Land of Bangla: Arrivals of

Nawabs and Britishers

Dr. Sudhangshu Sekhar Roy

Professor
Department of Printing and Publication Studies
University of Dhaka

The present Bangladesh is comparatively a new state of ancient land. However, it is

the split portion of greater Bengal as other two Bengali-speaking regions, the West
Bengal and Tripura, are now the very much part of India. This is the division was
created in 1947 after splitting the greater India into two parts on the basis of
Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Two-nation theory. Bangladesh’s age is little more than fifty
years now. In 1971, we (Bangladesh) earned our complete geographical independence
and sovereignty after going for a straight armed battle for nine months against the
brutal Pakistani occupying and repressive forces. Why Bangladesh is said as a new
state of an ancient land? Is it the land that existing for many many years? If so, then
why is Bangladesh considered comparatively a new state? Why its age is only over
fifty years?

From anthropological and sociological point of view, the existence of this land named
like Bangla, Bongala, Banga,Vanga, etc. are found in the records since more than one
thousand years back. If so, why then Bangla is considered a new state? From the
records of the history, we have come to know that Bangla in most of the time with a
few exceptions was remained under control of the foreign or neighboring rulers or
invaders. For more than one thousand years, the Greater India, comprised of present
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and some parts of
Afghanistan, Bengal was the part of it, had faced several cruel and devastating
invasions from the foreign intruders. This is the land where originally the Dravidian
people once lived in terms of the ethnicity. They were mostly the worshippers of
nature and fire. Dravidians are credited to be the pioneers of developing the Indus
(Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro) Civilization, discovered by Rakhal Das Banerjee,
which was supposed to be appeared in about 2500-1700 BCE. Hindu race of India is
reportedly to have evolved through the Indus Valley. At anytime of that civilization,
the Aryan Hindus were reported to have come here from the Persian regions or may
be from Caspian valley that connecting Asia and Europe. But another claim suggested
that the locally evolved Aryans had been living here before the arrivals of other group
of Aryans form the outside. However, it is also claimed that there were one stream of
Aryans had been living here for a long especially in the northern part, and they
established the Hinduism in India few thousand years back. But later, both the
Dravidian and Aryan Hindus practically had maintained more or less the similar
Vedic religious faiths with significant different regional ritual cultures at north and in
south. And on the basis of Vedic system, the people of greater India with religious
faith of Hinduism had rolled for few thousands of years.

But the religious scenario and landscape of India had started to change and to take a
reshape with the arrivals of one Iranian (or Saudi?) Muslim General as well as a spice
trader Muhammad bin Kashim at Karachi in 712. He indulged in the local clash
between two Hindu kings, and in the process defeated one Hindu King there by
extending the help other Hindu King. Muhammad bin Kashim, however, did not stay
long in India. But later on, with the arrival of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, Afghanistan,
and Turkic by origin, the penetrations of Muslim foreigners had started. Sultan
Mahmud came and invaded India as many as 17 times especially in the Somenath
temple of Gujarat in between 1000 to 1027 AD, and looted a huge amount of valuable
ornaments and wealth from there. With those resources, grabbed mainly from Indian
temples, he modernized the some parts of his own country- Iran. This is the similar
way many years ago in the last century; the Pakistanis had also extracted the huge
amount of resources and foreign currencies from Bangladesh in between 1947 to 1971
to develop their new capital at Islamabad and the country as a whole.

