Karatoya : North Bengal University journal of History, Vol. 09
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://ir.nbu.ac.in/handle/123456789/3870
Note from the Editor-in-Chief
On behalf of the Department of History, University of North Bengal, it is my privilege to present to the readers the Volume 09 (2016) of the Karatoya: North Bengal University Journal of History. The journal has incorporated the research papers from ancient Indian History, Medieval Indian History and Modern Indian History and contemporary as well. The Volume 09 is being published after all the articles having been refereed and peer reviewed with the ISSN 2229-4880. The Karatoya: North Bengal University Journal of History is a UGC Approved Journal of Arts and Humanities with Serial No. 42512
The editor of the journal do not judge for the facts stated, opinions expressed and conclusions reached is entirely that of the authors concern and the editor of the journal accepts no responsibility for the same.
It is my solemn duty to express my gratitude to our Honurable Vice Chancellor, Registrar, Finance Officer for their generous concern on 'Academic Endeavour'. I am thankful to my colleagues of the Department of History for their warm encouragement and necessary cooperation for publishing this journal. Mr Varun Kr. Roy, associate editor of this volume deserved huge appreciation for his constant help in publishing this volume.
I am also grateful to all the contributors for providing valuable research papers. Last but not least, the Officials and the Staffs of the North Bengal University Press deserve heartiest thanks for their cooperation in printing the journal within limited span of time.
Bijoy Kr. Sarkar
Editor-in-Chief
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Item Open Access Trade and Trading Items of Colonial Bengal: A survey of Imported and Exported Trade Items (1602-1757 A.D.)(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Lama, Sudash; Mandal, ProdipA region as geographical units is a historical construction whose boundary is defined and redefined by the contemporary political and culture condition. Our delineation of region depends on our perspective on the history. It is to be noted that, during the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth century, we know that the geographical limits of subha was often the exceeded area now presently covered by East Bengal or Bengladesh and the Indian state West Bengal. And also we noted that, during the contemporary time period, a flourishing textile industry, urbanization and trade with the western Gangetic plains, and also Indo- European maritime trade. We see that seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth century, Company established trade relations with Bengal only after it had been operating elsewhere in the subcontinent for a period of nearly three decades. But once a beginning had been made, the growth of the Company 's trade in the region was remarkable rapid. During the latter half of the seventeenth century, the Bengal trade played a crucial role in the Company's intra-Asian trade. Similarly, at a slightly later date, opium procured in Bihar accounted for a substantial proportion of the total Dutch imports into the Indonesian archipelago. Toward the close of the seventeenth century, as the composition of the exports to Europe underwent a drastic change in favors of textiles and silks manufactured in Bengal and elsewhere, the trade from this region assumed an altogether new significance. This paper we attempt to show about import and export trade items of Bengal from 1602 to 1757 A.D.Item Open Access Rajmahal: A Medieval Town in Subah Bengal(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Roy, Varun KumarFar below Gour, but still in high repute, is Rajmahal, which has drawn interests to scholars of history. The city founded by Raja Mann Singh and adored by Sultan Shuja, at one time rivaled Delhi in splendor and luxury. Up to recent years we can spot many vestiges of the work done by Raja Mann Singh and Sultan Suja. Bishop Heber remarks of the palace of Sultan Sujah, of the stone roofed and delicately carved balcony 'stills retain traces of gilding and Arabic inscriptions. ' This paper tries to resurface the lost pomp and opulence of the 'Town' and the nucleus of the whole argument aims at revival of history of 'Medieval Eastern Bengal ', which is still in oblivion.Item Open Access Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and the Partition of India(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Bhattacharjee, DhananjoyOne of the greatest scholars of Muslim culture and finest interpreters of the Quran and Islamic theology, a leading Muslim journalist, a distinguished 'servant ' of Indian nationalism, a champion of Hindu-Muslim unity and communal harmony, Maulana Abut Kalam Azad ranks together with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru as one of the prominent and dignified leaders of Indian freedom movement and shines as a 'secular polestar' in the political canvas of India. Although he was a 'Maulana ', his religion was absolutely free from narrow-mindedness and he was the greatest among the nationalist Muslims who fought for a united India. When Jinnah was fighting for a separate homeland for the Muslims, Azad proposed a completely different plan in order to prevent the partition but finally failed to avert it in 1947. The present paper makes a sincere attempt to highlight the role of Azad in national liberation movement, analyze his mind and approach towards the partition scheme and also tries to evaluate and relate his philosophy and activities in the present context.Item Open Access Understanding the Transformation of Colonial Darjeeling Hills Through the Study of South Asian Environmental History(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Sarkar, TahitiWhile initiating the search for o causal relation between human society and nature, scholars have been able to establish environmental history as an enticing field of academic enquiry. Within the general historiographical discourse on environmental history, two broad trends seem discernable: the American tradition and the French tradition. While the former thrusts upon the dialectics of environmental destruction/ degradation and conservation, with a focus on 'deep' ecology observing nature as possessing intrinsic value in itself which alone entitles it to be preserved and 'shallow' ecology, emphasizing preservation of nature because of its potential as a 'resource' for the use of humansthe latter, represented by the Annales School of France, contradicts the American tradition of perennial changes occurring in the environment. The Annalists attempted to explain social and economic changes in an environmental setting that was subject to slow pace of observable change or no change.Item Open Access Memsahib's in Tea Industry: A Study of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri Districts in Nineteenth and twentieth Century(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Biswas, SupamThe Memsahib 's in tea plantations were mainly of British, Scottish or Irish descent. They enjoyed the social status derived from their husband's rank in the colonial hierarchy. A Jew of them were prolific writers, painters. On a larger garden the Memsahib might have one or two European assistants. Indian servants were an indispensable part of their daily mode of living. They were completely depended on Indian wet - nurses (ayahs) to breast feed their children. In short they established an identity for themselves in a European male dominated society by writing, travelling and most importantly by religious and philanthropic activity.Item Open Access The Changing Status of Women in Modern Bhutan with Relation to Education (From 1914 to 2003 A.D.)