SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis on the study of the fortunes of the Port of Chittagong from 1892-1912, tries to analyse the forces which led to its growth and development during that period, as well as the factors that were responsible for preventing its further development. The trade of the port towards the beginning of the period under study was greatly hampered by the want of effective communications between it and its hinterland. The river Karnaphuli, on whose bank Chittagong stood, did not form a part of the river network that dissected the larger hinterland of Eastern Bengal and Assam. As a result, it was not till the construction of the Assam Bengal Railway that any significant development took place in the trade of the port. Chittagong port influenced the growth of this Railway, but the construction of the Railway determined the fortunes of the port still more decisively. While the port owed much of its physical facilities to the interest, resources and efforts of the Railway, many of the drawbacks under which the port operated can also be attributed to the policies of the Assam Bengal Railway. The partition of Bengal in 1905, was perhaps the single most important political factor that determined the fortunes of the port. The potentialities of Chittagong port were adduced as both an economic and administrativement argument for the partition. Partition, on the other hand, breathed a new life into the port in terms of finance and political and administrative attention. Trade facilities were greatly developed during the period under study, and with the construction of four jetties for ocean-going steamers, the trade of the port took on a new dimension. The annulment of the partition in 1912, however, left the port still uncompleted and stagnant till the next partition in 1947.