Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
BENGAL
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: BEC-BER
del.icio.us it!
|
BENGAL , a See also:province of See also:British See also:India, bounded on the E. by the province of Eastern Bengal and See also:Assam, the boundary See also:line being the Madhumati See also:river and the See also:Ganges; on the S. by the See also:Bay of Bengal and See also:Madras; on the W. by the Central Provinces and See also:United Provinces; and on the N. by See also:Nepal and See also:Sikkim. It has an See also:area of 141,580 sq. m. and a See also:population of 54,096,804. It consists of the provinces of See also:Behar, See also:Orissa and See also:Chota See also:Nagpur, and the western portion of the Ganges valley, but without the provinces of See also:Northern and Eastern Bengal; and is divided into the six British divisions of the See also:presidency, See also:Bhagalpur, See also:Patna, See also:Burdwan, Chota Nagpur and Orissa, and various native states. The province was reconstituted in 1905, when the See also:Chittagong, See also:Dacca and See also:Rajshahi divisions, the See also:district of See also:Malda and the See also:state of See also: See also:Francis See also:Fernandez applies it to the country from the extreme east of Chittagong to Point Palmyras in Orissa, with a See also:coast line which See also:Purchas estimates at 600 m., See also:running inland for the same distance and watered by the Ganges. This territory would include the Mahommedan province of Bengal, with parts of Behar and Orissa. The loose See also:idea thus derived from old voyagers became stereotyped in the archives of the East India See also:Company. All its north-eastern factories, from Balasore, on the Orissa coast, to Patna, in the See also:heart of Behar, belonged to the " Bengal See also:Establishment," and as British conquests crept higher up the See also:rivers, the See also:term came to be applied to the whole of northern India. The presidency of Bengal, in contradistinction to those of Madras and Bombay, eventually included all the British territories north of the Central Provinces, from the mouths of the Ganges and Brahmaputra to the Himalayas and the See also:Punjab. In 1831 the North-Western Provinces were created, which are now included with Oudh in the United Provinces; and the whole of northern India is now divided into the four See also:lieutenant-governorships of the Punjab, the United Provinces, Bengal, and Eastern Bengal and Assam, and the North-West Frontier Province under a See also:commissioner. See also:Physical Geography.--Three sub-provinces of the See also:present lieutenant-governorship of Bengal—namely, Bengal proper, Behar and Orissa—consist of See also:great river valleys; the See also:fourth, Chota Nagpur, is a mountainous region which separates them from the central India See also:plateau. Orissa embraces the See also:rich deltas of the See also:Mahanadi and the neighbouring rivers, bounded by the Bay of Bengal on the S.E., and walled in on the N.W. by tributary hill states. Proceeding west, the sub-province of Bengal proper stretches to the See also:banks of the Ganges and inland from the sea-See also:board to the Himalayas. Its See also:southern portion is formed by the delta of the Ganges; its northern consists of the Ganges valley. Behar lies on the north-west of Bengal proper, and comprise: the higher valley of the Ganges from the spot where it issues from the United Provinces. Between Behar and Orissa lies the province of Chota Nagpur, of which a portion was given in 1905 to the Central Provinces. The valley of the Ganges, which is now divided between Bengal and Eastern Bengal and Assam, is one of the most fertile and densely-populated tracts of country in the world. It teems with every product of nature. See also:Tea, See also:indigo, See also:turmeric, See also:lac, waving See also: Their See also:main channels bifurcate, and each new stream so created throws off its own set of distributaries to right and See also:left. The country which they thus enclose and intersect forms the delta of Bengal. Originally conquered by the fluvial deposits from the sea, it now stretches out as a vast dead level, in which the rivers find their velocity checked, and their current no longer able to carry along the silt which they have brought down from northern India. The streams, accordingly, See also:deposit their alluvial See also:burden in their channels and upon their banks, so that by degrees their beds rise above the level of the surrounding country. In this way the rivers in the delta slowly build themselves up into canals, which every autumn break through or overflow their margins, and leave their silt upon the adjacent flats. Thousands of square See also:miles in Lower Bengal annually receive a See also:top-dressing of virgin See also:soil from the Himalayas,—a See also:system of natural manuring .which renders elaborate tillage a See also:waste of labour, and defies the utmost See also:power of over-cropping to exhaust its fertility. As the rivers creep farther down the delta, they become more and more sluggish, and their bifurcations and interlacings more complicated. The last See also:scene of all is a vast amphibious See also:wilderness of swamp and See also:forest, amid whose solitudes their network of channels insensibly merges into the