Patenga Container Terminal PCT will be Completed Soon

Patenga Container Terminal (PCT) is constructing as part of increasing the capacity of the country's main seaport located in Chattogram. Construction work of this multipurpose project with flyover, container and dolphin jetty, backup yard is ongoing full swing.

Piling work to build this terminal is giving the highest priority. China has already done test piling by the pole driving ship brought from China. Thousand numbers of piles having 9 meter diameter and of 30-38 meters long is building in Malaysia. These piles are bringing from Malaysia in 6 trips. Already two hundred piles shipments have been done. Within July, the rest piles will reach at the project site.

Overall 18 percent of the whole project work has been completed. 29 percent of the piling work was completed. 85 percent of Ground Improvement work and 60 percent of the 420 meter long flyover construction work have been done.

According to the plan, comprehensive work is going on every day. Beside construction work of the jetties, road transfers, border wall work etc the movement of Red Crescent, Marine Fisheries, Custom F Division is ongoing.

According to the sources, the PCT is being built to handle 445,000 TEU's Container annually. Total numbers of 7 different contractors under the Bangladesh Army are working on this site. The army has already been paid an advance of BD Taka 650 crore for the project of total Taka 1,868 crore 28 lac.

In the Patenga Container Terminal which will have 600 meter long jetty, three container vessel ships of 190 meters long and 10.5 meter draught (bottom of the vessel) will be able to arrive. In the 220 meter long dolphin jetty one oil lavender vessel will be able to arrive. Under this project, the backup yard area will be of total 16 acres with 4,500 TEU's container capacity.

In the PCT:

• There will be 1,12,000 square meter of RCC pavement (internal yard and road)
• 2,128 square meter Container freight station (CFS) shade
• 6 meter height 1,750 meters custom bonded wall
• 5,580 square feet port office building
• 1,200 Square meter mechanical and repair factory
• 420 meter long flyover for airport traffic
• Four lanes road of 0.75 kilometer and six lanes road of 1 kilometer

Equipment's in PCT:

• There will be 4 gantry cranes (QGC)
• 8 rubber tiered gantry (RTG)
• 4 straddle carrier
• 4 Rich stackers
• 1 rail mounted gantry crane (RMG)
• 4 low-mast fork lift
• 2 fire trucks and 1 fire car
• There will be three security patrol cars, one ambulance, two tugboats of 50 tons, two pilot boats and two fast-speed boats

The foundation work of the PTC was laid on 8 September, 2017 and hope the construction work will be completed by this year within December.

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List of Foreign or International NGOs in Bangladesh | L-2

Below is the List of all International or Foreign NGOs registered and operating in Bangladesh. List (L-2) updated as per the Information's provided on the official website of the NGO Affairs Bureau (NGOAB).

Updated: May 2019

Bangladesh Development Initiative

Address: 125, 9/A (Old), Shankar, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-1209

Phone:

Registration Number and Date: 2433, 30-Apr-09

Country: UK

Bangladesh Every Home Contact

Address: 38, Dilu Road, New Eskatan, Dhaka

Phone: 02-9332714

Registration Number and Date: 0087, 22-Apr-81

Country: USA

Bangladesh Lutheran Mission, Danish (BLM-D)

Address: 3/13, Iqbal Road, Mohammadpur, Dhaka

Phone: 02-9129747

Registration Number and Date: 0103, 03-Sep-81

Country: Denmark

Bangladesh Lutheran Mission, Finnish

Address: Bangabaria, Naogaon- 6500

Phone: 0741-62421

Registration Number and Date: 0049, 22-Apr-81

Country: Finland

Bangladesh Mission Foreign Mission Board Southern Baptist Convention

Address: 2, Mirpur Road, Kalyanpur, Dhaka

Phone: 02-8054224, Fax: 02-8013580

Registration Number and Date: 0044, 27-Aug-81

Country: USA

Bangladeshi Mental Health Association

Address: House-13, Road-1, Block-A, Sector-11, Mirpur, Dhaka

Phone:

