L-19 Bangladesh political History

Evolution of political Ideas and movements Bengal in the nineteenth century:

Well before the establishment of English rule in the later part of the
eighteenth century the existing government which was in Bengal was nothing but
despotism. Despotism was by both Hindu and Muslim rulers in the middle ages without
challenging its legality. The modern concept of government based on public opinion was
no one dreamed of it. In fact it was only after the establishment of the British rule and its
indirect result, slowly started the political consciousness to develop among the
intellectuals and the educated classes of people in this country. But the most important
factor is that it was not just the establishment of the foreign British political rule and
dominion; it was through the British domination that this country came in contact with
the Western world – a world which was also going through a great deal of revolutionary
transformation. A transformation which indeed brought new ideas and institutions which
had developed in Europe by some process of history, which was introduced in this
subcontinent , by which far reaching changes began to develop and take place in the
political, social and economic life of the people in Bengal.

It must be said that the development of political consciousness was largely

influenced by the characteristic features of the English rule in this country. Although the
Bengal people changed their Muslim rulers to the British rule, but in conducting the
administration of India, the East India Company blindly followed the age old Indian
traditional rule of despotism. In fact, the British viceroy Lord Dwfferin (1884-88) very
clearly commented that the characteristic of British rule in India was nothing but “strong
and uncompromising despotism”. But this despotism was of “different shade of colour”
so to speak. Whatever the activities of the East India Company in India or in Bengal,
they were not responsible to the Indian Parliament but certainly to the British Parliament
for all its activities in Indian subcontinent. By 1858 the British Parliament passed an act
by which the company’s rule was terminated and sovereign authority over the whole
region passed to the British crown.

Indeed, the very fact that the nineteenth century turned out to be ‘the
important age of transition’. For during this period that the people of India really felt the
impact of “Western Civilization”. Although the impact of the “Westernization” was taking
place quite slowly in Bengal too; as the process of Westernization began to develop in
Bengal, the fact that through the “parliamentary system government” was not
established in India, but English ideas and institutions began to be introduced in course
of time, which really affected the social and political out look of the people which
accelerated more during the nineteenth century. There was another development of the
commercial activities specially in Bengal which however, gave rise of a ‘new commercial
class’. Similarly, out of this class, a new educated middle class, this was highly
influenced by the Western education and Civilization.

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L-19 Bangladesh political History

Interestingly, there developed a movement by the ‘English Free-Traders’

who came against the monopoly of the East India Company’s early rule. This movement
however, promoted the growth of “western political ideas and institutions” in this
country. In fact, a section liberal minded Bengali land lords who were also in the
commercial activities had joined hands with the Free-Traders. On the other hand the
English merchants were quite eager to have the collaboration of the Bengali Indian
merchants on their side. They even encouraged them to express publicly to their views
on the evils of the Company’s rule. They were rather radical in their political views and
outlook and they tried to propagate them. Besides this, there were two other factors
which helped to develop the political consciousness. They were for example; one was
for the quick development of the English education and secondly, was the publication of
newspapers. It must be pointed out that the very early newspaper of Asia were
published in Bengal. This shows that these newspapers not only expressed
contemporary public opinion, they also tried to would their thoughts too. The political
consciousness was growing in a very slow process, but this was due to the growing
discontent among the Indian people in the society against the British rule even in that
earlier period. [Example regulation Act III of the Jurors Act of 1826 only meant for
European Iwersact of 1828].

It is true that after the British rule had established in Bengal, that the old
order of the Landed Aristocracy and Feudal lords, and the social leadership of the
landed Muslim families were all destroyed by the permanent settlement of 1793. A
new class of aristocracy developed and emerged in the society. They were the money
lenders and merchants who acquired huge amount of money in collaboration with the
British by purchasing landed properties. They were the new moneyed Baniya class
formed the new aristocracy of the British period. Needless to say that these kind of
moneyed aristocrats stood at the top of the social ladder in the early part of the
nineteenth century. Below this, there emerged other strata of people from various
professions, such as lawyers, teachers, medical practitioners, doctors, offices, business
sectors and small trading companies. These were known as the core of the Bengali
middle class. However, a distinctive feature of its social characters was that it is
composed of Hindus only, since the Hindus were the first one to learn the English
language with much enthusiasm , and also took the advantages of jobs, government
services etc. Whenever they were available Persian was still used in all Indicial courts
and Revenue administration. In 1781, the Calcutta Madrasa was founded by and
established by the governor-general Warren Hastings. The required training was
provided to the Calcutta Madrasa. Till 1837 the Muslims had been occupying privileged
position under the East India Company’s rule. But the change was inevitable in the form
of ‘political Consciousness’ which began to develop due to dissatisfaction with British
rule. This dissatisfaction was of various kinds and was expressed in various ways. The
so called ‘public opinion’ was expressed through medium of newspapers and

