A Revenue History of The Sundarbans from 1765 to 1870

The Sundarban stretches from the brackish waters of the broad Hooghly on the west, to the fresh waters of the still broader Meghna to the east; the turbid waters of the Bay of Bengal on its southern limits, to the zamindari or pargana lands on its northern extremity and includes in its southern fringes the dense natural mangrove forests, it is famous for.

The revenue history of Sundarbans is linked up with its riverine and coastal networks to its strategic location at the head of the Bay of Bengal which made it a natural protective barrier for the densely populated city of Calcutta. The massive transformation combined with the changed physical structure of Sundarban influenced society and economy on the one hand and invited settlers to establish their control in that region on the other.

The Pargiter's text focuses on the revenue history of a larger part of Sundarbans, viz., Jessore, Khulna, Bakarganj and some parts of 24- Parganas since the inception of the colonial rule in Bengal. It has also been shown how the colonial administrators took various types of measures for collecting revenue by the way of land reclamation.

The introductory note by the editor analyses the revenue settlement policies which had been implemented on different occasions to ensure the revenue maximization policies of the British Raj on the one hand and to establish an human settlement in the deltaic region on the other.

Frederick Eden Pargiter born in 1852, was the second son of the Rev. Robert Pargiter. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford and was a Boden Sanskrit scholar in 1872. He passed the Indian Civil Service exam and was sent to Bengal in 1875, where he served for thirty-one years and retired in 1906. Pargiter died at Oxford on 18 February 1927.

Ananda Bhattacharyya is Assistant Director of the West Bengal State Archives. His many publications include Sir William Wilson Hunter: Bengal MS Records - A Selected List of 14,136 Letters in the Board of Revenue, Calcutta, 1782-1807, with an Historical Dissertation and Analytical Index, 4 vols (2018); A History of the Dasnami Naga Sannyasis (2018); Adivasi Resistance in Early Colonial India (2017); Remembering Komagata Maru: Official Reports and Contemporary Accounts (2016); Notes on the Races, Castes and Trades of Eastern Bengal (2016) and Sannyasi and Fakir Rebellion in Bengal: Jamini Mohan Ghosh Revisited (2014).

The revenue history of Sundarbans is linked up with its riverine and coastal networks. The strategic location of the Sundarbans at the head of the Bay of Bengal has also made it a natural protective barrier for the densely populated city of Calcutta to its north: the mangrove barriers are the first to absorb and reduce the direct impact of the cyclonic storms and accompanying surges moving in from the Bay of Bengal. The Sundarbans was a large forest region studded with swampy marshes here and there from the Hooghly (Hughli) in the west to the Meghna in the east. It lay to the south of the then cultivated zamindari lands of the districts of the 24-Parganas, Khulna and Bakarganj. The most lucrative and the most interesting of the temporarily-settled properties in Bakarganj is the Sundarban forest, which lies on the sea coast in the southern part of the district. There are divergent opinions among the scholars on the etymology of the name, `Sundarbans'. It is, however, generally agreed that the name Sundarbans, or more correctly, the Sundarban, is derived from sundri trees, which are the commonest ones in the forest. There is also a view that Sundarban comes from the word `Samudraban' meaning a forest by the sea. The Sundarban is a large area which is fertilised by different branches of the river Ganga eventually falling in the Bay of Bengal. The northern part of the Sundarbans is considered as fertile land for the growth of rice. The Port of Calcutta has suffered constantly from the loss of navigality. Here lies the importance of the river Hooghly. The massive transformation combined with the changed physical structure of Sundarban influenced society and economy on one hand and on the other invited settlers to establish their control in that region. The most extensive land reclamation took place during this period comprising the Haroa, Kulpee, and Bhangar Police Stations in the 24-Parganas. Although it was substantially progressing in other Police Stations like - Canning, Mathurapur, Hingalganj, Sagar, Minakhan, Jaynagar, etc., but it was very slow during the period 1780-1873. Many maps of Sundarbans were prepared delimiting the Sundarban Delta during 1810-50. The maps showing the boundaries of different plots or 'Lot's in the Sundarbans were prepared by Lieutenant W. E. Morrieson during 1811-14. His brother Hugh Morrieson later modified the map in 1818. Prinsep completed the survey of Sundarban during 1822-23. In 1828, W. Dampier & Lt. A. Hodges was appointed as the Commissioner of Sundarban. Under the Directorship of W. Dampier & Lt. A. Hodges, a survey was done during 1828-32. There is a detailed explanation of its reason in the accounts of Frederick Eden Pargiter and official correspondences.