West Bengal (pop. 91,276,115) is a state in northern India on the western border of Bangladesh. It stretches about 370 miles (600 kilometers) from the Bay of Bengal in the south to the borders of Sikkim in the north. It is bounded on the east by the state of Assam, and on the west and southwest by the states of Bihar and Odisha (formerly Orissa). It covers an area of 34,267 square miles (88,752 square kilometers). Its capital is Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta).
Apart from the foothills of the Himalaya in the north, most of West Bengal consists of marshland, with some jungle on the Himalayan slopes and in the far south. The state is home to the Bengal tiger.
Bengal was an important area during British rule in India, becoming an economic, cultural, and political center. West Bengal first came into being in 1905, when Bengal was partitioned by Lord Curzon, British viceroy of India, into two provinces. One province consisted of West Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha. The other included East Bengal and Assam. The British later reunited West Bengal and East Bengal.
When India gained its independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned again. West Bengal remained a part of India, and East Bengal became part of Pakistan. Then, in 1971, East Bengal broke away from Pakistan and became the independent country of Bangladesh. Both events aroused conflict between West Bengal’s Hindu and Muslim communities.
People and government
People.
The majority of the people are West Bengalis. There are also tribal groups, notably Santals, Oraons, and Mundas in the plains and borders of Chota Nagpur, and Lepchas and Bhutias in the Himalaya. About 85 percent of the population speak Bengali. Hindi, Santali, Urdu, and tribal languages are also spoken. West Bengal has a large circulation of daily newspapers, including both English-language and regional papers.
For over 200 years, Kolkata has attracted many migrants in search of work. Every year, many people from Bangladesh and other countries immigrate to West Bengal. About 30 percent of the total population live in urban areas.
In the early 2010’s, Kolkata’s metropolitan population (including suburbs) was about 14 million. About 70 percent of West Bengal’s population are Hindu, and about 25 percent are Muslim. There are also small numbers of Buddhists, Christians, Jains, and Sikhs.
West Bengal is one of India’s major cultural regions, and makes important contributions to art, drama, literature, and music. Rabindranath Tagore, an internationally renowned poet, playwright, and philosopher won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.
Government.
West Bengal has 42 elected members in the Lok Sabha (lower house) and 16 members of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) of the Indian national parliament. The state assembly has 295 seats. Since the mid-1960’s, the confrontation between the Communist Party of India Marxist (the CPIM) and the Congress Party has dominated political life. The CPIM held power in the state assembly continuously from 1977 to 2011.
Economy
Agriculture.
Most of West Bengal’s cultivated land is planted with rice. Farmers also grow jute, corn, oil-seeds, potatoes, pulses, tobacco, and vegetables. Around Darjiling, tea is a major crop. West Bengal is one of the largest tea-producing states in India.
The damming of the Damodar River has brought wide-ranging, integrated development. Flood control in downstream areas of West Bengal, irrigation, and power development have made it a major economic region.
Local crafts.
Weavers have made silk cloth in India for more than 3,500 years and the tradition continues in West Bengal. Bengal silk is woven into saris (traditional women’s dresses). These may have block-printed patterns, or the exquisite brocade weaving of baluchari, a method once used under royal patronage. This type of weaving is still carried on in Murshidabad. Cultivated silk is used, or the natural colored wild silk called tussore. Some saris may be woven in the traditional style with untwisted silk. The borders and pallu (end section) often depict horses, peacocks, flowers, and human figures. Saris, fabrics, and articles for everyday use are made of fine cotton. Kantha embroidery, also typically Bengali, uses quilting techniques to make patterns of birds, flowers, animals, or scenes from mythology.
Craftworkers make household items by twisting jute. Others make local reeds into fine, light mats called madur. The Bankura horse has become a symbol of the pottery of West Bengal. Shola pith, the core of the sponge wood, is carved into delicate flowers, toys, and deities which are very popular during festivals. The sola topee, or pith helmet, took its name from “shola” rather than the “solar” of the sun.
Manufacturing.
West Bengal was the first region to experience the industrial revolution in India. Jute mills in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and engineering industries sprang up in the 1800’s. The jute industry went into serious decline after partition in 1947 because the supply of high quality jute from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) stopped.
