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Historical background
BRITISH INDIA – EAST INDIA COMPANY - BENGAL PRESIDENCY
(until 1835)
The Presidency of Fort William or more commonly the Presidency of Bengal (literally from the English Bengal Presidency) is a territorial administrative entity of British India which covered the East Indies, from the Himalayas in the north to Burma in the East. It was one of the three presidencies of British India, and was based at Fort William, a fortress in Calcutta. Until 1833, the Governor-General of India exercised his power only over Bengal. The area controlled by this presidency now covers Bangladesh, the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana , Himachal Pradesh and parts of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the Pakistani border provinces of Punjab, and those of Burma. Penang and Singapore were also included in this presidency. The territories were managed by the English East India Company until they were incorporated into the British crown in 1858..