sea. The rivers, finally checked by the sea, deposit their remaining silt, which emerges as banks or blunted promontories, or, after a See also:year's battling with the See also:tide, adds a few feet or it may be a few inches to the See also:foreshore. The Ganges gives to the country its See also:peculiar See also:character and aspect. About 200 M. from its mouth it spreads out into numerous branches, forming a large delta, composed, where it See also:borders on the sea, of a See also:labyrinth of creeks and rivers, running through the dense forests of the See also:Sundarbans, and exhibiting during the See also:annual inundation the See also:appearance of an immense sea. At this See also:time the See also:rice fields to the extent of many hundreds of square miles are submerged. The scene presents to a European See also:eye a See also:panorama of singular novelty and interest—rice fields covered with See also:water to a great See also:depth; the ears of See also:grain floating on the See also:surface; the stupendous embankments, which restrain without altogether preventing the excesses of the inundations; and peasants going out to their daily See also:work with their See also:cattle in canoes or on rafts. The navigable streams which fall into the Ganges intersect the country in every direction and afford great facilities for See also:internal communication. In many parts boats can approach by means of lakes, rivulets and water-courses to the See also:door of almost every cottage. The lower region of the Ganges is the richest and most productive portion of Bengal, abounding in valuable produce. The other See also:principal rivers in Bengal arc the See also:Sone, See also:Gogra, See also:Gandak, Kusi, See also:Tista; the Hugli, formed by the junction of the Bhagirathi and Jalangi, and farther to the west, the Damodar and Rupnarayan; and in the south-west, the Mahanadi or great river of Orissa. In a level country like Bengal, where the soil is composed of yielding and loose materials, the courses of the rivers arc continually shifting from the wearing away of their different banks, or from the water being turned off by obstacles in its course into a different channel. As this channel is gradually widened the old See also:bed of the river is left dry. The new channel into which the river flows is of course so much See also:land lost, while the old bed constitutes an See also:accession to the adjacent estates. Thus, one See also:man's See also:property is diminished, while that of another is enlarged or improved; and a distinct See also:branch of See also:jurisprudence has grown up, the particular province of which is the See also:definition and regulation of the alluvial rights alike of private property and of the state. See also:Geology.—The greater See also:part of Bengal is occupied by the alluvial deposits of the Ganges, but in the south-west rises the plateau of Chota Nagpur composed chiefly of gneissic rocks. The great thickness of the Gangetic See also:alluvium is shown by aborehole at Calcutta which was carried to a depth of about 46o ft. below the present level of the sea without entering any marine deposit. Over the surface of the gneissic rocks are scattered numerous basins of See also:Gondwana beds. Some of these are undoubtedly faulted into their present positions, and to this they owe their preservation. In the See also:Rajmahal Hills basaltic See also:lava flows are interbedded with the Gondwana deposits, and in the Karharbari coalfield the Gondwana beds are traversed by dikes of See also:mica-See also:peridotite and See also:basalt, which are supposed to be of the same See also:age as the Rajmahal lavas. The Gondwana See also:series is economically of great importance. It includes numerous seams of See also:coal, many of which are worked on an extensive See also:scale (at Giridih, Raniganj, &c.). The quality of the coal is See also:good, but unfortunately it contains a large amount of ash, the See also:average being as high as 17 %. People.--In the sub-provinces under the lieutenant-See also:governor of Bengal dwell a great congeries of peoples, of widely diverse origin, speaking different See also:languages and representing far separated eras of See also:civilization. The province, in fact, became so unwieldy that this was the See also:chief See also:reason for its partition in 1905. The people exhibit every stage of human progress, and every type of human enlightenment and superstition from the educated classes to primitive hill tribes. On the same See also:bench of a Calcutta See also:college sit youths trained up in the strictest See also:theism, others indoctrinated in the mysteries of the See also:Hindu trinity and See also:pantheon, with representatives of every See also:link in the See also:chain of superstition—from the harmless offering of See also:flowers before the See also:family See also:god to the cruel See also:rites of See also:Kali, whose altars in the most civilized districts of Bengal, as lately as the See also:famine of 1866, were stained with human See also:blood. Indeed, the very word Hindu is one of absolutely indeterminate meaning.. The See also:census See also:officers employ it as a convenient generic to include 42 millions of the population of Bengal, comprising elements of transparently distinct ethnical origin, and separated from each other by their See also:language, customs