Registration Number and Date: 1782, 31-Dec-02

Country: UK

Baptist Mid Mission Bangladesh

Address: Baptish Mid Missions Hospital, Borohorispur, Natore- 6400

Phone: 0771-62386, Mobile: 01711-070468

Registration Number and Date: 0115, 30-Dec-81

Country: USA

BASUG-Diaspora & Development (Bangladesh Chapter)

Address: DIPSHIKHA Bhaban, 282/5, 1st Colony, Mazar Road, Mirpur-01, Dhaka-1216

Phone: 01714-045547

Registration Number and Date: 2683, 06-Mar-12

Country: Netherlands

BBC World Service Trust

Address: Basati Aristocrats (5th Floor), Plot-06, Block-SWH, Gulshan Avenue, Dhaka-1212

Phone:

Registration Number and Date: 2404, 27-Jan-09

Country: UK

BHN Association

Address: Mallika, 24/5, Prominent Housing, 3 Pici culture Road, Mohammadpur, Dhaka

Phone: 01713-130666

Registration Number and Date: 2767, 26-Feb-13

Country: Japan

Calvary Apostolic Church

Address: PO: KUET, Daulatupr, Khulna- 9203

Phone: 041-2870024

Registration Number and Date: 0106, 03-Sep-81

Country: USA

CAP Anamur

Address: House-70-71 (3rd Floor), Road-3, Janata Housing Society, Ring Road, Adabar, Mohammadpur, Dhaka- 1207

Phone:

Registration Number and Date: 2307, 20-Feb-08

Country: Germany

CARE-Bangladesh

Address: RAOWA Convention Center, VIP Road Mohakhali, Dhaka- 1206

Email: info@bd.care.org

Registration Number and Date: 0004, 22-Apr-81

Country: USA

Caritas Switzerland

Address: House-9/A (5th Floor), Road-15 (New), Dhanmondi, Dhaka

Phone: 02-9114133

Registration Number and Date: 2848, 05-Feb-14

Country: Switzerland

Center for Orientation and Educational (COE)

Address: House-443/1, Christian Para, Boro Boyra, Khulna- 9000

Phone: 01710-0963787

Registration Number and Date: 2476, 25-Aug-09

Country: Italy

Ceshires Foundation Homes-Bangladesh

Address: Sonargaon Janapath, House-32, Sector-9, Uttara Model Town, Dhaka- 1230

Phone: 02-8911276

Registration Number and Date: 0138, 01-Apr-83

Country: UK

Christian Service International

Address: 151/5, Manipuripara (1st floor), Tejgaon, Dhaka

Phone: 02-9133756

Registration Number and Date: 0770, 11-Nov-93

Country: USA

Christian Aid

Address: Flat# F-3, House-1/A, Road-35, Gulshan-2, Dhaka-1212

Phone: 02-9859736-7

Web: www.christianaid.org

Registration Number and Date: 1579, 25-Oct-00

Country: UK

Churches of God Mission

Address: Mission House, Gohail Road, Sutrapur, Bogra-5800

Phone: 051-66521

Registration Number and Date: 0006, 22-Apr-81

Country: USA

Community Recovery International Bangladesh

Address: House-104, Road-19, Sector-11, Uttara, Dhaka

Phone: 01772-125589

Registration Number and Date: 2885, 21-Aug-14

Country: USA

Compassion International Bangladesh

Address: House-53, Road-10, Block-E, Banani, Dhaka

Phone: 02-9860077, Fax: 02-9888597

Web: www.compassion.com

Registration Number and Date: 2378, 21-Jul-08

Country: USA

CONCERN - Worldwide

Address: House-15, SW(D), Road-07, Gulshan-01, Dhaka-1212

Phone: 02-58811469, Fax: 02-8817517

Web: www.concern.net

Registration Number and Date: 0031, 22-Apr-81

Country: Ireland

Co-operation in Development of Bangladesh

Address: Ward-06, Post: Char Fashion, District: Bhola-8340

Phone: 01715050340

Web: www.fredhyde.org

Registration Number and Date: 0099, 07-Jun-91

Country: Australia

Counterpart International Inc.

