Latest / The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History / The 1760 Battle of Udaynala: Bengal's Last Afghan Stand
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about how Bengal fell to the British — Plassey, Buxar, the diwani. But there's a story right in the middle of that, 1760, that almost no one knows. It's the last stand of the Afghan chieftains of the Sundarbans. Luna: Afghans in the Sundarbans? That's not what you'd expect. Lucas: Right? But after the Mughal Empire weakened, a bunch of Afghan mercenaries and adventurers basically set up their own little kingdoms in the delta. The most famous was the Khwaja family — Khwaja Askar, his brother Khwaja Wajid, and their cousin, the warrior-poet Khwaja Haider. They controlled the waterways from their fortress at Udaynala, deep in the mangrove forests. Lucas: They weren't just bandits, though. They minted their own coins, collected taxes from the local villages, and even patronized Hindu temples. It was a weird syncretic little state — Afghan Muslims ruling a Bengali-speaking, mostly Hindu population, and they adapted completely. Luna: So they were like petty kings? How did they get away with it? Lucas: Geography. The Sundarbans are a maze of tidal rivers and islands. Any army from the mainland would get bogged down in the mud and disease. Plus, the Khwajas had a fleet of fast riverboats — they could raid Murshidabad or Hugli and disappear back into the forest. The Nawab of Bengal, Mir Jafar, couldn't touch them. Lucas: But the British East India Company could. After Plassey in 1757, the Company was the real power in Bengal. And the Khwajas made a critical mistake: they allied with the French. Luna: The French were still hanging on in Chandannagar, right? Lucas: Exactly. Chandannagar was a French enclave on the Hugli, and after the British took it in 1757, the French were desperate for allies. They supplied the Khwajas with guns, ammunition, and even a few European officers. The Khwajas in turn gave them a safe haven and a base to harass British shipping. Lucas: So in 1760, the Company decided to crush them. They sent a force under a captain named John Carnac — he was the same guy who later defeated the Mughals at Buxar. But this wasn't a field battle; it was a riverine siege. Luna: How do you siege a fort in the middle of a swamp? Lucas: You bring boats. Carnac assembled a flotilla of armed sloops and gunboats, plus a few hundred sepoys and some European artillery. They sailed up the river Matla, which is one of the main channels through the Sundarbans. The Khwajas knew they were coming and prepared. Lucas: There's a contemporary account from a British officer, I think it's in the Bengal Past and Present journal, describing how the Afghans had built stockades along the riverbanks, hidden in the mangrove roots. They had cannons mounted on rafts — basically floating batteries — and they knew every creek and sandbar. Lucas: The first engagement was at a place called Kalikapur, where the British tried to land but got driven back by heavy fire. Carnac lost a sloop and about forty men. He had to pull back and rethink his strategy. Luna: So the Afghans actually had the upper hand at first? Lucas: For a while. But the British had resources the Khwajas didn't. Carnac brought in more troops and heavier guns. He also found a local guide — a disgruntled fisherman — who showed him a back channel that bypassed the stockades. That's the thing about the Sundarbans: the locals always know the hidden ways. Lucas: The final assault came on the 12th of March, 1760. The British bombarded Udaynala from the river for two days, then stormed the fort. The Khwajas fought hand-to-hand — Khwaja Haider, the poet, died on the ramparts, apparently reciting verses from the Shahnameh. Khwaja Askar was captured and later executed in Murshidabad. Luna: That's brutal. What happened to Khwaja Wajid? Lucas: He escaped into the forest with a few followers, and there are legends that he lived as a bandit for years, raiding British boats. But the historical record goes quiet. The point is, after Udaynala, the British had no serious rival left in the delta. The way was open for them to consolidate control over all of Bengal. Lucas: And here's something interesting — you know, we do this show without any advertising. No commercials, no sponsors. It's just us talking about history because we love it. If you want to support that, there's a link at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It helps keep the show independent and ad-free. Luna: Yeah, it's a big deal to have a history podcast that isn't selling you something. Every little bit helps. Lucas: Anyway, back to the story. One of the fascinating legacies of the Khwajas is their coinage. They minted silver rupees in the name of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II, but with their own marks — a fish or a tiger, symbols of the Sundarbans. Those coins are incredibly rare now, and they tell a story of a brief moment when the delta had its own little empire. Luna: I've seen pictures of those coins online. They're beautiful — crudely made but with real character. The tiger one especially. Lucas: Exactly. They also built a mosque at Udaynala, which still stands today, though it's in ruins. It's a simple structure, but it has inscriptions in Persian praising the Khwajas as 'lions of the jungle' and 'protectors of the faith.' There's a real romance to it — these fierce, independent warriors holding out against the tide of empire. Lucas: But they were also brutal. They taxed the local fishermen and farmers heavily, and there are records of them enslaving prisoners of war. It wasn't a paradise. It was a hardscrabble kingdom built on extortion and violence, like so many in history. Luna: Still, it's amazing that such a small group could hold out so long. I mean, they lasted almost a decade, right? Lucas: From about 1752 to 1760. They rose during the chaos after Alivardi Khan's death and the Maratha invasions. And they fell because the British were simply too powerful. There's a lesson there about the end of an era — the last gasp of Afghan power in eastern India, and the beginning of British dominance. Lucas: If you ever visit the Sundarbans today, you can take a boat to the ruins of Udaynala. It's a protected site, but it's not heavily visited. You can see the outline of the fort walls, the mosque, and a few cannons half-buried in the mud. And the tigers still roam the forest — they say the ghost of Khwaja Haider wanders the riverbanks at night, reciting poetry. Luna: Is that a local legend? Lucas: Oh yeah. The villagers tell stories about hearing verses in Persian on quiet nights. It's probably just the wind, but it's a nice way to remember him.