Latest / The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History / The Pirates of Bengal: Arakan, the Portuguese, and the Sundarbans
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've covered a lot of Bengal's history—empires, trade, revolutions. But there's a darker, wilder side that often gets overlooked: the pirates. And I'm not talking about a few rogue ships. For nearly two centuries, the Sundarbans and the coasts of Bengal were terrorized by pirates operating from Arakan and even Portuguese freebooters. Luna: Wait—Portuguese pirates? I thought they were traders and missionaries. Lucas: They were both. By the early 1600s, the Portuguese had established a settlement at Hooghly, but many of them were adventurers who didn't answer to Lisbon. They allied with the Arakanese kingdom—what's now Myanmar—to raid Bengal's coastline. Together, they became known as the Magh pirates, though the term 'Magh' originally referred to the Arakanese themselves. Lucas: These weren't just pirates looking for gold. They were slave raiders. They'd sweep into the delta villages, capture thousands of Bengalis, and sell them in the slave markets of Arakan or even as far away as the Dutch East Indies. Entire communities along the Sundarbans were depopulated. Luna: That's horrifying. How did the Mughals respond? Lucas: For a long time, they struggled. The Mughal navy wasn't built for the shallow, mangrove-choked waterways of the Sundarbans. The pirates knew the terrain and used fast, shallow-draft boats. It wasn't until the reign of Aurangzeb that a serious crackdown happened, led by his governor Shaista Khan. Lucas: Shaista Khan was already a veteran of many campaigns. In 1666, he launched a coordinated land and sea assault on the pirate stronghold at Chhota Suja, near the border of Arakan. He used local Bengali boatmen and even hired Portuguese mercenaries who had switched sides. Luna: So he turned the pirates' own tactics against them. Lucas: Exactly. The Mughal fleet, commanded by admiral Ibn Husain, blockaded the river approaches while troops landed and stormed the fort. It was a brutal fight—hand-to-hand on the decks and in the mangroves—but the Mughals prevailed. They freed thousands of Bengali slaves, many of whom had been held for years. Lucas: After that victory, Shaista Khan didn't stop. He built a series of fortified outposts along the coast and patrol routes that finally brought an end to large-scale piracy in Bengal. But the memory of those raids lingered for generations, and the Sundarbans remained a place of danger and legend. Luna: I've heard stories of the 'Bhoot of the Sundarbans'—maybe that's rooted in those pirate attacks? Let's talk about what life was like for the local people during those times. Lucas: It's a good connection. The trauma of constant raids probably fed into folklore. For the villagers, there was no safety. Even the forests were treacherous—tigers, crocodiles, and now pirates. They built watchtowers and stockades, but the pirates were relentless. Lucas: One Portuguese captain named Sebastião Gonçalves even set up his own pirate kingdom in the Sundarbans, with a fleet of over a hundred vessels. He'd raid both Muslim and Hindu communities, and he even attacked Portuguese ships that didn't pay him tribute. It was chaos. Luna: How did the Portuguese authorities react to that? Lucas: They condemned him, but they had little control. Goa was far away, and the Hooghly settlement was a law unto itself. Eventually, the Mughals expelled the Portuguese from Hooghly in 1632, after they'd allied with the Arakanese one too many times. But even then, renegade Portuguese continued operating from the delta. Lucas: It's a reminder that Bengal's history isn't just about grand empires and battles of Plassey. The everyday reality for millions was shaped by these hidden wars in the mangroves—a struggle for survival against nature and human predators alike. Luna: And Shaista Khan emerges as a real hero here, which is a side of him I hadn't seen before. Lucas: Absolutely. He's often remembered for his later conflicts with the Marathas, but his campaign against the pirates was arguably more consequential for the people of Bengal. It brought decades of peace to the delta and allowed trade and agriculture to flourish again. Luna: So next time someone thinks of pirates, they should think of the Sundarbans too. Lucas: Exactly. It's a chapter that deserves more attention—a story of resilience against overwhelming odds, and of the unlikely alliances that shaped the region.