page_title: History of Dhaka
section_title: British Raj rule (1858—1947)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Dhaka / British Raj rule (1858—1947)
caption_attribution_description: English: Ahsan Manzil, after the tornado in 1888)
context_page_description: Dacca or Dhaka is the capital and one of the oldest cities of Bangladesh. The history of Dhaka begins with the existence of urbanised settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dating from the 7th century CE. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Sena dynasty in the 9th century CE. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkic and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. After Mughals, British ruled the region for 200 years until the independence of India. In 1947, Dhaka became the capital of the East Bengal province under the Dominion of Pakistan. After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, Dhaka became the capital of the new state.
context_section_description: Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, British East India Company's ruling ended and the British Crown took direct control of the region in 1858. Dacca Municipality was established on 1 August 1864. At that time the area of Dhaka was 20.72 square kilometres with a population of around 52,000.
  Buckland Bund was constructed under a scheme by the then City Commissioner Charles Thomas Buckland in 1864 to protect Dhaka from flooding and river erosion.
  In 1860, the first printing press Bangala Jantra was set up in Dhaka and also Dhaka's first periodical Kabita Kusumabali was founded in the same year. Dhaka's first theatre group, Purbabanga Rangabhumi, was established in the 1870s. Dhaka Prakash, the first Bengali language newspaper in Dhaka, was published on 7 March 1861.
  In 1885, the railway line between Dhaka and Narayanganj was built. Mymensingh was connected to Dhaka in 1889. Private cars were owned  from the 1910s and the taxis and rickshaws were introduced in the 1930s.
  The earliest records of Dhaka being hit by tornados were on 7 April 1888 and 12 April 1902 which killed 118 and 88 respectively.
  On 16 March 1892, a professional balloonist, Jeanette Van Tassel, invited by Nawab Ahsanullah, made an attempt to fly from the southern bank of Buriganga River to reach the roof Ahsan Manzil lying across the river. A newspaper had reported that thousands of locals gathered around the palace on the occasion. But a sudden gush of wind carried Tassel off to the Ramna Garden in Shahbagh where she  got critically injured falling on the ground. She died later in a hospital and was buried in Narinda Christian graveyard.
  The then Viceroy of India Lord Curzon visited Dhaka on 18–19 February 1904, hosted by the Nawab family. He laid the foundation stone of Curzon Hall. In July 1905, he decided to take effect the Partition of Bengal and Dhaka became the capital of the new province, Eastern Bengal and Assam, on 16 October. Joseph Bampfylde Fuller entered on his office in Dhaka as the first Lieutenant-Governor of the region. The partition was revoked in 1911 and Dhaka became a district town on 1 April 1912.
  The 20th session of All India Muhammadan Educational Conference was held at Ishrat Manzil, in present-day Shahbag area in Dhaka during 27—30 December 1906. On the final day, the All-India Muslim League political  party was formed, with the aim of the establishment of a separate Muslim-majority nation-state.
  Eden College was founded in 1880. Narendra Narayan Roy Choudhury, landlord of the Baldah Estate, built Baldha Garden in 1909. University of Dhaka was established in 1921. Philip Hartog became the first vice-chancellor of the university. Ahsanullah School of Engineering (now Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology) was established in 1912 under a substantial grant and patronage from Dhaka Nawab Family.
caption: Ahsan Manzil damaged by tornado on 7 April 1888
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