History of Bengal Subah

The Bengal Subah, also known as Mughal Bengal, was a subdivision of the Mughal Empire encompassing much of the Bengal region, which includes modern Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, between the 16th and 18th centuries. The state was established following the dissolution of the Bengal Sultanate, a major trading nation in the world, when the region was absorbed into one of the gunpowder empires. Bengal was the wealthiest and industrially the most developed place in the world and having waved the proto-industrialization, its economy showed signs of Industrial revolution.

Mughal Bengal has been described as the "Paradise of Nations", and its inhabitants's living standards and real wages were among the highest in the world. Worth 12% of the world's GDP, it alone accounted for 40% of Dutch imports outside the European continent. The eastern part of Bengal was globally prominent in industries such as textile manufacturing and shipbuilding, and it was a major exporter of silk and cotton textiles, steel, saltpeter, and agricultural and industrial produce in the world. Its capital Jahangir Nagar, today's modern Dhaka, had a population exceeding a million people. By the 18th century, Mughal Bengal emerged as a quasi-independent state, under the Nawabs of Bengal, and already observing the proto-industrialization, it made direct significant contribution to the first Industrial Revolution (substantially textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution).

Mughal Bengal was devastated from 1741 onwards by a series of Maratha invasions in which close to 400,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed by the Marathas. Contemporary accounts of the invasions report mass gang rape against women and children, and mutilation of victims by the Marathas, which devastated Bengal's economy. Bengal was subject to further deindustrialization, after being conquered by the British East India Company at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The Subah was later established as the Bengal Presidency.

History

Mughal Empire
The Mughal absorption of Bengal began during the reign of the first Mughal emperor Babur. In 1529, Babur defeated Sultan Nasiruddin Nasrat Shah of the Bengal Sultanate during the Battle of Ghaghra. Babur later annexed parts of Bengal. His son and successor Humayun occupied the Bengali capital Gaur, where he stayed for six months. Humayun was later forced to seek in refuge in Persia because of Sher Shah Suri's conquests. Sher Shah Suri briefly interrupted the reigns of the both the Mughals and Bengal Sultans.

After the defeat of expansionist Bengal Sultan Daud Khan Karrani at the Battle of Rajmahal in 1576, Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great announced the creation of Bengal as one of the original twelve Subahs (top-level provinces), bordering Bihar and Orissa subahs, as well as Burma.

Bengal's physical features gave it such a fertile soil, and a favourable climate that it became a terminus of a continent-wide process of Turko-Mongol conquest and migration, informs Prof. Richard Eaton. The Mughal conquest of Bengal began with the decisive victory of Akbar's army over the independent Afghan ruler of the province Daud Karrani, at Tukaroi (near Danton, Midnapore district) on March 3, 1575. It took many years to overcome the resistance of ambitious and local chiefs. By a royal decree of November 24, 1586 Akbar introduced uniform subah administration throughout the empire. However, in Tapan Raychaudhuri's view the consolidation of Mughal power in Bengal and the pacification of the province really began in 1594.

Most prominent local chiefs or landlords being the 'Bara Bhuiyas' or Baro-Bhuyans (twelve bhuiyas). Many of the chiefs subjugated by the Mughals, some of the Bara Bhuiyas in particular, were Hindu or Pathan upstarts who grabbed territories during the transition from Afghan to Mughal rule, but a few such as the Rajas of Bishnupur, Susang, and Chandradwip; were older Hindu princes who had ruled independently from time immemorial. By the 17th century, the Mughals subdued opposition from the Baro-Bhuyans landlords, notably Isa Khan. Bengal was integrated into a powerful and prosperous empire; and shaped by imperial policies of pluralistic government. The Mughals built a new imperial metropolis in Dhaka from 1610, with well-developed fortifications, gardens, tombs, palaces and mosques. It served as the Mughal capital of Bengal for 75 years. The city was renamed in honour of Emperor Jahangir. Dhaka emerged as the commercial capital of the Mughal Empire, given that it was the centre for the empire's largest exports: cotton muslin textiles.

