West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in India.

Location of West Bengal

## Etymology

The origin of the name Bengal (*Bangla* and *Bongo* in Bengali) is unknown. One theory suggests that the word derives from "Bang", a Dravidian tribe that settled the region around 1000 BCE.[9] The Bengali word *Bongo* might have been derived from the ancient kingdom of *Vanga* (or *Banga*). Although some early Sanskrit literature mentions the name *Vanga*, the region's early history is obscure.[10]

At the end of British rule over the Indian subcontinent, the Bengal region was partitioned in 1947 along religious lines into east and west. The eastern part came to be known as East Bengal, and the western part came to known as West Bengal, which continued as an Indian state. In 2011 the Government of West Bengal proposed a change in the official name of the state to *Poschimbongo* (Bengali: পশ্চিমবঙ্গ *Pôshchimbônggô*).[11] This is the native name of the state, literally meaning western Bengal in the native Bengali language. In August 2016 the West Bengal Legislative Assembly passed another resolution to change the name of West Bengal to "Bangal" in Hindi, "Bengal" in English, and "Bangla" in Bengali. Despite the Trinamool Congress government's strong efforts to forge a consensus on the name change resolution, the Indian National Congress, the Left Front, and the Bharatiya Janata Party opposed the resolution. However, it now awaits approval by the Indian Parliament.

## History

### Ancient and classical period

Stone Age tools dating back 20,000 years have been excavated in the state, showing human occupation 8,000 years earlier than scholars had earlier thought.[13] The region was a part of the Vanga Kingdom, according to the Indian epic *Mahabharata.*[14] Several Vedic realms were present in the Bengal region, including Vanga, Rarh, Pundravardhana, and the Suhma Kingdom. One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is a mention by the Ancient Greeks around 100 BCE of a land named Gangaridai, which was located at the mouths of the Ganges.[15] Bengal had overseas trade relations with Suvarnabhumi (Burma, Lower Thailand, the Lower Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra).[16] According to the Sri Lankan chronicle *Mahavamsa,* Prince Vijaya (c. 543 – c. 505 BCE), a Vanga Kingdom prince, conquered Lanka (modern-day Sri Lanka) and gave the name Sinhala Kingdom to the country.[17]

The kingdom of Magadha was formed in the 7th century BCE, consisting of the regions now comprising Bihar and Bengal. It was one of the four main kingdoms of India at the time of the lives of Mahavira, founder of Jainism, and Gautama Buddha, founder of Buddhism. It consisted of several janapadas, or kingdoms.[18] Under Ashoka, the Maurya Empire of Magadha in the 3rd century BCE extended over nearly all of South Asia, including Afghanistan and parts of Balochistan.[19] From the 3rd to the 6th centuries CE, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire.

Two kingdoms – Vanga or Samatata, and Gauda – are mentioned in some texts to have appeared after the end of the Gupta Empire although details of their ascendancy are uncertain.[20] The first recorded independent king of Bengal was Shashanka, who reigned in the early 7th century.[21]Shashanka is often recorded in Buddhist annals as an intolerant Hindu ruler who is noted for his persecution of the Buddhists. Shashanka murdered Rajyavardhana, the Buddhist king of Thanesar, and is noted for destroying the Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya, and replacing Buddha statues with Shiva lingams.[22] After a period of anarchy,[23]:36 the Pala dynasty ruled the region for four hundred years starting in the 8th century. It was followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sena dynasty.

Some areas of Bengal were invaded by Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty between 1021 and 1023.[24] Islam made its first appearance in Bengal during the 12th century when Sufi missionaries arrived.[25] Later, occasional Muslim raiders reinforced the process of conversion by building mosques, madrasas, and khanqahs. Between 1202 and 1206 Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji, a military commander from the Delhi Sultanate, overran Bihar and Bengal as far east as Rangpur, Bogra, and the Brahmaputra River. Although he failed to bring Bengal under his control, the expedition defeated Lakshman Sen, whose two sons moved to a place then called Vikramapur (present-day Munshiganj District), where their diminished dominion lasted until the late 13th century.

