A small group from Bharat-Bangladesh-Pakistan Peoples Forum (BBPPF) gathered at the mango grove of Plassey to remember the fateful battle that changed South Asia's history 258 years ago.0

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On this day in 1757, the small army of the British East India Company defeated the forces of Bengal's last independent Nawab Siraj-ud-Dowlah at Plassey , now in West Bengal's Nadia district.

This Kolkata-based group that seeks to 'unite the struggling masses of divided South Asia" had earlier called for naming the Kolkata-Dhaka train after Nawab Siraj.

"We want to highlight our common anti-imperialist traditions by bringing back the memory of Siraj and Plassey," said BBPPF convenor Manik Samajdar.

The BBPPF upholds the philosophy of India's independence war hero Subhas Chandra Bose.

"We want to strengthen our bonds."

"Siraj may have been a bad ruler, anautocrat and a useless military leader. But he is now seen as a victim of British guile and conspiracy, and as the last independent ruler of undivided Bengal, he provokes warm sentiments in both West Bengal and Bangladesh," said historian Gautam Basu.

"He serves to rekindle the nostalgia of a united past for a divided people."

In 2007, on the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Plassey, top politicians from Bangladesh and West Bengal had gathered here in some numbers to recall the memories of independence lost.

The gathering on Tuesday was not as big as it was in 2007 but cut outs of Subhas Bose and Bangladesh’ founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were on display.

Significantly, 23rd June is also the day the Awami League was launched in 1949 in