The Mughal conquest of Chittagong in 1666 defeated the (Burmese) Kingdom of Arakan and reestablished Bengali control of the port city, which was renamed as Islamabad. The Chittagong Hill Tracts frontier region was made a tributary state of Mughal Bengal and a treaty was signed with the Chakma Circle in 1713.

Between 1576 and 1717, Bengal was ruled by a Mughal Subedar (imperial governor). Members of the imperial family were often appointed to the position. Viceroy Prince Shah Shuja was the son of Emperor Shah Jahan. During the struggle for succession with his brothers Prince Aurangazeb, Prince Dara Shikoh and Prince Murad Baksh, Prince Shuja proclaimed himself as the Mughal Emperor in Bengal. He was eventually defeated by the armies of Aurangazeb. Shuja fled to the Kingdom of Arakan, where he and his family were killed on the orders of the King at Mrauk U. Shaista Khan was an influential viceroy during the reign of Aurangazeb. He consolidated Mughal control of eastern Bengal. Prince Muhammad Azam Shah, who served as one of Bengal's viceroys, was installed on the Mughal throne for four months in 1707.

Viceroy Ibrahim Khan II gave permits to English and French traders for commercial activities in Bengal. The last viceroy Prince Azim-us-Shan gave permits for the establishment of the British East India Company's Fort William in Calcutta, the French East India Company's Fort Orleans in Chandernagore and the Dutch East India Company's fort in Chinsura. During Azim-us-Shan's tenure, his prime minister Murshid Quli Khan emerged as a powerful figure in Bengal. Khan gained control of imperial finances. Azim-us-Shan was transferred to Bihar. In 1717, the Mughal Court upgraded the prime minister's position to the hereditary Nawab of Bengal. Khan founded a new capital in Murshidabad. His descendants formed the Nasiri dynasty. Alivardi Khan founded a new dynasty in 1740. The Nawabs ruled over a territory which included Bengal proper, Bihar and Orissa.

Nawabs of Bengal
The authority of the Mughal Court rapidly disintegrated in the 18th century, following the rise of the Maratha Empire in India and foreign invasions by Nader Shah of Persia and Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan. In Bengal, the system saw most wealth hoarded by the elites, with low wages for manual labour.

The Nawabs of Bengal entered into treaties with numerous European colonial powers, including joint-stock companies representing Britain, Austria, Denmark, France and the Netherlands.

Maratha invasions
The resurgent Hindu Maratha Empire launched brutal raids against the prosperous Bengali state in the 18th century, which further added to the decline of the Nawabs of Bengal. During their invasions and occupation of Bihar and western Bengal up to the Hooghly River, the Maratha forces, called "Bargi" in Bengali, employed a scorched earth strategy, and perpetrated widespread massacres against the local population, and devastated Bengal's economy. Close to 400,000 civilians in Bengal and Bihar - from both the Muslim and Hindu communities - are estimated to have been killed by the Marathas. Contemporary accounts of the invasions report mass gang rape against women and children, and mutilation of victims by the Marathas which included cutting off their hands and noses.

The invasions devastated Bengal's economy, as many of the people killed in the Maratha raids included merchants, textile weavers, silk winders, and mulberry cultivators. The Cossimbazar factory reported in 1742, for example, that the Marathas burnt down many of the houses where silk piece goods were made, along with weavers' looms.

The Maratha invasions forced the Nawab of Bengal to pay Rs. 1.2 million of tribute annually as the Chauth of Bengal and Bihar to the Marathas, and the Marathas agreed not to invade Bengal again.[full citation needed] The expeditions, led by Raghuji Bhonsle of Nagpur, also established the De facto Maratha control over Orissa, which was formally incorporated in the Maratha Dominion in 1752. The Nawab of Bengal also paid Rs. 3.2 million to the Marathas, towards the arrears of chauth for the preceding years. The chauth was paid annually by the Nawab of Bengal to the Marathas up to 1758, until the British occupation of Bengal.

