TY - BOOK AU - Marshall, P. J. AU - P. J. Marshall TI - Bengal--the British bridgehead : : eastern India, 1740-1828 SN - 9780521028226 U1 - 930 MAR PY - 1987/// CY - , Cambridge PB - Cambridge University Press KW - History KW - Northeastern History KW - North-eastern India KW - History 18th century N2 - The aim of Bengal: The British Bridgehead is to explain how, in the eighteenth century, Britain established her rule in eastern India, the first part of the subcontinent to be incorporated into the British Empire. Though the British were not in firm control of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa until 1765, to illustrate the circumstances in which they gained power and elucidate the Indian inheritance that so powerfully shaped the early years of their rule, professor Marshall begins his analysis around 1740 with the reign of Alivardi Khan, the last effective Mughal ruler of eastern India. He then explores the social, cultural and economic changes that followed the imposition of foreign rule and seeks to assess the consequences for the peoples of the region; emphasis is given throughout as much to continuities rooted deep in the history of Bengal as to the more obvious effects of British domination. The volume closes in the 1820s when, with British rule firmly established, a new pattern of cultural and economic relations was developing between Britain and eastern India ER -