Address: House-14 (3rd Floor), Road-32, Gulshan-1, Dhaka

Phone: 02-9851021, Fax: 029851042

Registration Number and Date: 2811, 25-Aug-13

Country: USA

DAKBHANGA

Address: Nur Villa (Ground Floor), Thana Road, Sipahi Para, Ramu, Cox'sBazar

Phone: 01711-112159, 01819-928751, 01819-934935

Registration Number and Date: 1952, 31-Aug-04

Country: Belgium

Damien Foundation

Address: House-24, Road-18, Block-A, Banani Model Town, Dhaka

Phone: 02-8822189, Fax: 02-8810989

Registration Number and Date: 0583, 01-Nov-92

Country: Belgium

Dan Church Aid

Address: House- 83, Apartment# A/3, Road- 23, Gulshan, Dhaka

Phone: 02-8834343

Web: www.danchurch.org

Registration Number and Date: 2596, 14-Sep-10

Country: Denmark

Danish Bangladesh Leprosy Mission

Address: House-483, Road-32, Mohakhali DOHS (New), Dhaka-1206

Phone: 02-9882058

Web: www.leprosymission.org

Registration Number and Date: 0039, 27-Aug-81

Country: Denmark

Danish Refugee Council

Address: House-112/2, Road-03, Block-F, 3rd Floor, Banani, Dhaka-1213

Phone: 01715-895509

Registration Number and Date: 2804, 30-Jul-13

Country: Denmark

DIAKONIA / Swedish Free Church Aid

Address: House-5/8, First floor, Block-B, Lalmatia, Dhaka

Phone: 02-9121256, Fax: 029121257

Web: www.diakonia.selenglish

Registration Number and Date: 0001, 22-Apr-81

Country: Sweden

See List of All Local Bangladeshi NGOs

Related:

| List-1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

History of Bengal Sultanate | Arabic and Persian Studies | Part 2

Qazi Rukn al-Din Samarkandi was a profound scholar in Islamic learning. He was of Persian origin and a Qazi of Lakhnawati in the time of ‘Ala al-Din ‘Ali Mardan Khalji. His translation of the Sanskrit book Amritkund on yogic system first in Persian and then into Arabic proves his proficiency in both of the languages, and bears witness to their study at the initial period of the Muslim rule in Bengal.

In this chain stands Imamzadah Jalal al-Din son of Jamal al-Din who delivered lectures on Islamic disciplines in the court of Ghiyath al-Din Iwaz Khalji (1212-1227 A.C). Jalal al-Din, a profound scholar in Arabic and Islamics happened to be an inhabitant of Firuz kuh in Persia. These facts lead to substantiate the case for the cultivation of Arabic and Persian learning under the state patronization even at the initial period of Muslim rule in Bengal.

Pertinently it may also be mentioned here that the administration of the country was to be run according to the Shariah. The Diwan al-Qaza or the Department of Justice testifies to the fact that administration of Bengal Sultanate like other Muslim countries was being run broadly on the basis of the Shariah. The sources of Muslim law are four i.e. Al-Quran, Al-Hadith, Ijma and Qiyas. The persons in charge of the department of justice and other important departments of the government were expected to achieve proficiency in Arabic to understand properly the implication and interpretation of laws as embodied in the holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet (Sm).

The epigraphic records bear witness to this fact that Arabic language was given importance for a subject of study in this land. The state language being Persian, the persons employed in the various positions of administrative hierarchy must have possessed mastery in Persian language. Hence it is reasonable to believe that all possible steps were taken to train up expertise personnel’s in Arabic and Persian to run the administration of the country smoothly and in a proper way.