British colonization
By the late-18th century, the British East India Company emerged as the foremost military power in the region, defeating the French-allied Siraj-ud-Daulah at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, that was largely brought about by the betrayal of the Nawab's once trusted general Mir Jafar. The company gained administrative control over the Nawab's dominions, including Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. It gained the right to collect taxes on behalf of the Mughal Court after the Battle of Buxar in 1765. Bengal, Bihar and Orissa were made part of the Bengal Presidency and annexed into the British colonial empire in 1793. The Indian mutiny of 1857 formally ended the authority of the Mughal court, when the British Raj replaced Company rule in India.

Other European powers also carved out small colonies on the territory of Mughal Bengal, including the Dutch East India Company's Dutch Bengal settlements, the French colonial settlement in Chandernagore, the Danish colonial settlement in Serampore and the Habsburg Monarchy Ostend Company settlement in Bankipur.

Military campaigns
According to João de Barros, Bengal enjoyed military supremacy over Arakan and Tripura due to good artillery. Its forces possessed notable large cannons. It was also a major exporter of gunpowder and saltpeter to Europe. The Mughal Army built fortifications across the region, including Idrakpur Fort, Sonakanda Fort, Hajiganj Fort, Lalbagh Fort and Jangalbari Fort. The Mughals expelled Arakanese and Portuguese pirates from the northeastern coastline of the Bay of Bengal. Throughout the late medieval and early modern periods, Bengal was notable for its navy and shipbuilding.

Architecture
Mughal architecture proliferated Bengal in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, with the earliest example being the Kherua Mosque in Bogra (1582). They replaced the earlier sultanate-style of architecture. It was in Dhaka that the imperial style was most lavishly indulged in. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, the old Mughal city was described as the Venice of the East. Its Lalbagh Fort was an elaborately designed complex of gardens, fountains, a mosque, a tomb, an audience hall (Diwan-i-Khas) and a walled enclosure with gates. The Great Caravanserai and Shaista Khan Caravanserai in Dhaka were centres of commercial activities. Other monuments in the city include the Dhanmondi Shahi Eidgah (1640), the Sat Gambuj Mosque (c. 1664–76), the Shahbaz Khan Mosque (1679) and the Khan Mohammad Mridha Mosque (1704). The city of Murshidabad also became a haven of Mughal architecture under the Nawabs of Bengal, with the Caravanserai Mosque (1723) being its most prominent monument.

In rural hinterlands, the indigenous Bengali Islamic style continued to flourish, blended with Mughal elements. One of the finest examples of this style is the Atiya Mosque in Tangail (1609). Several masterpieces of terracotta Hindu temple architecture were also created during this period. Notable examples include the Kantajew Temple (1704) and the temples of Bishnupur (1600–1729).

Art
An authentic Bengali-Mughal art was reflected in the muslin fabric of Jamdani (meaning "flower" in Persian). The making of Jamdani was pioneered by Persian weavers. The art passed to the hands of Bengali Muslim weavers known as juhulas. The artisan industry was historically based around the city of Dhaka. The city had over 80,000 weavers. Jamdanis traditionally employ geometric designs in floral shapes. Its motifs are often similar to those in Iranian textile art (buta motif) and Western textile art (paisley). Dhaka's jamdanis enjoyed a loyal following and received imperial patronage from the Mughal court in Delhi and the Nawabs of Bengal.

A provincial Bengali style of Mughal painting flourished in Murshidabad during the 18th century. Scroll painting and ivory sculptures were also prevalent.

Demographics

Population
Bengal's population is estimated to be 30 million in 1769, after the British East India Company's conquest of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and prior to the resulting Great Bengal famine of 1770. In comparison, the entire Indian population is estimated to be 190 million in 1750 (with Bengal accounting for 16% of its population), the Asian population is estimated at 502 million in 1750 (with Bengal accounting for 6% of its population), and the world population is estimated at 791 million in 1750 (with Bengal accounting for 3.8% of its population).

