English Bazar - History

History

English Bazar is situated in between the ancient historical cities of Gaur and Pandua. The city, however, came to be much later, around mid 18th century. It was once known as Engelzavad established by the British rulers. In 1813 a joint magistrate and deputy collector were appointed and in 1832 a treasury was opened.

The gateway of North Bengal, Malda, once the capital of Gour-Banga with its 3456 km² lay of the land classified into Tal, Diara, and Barind awaits the advent of tourists and people of archeological interest with its wealth to be enjoyed and its huge potential to be explored.

This portion of the Earth is washed by the waves of the rivers Ganges, Mahananda, Fulahar, Kalindri and had been the witness of different empires which were raised, flourished, and then cast down near oblivion by a successor kingdom built up on the relics of its predecessor. Panini mentioned a city named Gourpura, which by strong reason may be identified as the city of Gouda, ruins of which are situated in this district. Examples are legion of the relic of a predecessor kingdom being used in the monuments of the successor kingdoms.

It had been within the limits of ancient ‘Gaur’ and ‘Pandua’ (Pundrabardhana). These two cities had been the capital of Bengal in ancient and medieval ages and are equidistant, north and south, from English Bazar town (once known as Engelzavad established by the British rulers).

The boundary of Gour was changed in different ages since 5th century BC and its name can be found in Puranic texts. Pundranagar was the provincial capital of Maurya Empire.

Gour and Pundrabardhana formed parts of the Mourya empire as is evinced from the inscriptions, Brahmilipi on a seal discovered from the ruins of Mahasthangarh in the Bogura District of Bangladesh. Hiuen Tsang saw many Ashokan stupas at Pundrabardhana.

The inscriptions discovered in the district of undivided Dinajpur and other parts of North Bengal along with the Allahabad pillar inscriptions of Samudragupta clearly indicate that the whole of North Bengal as far east as Kamrup formed a part of the Gupta empire.

After the Guptas in the beginning of 7th century AD Sasanka, the king of Karnasubarna as well as the king of Gaur ruled independently for more than three decades. From the middle of 8th century to the end of 11th century the Pala Empire ruled Bengal, the kings were devoted to Buddhism. It was during their reign that the Jagadalla Vihara (monastery) in Barindri flourished paralleling with Nalanda, Vikramshila and Devikot.

The Pala Dynasty yielded to the emergence of Sena Empire, the Sen rulers were Hindus, and in the habit of moving from place to place within their kingdom. At the time of Lakshman Sen Goud was known as Lakshmanabati. The Sen kings ruled Bengal till Bakhtiyar Khilji conquered Bengal in 1204 AD.

Thereafter the Muslim rule lasted for about five hundred years before Sirajuddaulah was defeated by Lord Clive at the battle of Plassey in 1757 whence the British rule started. From ancient times, rulers of various origins, religions, and dynasties left imprints of their times on the earth of this district. Those that left ruins and relics speak of past pomp and grandeur, and hold interest for archeologists and tourists.

This district formed out of outlying areas of Purnia, Dinajpur, and Rajshahi districts in 1813. At the time of Dr. B. Hamilton (1808–09), the presents thanas of Gazole, Malda, Bamongola, and part of Habibpur were included in the district of Dinajpur and the thanas of Harischandrapur, Kharba, Ratua, Manikchak, and Kaliachak were included in the district of Purnia. In 1813, in consequence of the prevalence of serious crimes in the Kaliachak and Sahebganj thanas and also on the rivers, a joint magistrate and deputy collector were appointed at Englishbazar with jurisdiction over a number of police station centering that place and taken from the two district. Thus the district of Malda was born. The year 1832 saw the establishment of separate treasury and the year 1859 the posting of a full - fledged Magistrate and collector.

Up to 1876, this district formed part of Rajshahi Division and between 1876 & 1905, it formed part of Bhagalpur Division. In 1905, it was again transferred to Rajshahi Division and till 1947 Malda remained in this division. In August, 1947, this district was affected by Partition of India. Between August 12–15, 1947 whether the district would become part of India or Pakistan was unknown as the announcement of the Radcliff Line did not make this point clear. During these few days the district was under a magistrate of East Pakistan until the details of the Radcliffe award were published and the district became part of West Bengal on the 17th of August 1947. Five thanas was given to Pakistan by mistake.