Map of Province of East BengalAssam 1907
More Imege is old Bangladesh
Bengal, Bihar and Orissa had formed a single province of British India since 1765. After the British put down the Sepoy Rebellion of 1875, the government dissolved the East India Company and took direct control of the province. At this time, British control extended from Eastern Bengal across the entire Ganges plain, to the Indus valley, in distant north-western India with Calcutta as capital. The British officials also moved into the Chittagong Hills. Their the British officials governed the local hill peoples, who had remained independent in their remote corner of East Bengal.
The Lt. Governor of Bengal had to administer an area of 189,000 sq miles and by 1903 the population of the province rose to 78.50 million. Eastern part of Bengal, because of isolation and poor communications, had been neglected in favour of west Bengal and Bihar. In East Bengal, the countryside was cut off by rivers and creeks, and no attention had been paid till the last decade of the 19th century. The condition of peasants was miserable. Piracy in waterways existed for at least a century. Eastern Bengal was almost isolated from the western part, the region was thought to be neglected and under-governed. On the other hand Calcutta (Kolkata) and its nearby districts of west Bengal attracted all energy and attention of the administration.