Author: Nitish Sengupta
Publisher: UBS Publishers
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 554
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8174763554
Description
This book is a history of the people who speak Bengali in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal and other Bengali-speaking areas of the country - from the earliest recorded times to 1947 when the Indian subcontinent was partitioned into India and Pakistan, and nearly two-thirds of undivided Bengal went out of India.
The study starts with the origin of the Bengalee race and traces the growth of Bengali language, which is the one great motivating force that binds together racially different people who converse in this language. The study focuses on the political history of the Bengalees from the earliest times to the time when the two9 Bengals stopped sharing a common political history.
It delves into the cultural, linguistic, literary and social aspects of Bengal's development only in so far as they have a direct impact on the political developments of the time.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
PART I: ANCIENT BENGAL
Land and the People
Early Hiastory of Bengal
First Bengal Kingdom under Sasanka
The Imperial Palas
The Sen Dynasty
Turkish Conquest and Early Turkish Rulers of Bengal
Ilyas Shahi Dynasty
The Short-lived Dynasty of Raja Ganesh and the Later Ilyas Shahi Dynasty
Spread of Islam
PART II: THE EMERGENCE OF BENGAL IN HISTORY
The Glorious Age of Hussain Shah (193-1519)
Origin and Growth of Bengali Language and Early Bengali Literature
Shri Chaitanya (1485-1534)- Bengal Vaishnavism and Bengali Literature
PART III: THE MUGHAL PERIOD
The Pathans and the Mughals
Bengal as a Province of Mughal Empire
Advent of Europeans
Age of Murshid Quli Khan
Alivardi Khan (1740-56) and the Maratha Invasion
Siraju-ud-Daulah (1756-57) and British Conquest of Bengal
PART IV: THE EARLY BRITISH PERIOD
Mir Jafar's Puppet Rule (1757-60): Real and Nominal Authority
Nawab Mir Qasim - The Last Flicker of Assertion of Authroity (1760-64)
Era of Warren Hastings (1772-85)
Anti-Government Popular Distrubances against Colonial Rule (1766-1857)
Economic Transition During the First Century of British Rule
PART V: 19th CENTURY RENAISSANCE AND THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION
Bengal Renaissance and the Transformation
Religious Reform Movements (157-1902) - Keshav Sen, Ramakrishna
Literature and Art
Industrial and Infrastructural Developments in the 19th Century
The Indigo Movement (1859-62)
The Administration of Lieutenant Governors (1854-1904)
PART VI: POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS: MOVEMENTS TOWARDS FREEDOM
Growth of Political Consciousness: A Nation in the Making
Beginnings of Muslim Separatism: The Unmaking of a Nation
First Partition of Bengal (1905) and the Aftermath
Armed Revolutionary Movement: First Phase
Morely-Minto Reforms and the Unpartitioning of Bengal
Developments During the First World War (1914-18)
PART VII: AGE OF CHITTARANJAN, GANDHI AND BOSE
Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movement
Dyarchy in Action (1921-26): Swarajya-Muslim Interaction
Armed Revolutionary Movement: Second Phase (1920-35)
Bengal Politics (1927-37)
Crystallising of Bengalee Muslim Political Psyche
Rise and Fall of Subhas Bose in Congress Politics
PART VIII: PARTING OF WAYS (1937-45)
Fazlul Huq's First Government: KPP-Muslim League Coalition
Shyama-Huq Coalition (1941-43)
Nizimuddin's Muslim League Coalition Government and the Great Femine of 1943
Subhas Bose's Grand Climax of the Azad Hind Fauj
PART IX: UNDIVIDED BENGAL: THE LAST PHASE (1945-47)
The Unintended and Stormy Emergence of Two Bengals
Index