The rise of Bengal Sultanate

The Bengal Sultanate was a sovereign state that encompassed present-day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal and the Myanmarese state of Rakhine between the 14th and 16th centuries. The sultanate was dominated by numerous dynasties of Turkic, Arab, and Persian, Bengali and Abyssinian origin.

The Bengal was gradually absorbed into the Delhi Sultanate during the 1200s. It began with Bakhtiar Khilji’s conquest of Gauda between 1202 and 1204 during the reign of Muhammad of Ghor.

The Bengal Sultanate arose after the reign of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq of the Tughlaq Dynasty. In mid-14th century the governors of Bengal announced their independence. The Bengal Sultanate was then formed in 1352 by Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah when he conquered Lakhnauti, Sonargaon and Satgaon.

Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah was the Ilyas Shahi Dynasty's founder. In the conflict between the Delhi Sultanate and the Bengal Sultanate, Firoz Shah Tughluq overcame Ilyas Shah in 1353. Although Firoz slew up to 180,000 Bengalis and even temporarily dislodged Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah from his capital at Pandua, he failed to reannex the delta.

Bengal agreed to pay a tribute to the Delhi Sultan. Despite losing control of many conquered areas, Ilyas Shah remained in firm control of Bengal

Sultan Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah defeated the rulers of Orissa and extended his realm up to Chilika Lake. He raided Jajpur and Cuttack. Ilyas Shah returned to Bengal with plunders from Orissa, including 44 elephants. Ilyas Shah founded the Ilyas Shahi dynasty which ruled Bengal for fifteen decades.
The rise of Bengal Sultanate

Mughal painting

Mughal painting was essentially a court art, developed under the patronage of the ruling Mughal emperors and began to decline when the rulers lost interest.

The ancestral home of Mughal painting was originally in Samarkand and Herat where, under the Timurid kings in the fifteenth century, Persian art reached its zenith.

Mughal emperors introduced their own style of painting with Persian inspirations and added new themes, colors and forms. The peak of Mughal painting presented a highly sophisticated blend of the Islamic, Hindu and European visual culture and aesthetics.

Mughal Painting owes its existence virtually to the patronage of the “Great Mughals” who ruled India for a few hundred years. In the Mughal courts, arts became more formalized as there were workshops and many artists were brought from Iran, which resulted in a harmonious blend of Indo-Iranian styles, especially during its early years.

Coming into prominence during the reign of Akbar in the later half of the sixteenth century, it attained its apogee under the imperial dilettante, Jahangir,

By the early 17th century, the Mughal painting had come under the western influence in such devices as the use of light and shade to capture space and volume, aerial perspective and the use of atmospheric effects to indicate spatial recession.
Mughal painting

Emperor Jahangir By Manohar

Ancient history of clove

Clove is an ancient spice, which is believed to be originated in the first century, before Christ.

A clove tree, known botanically as Eugenia aromatica, may live 100 years. They begin producing fruit at seven years and come into full maturity around 25 years. The average crop yield is eight pounds although each year is different. The trees are indigenous to the Moluccas, also known as the Spice Islands. For a period of time around the 1700's, it looked as if the clove trees would never grow anywhere but the island of Amboina.

The clove has been used in India and China, for over 2,000 years, as a spice to check both tooth decay and counter halitosis that is bad breath. In the north Indian cuisine, it is used in almost every sauce or side dish made, mostly ground up along with other spices.

Pliny the Elder records that the spice was traded from India to Rome in the first century AD, and the earliest mention of cloves in the South Asian texts comes from the first-century BC Ramayana.

The oldest apparent medicinal use of cloves was in China, where it is reported that they were taken for various ailments as early as 240 BC. Cloves were taken over the centuries for diarrhea, most liver, stomach and bowel ailments, and as a stimulant for the nerves.

The first clue about clove’s fragrance was given by the ancient Chinese (207 B.C. to 220 A.D.). At that time, a Chinese Physician wrote that court visitors were required to hold clove in their mouth to prevent the Emperor from visitor’s bad breath.

As early as 200 BC, envoys from Java to the Han-dynasty court of China brought cloves that were customarily held in the mouth to perfume the breath during audiences with the emperor.

Arabic traders brought the buds to Europe in 4th century A.D., and in the seventh and eighth century A.D. Europe, cloves became very popular as a medicinal flower, due to their ability to preserve foods, and mask the smell of poorly-kept foods. Because of the price, they were kept in golden basket, like treasures.

The origin and source of clove was a mystery, until the discovery of Indonesia or Moluccas Island, by Portuguese, in 16th century.

During the late Middle Ages, cloves were used in Europe to preserve, flavor, and garnish food.
Ancient history of clove

Pakistan in history

Pakistan has a rich history dating back nearly 5,000 years, to the Indus Valley Civilization (ca. 2500-1600 B.C.). Stone-age hunter-gatherers lived on the Potohar plateau and in the Soan Valley in northern Punjab 300,000 or more years ago. Excavations on the Baluchistan plateau show a more advanced culture which flourished from 4000 to 2000 BC.

