AHC: Bengalwank

Bengal was possibly the most developed part of India on the eve of British colonialism. Dhaka had a million people, and the geography of the region is similar to those of the Netherlands and the Yangtze Delta. That said, wages were low, unlike in the Netherlands or Britain or the Yangtze Delta. The challenge is to construct a TL in which Bengal avoided colonization and instead industrialized relatively early, at least as early as Southern Europe, if not Britain.
 
They need to win the Battle of Plassey, which can be done by stopping Bengali forces from betraying the Nawab. You then need to stop either the French or British EICs from having a second go. That means crippling both, or having the Nawab successfully play them off against each other. The latter is probably preferable in order to get technological learnings from Europeans.

As for industrialisation, they already have three things going for them: urban centres, basic textile manufacturing, and coal reserves. Steel-making existed elsewhere in India (although I'm not sure about Bengal itself) so that's something else that can be done without too much trouble. Steam power would need to either be discovered or imported from the UK. Perhaps get some EIC official to set something up on his own account and for the technology to be copied by locals.

Your biggest challenge is probably getting some form of limited rule, so that the Nawab doesn't simply extract all the riches from the emerging capitalist class. Perhaps you can set up some sort of Mughal resurgence, which weakens the power of the Nawabs without replacing them, and gives more power to the middle class in the power struggle. Alternatively, you can have an enlightened Nawab who realises Bengal is falling behind and pulls a Meiji.
 
The limited rule could be copied by the the capitalist class itself, just as in the Netherlands, when Spain tried to impose absolute monarchy, the merchants rebelled and established the Dutch Republic. As long as the urban bourgeoisie had something to build itself from - disaffected vassals (as in Japan), or ethnic or religious differences with the autocrats (as in Britain, the Netherlands, and China), or preexisting wealth (as in the Netherlands again, and also Switzerland) - it would be able to keep its money.

The problem is that such a rebellion would lead to a long period of instability, which Britain and France would use as an excuse to intervene.
 
That said, wages were low, unlike in the Netherlands or Britain or the Yangtze Delta.

Wow - so 18th and 19th century wages in the Yangzi delta were closer to European levels than Ganges delta levels. Interesting. That certainly changed by the late 19th century if not earlier.
 
Wow - so 18th and 19th century wages in the Yangzi delta were closer to European levels than Ganges delta levels. Interesting. That certainly changed by the late 19th century if not earlier.

Farmer wages in England only overtook those of the Yangtze Delta around 1800.

In contrast, urban wages in Suzhou were not all that high.

In India, I don't think Robert Allen ever looked at urban wages, only at farmer wages, which were at subsistence level in the 18th century, including in Bengal.
 
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