and religious rites. But See also:Hinduism, understood even in this wide sense, represents only one of many See also:creeds and races found within Bengal. The other great See also:historical cultus, which during the last twelve centuries did for the Semitic peoples what See also:Christianity accomplished among the European See also:Aryans, has won to itself one-fifth of the population of Bengal. The Mahommedans 4 See also:umber some 9,000,000 in Bengal, but the great bulk of their See also:numbers was transferred to Eastern Bengal and Assam. They consist largely of the See also:original inhabitants of the country, who were proselytized by the successive See also:Pathan and See also:Mogul invasions. In the See also:face of great natural catastrophes, such as river inundations, famines, tidal waves and cyclones of the lower provinces of Bengal, the religious See also:instinct See also:works with a vitality unknown in European countries. Until the British See also:government stepped in with its See also:police and canals and railroads, between the people and what they were accustomed to consider the dealings of See also:Providence, scarcely a year passed without some terrible manifestation of the power and the wrath of God. Mahratta invasions from central India, piratical devastations on the sea-board, banditti who marched about the interior in bodies of 50,000 men, floods which drowned the harvests of whole districts, and droughts in which a third of the population starved to See also:death, kept alive a sense of human powerlessness in the presence of an omnipotent See also:fate. Under the Mahommedans a pestilence turned the See also:capital into a silent wilderness, never again to be re-peopled. Under British rule it is estimated that to millions perished within the Lower Provinces alone in the famine of 1769–1770; and the first surveyor-See also:general of Bengal entered on his maps a See also:tract of many hundreds of square miles as See also:bare of villages and " depopulated by the Maghs." But since the See also:advent of British See also:administration the See also:history of Bengal has substantially been a See also:record of prosperity; the teeming population of its river valleys is one of the densest in the world, and the purely agricultural districts of Saran and Muzaffarpur in the Patna See also:division support over 90o persons to the square mile, a number hardly surpassed elsewhere except in See also:urban areas. Language.—Excluding immigrants the languages spoken by the people of Bengal belong to one or other of four linguistic families—Aryan, See also:Dravidian, Munda and Tibeto-Burman. Of these the languages of the Aryan family are by far the most important, being spoken by no less than 95 % of the population according to the census of Igor . The Aryan languages are spoken in the plains by almost the whole population; the Munda and Dravidian in the Chota Nagpur plateau and adjoining tracts; and the Tibeto-Burman in See also:Darjeeling, Sikkim and See also:Jalpaiguri. The most important Aryan languages are See also:Bengali (q.v.), See also:Bihari, Eastern Hindi and Oriya. On the average in the province, before partition, out of every r000 persons 528 spoke Bengali, 341 Hindi and Bihari, and 79 Oriya. As a rule Bengali is the language of Bengal proper, Hindi of Behar and Chota Nagpur, and Oriya of Orissa.
See also:Agriculture.—The See also:staple See also:crop of the province is rice, to which about 66% of the cropped area is devoted. There are three harvests in the year—the See also:born, or See also:spring rice; aus, or autumn rice; and avian, or See also:winter rice. Of these the last or winter rice is by far the most extensively cultivated, and forms the great See also:harvest of the year. The dman crop is grown on See also:low land. In May, after the first fall of See also:rain, a nursery ground is ploughed three times, and the See also:seed scattered broadcast. 'When the seedlings make their appearance another See also: Harvest takes See also:place in See also:December or See also:January. Plus rice is generally sown on high ground. The field is ploughed when the See also:early rains set in, ten or twelve times over, till the soil is reduced nearly to dust, the seed being sown broadcast in See also:April or May. As soon as the young See also:plants reach 6 in. in height, the land is harrowed for the purpose of thinning the crop and to clear it of weeds. The crop is harvested in See also:August or See also:September. Born, or spring rice, is cultivated on low marshy land, being sown in a nursery in See also:October, transplanted a month later, and harvested in See also: The cultivation of this crop has rapidly increased of See also:late years. Its principal seat of cultivation, however, is Eastern Bengal, where the See also:superior varieties are grown. The crop grows on either high or low lands, is sown in April and cut in August. Apart from the quantity exported and the quantity made up by See also:hand, it supports a prosperous See also: Another of rising importance is that of Jherria, with an area of 200 sq. m., which is situated only 16 m. tothe west of Raniganj; while Daltonganj also has an area of 200 sq. m. The small coalfield of Karharbari with an area of only 11 sq. m. yields the best coal in Bengal. Besides these four coalfields there are twenty-five others of various sizes, which are only in the initial stages of development. See also:Commerce.