The first invader, who came and ultimately settled in India, was Muhammad Ghori of
Slave dynasty. He was also from Afghanistan. So in the process the other foreign
invaders came in India. Some of them went back, and most of them came here only
for looting, and some of them started to settle here and created their own empires;
some of them had started to destroy the local language and culture; some of them tried
to build up a rapport with the local people and created a mixed culture. Sufism in
Islam was developed in this way after mixing with the Vaishnavite culture of India
especially in the Bengal region. And some of them started to impose their own culture
and language, and in the process they not only to grab our lands, rather they started to
kill our language, culture and ethnicity too. So, Sultans, Emperors, Nawabs, Raja-
Maharaja, Badshah, Kings, etc. one after another had occupied the land of greater
India and the land of Bengal as well, and some of them even had extended their
annexation up to the reach of Bengal. As whenever they started to rule over majority
local people, then we had to lose our independence time to time. Therefore, through
the long history of struggle we had to earn our complete freedom and sovereignty
only in 1971. In the process of occupation made by the foreigners especially from
Central Asia, Middle East and European regions, the British people had landed in
greater India at the beginning of 17th century during the time of Mughal Emperor
Jehangir, and succeeded to earn a permission of making business in India. Therefore
they created a few Banijya Kuthi (Trading house) in different parts of India like in
Mumbai, Chennai, Odisha, Kolkata, etc. Later they under the name of British East
India Company had come to an agreement (DASTAK) with Mughal Emperor
Aurangzeb in 1690 to make business confined only in import and export in exchange
of paying taxes of 3000 rupees annually. During this period they bought three
zamindaries (rather villages) namely Govindapur, Sutanuti and Kolikata under
initiative of Job Churnock at the regions which is presently known as Kolkata. They
later bought another 38 villages, and in the way they established and expanded this
city later. The British people then created a fort namely Fort William at the heart of
Kolkata and deposited huge arms and ammunition inside of that fort as if no outsider
especially the business rivals would create any harm to them. They also created few
trading centers at around Kolkata especially at Hugli and Kashimbazar at
Murshidabad. After the death of Emperor Aurangzeb, the Mughals started to
disintegrate and in 1717 whenever one weak emperor of Mughals Farrukh Shiear was
in Delhi, then British people had pressurized the emperor of earning a deal for not
paying any taxes annually for their business purposes. Moreover they started to
penetrating in the Bengals local business and bypassing the orders of the then Nawabs
they stopped of paying taxes from their profit in the local business. The local business
people had to pay taxes and facing stiff challenges of survival. And it had created a
conflict between the local business community and the British people. Besides, the
Nawabs had also being deprived of getting taxes from them. Naturally the local
Nawabs also had annoyed with the Britishers. And that was the beginning of the
conflict between the Nawabs and the British.

On the other end, we know the last Nawab of greater Bengal Nawab Sirajuddowlah
was defeated in 1757 in the hands of British and subsequently killed by the people
loyal to next future Nawab Mir Jafar Ali Khan. We generally know that Nawab
Sirajuddowlah was the last Nawab of popularly called ‘independent’ Bengal, but
practically we were not independent then as the Nawabs were not from this land and
they were not at all any Bengali by origin or by practice. We usually are very
sympathetic towards Sirajuddowlah as he was a Muslim, and very much emotionally
attached with him due to his struggle against the British and about his sad fate. But
what kind of cruel actions had been applied to him or his family, the same kind of
cruelty he and his father Jainuddin and his maternal grandfather Nawab Alivardi Khan
had also committed to his predecessors and challengers. Incidentally mostly of them
were Muslims. The incident of killing former Nawab Sarfaraz Khan and Mostafa
Khan, a Pathan Commander of his army and Maratha Bargi leader Bhaskar Pandit
were the few clear manifestations of it. It was then,however, very usual political
rituals that when one was rising to powers after defeating others, then obviously the
victorious would kill the losers. It was also a practice for them that they could have
been spared of killing even their own parents, siblings or relatives if it was necessary
to keep their throne free of challenge and of risk.

