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West Bengal (Paschim Banga in Bengali) is a state in the northeast of India. Neighbouring
regions are Nepal and Sikkim to the northwest,
Bhutan to the north, Assam to the northeast,
Bangladesh to the east, the Bay of Bengal to the south, Orissa to the southwest and Jharkhand and Bihar.
History of Bengal
Bengal came under Islamic rule starting in the 13th century and
developed into a wealthy centre of trade and industry under the Mogul
Empire during the 16th century. European traders had arrived in the
late 15th century and eventually the British East India Company controlled the region by the
late 18th century, from which the British extended their rule over all of India.
When Indian independence was achieved in 1947, Bengal was divided into predominantly
Muslim East Bengal (later changed to East Pakistan and then Bangladesh) and predominantly Hindu
West Bengal.
For more on Bengal's history prior to 1947, see Bengal.
West Bengal State
Its capital city is Kolkata. There are 18 districts in this state. The primary language of West Bengal is
Bengali. Since 1979, the state has been ruled by communists, who repeatedly won democratic elections.
The climate of West Bengal is tropical. The land is mostly plains except the
northern region which is a part of Himalayan Mountain Range. Darjeeling in the north is well known for its high quality teas. At the south of West
Bengal the Sundarbans delta on
Ganga is a part of the world's largest river delta (rest of it lies in Bangladesh). This region is
famous for the Royal Bengal Tiger.
Bengal is the cultural hub of India. There was a saying, "What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow". It's the
birthplace of India's only Noble laureate in
literature, Rabindranath Tagore. The world famous film
director Satyajit Ray was also born here. Apart from this, Bengal gave
birth to innumerable well known poets and writers who enriched the world literature ceaselessly. To name a few, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Also India's most beloved male singer in films,Kishore Kumar, and the world-famous sitarist Ravi Shankar were Bengali.
During independence movement, Bengal took a leading and especially militant role. Subhash Chandra Bose, who was belovedly called "Netaji", is still a burning example of courage for
Indian youth. Satyendra Nath Bose, from whom the boson particle and Bose-Einstein theory get their names, was also a Bengali. Amartya Sen, who won Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 is a Bengali. Mother Teresa, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, had
worked in Kolkata for most of her life.
In the religious realm, Bengal gave birth to great Hindu sages and saints like Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (15th century major Vaishnava figure),
Ramprasad Sen (a famous Kali Bhakta and poet) and Ramakrishna Paramhansa; others include Swami Vivekananda (the most renowned of Shri Ramakrishna's disciples), Śrī Aurobindo Ghosh, and Prabhupada A.C. Bhaktivedanta the founder of the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
See also
- List of people from West
Bengal
- Bengal
External links
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