A cogent question arises that how the personnel’s could be trained up in Islamics including the language study and what proper arrangement is provided for that purpose. The answer is simple that establishment of madaris and educational seminaries could be considered as proper way for realizing the purpose. Both epigraphic and literary sources recorded a large number of madaris and educational institutions that sprang up in the capital cities and strategic places of Bengal during the Sultanate period.

Of these educational seminaries Taqi al-Din Arabi’s Madrasah at Mahisu identified with Mahisantosh built in about the middle of the 13th century A.C., Zafar Khan’s Madrasah at Triveni built in 1313 A.C., Darasbari Madrasah of the time of Shams al-Din Yusuf Shah (1474-1481 A.C.), Belbari Madrasah of `Ala al-Din Husayn Shah (1493-1519 A.C.) both situated in Gaur area, Bagha Madrasah of the time of Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah (1519-1531 A.C.) and Mawlana Sharf al-Din Abu Tawarama’s Madrasah at Sonargaon deserve mentioning.

The syllabi pursued in these academies spread over the various branches of secular and religious subjects. These are highly acclaimed by the scholars and persons interested in their study. To these institutions of learning the students of far-off place flocked together to achieve primary and advanced knowledge in the field of their studies. Usually the medium of instruction was Persian though in higher strata of learning and specialization of subject one might have opted for Arabic. There are evidences to show that during the period of Bengal Sultanate Arabic and Persian studies reached the point of excellence. Scholars of different shades came forward to write books in the subjects of their interest either in Arabic or in Persian which substantiates it.

As for the cultivation and study of Arabic few points are stated here for consideration. The epigraphs of Bengal Sultanate were mostly incised in Arabic. Grammatical mistakes are hardly noticed in the text of the epigraphs. Quotations from the verses of the holy Quran and the traditions of the Prophet (Sm) in the epigraphs testify to the fact that learned persons in these religious sciences were available in Bengal. The madaris and the institutions of learning of this land, as referred to above, bear witness to the existence of ulama who had profound knowledge in religious literature and Islamology.

The courses taught in the madaris laid emphasis on Arabic language and literature. The translation of Amritkund by Qazi Rukn al-Din Samarqandi in Arabic at the capital Lakhnawati in the time of ‘Ala al-Din’ Ali Mardan Khalji and the transcription of Sahih al-Bukhari by Muhammad b. Yazdan Bakhsh in three volumes at Ikdalah in the time of ‘Ala al-Din Husayn Shah lead us to presume that Arabic study was encouraged under Bengal Sultanate.

Historyof Bengal Sultanate | Arabic and Persian Study | Part 1

Source: ARABIC AND PERSIAN STUDIES UNDER BENGAL SULTANATE: AN APPRAISAL

by- Dr A K M Yaqub Ali.

Read other related stories:

European Colonization in Bengal - From 1757 - 1857

Early History of Bengal - Islamization from 1202 to 1757

Early History of Bengal - From 1000 BC to 1202 AD

History of Bengal Sultanate | Arabic and Persian | Part 1

Bengal for her enormous natural resources and moderate climatic conditions had been a covetous country of attraction for the foreigners from the ancient time. Many civilizations in this region grew up and declined with the passage of time since its record in the history. From the historical records it is evident that over this fertile soil of Bengal, the Mauryans, the Guptas, the Palas and the Senas before the coming of Muslims had their sway and contributed a lot to the enrichment of her political, administrative and cultural attainments.

A fragmentary Mauryan Brahmi Inscription paleographically dated in the 3rd century B.C. discovered at Mahasthan twelve kilometers north of Bogra city reveals to us Pundanagala equating with Pundranagara and conclusively identified with Mahasthan, an emporium of Bengal from very ancient time. Archaeological excavation of this mound of Mahasthan unfolds the various starts as of civilization to speak the glorious past of Bengal history. Even in and around the vicinity of Mahasthan are unearthed the ancient relics in the form of viharas and temples which tell her past heritage.