Prior to British rule, Bengal's capital city of Dhaka had a population exceeding a million people.

Religion
Bengal was an affluent province with a Bengali Muslim majority, along with a large Bengali Hindu minority.

Immigration
There was a significant influx of migrants from the Safavid Empire into Bengal during the Mughal period. Persian administrators and military commanders were enlisted by the Mughal government in Bengal. An Armenian community settled in Dhaka and was involved in the city's textile trade, paying a 3.5% tax.

Economy and trade
The Bengal Subah had the largest regional economy in the Mughal Empire. It was described as the paradise of nations. 50% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the empire was generated in Bengal. The region exported grains, fine cotton muslin and silk, liquors and wines, salt, ornaments, fruits, and metals. European companies set up numerous trading posts in Mughal Bengal during the 17th and 18th centuries. Dhaka was the largest city in Mughal Bengal and the commercial capital of the empire. Chittagong was the largest seaport, with maritime trade routes connecting it to Arakan, Ayuthya, Aceh, Melaka, Johore, Bantam, Makassar, Ceylon, Bandar Abbas, Mocha and the Maldives.

Real wages and living standards in 18th-century Bengal were higher than in Britain, which in turn had the highest living standards in Europe.

Local Sufi leaders combined Islamic and Bengali cultural practices which developed Bengali Muslim society.

Agrarian reform
The Mughals launched a vast economic development project in the Bengal delta which transformed its demographic makeup. The government cleared vast swathes of forest in the fertile Bhati region to expand farmland. It encouraged settlers, including farmers and jagirdars, to populate the delta. It assigned Sufis as the chieftains of villages. Emperor Akbar re-adapted the modern Bengali calendar to improve harvests and tax collection. The region became the largest grain producer in the subcontinent.

We find meagre accounts of the Bengal revenue administration in Abul Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari and some in Mirza Nathan's Baharistan-i-Ghaybi. According to the Ain,
“The demands of each year are paid by installments in eight months, they (the ryots) themselves bringing mohurs and rupees to the appointed place for the receipt of revenue, as the division of grain between the government and the husbandman is not here customary. The harvests are always abundant, measurement is not insisted upon, and the revenue demands are determined by estimate of the crop.”

From the above extract we learn that the payment of the annual revenue demand was carried out in eight monthly instalments. However, Raychaudhuri points out that according to the Baharistan, there were two collections a year following the two harvests in autumn and spring. Secondly, it tells us that the payments were made in cash, and directly to the government. The last fact obviously refers to only khalisa lands. Finally, the most important fact that we come across is that the method of crop-estimation and not land measurement was current in Bengal.

Bengali peasants were quick to adapt to profitable new crops between 1600 and 1650. Bengali peasants rapidly learned techniques of mulberry cultivation and sericulture, establishing Bengal Subah as a major silk-producing region of the world.

The increased agricultural productivity led to lower food prices. In turn, this benefited the Indian textile industry. Compared to Britain, the price of grain was about one-half in South India and one-third in Bengal, in terms of silver coinage. This resulted in lower silver coin prices for Indian textiles, giving them a price advantage in global markets.

Industrial economy
The Mughal Empire had 25% of the world's GDP. Under the Mughals, Bengal Subah generated 50% of the empire's GDP, and thus had 12% of the world's GDP. Bengal was an affluent province that was, according to economic historian Indrajit Ray, globally prominent in industries such as textile manufacturing and shipbuilding. Bengal's capital city of Dhaka was the empire's financial capital, with a population exceeding a million people, and with an estimated 80,000 skilled textile weavers. It was an exporter of silk and cotton textiles, steel, saltpeter, and agricultural and industrial produce. Bengal's industrial economy in the Mughal era has been described as a form of proto-industrialization.

The plunder of Bengal directly contributed to the Industrial Revolution in Britain, with the capital amassed from Bengal used to invest in British industries such as textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution and greatly increase British wealth, while at the same time leading to deindustrialization in Bengal.