Structural steels, railroad cars, automobiles, and a wide range of lighter goods are produced in the state. A steel mill opened at Durgapur in 1957. Asansol, Burdwan, and Burnpur have all become important industrial towns. Other industries include chemicals, cotton textiles, paper, glass, leather, footwear, and dairying. New industries are pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, and electronics.
Mining.
On the margins of West Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha lie India’s richest resources of coal and iron ore. Coal was first exploited at Raniganj in 1774 and its mines have operated continuously since 1815.
Since 1947, there has been an enormous increase in production from mines across West Bengal.
Transportation.
West Bengal has a substantial road and rail network. A road and railway cross the Farakka Barrage. This opened in 1972 to divert the Ganges waters in the dry season back down their old course, to supply more water for Calcutta and to flush silt from the river bed. The barrage also opened up the rail route to northern West Bengal and Assam.
Land
Location and description.
Most of West Bengal lies on the flat western delta of the tributaries of the Ganges. The state shares an international boundary with Bangladesh to the east, Bhutan to the north, and Nepal to the northwest. It is bounded by the states of Sikkim to the north, Assam to the east, the Bay of Bengal to the south, Odisha to the southwest, and Bihar to the west.
Land features.
The northernmost region of West Bengal includes the foothills of the Himalaya. Around Darjiling, they rise to over 13,000 feet (4,000 meters). Like Bangladesh, which forms the eastern half of the delta, most of West Bengal is made up of muddy marshland which has more plant nutrients than farmyard manure. The delta was originally densely forested. Over the last 1,000 years it has been cleared. Now the only jungle that remains is in the mangrove swamps of the Sundarbans in the far south and on the slopes of the Himalaya in the north. Elsewhere, the flat plains are all cultivated.
Even on the plains there is a great variety of scenery. North from Kolkata, the national highway crosses the apparently flat plains, of what is called the “dying Delta.” The rivers that used to carry most of the Ganges water have silted up, leaving old channels. These are frequently dry in winter. In places, old meanders (river bends) and shallow cut-off lakes have become wild swamps. Coconut-fringed ponds break up the scenery. Mangoes, papayas, and palmyra palms surround many of the villages.
There is much greater variety of scenery in the mountains on the northern fringes and the plateau and hills of the south west. In the west, the land slopes up gently to the Chota Nagpur Plateau of Bihar. These forested hills are still the home of some of India’s most primitive tribal peoples such as the Santals.
Climate.
West Bengal has three seasons; hot and dry (March to mid-June), hot and wet (June to September), and cool and dry (October to February).
During the hot and dry season the temperature averages from 75 °F to 84 °F (24 °C to 29 °C). The northern plains get the highest temperatures, rising to as much as 120 °F (49 °C). The coastal plains are generally cooler. Thunderstorms are frequent during this time of the year.
During the hot and wet season, monsoons blow from the southwest, bringing heavy rainfall and often flooding (see Monsoon). The annual rainfall may exceed 120 inches (300 centimeters) in the north. During the cool and dry season, the January temperature averages from 55 °F to 64 °F (13 °C to 18 °C) in the north and from 64 °F to 75 °F (18 °C to 24 °C) in the south. There is frost and snow in the northern plains and in mountainous areas.
Rivers.
The main course of the Ganges crosses West Bengal at almost its narrowest point. It forms the state boundary with Bihar before cutting east for 18 miles (30 kilometers) and passing into Bangladesh.
The Bhagirathi-Hooghly is a distributary of the Ganges and is vital to the prosperity of Kolkata. In the 1500’s, the Bhagirathi was the main course of the Ganges to the sea. Since then, the main course has moved eastward. The most important river is the Damodar. In 1770, the Damodar, which used to flow from Bihar to join the Bhagirathi north of Kolkata, shifted its course 81 miles (130 kilometers) southward. The rivers have changed their courses because of the flatness of the land. At the eastern end of the Ganges valley, the huge silt-filled trough which fronts the Himalaya may be as much as 13,123 feet (4,000 meters) deep. Small variations in height make great differences to the quality of the land.