Likewise the Sumapura Vihara of Paharpur in the district of Naogaon district and Shalbana Vihara of Mainamati in the district of Comilla district bear witness to the rich heritage of the ancient Bengal. In this chain of cultural attainments the advent of the Muslims at the beginning of the 13th century A.C. added a new vista of contribution to the history.

Pertinently it may be mentioned here that the Janapada names existed at the advent of the Muslims sank into oblivion and Bengal emerged as a country uniting three administrative divisions of Lakhnawati, Satgaon and Sonargaon. The credit of this unification goes to Sultan Shams al-Din IIyas Shah (1342-1359 A.C.) who assumed the title of Shah-i-Bangala bringing the above mentioned regions under his suzerainty in 1352 A.C. Hence Bengal of the Sultanate period denotes the territorial expanse of Bangladesh and West Bengal of India extending from Rajmahal hill in the west to hilly region of Chittagong in the east and from the Himalayan mountain in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south.

The time span of Bengal Sultanate began with the conquest of Lakhnawati Kingdom of the Senas by Ikhtiyaral-Din Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji in 1204 A.C. and ended with its annexation to the Mughal Empire of Delhi in 1576 A.C. Arabic as the language of religion and Persian as the language of cultural accomplishment of incoming Muslims got utmost consideration for study during their rule in Bengal.

To see the extent of Arabic and Persian studies during the period of Bengal Sultanate literary and archaeological sources are to be taken into consideration. Arabic, the youngest Semitic language got its recognition among the richest languages of the world as being the language of the holy Quran and the Prophet (Sm) of Islam. With the expansion of Islam over half of the then world just after the demise of the Prophet (Sm), Arabic got momentum as an enriched language to produce voluminous works in all branches of learning for onward transmission to the contemporaneous and to the posterity as well.

In the heydays of Muslim civilization tentatively from the beginning of the seventh century A.C. to the end of the thirteenth century A.C. Arabic became the language of expression and bearer of knowledge in all the Muslim occupied territories of three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe. It did not preclude the cultivation of indigenous language of the countries of their domination. Hence Persian second to Arabic as language got flourishment at the hands of the Muslim rulers since tenth century A.C. and spread all over the Central Asian regions as one of the richest languages of at time.

It is not, therefore, unreasonable to assume that the Central Asian Turks with the rich linguistic heritage of Arabic and Persian entered the Indian subcontinent as the conquerors. In the case of Bengal it is not an exception. The Khalji Turks of Central Asia who entered Bengal as conquerors initiated the cultivation of Arabic and Persian learning by introducing Persian as the court language and establishing madaris where due attention was given for the study of both the languages. This move continued unabated in later times of the rulers and sultans till the end of the Sultanate period.

Click to read the Part -2

Source: ARABIC AND PERSIAN STUDIES UNDER BENGAL SULTANATE: AN APPRAISAL

By- Dr A K M Yaqub Ali

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Early History of Bengal | Islamization from 1202 to 1757

Early History of Bengal | From 1000 BC to 1202 AD

European Colonization in Bengal | from 1757 to 1857

Early Settlements:

The Indian Subcontinent had indirect relations with Europe by both overland caravans and maritime routes, dating back to the fifth century B.C. The lucrative spice trade with India had been mainly in the hands of Arab Merchants. By the fifteenth century, European traders had come to believe that the commissions they had to pay the Arabs were prohibitively high and therefore sent out fleets in search of new trade routes to India.

The arrival of the Europeans in the last quarter of the fifteenth century marked a great turning point in the history of the subcontinent. The dynamics of the history of the subcontinent came to be shaped chiefly by the Europeans' political and trade relations with India as India was swept into the vortex of Western power politics. The arrival of the Europeans generally coincided with the gradual decline of Mughal Power, and the subcontinent became an arena of struggle not only between Europeans and the indigenous rulers but also among the Europeans.

The British East India Company, a private company formed in 1600 during the reign of Akbar and operating under a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth-I, established a factory on the Hooghly River in western Bengal in 1650 and founded the city of Calcutta in 1690. Although the initial aim of the British East India Company was to seek trade under concessions obtained from local Mughal governors, the steady collapse of the Mughal Empire (1526-1858) enticed the company to take a more direct involvement in the politics and military activities of the subcontinent.