Due to its strategic location, the subcontinent has played host to a series of invaders—Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and others— each weaving a further layer of complexity into the already intricate culture. Islam was introduced in the early 8th century.

Pakistan as an independent nation-state came into existence on 14 August 1947, in response to Muslim demand for a separate nation for Muslims in Hindu majority British India. The predominantly Muslim provinces of Punjab, the Northwest Frontier, Sindh in the west, and East Bengal in the east of British India were separated to form the independent state of Pakistan. Prior to the British rule in India, Muslims had migrated from West and Central Asia and many indigenous Hindustanis as they were known as that time.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was sworn in as the first governor-general of Pakistan. Jinnah invited Liaqat Ali Khan to form a cabinet and become Pakistan’s first prime minister.

West Pakistan (as modern-day Pakistan was known upon independence in 1947, to distinguish it from East Pakistan, which subsequently seceded to become the independent state of Bangladesh) was carved out of the turbulent frontier marches of the Raj, large parts of which were never fully pacified and were perceived as vulnerable to foreign invasion and subversion.

The Hindu Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, with its’ majority Muslim population, was hesitant to accede to either Pakistan or India. However, armed incursions into the state by tribesmen from North-west Pakistan led him to sign accession papers in 1947 and allow Indian troops into the state. The Government of Pakistan, however, refused to recognize the accession and campaigned to reverse the decision.

In March 1956, Pakistan’s first constitution came into effect.
Pakistan in history

India-Pakistan war and establishment of Bangladesh

When the English ruler left in 1947, two separate countries, India and Pakistan were created.

In Pakistan, although the Eastern wing of Pakistan was more populous than the Western one, political power since independence rested with the Western elite.

This caused considerable resentment in East Pakistan and a charismatic Bengali leader called, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, most forcefully articulated that resentment by forming an opposition political party called the Awami League and demanding more autonomy for East Pakistan within the Pakistani Federation.

Great differences began developing between the two wings of Pakistan. While the west had a minority share of Pakistan’s total population, it had the maximum share of revenue allocation, industrial development, agricultural reforms and civil developments. Pakistan’s military and civil services were dominated by the fair-skinned, Persian cultured Punjabis and Afghans.

80% to 90% of the jobs were occupied by the East Pakistanis, majority of them from Punjab.

In the Pakistani general elections held in 1970, the Sheikh's party won the majority of seats, securing a complete majority in East Pakistan.

In all fairness, the Sheikh should have been Prime Minister of Pakistan, or at least the ruler of his province.

In March 1971, the two sides conducted talks to reach some sort of compromise, but on 25 March, Bhutto and Yahya Khan, the outgoing of president of Pakistan, broke off the talks.

The dawn of 1971 saw a great human tragedy unfolding in erstwhile East Pakistan. Entire East Pakistan was in revolt.

In the West, General Yahya Khan, who had appointed himself President in 1969, had given the job of pacifying East Pakistan to his junior, General Tikka Khan.

After the military crackdown by the Pakistan army the night of 25 March 1971 ordered by Tikka Khan, which left thousands of Bengalis dead, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was arrested and the political leaders dispersed, mostly fleeing to neighboring India whey they organized a provisional government afterwards.

The same day, the Pakistani Army began airlifting two of its divisions plus a brigade strength formation to its Eastern Wing.

Attempts to disarm Bengali troops were not entirely successful and within weeks of the 25 March massacres, many former Bengali officers and troops of the Pakistani Army had joined Bengali resistance fighters in different parts of East Pakistan.

The Pakistani Army conducted several crackdowns in different parts of Bangladesh, leading to massive loss of civilian life.

Survivors compare it to the Nazi extermination of Jews. The massacres in Dhaka and in Chittagong were in Nazi style. Geography prevented the Pakistani army from getting too deep into the interior.

At the same time, the Pakistani Administration in Dhaka thought it could pacify the Bengali peasantry by appropriating the land of the Hindu population and gifting it to Muslims.

An estimated ten million people i.e. 15% of the total population include both Hindus and Muslims, sought refugees in the India States of Assam, Tripura and West Bengal. West Bengal was the worst affected by the refugee problem and the Indian government was left holding the enormous burden.

Repeated appeals by the Indian government failed to elicit any response from the international community and by April 1971, the then Indian Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, decided that the only solution lay in helping Bengali freedom fighters, especially the Mukti Bahini, to liberate East Pakistan, which had already been re-christened Bangladesh by its people.

On December 3, 1971, India intervened on the side of the Bangladeshis. On December 16, 1971, Pakistani forces surrendered and Bangladesh or Country of Bangla was finally established the following day.

This is one of the marvels of world history because in early 1900s the then East Bangla was the originator of Muslim separatism.
India-Pakistan war and establishment of Bangladesh