure Dominion until it joined Canada in 1949.

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4. Now the one the departments of Colombia. 5. Occupied by Argentina during the Falklands War of April–June 1982.

Africa

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Since 1658 Saint Helena¹⁴ 1792–1961 Sierra Leone 1795–1803 Cape Colony	Since 1815 Ascension Island¹⁴ Since 1816 Tristan da Cunha¹⁴ 1806–1910 Cape Colony 1807–1808 Madeira 1810–1968 Mauritius 1816–1965 The Gambia 1856–1910 Natal 1862–1906 Lagos Colony 1868–1966 Basutoland (Lesotho) 1874–1957 Gold Coast (Ghana) 1882–1922 Egypt	1884–1900 Oil Rivers/Niger Coast 1884–1966 Bechuanaland (Botswana) 1884–1960 British Somaliland 1887–1897 Zululand 1890–1962 Uganda 1890–1963 Zanzibar (Tanzania) 1891–1964 Nyasaland (Malawi) 1891–1907 British Central Africa Protectorate 1893–1968 Swaziland 1895–1920 East Africa Protectorate 1899–1956 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan	1900–1914 Northern Nigeria 1900–1914 Southern Nigeria 1900–1910 Orange River Colony 1900–1910 Transvaal Colony 1903–1976 Seychelles 1910–1931 South Africa 1914–1960 Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria (Nigeria) 1915–1931 South-West Africa (Namibia) 1919–1961 British Cameroons (Cameroon)⁶ 1920–1963 Kenya 1922–1961 Tanganyika (Tanzania)⁶ 1923–1965 Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)⁷ 1924–1964 Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) 1979–1980 Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)⁷

6. League of Nations mandate.
7. Self-governing Southern Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence in 1965 (as Rhodesia) and continued as an unrecognised state until the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement. After recognised independence in 1980, Zimbabwe was a member of the Commonwealth until it withdrew in 2003.

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10. Suspended member.
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Coordinates: 22°33′58″N 88°20′47″E / 22.5660°N 88.3464°E / 22.5660; 88.3464

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