Capitalizing on the political fragmentation of South Asia, the British ultimately rose to supremacy through military expeditions, annexation, bribery, and playing one party off against another. Aside from the superior military power of the British, their ascendancy was fostered by the tottering economic foundations of the local rulers, which had been undermined by ravaging dynastic wars and the consequent displacement of the peasants from the land, which was the principal source of state revenue.

Nabab Siraj ud Daulah, governor of Bengal, unwisely provoked a military confrontation with the British at Plessey in 1757. He was defeated by Robert Clive, an adventurous young official of the British East India Company. Clive's victory was consolidated in 1764 at the Battle of Buxar on the Ganges, where he defeated the Mughal emperor. As a result, the British East India Company was granted the title of diwan (collector of the revenue) in the areas of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, making it the supreme, but not titular, governing power.

Henceforth the British would govern Bengal and from there extend their rule to all of India. By 1815 the supremacy of the British East India Company was unchallengeable, and by the 1850s British control and influence had extended into territories essentially the same as those that became the independent states of India and Pakistan in 1947.

The British Raj:

Beginning in the middle of the eighteenth century, when the foundations of British rule were effectively laid, the British government showed increasing interest in the welfare of the people of India, feeling the need to curb the greed, recklessness, and corrupt activities of the private British East India Company. Beginning in 1773, the British Parliament sought to regulate the company's administration. By 1784 the company was made responsible to Parliament for its civil and military affairs and was transformed into an instrument of British foreign policy.

Some new measures introduced in the spirit of government intervention clearly did not benefit the people of Bengal. The Permanent Settlement (Land lease Act) of Lord Charles Cornwallis in 1793, which regulated the activities of the British agents and imposed a system of revenue collection and landownership, stands as a monument to the disastrous effects of the good intentions of Parliament. The traditional system for collecting land taxes involved the Zamindars, who exercised the dual function of revenue collectors and local magistrates.

The British gave the zamindars the status and rights of landlords, modeled mainly on the British landed gentry and aristocracy. Under the new system the revenue-collecting rights were often auctioned to the highest bidders, whether or not they had any knowledge of rural conditions or the managerial skills necessary to improve agriculture. Agriculture became a matter of speculation among urban financiers, and the traditional personal link between the resident zamindars and the peasants was broken. Absentee landlord ship became commonplace, and agricultural development stagnated.

Most British subjects who had served with the British East India Company until the end of the eighteenth century were content with making profits and leaving the Indian social institutions untouched. A growing number of Anglican and Baptist evangelicals in Britain, however, felt that social institutions should be reformed. There was also the demand in Britain, first articulated by member of Parliament and political theorist Edmund Burke, that the company's government balance its exploitative practices with concern for the welfare of the Indian people. The influential utilitarian theories of Jeremy Bentham and James Mill stated that societies could be reformed by proper laws. Influenced in part by these factors, British administrators in India embarked on a series of social and administrative reforms that were not well received by the conservative elements of Bengali society.

Emphasis was placed on the introduction of Western philosophy, technology, and institutions rather than on the reconstruction of native institutions. The early attempts by the British East India Company to encourage the use of Sanskrit and Persian were abandoned in favor of Western science and literature; elementary education was taught in the vernacular, but higher education in English. The stated purpose of secular education was to produce a class of Indians instilled with British cultural values.

Persian was replaced with English as the official language of the government. A code of civil and criminal procedure was fashioned after British legal formulas. In the field of social reforms, the British suppressed what they considered to be inhumane practices, such as suttee (self-immolation of widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands), female infanticide, and human sacrifice.

