The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History

We all know the Battle of Plassey in 1757 as the moment the British East India Company took Bengal. But the popular story is full of myths. In this episode, Lucas and Luna untangle what really happened: the conspiracy between Robert Clive and Mir Jafar, the role of the Jagat Seth banking family, the betrayal on the battlefield, and how a small skirmish led to two centuries of colonial rule. They e...

In 1943, Bengal experienced a famine that killed an estimated 3 million people. But unlike the famines of the 18th century, this one unfolded under British wartime rule, with Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. This episode of The Hidden History of Bengal explores the politics of denial and the policies that turned a manageable food shortage into a catastrophe. We discuss the role of the Bengal F...

In the aftermath of the Battle of Plassey, Bengal's legendary muslin weavers found themselves caught between the crumbling Mughal order and the rising East India Company. This episode follows the weavers' revolt of 1769–1770, when thousands of artisans in Junglee Bazaar and beyond refused to produce cloth for the Company at starvation wages. We explore the brutal mechanisms of the Company's monopo...

In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna explore the forgotten reign of Queen Khargadatta, a Buddhist ruler who defied the Brahminical revival of the Sena dynasty in 12th-century Bengal. They discuss her rise to power after the death of her husband, her patronage of monasteries at Vikramashila and Somapura, and her military stand against Lakshmanasena. Lucas explains how her...

In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna explore the Sena dynasty, the last great Hindu kingdom to rule Bengal before the Delhi Sultanate's expansion. They discuss how Vijayasena, a former vassal of the Palas, seized power in the mid-12th century and built a powerful empire from his capital at Nabadwip. The conversation covers the Senas' patronage of Sanskrit literature, inc...

In the early 15th century, as the Ilyas Shahi sultanate crumbled, a Hindu zamindar named Raja Ganesha seized power in Bengal and crowned his son as Sultan Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah. This episode traces Ganesha's rise from a landholder in Dinajpur to the de facto ruler of the Bengal Sultanate. We explore how he navigated the politics of the Delhi Sultanate, fended off the Timurid invasions, and trig...

In 1770, Bengal suffered a famine that killed an estimated ten million people — roughly a third of its population. This episode digs into how the British East India Company's mismanagement and tax policies turned a drought into a catastrophe. Lucas and Luna explore the diwani system, the role of zamindars, Warren Hastings' decisions, and the chilling statistics that challenge the 'natural disaster...

Long before the 1857 rebellion, Bengal saw an extraordinary armed resistance led not by kings or nawabs, but by ascetics—wandering Hindu sannyasis and Muslim fakirs who rose up against the East India Company's brutal revenue policies after the 1770 famine. This episode explores the Fakir-Sannyasi Rebellion (1760s–1800), a decentralized guerrilla war that stretched from the jungles of Rangpur to th...

Before the British East India Company came to dominate Bengal, the French Compagnie des Indes Orientales established a major foothold at Chandannagar on the Hooghly River. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the French built a thriving colony under Joseph François Dupleix, turning Chandannagar into a rival to Calcutta. They discuss the prosperous textile trade, the strategic fortifications...

In April 1740, on the banks of the Bhagirathi River near the village of Giria, a decisive battle reshaped Bengal's destiny. This episode explores the clash between the aged Nawab Sarfaraz Khan and his ambitious deputy Alivardi Khan, who launched a coup that ended the Nasiri dynasty and began a new era. We examine the political intrigues at the Murshidabad court, including the roles of the Jagat Se...

Long before the British Raj, another European power dominated Bengal's waterways: the Dutch East India Company. This episode traces the rise and fall of the VOC in Bengal, from their first factory in Pipili to the fortified settlement of Chinsurah. We explore the lucrative trade in opium, saltpeter, and textiles that made the Dutch a rival to the English and Portuguese. Learn about the Battle of B...

In 1769, while the Great Famine was consuming Bengal, another crisis was brewing in the weaving villages of Dhaka and Murshidabad. The East India Company, hungry for profit after winning the Diwani, began squeezing Bengal's legendary muslin weavers with brutal contracts, price-fixing, and violence. This episode follows the little-known story of the weavers' revolt of 1769–70 — a desperate uprising...

In the 17th century, the island of Sandwip off the coast of Bengal became a pirate republic ruled by Portuguese renegades. This episode tells the story of Sebastião Gonçalves Tibau, the former mercenary who turned Sandwip into a fortress for plundering Mughal and Arakanese shipping. We explore how Tibau allied with the Arakanese king, then betrayed him, and how his republic of pirates thrived on s...