Factually, Nawab Sirajuddowlah was not a Bengali, and not even accustomed to
speak in Bengali. Although he was born in Bengal (Murshidabad- a district of West
Bengal, India now) but he was Turkish by origin. His maternal forefathers came to
India, and started to settle here during the Mughals. Accordingly, Alivardi Khan was
born in Deccan (south India). He worked under Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, and
showed his some courage and qualities before him. But after the death of Aurangzeb,
Alivardi Khan almost lost everything, and for changing his fate and fortune, he
proceeded towards Bengal. However, the then Nawab of Bengal Nawab Murshid Quli
Khan did not allow him. In terms of Nawabi, Murshid Quli Khan was virtually the
first Nawab of Bengal, and he was originally from India. Murshid Quli Khan was
born to a Hindu Brahmin family in south India as Surya Narayan Mishra. In his early
childhood his parents were reported to be killed in a communal riot during the time of
Mughals, then an Iranian Sufi clergyman, Haji Shafi, who worked in the court of
Aurangzeb, bought/adopted him and few years later he had taken that child away to
Iran. The child was circumcised there and converted to Islam, and given a new name
Muhammad Hadi. After the death of Haji Shafi, his sons reportedly freed Murshid
Quli Khan from slavery and he came back to India and started working in the regime
of Aurangzeb. He showed his some good qualities especially in revenue collection
and smooth administration. Aurangzeb was pleased with him for that and given him
the new name of Murshid Quli Khan. He was later appointed as like of Lieutenant
Governor in Subah Bangla (Bengal Province), and subsequently he had been awarded
the Nawabship of greater Bengal. While he worked for few years at Dhaka as like of a
Lieutenant Governor, then one of his enemies under influence of Subhader
(Governor) and son-i-law of Aurangzeb, Azim-ush-Shan had attempted to take his
life. After surviving whenever he was made the full Nawab, he shifted the capital of
Bengal from Dhaka to Murshidabad as he considered Mutshidabad was much safer
than Dhaka. He had chosen Murshidabad as his capital as it was located in the central
part of the then undivided Bengal, and by the side of Padma(Ganges/Bhagirathi) river
and its tributaries. Besides, Murshidabad was surrounded by a lot of rivers through
which the movement of people and business activities were found very comfortable.
Murshidabad was then identified as Moksudabad, but few years later it was renamed
as Murshidabad after Murshid Quli Khan.

Murshid Quli Khan was comparatively a good administrator, and unlikely of other
Nawabs he married only once. He had two daughters and a son, and after his death his
one son-in-law Shujauddin Ahmed was made the next Nawab. He maintained the
regime more or less peacefully, but after his death his son Sarfaraz Khan was made
the next Nawab. Sarfaraz Khan was not quite competent ruler, and some kind of chaos
had erupted around the region. Capitalizing this opportunity, clever Alivardi Khan
ultimately entered into Bengal by defeating and killing of a ruler of Behar, and
defeated Sarfaraz Khan in a war and killed him. In the process in 1740, Alivardi Khan
declared himself as the new Nawab of greater Bengal including western and eastern
parts of Bengal, Behar and Assam. He later defeated the king of Odisha also at the
south-west and annexed it with the Bengal. In the process, the Nawabi Bangla, an
expanded Bengal was created. Despite his elderly age he was very competent but very
ruthless. He killed prominent Pathan commanders of his army and Maratha Bargi
leader Bhaskar Pandit after alluring him to use his intelligence in his administration in
exchange of settling the conflict with him.

Nawab Alivardi Khan had three daughters and had no son. His elder daughter was
Ghaseti Begum, and the second and youngest daughters were Maimuna Begum and
Amina Begum. Maimuna had one son namely Shawkat Jung and he was the ruler of
Purnia (Behar) during Alivardi as well as Sirajuddowlah’s regime. Amina had more
than one child and Sirajuddowlah was one of them. Sirajuddowlah’s father was the
son of Alivardi’s elder brother. Alivardi Khan had huge affection towards his
grandson Siraj than the others, and that irked other members of his family especially
Ghaseti Begum, who had influence on her father as well as in the court of Nawab.
Ghaseti begum was virtually the de-facto Nawab especially at his last time. If she was
a male then she could become the Nawab. After the rule of almost 16 years when
Nawab Alivardi Khan was forcefully got bedridden due to an acute disease, he almost
settled his grandson Siraj as his successor. Siraj then was only about 23 years of age
and very immature man in terms of handling the critical issues of politics and
administration. Besides, he was very arrogant, stubborn and not quite respectful to a
disciplined life. On the other hand the chief commander of the army and the Chief
Bakshi (Chief of Finance) of the regime Mir Jafar Ali Khan had the dream to be the
next Nawab. He was also the brother-in-law of Nawab Alivardi Khan. Nawab
Alivardi Khan was reportedly assured to make him next Nawab too. This dilemma
ultimately had history changing big impact in Bengal as well as in whole India.
Ghaseti Begum had the intention to make Shawkat Jung as the next Nawab, and
alternatively she was ready to see Mir Jafar Ali Khan as the next Nawab. Both of
them had some communication between them for a long in this respect. After the
death of Nawab Alivardi Khan, when Sirajuddowlah was found as new Nawab in the
month of April, 1756, it was a very shock to some people especially in the royal court
as well as in the royal family.