(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Paul, RatnaTill the middle of the last century Bhutan was isolated from the outside world and its social system was feudal. Historically, women were supposed to enjoy the same legal status as men, but after looking at the records and the practical aspects of women's lives we find that is not so true and practically their role was only of a home maker. The advancement and emancipation of women is virtually a recent phenomenon. Before the advent of modern education in the 1960s, the only form of education prevalent was traditional monastic education where Jew women got opportunity to educate themselves. Although the seed of modern school system to impart secular education was sown in 1914, women's entry in the formal education came about only after many years. We must, of course acknowledge that Bhutan was passing through a phase where parents preferred to send their sons to school rather than daughters not only because of harsh terrains, long distances, lack of accommodations or other general hardships but also because of the view that daughters were more vulnerable and more useful at home. In the 1960s with the Royal Government's intention to modernize the country, Five Year Plans were implemented and as a part of these plans, literacy rate was sought to be increased, and women found the doors of schools unlocked to educate themselves. Gradually the number of schools increased, so also the number of girl students. In the 1990s the government established hostel facilities for girls in the technical and vocational institutions. Nonformal system was introduced which was much more suitable for women. So, in spite of some age old gender disparity, women gradually became educated ushering increased awareness and thereby bolstering their status in the socio-economic-political fabric of Bhutanese society.Item Open Access Popular Protest Movements of Dinajpur in Post-Colonial Bengaland the Role of Left Political Parties: A Micro Level Study(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Pain, Swapan KumarThe contemporary trend of Indian history writing is 'history from below '. It means a number of historians have focused on the writing of the history of marginalized people or the common people who are discarded from the arena of mainstream of history. Recently, an attempt has been made to write the history of marginalized people or marginalized areas. Dinajpur is such kind a District where galaxy of historical incidents took place but till now the scholars are hardly attempted to write the peoples ' history of Dinajpur. After the end of World War II Bengal had to face a series of popular protest movements and Dinajpur was no exception to that. Primarily these movements were started by the then opposition parties i.e. left forces and it became spontaneous. 1 Even the ordinary people without any party affiliation joined these movements in great number and the District witnessed many protest movements in Colonial and of course Post-Colonial period.Item Open Access Contested Spaces: Population Dynamics, the Refugees and Changing Social Landscape of Siliguri (1835 To 2011 C.E.)(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Kumari, MinaksheeThe East India company in 1835 first acquired the nucleus of Darjeeling district from Raja of Sikkim, it was almost entirely under forest and particularly uninhabited. Although it was stated to have been inhabited probably a more accurate estimate was that these Hill tracks of 138 square miles contain the population of 100. The heavy forest and no communication facilities must have discouraged development and could have been a big obstruction for any increase of population. 1This research article traces how the population of Siliguri changed after independence and especially after the Indo Pakistan war when there was a huge flow of migration of people from surrounding areas and this totally altered the social landscape of the region.Item Open Access Unravelling the Myth: Exploring State and Religion under Aurangzeb(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Chettry, Aniket TathagataTraditional historiography often identifies Aurangzeb as 'communal' or as a 'religious bigot' whose orthodox policies alienated large sections of Hindu community away from Mughal rule weakening the base of the Mughal empire in the subcontinent. This article emphasises on the need to contextualize most of Aurangzeb's actions before he be labelled as communal or a bigot. This paper attempts to explore the politics behind many of Aurangzeb 's most controversial actions like the levying of j izyah or the destruction of temples in order to show that most of Aurangzeb 's policies were a response to the political exigencies encountered by him rather than being fueled by any quest/or imposing a rigid Islamic order throughout the Mughal empire. This article also focuses on several other aspects of Aurangzeb's reign, often ignored by the traditional historiography which clearly indicates Aurangzeb's willingness to conform to the model of rule laid down by Akbar which was based on a broad idea of tolerance and patronage to all religions.Item Open Access Malaria in Jalpaiguri: The History of an Epidemic Disease from 1869-1947(University of North Bengal, 2016-03) Sarkar, MonoranjanThis article is aimed to examine the spread of malaria disease and its socio-environment impact in the tea plantations area of Jalpaiguri district in colonial India. In recent times there are so many scholars who have studied the environment and health of colonial Bengal, unfortunately, missed Jalpaiguri as their study area or though mentioned only an or few lines on it. Hence present article proposes to examine a detailed study in this theme. The source materials are exclusively collected from the different literary texts, reports, statistical accounts etc. composed by the colonial officers and that of 'the indigenous writers; some of the original sources of have been collected from the officials of different Tea Estates and West Bengal State Achieves.