Discover Bengal · Unfolded
❦Glossary
Quick term references for historical context
Definitions for terms used across events, timelines, and historical analysis.
Old to New
Ancient and Early Medieval Bengal
Gauda
A historical name associated with an early Bengal region, kingdom, and political center.
Pala Dynasty
A major Buddhist dynasty that ruled large parts of Bengal and eastern India from the eighth to twelfth centuries.
Mahavihara
A large Buddhist monastic and educational institution, often connected to scholarship, pilgrimage, and regional patronage.
Sena Dynasty
A Hindu dynasty that ruled parts of Bengal after the Palas and before the early thirteenth-century political transition.
Sultanate and Mughal Bengal
Bengal Sultanate
A series of Muslim-ruled states in Bengal, especially the independent sultanate that developed from the fourteenth century.
Mughal Subah
A province of the Mughal Empire governed through imperial administrative and revenue structures.
Nawab
A title used for provincial rulers or high officials, especially in Mughal and post-Mughal Bengal.
Company Rule and Colonial Society
Diwani
The right to collect revenue and administer civil finance in a province.
Colonial Rule
A system where an external power governs a territory for political and economic control.
Permanent Settlement
The 1793 British revenue arrangement that fixed land revenue demands and recognized zamindars as revenue intermediaries.
Zamindar
A landholder or revenue intermediary responsible for collecting land revenue from cultivators.
Ryot
A cultivating peasant or tenant in South Asian agrarian revenue systems.
Fakir-Sannyasi Resistance
A series of late eighteenth-century resistance actions involving religious mendicants, rural groups, and anti-Company unrest in Bengal.
Indigo Revolt
A major peasant resistance movement in Bengal against coercive indigo cultivation in 1859-1860.
Swadeshi
A political and economic movement promoting indigenous goods, boycott, and nationalist mobilization.
Late Colonial Politics and Partition
Separate Electorates
An electoral system in which voters from particular religious or communal groups elected representatives from their own group.
Representation
Participation of people or groups in political decision-making through recognized institutions.
Lahore Resolution
The 1940 Muslim League resolution that called for independent states in Muslim-majority areas of British India.
Direct Action Day
The Muslim League's 16 August 1946 political mobilization that became associated with massive communal violence in Calcutta.
Radcliffe Line
The boundary drawn in 1947 to divide British India into India and Pakistan, including the partition of Bengal.
Partition
Political division of a territory into separate states or administrative units.
Pakistan Period and Liberation
East Pakistan
The eastern wing of Pakistan from 1955 to 1971, corresponding broadly to present-day Bangladesh.
Language Movement
The Bengali movement demanding recognition of Bangla as a state language of Pakistan, culminating in the 1952 martyrs' day.
Autonomy
The ability of a region or political unit to govern its own affairs within a larger state framework.
Six Points
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's 1966 programme demanding extensive autonomy for East Pakistan.
Martial Law
Direct rule by military authorities, usually suspending normal constitutional governance.
Operation Searchlight
The Pakistan Army's military crackdown in East Pakistan beginning on 25 March 1971.
Liberation War
An armed and political struggle for national independence.
Mujibnagar Government
The provisional government of Bangladesh formed in April 1971 during the Liberation War.
Sovereignty
Supreme political authority over a territory and its governance.
Post-Liberation and Contemporary Bangladesh
BAKSAL
The Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League, a one-party political system introduced in Bangladesh in 1975.
Caretaker Government
A non-party interim government system used in Bangladesh to oversee elections during political transition.
Quota System
A policy mechanism reserving portions of opportunities for designated groups.
Digital Security Act
A Bangladesh law enacted in 2018 to regulate digital security and online offences.