Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/291

 BENGAL. Arrah

by a handful of

and Sikhs

civilians

281

— one of the most splendid

pieces of gallantry in the history of the British arms.

when

Since 1858,

the country passed to the Crown, the history of Bengal has been one

of steady and peaceful

progress.

Two

great lines of railway, the

East Indian and the Eastern Bengal, have been completed, as also a

and the Darjiling-Himalayan Railway, which Trade has enormously expanded new centres of commerce have sprung up in spots which not long ago were Railways, roads, and communications will, however, silent jungles. Fresh form the subject of a separate section, post., pp. 312-315. staples of trade, such as tea and jute, have rapidly attained importance and the coal-fields and iron ores are beginning to open up prospects of a novel and splendid era in the internal development network of State

lines,

belongs to a private company.





of the country.

Population

—Administrative

Divisions

.

—Within

the Provinces under

the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal dwell a great congeries of peoples, of widely diverse origin, speaking different languages, far separated eras of civilisation.

The

constituting the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal miles, excluding the area of large rivers

and representing

area of the British territories is

150,588 square

and of the Sundarbans

— a large

unsurveyed and half-submerged forest, forming the sea-face of the delta of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, with an estimated area But in addition to Districts under direct British of 5976 square miles. rule are other territories governed by chiefs, in political dependence

tract of

upon the Government of Bengal. These are the Principalities of Kuch Behar and Hill Tipperah, situated respectively on the north-eastern and eastern boundaries of Bengal, and two groups of petty chiefships on the south and south-west of the Province, known as the Tributary States of Orissa and of Chutia Nagpur. These territories comprise an area of 36,634 square miles, making a total area for the whole of Bengal of 187,222

square miles, excluding the Sundarbans,

or of 193,198

square miles including that region.

The Lieutenant-Governorship

of Bengal

is

further divided into four

great Provinces of unequal size, but with strongly defined characteristics.

Three of them are known under the historic names of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa ; while the fourth is composed of the still undeveloped and comparatively little explored territory of Chhota or Chutia Nagpur. Of these Provinces, Bengal Proper is by far the largest both in actual area and in population. It extends over 70,430 square miles, exclusive of the Sundarbans, and occupies more than one-third of the whole Behar comes next, with an area of 44,139 square miles, or area. nearly one-fourth of the whole area; Chutia Nagpur has 26,966, and Orissa 9053 square miles

square miles.



while the Feudatory States aggregate 36,634