B engal, Popular Uprisings and Movements in the Colonial Era

The state of Bangladesh came into existence only in 1971. Before August 15, 1947, present‐day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh were known as one country, India. Bengal was in the eastern part of India. East Bengal was the part of Bengal including a sizable part of Bangla‐speaking north Bengal (i.e., excluding areas like Darjeeling, where the inhabitants more often speak Nepalese dialects), along with east and south Bengal. The territory of the old East Bengal is more or less the same area that is known as Bangladesh today. Bengal was a Suba (a province administered by a Subadar , with a Diwan , collecting revenues) in the Mughal Empire. But after the death of Aurangzeb, de facto power passed to the Subadars , now styling themselves Nawabs (Emperor).