### Medieval and early modern periods

Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region.[26] The region was ruled by dynasties of the Bengal Sultanate and feudal lords under the Delhi Sultanate for the next few hundred years. The Bengal Sultanate was interrupted for a period of twenty years by a Hindu uprising under Raja Ganesha. In the 16th century, Mughal general Islam Khan conquered Bengal. Administration by governors appointed by the court of the Mughal Empire gave way to semi-independence under the Nawabs of Murshidabad, who nominally respected the sovereignty of the Mughals in Delhi. Several independent Hindu states were established in Bengal during the Mughal period, including those of Pratapaditya of Jessore District and Raja Sitaram Ray of Bardhaman. The Koch dynasty in northern Bengal flourished during the 16th and 17th centuries; it weathered the Mughals and survived until the advent of the British colonial era.

### Colonial period

Several European traders reached this area late in the 15th century. The British East India Company defeated Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab, in the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The company gained the right to collect revenue in Bengal subah (province) in 1765 with the signing of the treaty between the East India company and the Mughal emperor following the Battle of Buxar in 1764.[27]The Bengal Presidency was established in 1765; it later incorporated all British-controlled territory north of the Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh), from the mouths of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra to the Himalayas and the Punjab. The Bengal famine of 1770 claimed millions of lives due to tax policies enacted by the British company.[28] Calcutta, the headquarters of the East India company, was named in 1772 as the capital of British-held territories in India. The failed Indian rebellion of 1857 started near Calcutta and resulted in a transfer of authority to the British Crown, administered by the Viceroy of India.[29]

The Bengal Renaissance and the Brahmo Samaj socio-cultural reform movements significantly influenced the cultural and economic life of Bengal. Between 1905 and 1911 an abortive attempt was made to divide the province of Bengal into two zones.[30] Bengal suffered from the Great Bengal famine in 1943, which claimed 3 million lives during World War II.[31] Bengalis played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in which revolutionary groups such as *Anushilan Samiti* and *Jugantar* were dominant. Armed attempts against the British Raj from Bengal reached a climax when Subhas Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army from Southeast Asia against the British.

### Indian independence and afterwards

When India gained independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned along religious lines. The western part went to the Dominion of India (and was named West Bengal), while the eastern part went to the Dominion of Pakistan as a province called East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan in 1956). The latter became the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971.[32] In 1950 the Princely State of Cooch Behar merged with West Bengal.[33]In 1955 the former French enclave of Chandannagar, which had passed into Indian control after 1950, was integrated into West Bengal; portions of Bihar were also subsequently merged with West Bengal. Both West and East Bengal experienced large influxes of refugees during and after partition in 1947. Refugee resettlement and related issues continued to play a significant role in the politics and socio-economic condition of the state.

During the 1970s and 1980s, severe power shortages, strikes, and a violent Naxalite movement damaged much of the state's infrastructure, leading to a period of economic stagnation. The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 resulted in the influx of millions of refugees to West Bengal, causing significant strains on its infrastructure.[35] The 1974 smallpox epidemic killed thousands. West Bengal politics underwent a major change when the Left Front won the 1977 assembly election, defeating the incumbent Indian National Congress. The Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), governed the state for the next three decades.[36]

The state's economic recovery gathered momentum after economic liberalisations were introduced in the mid-1990s by the central government. This was aided by the advent of information technology and IT-enabled services. Starting in the mid-2000s, armed activists conducted minor terrorist attacks in some parts of the state while clashes with the administration took place at several controversial locations over the issue of industrial land acquisition, which became a decisive reason behind the defeat of the ruling Left Front government in the 2011 assembly election.[41] Although the economy was severely damaged during the unrest in the 70's, the state has managed to revive it's economy, steadily throughout the years. The state has shown improvement regarding bandhs(strikes) and educational infrastructure.[48] Significant strides have been made in reducing unemployment.[49] Though the state suffers from substandard healthcare services, a lack of socio-economic development,[52] poor infrastructure, unemployment, and civil violence.

## Geography and climate

West Bengal is on the eastern bottleneck of India, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. The state has a total area of 88,752 square kilometres (34,267 sq mi).[1] The Darjeeling Himalayan hill region in the northern extreme of the state is a part of the eastern Himalayas mountain range. In this region is Sandakfu, which, at 3,636 m (11,929 ft), is the highest peak in the state.[57] The narrow Terai region separates the hills from the North Bengal plains, which in turn transitions into the Ganges delta towards the south. The Rarh region intervenes between the Ganges delta in the east and the western plateau and high lands. A small coastal region is in the extreme south, while the Sundarbans mangrove forests form a geographical landmark at the Ganges delta.