History
Early empires.
West Bengal once formed a part of a wider region of India called Bengal. In prehistoric times, Dravidian and other tribes lived in Bengal. They were small communities of hunter-gatherers and left behind a number of stone implements. After about 1000 B.C., peoples from central Asia spread east and reached Bengal. They introduced the Sanskrit language and knowledge of agriculture, weaving, and pottery. In about 200 B.C., Bengal was part of the Maurya Empire, but it remained densely forested and sparsely populated.
About A.D. 300, the Guptas conquered Bengal. Trade with the Mediterranean, and particularly with Rome, expanded over the next 200 years. However, with the fall of the Roman Empire in the 400’s, the economy of Bengal declined. Several dynasties succeeded the Guptas. Sasanka, a ruler of the Gauda dynasty, tried to stem the rising tide of Buddhism in the region.
It was only with the founding of the Pala dynasty in 750 that Bengal became united once again. In the next 450 years, many cities emerged along the Ganges River. Bengal became a center of Buddhism, and art and learning flourished.
Turkish invasions across northwest India brought Islam to Bengal at the beginning of the 1200’s. Pashtun kings, who came originally from Afghanistan, followed them. The most notable was Sher Shah Suri, who took advantage of the death of the first Mughal emperor, Babur, to extend his territory from Bihar into Bengal.
However, during the years 1575 and 1576, Akbar returned the region to Mughal rule. He wanted the rich resources of rice, silk, and saltpeter (a chemical used to make gunpowder).
European traders.
The increasing power of the Muslims drew the Portuguese toward the subcontinent. Before long, they faced competition for trade from the Dutch and the British. In 1632, the Emperor Shah Jahan attacked the Portuguese port in Bengal and reduced the merchant power of the Portuguese.
Meanwhile, the British strengthened their trading links with Bengal. In 1609, the British acquired three villages around which Calcutta later developed. They built a fort, known as Fort William, and thereby consolidated their position. In 1700, Bengal became an independent presidency under the jurisdiction of the British East India Company. On the death of the emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, the Mughal territories in Bengal were absorbed into the independent kingdom. The British soon gained a monopoly over internal trade. The company merchants abused their trade privileges, however, and thus came into conflict with the native ruler, the nawab of Bengal. The conflict came to a head at the Battle of Plassey (1757), in which the nawab was defeated. In 1764, the East India Company took over the right to collect the revenues of Bengal and virtually annexed the region for the British.
During the 1800’s, Bengal became the economic and political center of British India. Agricultural raw materials, such as indigo, opium, and later jute, became staples of trade. Engineering industries grew as Calcutta expanded into a major port and an important railway junction. Bengal was enlarged by the addition in 1863 of the town and surrounding district of Darjiling, bought by the British from the rajah of Sikkim in 1835. Religious movements such as the Brahmo Samaj grew out of the meeting of traditional Hinduism with Christian missionary activity in the 1830’s. Bengal also became the major center of cultural and political activity in modern India.
Partition and independence.
Until 1905, Bengal included much of modern Bihar and Odisha, as well as all of Bengal. Lord Curzon’s partition of Bengal in 1905 created two new states. One state consisted of West Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha. The other included East Bengal and Assam. The partition aroused fierce political opposition among Bengali Hindus, who had dominated Bengali society. As a result of the partition, Bengali Hindus were outnumbered by Muslims in East Bengal and by other groups that did not speak Bengali in West Bengal. The movement against partition spread throughout India’s Hindu population and strengthened the early movement for Indian independence. In 1911, the United Kingdom announced the reunification of West Bengal and East Bengal. Bihar and Odisha remained joined as a separate province. Assam also became a province.
The events following the 1905 partition had encouraged the split between Muslims and Hindus, which resulted in Bengali Muslim support for the creation of Pakistan and national partition in 1947. Independence brought a second partition of Bengal. West Bengal became part of India, and East Bengal became part of Pakistan. The division of India into two new countries caused the migration of more than 10 million people and hundreds of thousands of deaths from clashes between Muslims and Hindus. In 1971, East Bengal broke away from Pakistan and became the independent country of Bangladesh.