After ascending to the throne, the young Nawab Sirajuddowlah had to face three-
pronged challenges. He had the problems in his own family as well as in his court as a
lot of family members and the courtiers were not happy to see Siraj at the throne and
had some planning to forcefully oust him from the reign. In this click there were a lot
of people were involved like Mr Jafar Ali Khan, Ghaseti Begum, Rajballav, Jagat
Seths, Umichad, Yar Latif Khan, Raidurlav, etc. On the other hand he had to face stiff
challenges from the people of British East India Company also. At the very
beginning, his cousin and the ruler of Purnia, Shawkat Jung did not agree to show his
loyalty to the new Nawab. Therefore, Nawab advanced with his army towards Bihar
and defeated Shawkat Jung and killed him. He also sacked Mir Jafar Ali Khan from
the post of Chief Bakshi. He also showed his behaviour indifferently towards his
some courtiers also that irked some of the courtiers. On the other hand he also
advanced his army to crush the British people at Kolkata to stop of illegal business
and unauthorized fortifications at Fort William. And those extreme approaches had
cost him dearly. Instead of not going far, in some stages he could have been taken
some compromising initiatives to settle everything peacefully and diplomatically. He
had dearth of intelligence in this regard.

After doing this Nawab was reportedly happy that his throne had been come to a safe
position, but practically it was not. Going through an eventful and hostile one year he
had ultimately faced almost a full scale war against the British people on June 23,
1757, but he had to embrace a painful exit from the throne and subsequently killed on
July 2, 1757 due to conspiracies cooked by his own people in the court as well as in
the family. The common people then were mostly detached from the Nawabs and the
people of the administration, and they did not have any idea or attention or not even
aware who the man coming or going to or from the power. The dead Nawab,
however, ultimately portrayed as a big hero especially during the time of partition of
Bengal in 1905, mostly by the Hindu writers against the British.Si8milarly in sixties
of last century, Nawab Siraj once again portrayed as a big hero by some Bengali
Muslim writers-film makers like Sikandar Abu Zafar, Zaheer Raihan, etc. to fight
against Pakistani repr3ssions.

Like the most other invading foreigners the British people also came here first as for
making business, but after conquering Bengal they thought of settling here and to rule
for a long. Therefore they used Bengal as Springboard; from here they started to
steadily expanding their movement and annexing the all parts of greater India. As they
decided to settle here, for that they needed to bring some changes in India as if they
can smoothly collect the revenues and to run the administration smoothly. Keeping
the issue in mind, they brought a lot of changes in Indian ruling and administrative
system and policy. Some of the changes they brought were extremely bad like of
introducing Divide and rule policy, Indigo planting, Trespassing of wealth and raw
materials of Bengal to England for use in industries of England at the advent of
Industrial revolution in Europe, etc. On the other hand some of the changes they
brought were equally good like of introducing Institutional modern Educational
system, Modern Administrative system (Bureaucracy), a democratic Representative
system instead of long standing Feudal structure, carrying Intellectual movements,
etc. As they needed to rule the country in a bureaucratic structure, for that, they
needed a lot of trained people. But it was not possible for them to bring hundreds of
thousands of people from England. So they needed to train up the local people first to
fit them in the modern administrative system including the courts and to work with
them. Therefore, they started of creating modern primary schools first, then colleges
and other vocational institutes as if the people could learn a certain level of
knowledge in Language both English and Bengali, Mathematics, Sciences, Modern
Literature, etc.to cope with the new system and the newage. What the schools and
colleges they started to introduce either directly by them, or later by the mostly Hindu
elite and educated people, we the people of different generations since then are the
great beneficiary of that system. If it was not, then we had to remain at a very
traditional medieval age and to lagging behind from the other upgraded developing
countries of the world.

In the process at 2022, Bangladesh now stands at a certain level or position, which is
much better than that of our immediate past colonizer Pakistan. However, fifty years
after of creating a secular and liberal country in 1971 after going through a hard-
fought struggle for 23 years against Pakistan on the basis of Bengali language, culture
and ethnicity, the way we are retreating back towards the strict and rigid and
conservative ideals under pressure from different groups, then it would have the
maximum chance of facing a big catastrophe in near future. And if it continues, then
we have to be trapped again in the mediaeval mold and slavery.