Bengal (Presidency)

Bengal Presidency was an administrative subdivision of British India established in 1765. At its peak in the 19th century it extended from the North West Frontier Province to Burma, Singapore and Penang. Bengal proper was divided into West Bengal and Eastern Bengal and Assam in 1905. In 1912 there was a further re-organisation into Bengal, Bihar & Orissa and Assam. Bengal Presidency became a province in 1935.

See Presidencies in the Beginners' Guide

External Links

• Bengal Presidency 1633-1757 Google Books
  
• Bengal Presidency Wikipedia
• 1850 Map of the Diocese of Calcutta The Colonial Church Atlas 3rd Edition 1850. National Library of Australia Digital Collections-Maps Catalogue entry

Historical books online

• Also see Calcutta
• Bengal; its Chiefs, Agents, and Governors by Frederick Charles Danvers 1888 Archive.org
• Selections from unpublished records of government for the years 1748-1767 inclusive relating mainly to the social condition of Bengal, with a map of Calcutta in 1784, Volume I by Rev J. Long, member of the Government Record Commission. 1869 Google Books. Index Note: Map not included
• The Indian Records Series: Bengal in 1756-1757: a selection of public and private papers dealing with the affairs of the British in Bengal during the reign of Siraj-Uddaula. Edited, with notes and an historical introduction, by S. C. Hill, late Officer in charge of the Records of the Government of India 1905. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III Archive.org
• A Description of the Roads in Bengal and Bahar by James Rennell 1778 Google Books
• Indian Records Series: Fort William - India House Correspondence. Published for the National Archives of India. Archive.org
  • (Public Series) Vol.1 1748-1756 Edited by K K Datta. 1958
  • (Public Series) Vol.2 1757-1759 Edited by H N Sinha. 1957
  • (Public Series) Vol.3 (1760-1763) Edited by R R Sethi. 1949
  • (Public Series) Vol.4 1764-1766 Edited by C S by Srinivasachari. 1962
  • (Public Series) Vol.5 1767-1769 Edited by Narendra Krishna Sinha. 1949
  • Vol. 6 Public, Select and Secret 1770-1772 Edited by Bisheshwar Prasad. 1960
  • (Public Series) Vol.7 1773-1776 Edited by R P Patwardhan. 1949
  • (Public Series) Vol.9 1782-5 Edited by B A Saltore 1959
  • (Public Series) Vol. 10 1786-1788 Edited by Raghubir Sinh 1959. Title page contains reference PDA.24/500
  • (Public Series) Vol.11 1789-1792 Edited by I B Banjeree. 1974
  • (Public Series) Vol.13 1796-1800 Edited by P C Gupta. 1959
  • Vol. 15 Foreign and Secret 1782-1786 Edited by C H Philips and B B Misra. 1963
  • (Foreign, Political and Secret) Vol. 17 1792-1795. Edited by Y J Taraporewala. 1955
  • (Military Series) Vol.20 1792-1796 Edited by A C Banerjee. 1969. Letters to and from the Military Department
  • (Military Series) Vol.21 1797-1800 Edited by Sita Ram Kohli. 1968. Letters to and from the Military Department
  • The volumes not available online are available at the British Library UIN: BLL01009529821, being (Public series) v. 8. 1777-81 ed. by Hira Lal Gupta 1981; v. 12. 1793-95 ed. by A. Tripathi. (Foreign, secret and political) v. 14 1752-81 ed. by Amba Prasad 1985; v. 16. 1787-1791 ed. by Syed Hasan Askari; v. 18 1796-1800 ed. by H. Heras 1974. (Military series) v. 19. 1787-1791 ed. by B. Prasad.
• Selections from the letters, despatches, and other state papers preserved in the Foreign Department of the Government of India, 1772-1785 by GW Forrest (3 volumes), published 1890. Volume I, Volume III Archive.org. The three volumes are also available on Hathitrust Digital Library, available to those in North America etc
• Bengal and Madras papers: recounting the growth of British power in India edited by G W Forrest 1928. Published by Imperial Record Department, Calcutta.

Volume I [1670-1688]; Vol. II [1688-1757]; Vol. III [1757-1785]. Links to pdf downloads Digital Repository of GIPE, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, India.

