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By the beginning of the nineteenth century imprisonment was slowly becoming the favoured form of punishment for criminals in Britain and wider Europe. The nineteenth century was therefore a time when penal institutions were coming under scrutiny. In British-India, the Prison Discipline Committee of 1838 and the 1864 Inquiry Committee attempted to address a number of issues within the colonial Indian jails ranging from discipline and administration to health, labour and rehabilitation. There are important questions that need to be more thoroughly explored in relation to these periods of reform: What were the different points of emphasis of the proposed reforms in each period? What continuity or change can be observed between 1838 and 1864 and what accounted for it? The prison reform of this period in India reflected the various and fluctuating ideas on punishment and criminality that also characterised Britain, America and Europe. However, the approach of the 1838 Prison Discipline Committee and the 1864 Inquiry Committee often attested to the British preoccupation with “progress” and asserting control over the Indian population rather than addressing the needs of the prisoners. Furthermore, the conceptualization of Indian criminals by the British impacted upon ideas relating to convict rehabilitation. Although work has been done in this area of British-India’s history, there is a need to draw together the various threads of reform to create a clearer picture of the overall character and development of prison reform in nineteenth-century British-India.

The origin of the Bengali Muslims became a much debated question after it was found out that they formed the majority of the population of Bengal, especially in the rural areas. This thesis does not tackle the whole problem (origin of the Bengali Muslims); it is primarily concerned with one aspect of it, viewed over a limited period of history which seems peculiarly significant. It starts with the question: how did Islam spread into Bengal during the pre-Mughul period (1204-1538 A.D.)? The attention is focused on Islam as a religious belief, in an attempt to review and assess different factors which may account for its spread in Bengal. Chapter I ("Pre-Islamic Bengal") surveys the past history of Bengal and its condition at the time of the Muslim conquest, in order to suggest a link between some trends of that history and the developments of the Muslim period. Chapter II ("Socio-political factors") summarizes the political history of the Muslim period undar review, pointing out features which form the context of the religious developments; it examines the part played by the immigration of Muslims from other areas, and discusses the situation of the non-Muslim subjects in relation with the phenomenon of conversion to Islam. Chapter III ("Religious factors") tries to describe and assess the prominent role played by the Sufi saints in the spread of Islam in Bengal. Their activities are related to the general background of Sufism in India, to the features of Islâm in Bengal as well as to pre-Islamic history; this suggests a reassessment of the modern idea of "conversion" as applied to the phenomenon recorded in Bengal during that period.

The year 1957, a year in which I obtained my Master's degree at the University of the Panjab, Lahore, Pakistan, was the centenary of the Indian uprising of 1857. In this year the peoples of India and Pakistan elaborately celebrated the 100th anniversary of what they considered to be the first war of Indo-Pakistan independance. [...]

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