British East India Company Rule
The English formally established their factories in Dhaka in 1668. The English agents were already in the city as early as in 1666 when Tavernier visited. William Hedges was appointed the first governor of British East India Company. He arrived Dhaka on 25 October 1681. The city passed to the control of the British East India Company in 1765 after the Battle of Plassey. The city then became known by its anglicized name, Dacca. Owing to the war, the city's population shrank dramatically in a short period of time. Although an important city in the Bengal province, Dhaka remained smaller than Kolkata, which served as the capital of British India for a long period of time. Under British rule, many modern educational institutions, public works and townships were developed. A modern water supply system was introduced in 1874 and electricity supply in 1878. The Dhaka Cantonment was established near the city, serving as a base for the soldiers of the British Indian Army. Dhaka served as a strategic link to the frontier of the northeastern states of Tripura and Assam.
Charles D'Oyly was the Collector of Dhaka from 1808 to 1811. He made a good collection of painting folios of Dhaka in Antiquities of Dacca. These paintings exhibited much of the ruins of Dhaka from the Mughal era. A short historical account of the paintings was also appended to each book. James Atkinson wrote these accounts, accompanied by engravings done by Landseer.
Read more about this topic: History Of Dhaka
Famous quotes containing the words british, east, india, company and/or rule:
“All of Western tradition, from the late bloom of the British Empire right through the early doom of Vietnam, dictates that you do something spectacular and irreversible whenever you find yourself in or whenever you impose yourself upon a wholly unfamiliar situation belonging to somebody else. Frequently it’s your soul or your honor or your manhood, or democracy itself, at stake.”
—June Jordan (b. 1939)
“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 14:21,22.
“There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten.”
—Indira Gandhi (1917–1984)
“It has lately been drawn to your correspondent’s attention that, at social gatherings, she is not the human magnet she would be. Indeed, it turns out that as a source of entertainment, conviviality, and good fun, she ranks somewhere between a sprig of parsley and a single ice- skate. It would appear, from the actions of the assembled guests, that she is about as hot company as a night nurse.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)
“When we can drain the Ocean into mill-ponds, and bottle up the Force of Gravity, to be sold by retail, in gas jars; then may we hope to comprehend the infinitudes of man’s soul under formulas of Profit and Loss; and rule over this too, as over a patent engine, by checks, and valves, and balances.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)