British policy viewed colonies as suppliers of raw materials and purchasers of manufactured goods. The British conquest of India coincided with the Industrial Revolution in Britain, led by the mechanization of the textile industry. As a result of the British policy of dumping machine-made goods in the subcontinent, India's domestic craft industries were thoroughly ruined, and its trade and commerce collapsed. Eastern Bengal was particularly hard hit. Muslin cloth from Dhaka had become popular in eighteenth-century Europe until British muslin drove it off the market.

Source: Bangladesh, a country study
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
Edited by: James Heitzman and Robert L. Worden
Research Completed September 1988.
Sources of images and maps: collected from various sources on the internet.

Thanks a lot.

Related posts in this blog:
Early History of Bengal - Islamization from 1202 to 1757
Early History of Bengal - From 1000 BC to 1202 AD
History of Bengal Sultanate - Arabic and Persian - Part 1

Early History of Bengal | Islamization | from 1202 to 1757

The Turkish conquest of the subcontinent was a long, drawn out process covering several centuries. It began in Afghanistan with the military forays of Mahmud of Ghazni in the year 1001. By the early thirteenth century, Bengal fell to Turkish armies. The last major Hindu Sena ruler was expelled from his capital at Nadia in Western Bengal in 1202, although lesser Sena rulers held sway for a short while after in Eastern Bengal.

Bengal was loosely associated with the Delhi Sultanate, established in 1206, and paid a tribute in war elephants in order to maintain autonomy. In 1341 Bengal became independent from Delhi, and Dhaka was established as the seat of the governors of independent Bengal. Turks ruled Bengal for several decades before the conquest of Dhaka by forces of the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great (1556-1605) in 1576.

Bengal remained a Mughal province until the beginning of the decline of the Mughal Empire in the eighteenth century. Under the Mughals, the political integration of Bengal with the rest of the subcontinent began, but Bengal was never truly subjugated. It was always too remote from the center of government in Delhi. Because lines of communications were poor, local governors found it easy to ignore imperial directives and maintain their independence.

Although Bengal remained provincial, it was not isolated intellectually, and  Bengali religious leaders from the fifteenth century onward have been influential throughout the subcontinent. The Mughals in their heyday had a profound and lasting effect on Bengal. When Akbar ascended the throne at Delhi, a road connecting Bengal with Delhi was under construction and a postal service was being planned as a step toward drawing Bengal into the operations of the empire.

Akbar implemented the present-day Bengali Calendar, and his son, Jahangir (1605-27), introduced civil and military officials from outside Bengal who received rights to collect taxes on land. The development of the Zamindar (tax collector and later landlord) class and its later interaction with the British would have immense economic and social implications for twentieth-century Bengal.

Bengal was treated as the "breadbasket of India" and, as the richest province in the empire, was drained of its resources to maintain the Mughal army. The Mughals, however, did not expend much energy protecting the countryside or the capital  from Arakanse or Portuguese pirates; in one year as many as 40,000 Bengalis were seized by pirates to be sold as slaves, and still the central government did not intervene. Local resistance to imperial control forced the emperor to appoint powerful generals as provincial governors.

Yet, despite the insecurity of the Mughal regime, Bengal prospered. Agriculture expanded, trade was encouraged, and Dhaka became one of the centers of the textile trade in South Asia. In 1704 the provincial capital of Bengal was moved from Dhaka to Murshidabad. Although they continued to pay tribute to the Mughal court, the governors became practically independent rulers after the death in 1707 of Aurangzeb, the last great Mughal emperor.

The governors were strong enough to fend off marauding Hindu Marathas from the Bombay area during the eighteenth century. When the Mughal governor Alivardi died in 1756, he left the rule of Bengal to his grandson Siraj ud Daulah, who would lose Bengal to the British the following year.

Source: Bangladesh, a country study

Federal Research Division, Library of Congress

Edited by: James Heitzman and Robert L. Worden

Research Completed September 1988.

Thanks a lot,

Related:

Early History of Bengal - 1000 BC to 1202 AD

European Colonization in Bengal - from 1757 to 1857

History of Bengal Sultanate - Arabic and Persian - Part 1