Textile industry
Under Mughal rule, Bengal was a center of the worldwide muslin and silk trades. During the Mughal era, the most important center of cotton production was Bengal, particularly around its capital city of Dhaka, leading to muslin being called "daka" in distant markets such as Central Asia. Domestically, much of India depended on Bengali products such as rice, silks and cotton textiles. Overseas, Europeans depended on Bengali products such as cotton textiles, silks and opium; Bengal accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia, for example, including more than 50% of textiles and around 80% of silks. From Bengal, saltpeter was also shipped to Europe, opium was sold in Indonesia, raw silk was exported to Japan and the Netherlands, and cotton and silk textiles were exported to Europe, Indonesia and Japan.

Shipbuilding industry
Bengal had a large shipbuilding industry. Indrajit Ray estimates shipbuilding output of Bengal during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at 223,250 tons annually, compared with 23,061 tons produced in nineteen colonies in North America from 1769 to 1771. He also assesses ship repairing as very advanced in Bengal.

Bengali shipbuilding was advanced compared to European shipbuilding at the time. An important innovation in shipbuilding was the introduction of a flushed deck design in Bengal rice ships, resulting in hulls that were stronger and less prone to leak than the structurally weak hulls of traditional European ships built with a stepped deck design. The British East India Company later duplicated the flushed deck and hull designs of Bengal rice ships in the 1760s, leading to significant improvements in seaworthiness and navigation for European ships during the Industrial Revolution.

Administrative divisions
In the revenue settlement by Todar Mal in 1582, Bengal Subah was divided into 24 sarkars (districts), which included 19 sarkars of Bengal proper and 5 sarkars of Orissa. In 1607, during the reign of Jahangir Orissa became a separate Subah. These 19 sarkars were further divided into 682 parganas. In 1658, subsequent to the revenue settlement by Shah Shuja, 15 new sarkars and 361 new parganas were added. In 1722, Murshid Quli Khan divided the whole Subah into 13 chakalahs, which were further divided into 1660 parganas.

Initially the capital of the Subah was Tanda. On 9 November 1595, the foundations of a new capital were laid at Rajmahal by Man Singh I who renamed it Akbarnagar. In 1610 the capital was shifted from Rajmahal to Dhaka and it was renamed Jahangirnagar. In 1639, Shah Shuja again shifted the capital to Rajmahal. In 1660, Muazzam Khan (Mir Jumla) again shifted the capital to Dhaka. In 1703, Murshid Quli Khan, then diwan (prime minister in charge of finance) of Bengal shifted his office from Dhaka to Maqsudabad and later renamed it Murshidabad.

In 1656, Subahdar Shah Shuja reorganised the sarkars and added Orissa to the Bengal Subah.

Government
The state government was headed by a Viceroy (Subedar Nizam) appointed by the Mughal Emperor between 1576 and 1717. The Viceroy exercised tremendous authority, with his own cabinet and four prime ministers (Diwan). The three deputy viceroys for Bengal proper, Bihar and Orissa were known as the Naib Nazims. An extensive landed aristocracy was established by the Mughals in Bengal. The aristocracy was responsible for taxation and revenue collection. Land holders were bestowed with the title of Jagirdar. The Qadi title was reserved for the chief judge. Mansabdars were leaders of the Mughal Army, while faujdars were generals. The Mughals were credited for secular pluralism during the reign of Akbar, who promoted the religious doctrine of Din-i Ilahi. Later rulers promoted more conservative Islam.

In 1717, the Mughal government replaced Viceroy Azim-us-Shan due to conflicts with his influential deputy viceroy and prime minister Murshid Quli Khan. Growing regional autonomy caused the Mughal Court to establish a hereditary principality in Bengal, with Khan being recognised in the official title of Nazim. He founded the Nasiri dynasty. In 1740, following the Battle of Giria, Alivardi Khan staged a coup and founded the short-lived Afsar dynasty. For all practical purposes, the Nazims acted as independent princes. European colonial powers referred to them as Nawabs or Nababs.