Britons in Bangladesh

Before the 1757 Battle of Plassey which resulted in Bengal falling to the British East India Company, there were likely less than two hundred British people in the region; some of them were Company servants working in the factories, while others lived in Calcutta.^[1] The Company was perceived in a poor light by local rulers by the early 18th century; its officials' behaviour was characterised by brawls and foul language, and its construction of military forts was seen as a potential threat. Alivardi Khan, Nawab of Bengal, was petitioned by several groups to drive the British out, but on one such occasion, likened Europeans to a hive of bees that would provide honey if unprovoked, but "sting you to death" otherwise.^[2] Company servants, for their own part, had low views of local rulers, supposing them to be despotic and corrupt. Some Company officials believed that if they were in charge, they could enact quick reforms in Bengal that would allow for greater wealth generation and extraction.^[3]

One writer claimed that in the first decades after 1757, the British had transformed from "pettifogging traders quarreling over their seats in church [...] into imperialist swashbucklers and large scale extortionists.^[4][2] A number of economic experiments were attempted to extract as much income as possible from Bengalis; these experiments aimed not only to take wealth but to also generate more wealth in the local economy that could be taken.^[5]

There have been concerns around Islamism being imported into Bangladesh through the return migration of British Bangladeshis.^[6]

• Bangladesh–United Kingdom relations
• British diaspora
• Immigration to Bangladesh
• Bangladeshis in the United Kingdom