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L-19 Bangladesh political History

periodicals, various Associations and public meetings and numerous petitions and
prayers addressed to the government. Here public opinions meant the opinion of the
urban based and middle classes. Since these classes actually had the capability and
responsibility to provide leadership to the communities throughout the country. The
contributions of Ram Mohan Roy (1774-1833) toward awakening of political
consciousness in this subcontinent were very significant. For examples, Roy with a
number of Hindu and Muslim leaders of the country sent petitions protesting against
certain Discriminatory clauses of the Indian Jury Act of 1826 and also against
Regulation relating to the “Resumption of Rent-Free Lands”. These were just few
examples of the early growth of national feelings at that time. By 1837 the
bengallandholderssocity was established by the Zamindars of Bengal to promote their
class interest. Although the permanent settlement of 1793 introduced by Lord
Cornwallis had promoted some kind of social stability in Bengal but still other problems
remained. All along those Tenant-Farmers continued to suffer from the oppression of
the Landholders. This was destroy gradually, and the new class of landed Interest
developed by Hindu merchants etc. They were very frequent pent up uprising by the
Muslim peasantries and farmers against the Hindu Zamindars and Landholders.
Sometimes it was characterized as religious movements or communal in characters.
The revolt of the peasant religious leader Titu Mir in West Bengal and the Faraizi
movement of Haji Shariat Ullah and Dudu Mia in East Bengal during the early decades
of the nineteenth century. However, the government passed several Regulating Acts in
connection with Rent-Free lands and eventually managed a considerable amount of
lands which were in the possession of the Zamindars and finally came back to the
government.

In the nineteenth century public opinions were expressed through various

newspapers and public Associations. For instance, in 1843 Bengal British Indian society
was established. Its main objects were to draw the attention of the government like the
“Tatta badhini Patrika” edited by Akshay Kumar Dutta (1820-1886) was severely
criticized govt. politics. In 1851 the British India Association was established,
conservative leader like Radhakant Deb (1783-1867) joined with Reformist leader
Debendranath Tagore (1817-1905) which contributed much toward awakening of
national consciousness. In fact this association failed to uphold the interest of the
common people to help them out as it belonged to Hindus.

In Calcutta, a separate Muslim association called Anjuman – I – Islam or

The Muhammadan Association was established in 1855. The leader of this association
was in the hands of the Urdu speaking Muslim Elites of Calcutta. As Jayanti Mitra has
observed, “The most eminent Hindu political leaders failed to understand the real
feelings and grievances of the Muslim community.

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L-19 Bangladesh political History

In 1857 ‘The Sepay Mutiny’ had a large support of anti British uprising in
northern India and a little impact in Bengal because the upper and middle classes of
Bengali society were linked with the British Raj were supporting the government. There
was the ‘Blue Mutiny’ of 1859-62. That is the English had introduced the cultivation of
Indigo in this country in late eighteenth century. Due to the Industrial Revolution in
Europe, the demand for Indigo had increased in Europe. The indigo planters had used
force to produce more. These indigo planters had been able to draw attention from the
educated middle classes of Bengal which had a great contribution to the development of
political and national consciousness in the country. Towards the end of the nineteenth
century the progress of the nationalistic movements in Italy, Germany, and Hungry etc.
influenced the educated middle classes. In 1870 the National Society was formed by the
educated Hindu Bhadralok. By 1876 mainly at the instigation of Surendranath Banerjee
a professor of English Literature and History, a new public association was set up as
Indian Association. Against this sort of unrest background, in 1885 the stage was ready
for the emergence of an All India National Congress was actually initiated and
organized by liberal minded retried English Civil servant Allan Octavian Hume (1829-
1912). It was blessed by him then Viceroy Lord Dufferin. It was first presided over by a
Bengal barrister Womesh Chandra Banarjee. Allen Hume commented that “A safety
value for the great and growing forces generated by our action was urgently needed
and no more effactions safely-value than our Congress movement could possibly be
devised”.

Courtesy by: kaisar syed 4