Land of Two Rivers

Nitish K. Sengupta presents Bengal as a historical region formed by the Ganga–Brahmaputra delta rather than by the later borders of India and Bangladesh. Beginning with traditions preserved in the Mahabharata and the emergence of early kingdoms, he follows Sasanka’s Gaur, the imperial Palas, the Sena dynasty and the Turkish and independent sultanates. The development of the Bengali language, the spread of Islam and the devotional movement associated with Chaitanya show how political change produced a distinctive regional culture.

The later chapters move through Mughal Bengal, the independent nawabs and the East India Company conquest after Plassey, examining the economic and social transformations of colonial rule. Sengupta then traces the Bengal Renaissance, religious and social reform, nationalist politics, the partitions of 1905 and 1947, and the diverging histories of West Bengal and East Pakistan. The account ends with the language conflict, political mobilisation and leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that carried East Pakistan toward the independent state of Bangladesh in 1971.