—The sea-borne trade of Bengal is almost entirely concentrated at Calcutta (q.v.), which also serves as the chief See also:port for Eastern Bengal and Assam, and for the United Provinces. The principal imports are cotton piece goods, railway materials, metals and machinery, See also:oils, See also:sugar, cotton, twist and See also:salt; and the principal exports are jute, tea, hides, opium, rice, oil-seeds, indigo and lac. The inter-provincial trade is mostly carried on with Eastern Bengal and Assam, the United Provinces and the Central Provinces. From the United Provinces come opium, hides, raw cotton, wheat, shellac and oil-seeds; and from Assam, tea, oil-seeds and jute. The frontier trade of Bengal is registered with Nepal, Sikkim, See also:Tibet and See also:Bhutan, but except with Nepal the amount is insignificant. See also:Railways.—Bengal is well supplied with railways, which naturally have the seaport of Calcutta as the centre of the system. South of the Ganges, the East See also:Indian follows the river from the North-Western Provinces, with its See also:terminus at Howrah on the See also:Hugh, opposite Calcutta. A chord line passes by the coalfield of Raniganj,. which enables this great railway to be worked more economically than any other in India. The Bengal-Nagpur; from the Central Provinces, also has its terminus at Howrah, and the See also:section of this railway through Midnapore carries the East Coast line from Madras. North of the Ganges the Eastern Bengal runs north to Darjeeling, and maintains a service of river steamers on the Brahmaputra. The Bengal Central serves the lower Gangetic delta. Both of these have their termini at Sealdah, an eastern suburb of Calcutta. Northern Behar is traversed by the Bengal & North-Western, with an See also:extension eastwards through Tirhoot to join the Eastern Bengal. In addition there are a few See also:light lines and See also:steam tramways. Canals and Rivers.—Rivers and other waterways still carry a large part of the See also:traffic of Bengal, especially in the delta. The government maintains two channels through the Sundarbans, known as the Calcutta and Eastern canals, and likewise does its best to keep open the Nadiya rivers, which See also:form the communication between the main stream of the Ganges and the Hugli. There is further a route by water between Calcutta and Midnapore. The most important canals, those in Orissa (see MAHANADI) and on the Sone river in southern Behar, have been constructed primarily for See also:irrigation, though they are also used for See also:navigation. Except as a See also:protection against famine, See also:expenditure on irrigation is not remunerative in Bengal, on See also:account of the abundance of rivers, and the general dampness of the climate. Administration.—The administration of Bengal is conducted by a lieutenant-governor, with a chief secretary, two secretaries and three under-secretaries. There is no executive See also:council, as in Madras and Bombay; but there is a hoard of See also:revenue, consisting of two members. For legislative purposes the lieutenant-governor has a council of twenty members, of whom not more than ten may be officials. Of the remaining members seven are nominated on the recommendation of the Calcutta See also:corporation, See also:groups of municipalities, groups of district boards, selected public associations and the See also:senate of Calcutta university. The number of divisions or commissionerships is 6, of which Chota Nagpur ranks as " non-regulation." The number of districts is 33.
See also:Army.—In See also:Lord See also:Kitchener's reconstitution of the Indian army in 1904 the old Bengal command was abolished and its place taken by the Eastern army See also:corps, which includes all the troops from See also:Meerut to Assam. The boundaries of the 8th division include those of the former Oudh, See also:Allahabad, Assam and Presidency districts; and the troops now quartered in Bengal only consist of the Presidency See also:brigade with its head-quarters at Fort See also: From 1340 to 1539 its governors asserted a See also:precarious See also:independence, and arrogated the position of sovereigns on their own account. From 1540 to 1576 Bengal passed under the rule of the Pathan or Afghan See also:dynasty, which commonly bears the name of Sher Shah. On the overthrow of this See also:house by the powerful arms of See also:Akbar, Bengal was incorporated into the Mogul See also:empire, and administered by governors appointed by the Delhi . emperor, until the See also:treaties of 1765, which placed Bengal, Behar and Orissa under the administration of the East India Company. The Company formed its earliest settlements in Bengal in the first See also:half of the 17th century. These settlements were of a purely commercial character. In 1620 one of the Company's factors dates from Patna; in 164–1636 the Company established itself, by the favour of the emperor, on the ruins of the ancient Portuguese See also:settlement of Pippli, in the north of Orissa; in 1640–1642 an English surgeon, See also:Gabriel See also:Boughton, obtained establishments at Balasore, also in Orissa, and at Hugli, some miles above Calcutta. The vexations and extortions to which the Company's early agents were subjected more than once almost