• ‪India Tracts: Containing a Description of the Jungle Terry Districts, Their Revenues, Trade, and Government: with a Plan for the Improvement of Them. Also an History of the Origin and Progress of the Sicks‬ by Major J Browne 1788 Google Books
• Bengal MS. Records. A Selected List of 14,136 Letters in the Board of Revenue, Calcutta 1782-1807 by William Wilson Hunter 1894 Archive.org
  • Volume 1, 1782-1793 with a Dissertation on Landed Property and Land Rights in Bengal at the End of the Eighteenth Century,Volume 2, 1794-1797, Volume 3, 1798-1801, Volume 4, 1802-1807 with an Index of all four volumes
• ‪Sketches of India; or, Observations descriptive of the scenery, &c., in Bengal. Written in India in the years 1811-14. With notes on the Cape of Good-Hope and St. Helena… ‬1816 Google Books. By an unknown author. Also available as a British Library digital file. The author has been described as "... certainly not in the services, shows no sign of having been in Company employ (although he is published by the booksellers to the HEIC), and gives no indication as to the purpose of his visit to India. We can only presume that he was a well-informed, and well-connected gentleman of means.
• Calcutta and Bengal c 1819 commences page 106, Sketches of India by 'An Officer for Fire-Side Travellers At-Home' [Captain Moyle Sherer] 2nd edition, with additions 1824 Archive.org
• The Road Book of India; or, East Indian traveller's guide through the presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay by John B Seely, Captain Bombay Army. 1825 Google Books. Contains many place names.
• European Agency Houses in Bengal (1783-1833) by S B Singh 1966. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• Statistics of the Colonies of the British Empire from the Official Records of the Colonial Office by Robert Montgomery Martin 1839 Google Books. Book IV- Possessions in Asia "Chapter I-Hindostan" pages 273-368
• Routes In The Bengal Presidency by Major Fred. Roberts 1865. Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection.
• The Annals of Rural Bengal by William Wilson Hunter 1868 Archive.org
• Bradshaw's Hand-book to the Bengal Presidency, and Western Provinces of India 1860 Google Books
• Handbook of the Bengal Presidency. With an account of Calcutta City by Edward E Eastwick, published by John Murray 1882 Archive.org
• Bengal: an account of the country from the earliest time by Shoshee Chunder Dutt. 1884 Hathi Trust Digital Library.
• Cycling in Bengal. A Guide to Practical Tours by W S Burke. The official handbook of the Bengal Cyclists Association. 1898. British Library Digital Collection.
• Routes In The Bengal And Punjab Commands Revised Edition 1900. [Quarter] Master General Of India. Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection.
• Bengal under the lieutenant-governors; being a narrative of the principal events and public measures during their periods of office, from 1854 to 1898 by Charles Edward Buckland 1901 Archive.org Volume 1, Volume 2
• Glimpses of Bengal in the nineteenth century by R C Majumdar 1960. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• Annual Report on the Administration of the Bengal Presidency for ... 1860-61, 1861-62,1862-63, 1863-64 , 1864-65,1865-66, 1866-67, 1867-68 , 1868-69 Google Books
• ‪The Indian Official Thesaurus‬: ‪Being Introductory to Annals of Indian Administration Compiled by Meredith Townsend 1858‬ ‪Google Books. A guide to records.
• The Annals of Indian Administration, edited by Meredith Townsend and later George Smith. Selected extracts from the Records of the Indian, Bengal, Madras Bombay, NWP, and Punjab and perhaps other Governments. Google Books. Many additional volumes up to Volume 19 1873-74 may be viewed online at Archive.org
  • Part I 1856, Part VI 1858, Volume 3, Part 2 June 1859, Volume 4, Part 1 March 1860, Volume 14 1868-69.
• Imperial Gazetteer of India Provincial Series: Bengal Vol. I, Imperial Gazetteer of India Provincial Series: Bengal Vol. II 1908. Archive.org. Public Library of India Collection.
• History of The Portuguese in Bengal by J J A Campos 1919 Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection.
• Chota Nagpore, a little-known province of the empire by Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt. Second edition 1910 Archive.org
• Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Sikkim by L S S O’Malley 1917 Archive.org. A volume in the series Provincial Geographies of India.
• Bengal and Assam, Behar and Orissa : their History, People, Commerce and Industrial Resources compiled by Somerset Playne, assisted by J. W. Bond, edited by Arnold Wright 1917 Archive.org
• The Dutch In Bengal And Bihar 1740-1825 A D by Dr Kalikinkar Datta 1948 Archive.org
• Years of Change in Bengal and Assam by Sir Robert Reid 1966. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Sir Robert was 36 years in the Indian Civil Service 1907-1942, including the years 1937-42 as Governor of Assam. He then worked in wartime Calcutta to mid 1943.
• A Handbook to the Ports on the Coast of India between Calcutta and Bombay, including the Island of Ceylon by Herbert Samuel Brown, Lieutenant, R.N.R. Port and Customs Officer, Mangalore. 1897. British Library Digital Collection.
• Monograph Series. Subsequently reissued in 1976 as Art in industry through the ages : monograph series on Bengal Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org version. This book consists of 11 monographs, listed in this catalogue link nla.gov.au. The following individual monographs are also available:
  • Monograph Of The Brass And Copper Manufactures Of Bengal by T N Mukharji 1894 Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection
  • Not included in the reprint: Monograph on the Pottery and Glassware of Bengal by T N Mukharji 1895 . Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection.
  • Not included in the reprint: Monograph on the Cotton Fabrics of Bengal by N N Banerjei. 1898 Pdf download, Digital Repository of GIPE, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics [Pune]
  • Not included in the reprint: Monograph on Ivory-Carving in Bengal by G C Dutt 1901 Pdf download, Digital Repository of GIPE. Also available Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection.
  • A Monograph on the Silk Fabrics of Bengal by Nitya Gopal Mukerji, of the Bengal Provincial Civil Service 1903 Archive.org. Also available as a pdf download, Digital Repository of GIPE
  • Tanning and working in Leather in the province of Bengal by Rowland N L Chandra 1904 Pdf download, Digital Repository of GIPE
  • Monograph on stone-carving in Bengal by E B Havell Principal, Government School of Art, Calcutta 1906 Archive.org
  • A monograph on iron and steel work in the province of Bengal by E R Watson, Indian Educational Service 1907 Archive.org
  • A monograph on paper and papier-mache in Bengal by DN Mookerji Deputy Collector on Special Duty 1908 Archive.org. Also available as a pdf download, Digital Repository of GIPE
  • A Monograph on Wire and Tinsel Industry in Bengal by Babu M Ray, Sub-Deputy Collector, 24-Parganas 1910 Archive.org.