In 1639, the Mughal prince Shah Shuja arrived in Bengal as its new governor. But as the Mughal war of succession erupted in 1657, Shuja declared himself emperor, minted his own coins, and turned Bengal into a rival empire. For three years, he ruled from Rajmahal and Dhaka, fighting his brother Aurangzeb in a bloody civil war that ended with Shuja's mysterious disappearance in the jungles of Arakan...

What caused the Great Bengal Famine of 1769-70? This episode peels back the layers of a catastrophe that killed millions, focusing on the drought, the East India Company's revenue policies, and the collapse of the grain trade. We look at the role of zamindars, the failed monsoon of 1768, and how Company rule turned a natural disaster into a man-made tragedy. We also examine the aftermath: how the...

In 1770, Bengal experienced one of the deadliest famines in history, with an estimated ten million deaths — roughly one-third of the population. But this was no natural disaster. Lucas and Luna explore how the East India Company's policies after the Battle of Plassey created the perfect conditions for catastrophe: exorbitant land taxes, the monopolization of grain, and the diversion of rice fields...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the forgotten Portuguese settlement of Porto Grande de Hugli, established in the 16th century on the banks of the Hooghly River. They discuss how Portuguese traders and missionaries, arriving from Goa and Diu, built a fortified colony that became a hub of commerce, piracy, and religious conflict. The episode covers the rise of the settlement under the patron...

Before Bengal became the Mughal Empire's richest province, a league of twelve zamindars known as the Baro-Bhuiyans fought to keep it independent. This episode follows the rise and fall of these regional lords, centered on the defiant figure of Musa Khan, son of the legendary Isa Khan. We explore their strongholds along the rivers of Bhati, their use of warboats and guerrilla tactics against Mughal...

In the early 1600s, a Portuguese renegade named Sebastião Tibau carved out a pirate kingdom in Bengal's Sundarbans delta. He raided Mughal shipping, enslaved thousands, and even forged a bizarre alliance with the Buddhist kingdom of Arakan. But when the Mughal emperor sent an army to crush him, Tibau turned the tide with a secret weapon: an amphibious fleet of sandbanks and crocodile-infested cree...

In 1859, months after the suppression of the Sepoy Rebellion, a new uprising shook British Bengal — not of sepoys or princes, but of peasants and planters over indigo. This episode unpacks the forgotten Indigo Revolt: how European planters forced Bengali ryots to grow indigo at gunpoint, the brutal system of advances and retaliation, the role of the Bengali intelligentsia like Harish Chandra Mukhe...

In this episode of The Hidden History of Bengal, Lucas and Luna unravel the story of the Black Hole of Calcutta, one of the most controversial events in British colonial history. They explore what really happened on the night of June 20, 1756, when Siraj-ud-Daulah's forces captured Fort William and allegedly confined 146 British prisoners in a tiny guardroom, from which only 23 emerged alive. Luca...

In the aftermath of the Great Bengal Famine of 1770, a unique rebellion emerged — bands of ascetic warriors, known as sannyasis and fakirs, who took up arms against the East India Company. This episode explores the Sannyasi Rebellion of the 1770s-80s, a forgotten conflict that blended religious devotion, economic desperation, and guerrilla warfare. Lucas and Luna delve into the motivations of thes...

Long before Oxford or Bologna, Nalanda was the ancient world's greatest university — a sprawling monastery-city where thousands of monks from China, Korea, Tibet, and Southeast Asia studied logic, medicine, and philosophy alongside local scholars from Bengal and Bihar. This episode traces the deep connections between Nalanda and Bengal's Pala dynasty, who patronized the university for four centuri...

In the heart of Bengal's Rarh region, the town of Bishnupur holds an extraordinary collection of terracotta temples built by the Malla kings, a Hindu dynasty that survived for nearly a millennium under Muslim rule. This episode explores how the Mallas—from the 7th-century founding by Adi Malla to the 18th-century cultural zenith under Raghunath Singh II and Gopal Singh—created a unique architectur...

This episode revisits the pivotal Battle of Plassey in 1757, which marked the beginning of British colonial rule in Bengal. Lucas and Luna explore the key players—Siraj-ud-Daulah, Robert Clive, and the notorious Jagat Seth banking family—and the conspiracy that led to the Nawab's defeat. They discuss the role of the monsoon season, the betrayal of Mir Jafar, and the myth of the 'Black Hole of Calc...