Students

The bloody rebellion of 1857—known as the Sepoy Mutiny—resulted in a transfer of authority from the East India Company to the Crown, and a British viceroy was appointed to run the administration.^[22] The British established a system of law and administration, but struggled to support the population. During colonial rule, famine racked South Asia many times. The Great Bengal famine of 1943, related to events in World War II, claimed 3 million lives.^[23]
Between 1905 and 1911, an abortive attempt was made to divide the province of Bengal into two zones, with Dhaka being the capital of the eastern zone.^[24] After the British Empire withdrew in 1947, India was partitioned along religious lines, which also divided Bengal: the western part went to the newly created India and the eastern part (Muslim majority) to the new Pakistan. It was known as a province called East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan), with its capital at Dhaka.^[25]
In 1950, Pakistan achieved land reform in East Bengal with the abolition of the feudal zamindari system.^[26] East Bengal had the majority of population and economic resources, but Pakistan's government and military were largely dominated by the upper classes of the west wing, later known as West Pakistan. In response to the national government's making Urdu the only official language in both wings, the Bengali Language Movement of 1952 in East Pakistan was a sign of its rising power and the friction between the two wings.^[27] Dissatisfaction with the central government over economic and cultural issues increased through the next decade, during which the Awami League emerged as the political voice of the Bengali-speaking population. It agitated for autonomy in the 1960s, and in 1966, its president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Mujib), was jailed by the national Pakistan government. He was released in 1969 after an unprecedented popular uprising.