induced them to abandon the trade, and in 1677–1678 they threatened to withdraw from Bengal altogether. In 1685, the Bengal factors, driven to extremity by the oppression of the Mogul governors, threw down the See also:gauntlet; and after various successes and hairbreadth escapes, See also:purchased from the See also:grandson of See also:Aurangzeb, in 1696, the villages which have since grown up into Calcutta, the See also:metropolis of India. During the next fifty years the British had a See also:long and hazardous struggle alike with the Mogul governors of the province and the Mahratta armies which invaded it. In 1756 this struggle culminated in the great See also:outrage known as the See also:Black Hole of Calcutta, followed by See also:Clive's See also:battle of See also:Plassey and See also:capture of Calcutta, which avenged it. That battle, and the subsequent years of confused fighting, established British military supremacy in Bengal, and procured the treaties of 1765, by which the provinces of Bengal, Behar and Orissa passed under British administration. To See also:Warren See also:Hastings (1772–1785) belongs the See also:glory of consolidating the British power, and converting a military occupation into a See also:stable See also:civil government. To another member of the civil service, See also: In Bengal the rising began at Barrackpore, was communicated to Dacca in Eastern Bengal, and for a time raged in Behar, producing the memorable See also:defence of the billiard-See also:room at Arrah by a handful of civilians and Sikhs—one of the most splendid pieces of gallantry in the history of the British arms. Since 1858, when the country passed to the crown, the history of Bengal has been one of steady progress. Five great lines of railway have been constructed. Trade has enormously See also:expanded; new centres of commerce have sprung up in spots which formerly were silent jungles; new staples of trade, such as tea and jute, have rapidly attained importance; and the coalfields and iron ores have opened up prospects of a new and splendid era in the internal development of the country. During the See also:decade 1891–1901 Bengal was fortunate in escaping to a great extent the two calamities of famine and See also:plague which afflicted central and western India. The drought of 1896–1897 did indeed extend to Bengal, but not to such an extent as to cause actual famine. The See also:distress was most acute in the densely populated districts of northern Behar, and in the remote hills of Chota Nagpur. Plague first appeared at Calcutta in a sporadic form in April 1898, but, down to April of the following year the See also:total number of deaths ascribed to plague throughout the province was less than 1000, compared with 191,000 for Bombay. At the beginning of 1900, however, there was a serious recrudescence of plague at Calcutta, and a See also:malignant outbreak in the district of Patna, which caused z000 deaths a See also:week. In the early months of 1901, plague again appeared in the same regions. The number of deaths in 1904 was 75,436, the highest recorded up to that date. The See also:earthquake of the 12th of See also:June 1897, which had its centre of disturbance in Assam, was See also:felt throughout eastern and northern Bengal. In all the large towns the See also:masonry buildings were severely damaged or totally wrecked. The permanent way of the railways also suffered. The total number of deaths returned was only 135. Far more destructive to life was the See also:cyclone and See also:storm-See also:wave that See also:broke over Chittagong district on the See also:night of the 24th of October 1897. Apart from damage to See also:shipping and buildings, the low-lying lands along the coast were completely submerged, and in many villages half the inhabitants were drowned. The loss of human lives was reported to be about 14,000, and the number of cattle drowned about 15,000. As usual in such cases, a severe outbreak of See also:cholera followed in the track of the storm-wave. Another natural calamity on a large scale occurred at Darjeeling in October 1899. Torrential rains caused a series of landslips, carrying away houses and breaking up the hill railway. The most notable event, however, of See also:recent times was the partition of the province, which was decided upon by Lord Curzon, -and carried into See also:execution in October 1905. Serious popular agitation followed this step, on the ground (inter alia) 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 See also:developed to a considerable extent, requiring See also:special See also:attention from the Indian and See also:home governments; but as part of the general history of India the See also:movement may be best discussed under that heading (see INDIA: History). See See also:Parliamentary Papers See also:relating to the reconstitution of the provinces of Bengal and Assam (Cd. 2658 and Cd. 2746, 1905) ; See also:Colonel E. T. See also:Dalton, The See also:Ethnology of Bengal (1872); See also:Sir W. W. See also:Hunter, See also:Annals of Rural Bengal (1868), and Orissa (1872) ; Sir H. H. Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal (1891); C. E. See also:Buckland, Bengal under the Lieutenant-Governors 1901) ; and Sir See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] BENFEY, THEODOR (1809-1881) |
[next] BENGAL, BAY OF |