Abstract
Topography, climate, vegetation, availability of water and other strategic resources critically contribute to the physical geography of a given region. And in a frontier like Bengal, such geographical factors played a vital role, be it large or small, in conditioning the various overlaps in the cultural and economic interactions that this frontier witnessed. Blessed with the lower portions of the great river systems of Northern and Eastern India and an abundant rainfall, although unfavourably distributed, Bengal enjoyed advantages from the point of view of agriculture which cannot be parallelled in other parts of India. The land was enriched by the yearly depositions of silt brought down by the rivers. Her climate, soil, and river systems therefore favoured cultivation. Yet such a bounty was also a boon as evident through the numerous rivers that traversed the region causing damage through her floods. This reflects the terrain of Bengal, interspersed with a large network of rivers of varying dimensions. In this environment, her rivers acted as agents of connection linking villages, towns and cities in the plains and the hills, shaping the life of eastern Bengal providing her a unique geo-ecological terrain. In this present paper, the focus will be on the territory of eastern Bengal which at a point of time covered present day states of the North-East, Bangladesh, as well as extend up to present day Burma (Myanmar).
Keywords: Dearth and Famine in 18th century Bengal, Drought, Flood, Ecological Dislocation
References
Allen, B. (1912). Eastern Bengal District Gazetteers: Dacca. Allahabad: Pioneer Press.(n.d.). Board of Revenue Miscellaneous Proceedings, 2-31st May, 1788. West Bengal State Archives.
(n.d.). Board of Revenue Proceedings, 3-20th June, 1788. West Bengal State Archives.
(n.d.). Board of Revenue: Land Revenue and Miscellaneous, 1-28th June, 1786. West Bengal State Archives.
Datta, R. (1996). Crisis and Survival. Calcutta Historical Journal, 7.
Datta, R. (1996, January -June). Crisis and Survival: Ecology, Subsistence and Cropping in Eighteenth Century Bengal. Calcutta Historical Journal, I, 1-34.
Datta, R. (2000). Society, Economy and the Market. Delhi: Manohar Publishers.
Hunter, W. (1965). Annals of Rural Bengal, Vol. I. Calcutta.
Khan, S. G. (1990). Seir Mutsqherin or Review of the Modern Times being a History of India Containing in General the Last Emperors of Hindostan (Vol. III). Delhi: Low Price Publications.
Maclane, J. R. (1993). Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth Century Bengal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(n.d.). Revenue Department: Governor General in Council, 1-11th March, 1775. West Bengal State Archives.