The main river in West Bengal is the Ganges, which divides into two branches. One branch enters Bangladesh as the *Padma*, or *Pôdda*, while the other flows through West Bengal as the Bhagirathi River and Hooghly River. The Farakka barrage over the Ganges feeds the Hooghly branch of the river by a feeder canal, and its water flow management has been a source of lingering dispute between India and Bangladesh.[58] The Teesta, Torsa, Jaldhaka, and Mahananda rivers are in the northern hilly region. The western plateau region has rivers such as the Damodar, Ajay, and Kangsabati. The Ganges delta and the Sundarbans area have numerous rivers and creeks. Pollution of the Ganges from indiscriminate waste dumped into the river is a major problem.[59] Damodar, another tributary of the Ganges and once known as the "Sorrow of Bengal" (due to its frequent floods), has several dams under the Damodar Valley Project. At least nine districts in the state suffer from arsenic contamination of groundwater, and, as of 2006, an estimated 8.7 million people drink water containing arsenic above the World Health Organisation recommended limit of 10 µg/L.[60]

West Bengal's climate varies from tropical savanna in the southern portions to humid subtropical in the north. The main seasons are summer, the rainy season, a short autumn, and winter. While the summer in the delta region is noted for excessive humidity, the western highlands experience a dry summer like northern India, with the highest daytime temperature ranging from 38 °C (100 °F) to 45 °C (113 °F).[61] At night, a cool southerly breeze carries moisture from the Bay of Bengal. In early summer, brief squalls and thunderstorms known as *Kalbaisakhi*, or Nor'westers, often occur.[62] West Bengal receives the Bay of Bengal branch of the Indian Ocean monsoon that moves in a southeast to northwest direction. Monsoons bring rain to the whole state from June to September. Heavy rainfall of above 250 centimetres (98 in) is observed in the Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, and Cooch Behar district. During the arrival of the monsoons, low pressure in the Bay of Bengal region often leads to the formation of storms in the coastal areas. Winter (December–January) is mild over the plains with average minimum temperatures of 15 °C (59 °F).[61] A cold and dry northern wind blows in the winter, substantially lowering the humidity level. The Darjeeling Himalayan Hill region experiences a harsh winter, with occasional snowfall.

## Flora and fauna

As of 2013, recorded forest area in the state is 16,805 km2 (6,488 sq mi), which is 18.93% of the state's geographical area, compared to the national average of 21.23%.[64] Reserves and protected and unclassed forests constitute 59.4%, 31.8%, and 8.9%, respectively, of forested areas, as of 2009.[65] Part of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans is located in southern West Bengal.

From a phytogeographic viewpoint, the southern part of West Bengal can be divided into two regions: the Gangetic plain and the littoral mangrove forests of the Sundarbans.[68] The alluvial soil of the Gangetic plain, combined with favourable rainfall, makes this region especially fertile.[68] Much of the vegetation of the western part of the state has similar species composition with the plants of the Chota Nagpurplateau in the adjoining state of Jharkhand.[68] The predominant commercial tree species is *Shorea robusta*, commonly known as the sal tree. The coastal region of Purba Medinipur exhibits coastal vegetation; the predominant tree is the *Casuarina*. A notable tree from the Sundarbans is the ubiquitous *sundari* (*Heritiera fomes*), from which the forest gets its name.[69]

The distribution of vegetation in northern West Bengal is dictated by elevation and precipitation. For example, the foothills of the Himalayas, the *Dooars*, are densely wooded with sal and other tropical evergreen trees.[70] Above an elevation of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), the forest becomes predominantly subtropical. In Darjeeling, which is above 1,500 metres (4,900 ft), temperate forest trees such as oaks, conifers, and rhododendrons predominate.[70]

3.26% of the geographical area of West Bengal is protected land, comprising fifteen wildlife sanctuaries and five national parks[65] – Sundarbans National Park, Buxa Tiger Reserve, Gorumara National Park, Neora Valley National Park, and Singalila National Park. Extant wildlife include Indian rhinoceros, Indian elephant, deer, leopard, gaur, tiger, and crocodiles, as well as many bird species. Migratory birds come to the state during the winter.[71] The high-altitude forests of Singalila National Park shelter barking deer, red panda, chinkara, takin, serow, pangolin, minivet, and kalij pheasants. The Sundarbans are noted for a reserve project devoted to conserving the endangered Bengal tiger although the forest hosts many other endangered species such as the Gangetic dolphin, river terrapin, and estuarine crocodile.[72] The mangrove forest also acts as a natural fish nursery, supporting coastal fishes along the Bay of Bengal.[72] Recognising its special conservation value, the Sundarbans area has been declared a Biosphere Reserve.

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