Perhaps the first person to acknowledge the importance of the Chittagong area was second-century cartographer Ptolemy. Considered the father of modern geography, the man who explained how to draw a world map, called the Chittagong harbour "one of the finest in the Eastern world".
Bangladesh's prime seaport was in the news last week for facilitating the trial run of transshipment of goods to northeast India for the first time after 1965.
The 'chicken's neck' or the 22-km wide Siliguri corridor is the only land-based connection to northeastern states of India. Networks of trade to the region have always been time-consuming and expensive. But there always existed one dramatic shortcut: the sea route from Kolkata port to Agartala via Bangladesh—a route which reduces distances by thousands of kilometers and was shut for 55 years until this month.
So, when the first-ever container cargo from Kolkata via Bangladesh's Chittagong port reached Agartala two days ago, India's external affair ministry hailed the event as a "historic milestone", breathing new life into Indo-Bangladesh connectivity and the development of the northeastern region. The standard operating procedure (SOP) on use of Chittagong and Mongla ports of Bangladesh was finalised last year.
Normally, it takes a cargo-carrying truck a week to reach Agartala from Kolkata through the Siliguri corridor, traversing a distance of at least 1,600km. It is expected that the opening up of the Chittagong port will cut down the distance by half. Agartala is 200km away from Chittagong port by road.
Potential maritime trade benefits aside, Chittagong port, being one of the oldest and busiest in the world, warrant a revisit of its illustrious history.
While globalisation as a concept gained currency in the last quarter of the 20th century, in earlier eras, diverse patterns of settlers and businesses grew in port cities. Places which were close to the sea, on the literal and metaphorical edge, grew to become power-centers of migration, trade and commerce. Chittagong was no less immune to these currents, situated as it is in the estuary of a river which flows into the Bay of Bengal.
The port has undergone multiple name changes in history and is officially called Chattogram today. In 4th century BC, the area was called 'Shetgang' where Arab, Chinese, European and Turkish traders settled. By 9th century, Arab settlers started calling it Samuda, and under their control, the port became a global trading center of renown. The Portuguese colonisers wrested control in early 16th century. By then, Chittagong had become the largest seaport in the sultanate of Bengal and they called it 'Porto Grande de Bengala', or 'the Grand Harbor of Bengal' until they left following the Mughal conquest of Bengal. Under the Mughal rule, it was called Islamabad and went on to become an important ship-building center serving the Mughal and Ottoman navies. Following the Battle of Plassey and growing British dominance, the Nawab of Bengal lost the port to the British East India Company in 1760. It began formal operations as a modern port under its new colonial masters in 1888 after the passage of Port Commissioners Act.
Between 1905-1911, Chittagong became the primary seaport of Eastern Bengal and Assam, also serving as the terminus of the Assam Bengal Railway. Thus the port's surrounding areas comprised all of colonial Assam (modern-day northeast India). In 20th century British India, Chittagong port's busiest trade link was with Burma, becoming a 'Major Port' of British India in 1928; in the Second World War, it was used as an outpost against the Imperial Japanese forces and Burmese fighters.
Prior to the Partition of India in 1947, the northeast region of British India had flourished as a trade and commerce hub, with the port of Chittagong as one the major feeders of economic exchange. And the split happened in 1947; the tea industry in Assam took a major hit as it was fully dependent on the Chittagong port for export and imports. When Chittagong port went to East Pakistan after 1947, cross-border transit got complicated with tariffs and duties; the tea chests from the gardens in Assam would have to take a long detour via Siliguri. And even though using the port was still an option, the 1965 war with Pakistan sealed all transit traffic between India and then East Pakistan then.
After much bureaucratic wrangling, the sea trade route through the good old port of Chittagong has opened up again for northeast India. How the port—now beset with overcrowding and piracy concerns—will benefit eastern India again is a history for the future.
