The New Cambridge History of India: Bengal: The British Bridgehead: Eastern India 1740-1828 Volume 2, Part 2

The aim of Bengal:The British Bridgehead is to explain how, in the eighteenth century, Britain established her rule in eastern India, the first part of the sub-continent to be incorporated into the British Empire. Professor Marshall begins his analysis with the reign of Alivardi Khan, the last effective Mughal ruler of eastern India. He then explores the social, cultural, and economic ihanges that followed the imposition of foreign rule and seeks to assess the consequences for the peoples of the region; emphasis is given throughout as much to continuities rooted deep in the history of Bengal, as to the more obvious effects of British domination. The volume closes with British rule firmly established, the arrival of Lord William Bentinck, and the failure of the great Agency Houses. The aim of Bengal: The British Bridgehead is to explain how, in the eighteenth century, Britain established her rule in eastern India, the first part of the subcontinent to be incorporated into the British Empire. Though the British were not in firm control of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa until 1765, to illustrate the circumstances in which they gained power and elucidate the Indian inheritance that so powerfully shaped the early years of their rule, professor Marshall begins his analysis around 1740 with the reign of Alivardi Khan, the last effective Mughal ruler of eastern India. He then explores the social, cultural and economic changes that followed the imposition of foreign rule and seeks to assess the consequences for the peoples of the region; emphasis is given throughout as much to continuities rooted deep in the history of Bengal as to the more obvious effects of British domination. The volume closes in the 1820s when, with British rule firmly established, a new pattern of cultural and economic relations was developing between Britain and eastern India Some vols. paperback editions. Includes bibliographies and indexes. v. 2. Indian states and the transition to colonialism: pt. 1. Indian society and the making of the British Empire / C.A. Bayly -- v. 2. pt. 3. The Sikhs of the Punjab / J.S. Grewel -- v. 3. The Indian empire and the beginnings of modern society: pt. 3. The economy of modern India, 1860-1970 / B.R. Tomlinson -- v. 3. pt. 4. Ideologies of the Raj / Thomas R. Metcalf -- v. 4. The evolution of contemporary India: pt. 1. The politics of India since independence / Paul R. Brass -- v. 4. pt. 3. Caste, society and politics in India from the eighteenth century to the modern age / Susan Bayly Early in the eighteenth century the very diverse areas which now make up three states of contemporary India, West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, together with present-day Bangladesh, were loosely welded together under a single Governor to form the eastern wing of the Mughal empire. 1. The Setting For Empire -- 2. Late Mughal Bengal -- 3. The Crisis Of Empire, 1740-65 -- 4. The New Regime -- 5. A New Society? -- 6. Conclusion. P.j. Marshall. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 183-188.