36 Facts About West Bengal

West Bengal includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region, the Ganges delta, the Rarh region, the coastal Sundarbans and the Bay of Bengal.

Ancient West Bengal was the site of several major Janapadas, while the earliest cities date back to the Vedic period.

Post Indian independence, West Bengal's economy is based on agricultural production and small and medium-sized enterprises.

West Bengal has the 28th-highest ranking among Indian states in human development index, with the index value being less than that of India.

West Bengal has two World Heritage sites and ranks as the seventh-most visited tourist destination in India.

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In 1947, at the end of British rule over the Indian subcontinent the Bengal Legislative Council and the Bengal Legislative Assembly voted on the Partition of Bengal along religious lines into two separate entities: West Bengal, which continued as an Indian state and East Bengal, a province of Pakistan, which came to be known be as East Pakistan and later became the independent Bangladesh.

In 2011 the Government of West Bengal proposed a change in the official name of the state to Paschim Banga.

Several Vedic realms were present in the West Bengal region, including Vanga, Rarh, Pundravardhana and the Suhma Kingdom.

One of the earliest foreign references to West Bengal is a mention by the Ancient Greeks around 100BCE of a land named Gangaridai located at the mouths of the Ganges.

West Bengal murdered Rajyavardhana, the Buddhist king of Thanesar, and is noted for destroying the Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya, and replacing Buddha statues with Shiva lingams.

The West Bengal Sultanate was interrupted for twenty years by a Hindu uprising under Raja Ganesha.

The Koch dynasty in northern West Bengal flourished during the 16th and 17thcenturies; it weathered the Mughals and survived until the advent of the British colonial era.

West Bengal gained the right to collect revenue in Bengal subah in 1765 with the signing of the treaty between the East India company and the Mughal emperor following the Battle of Buxar in 1764.

The West Bengal Presidency was established in 1765; it later incorporated all British-controlled territory north of the Central Provinces, from the mouths of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra to the Himalayas and the Punjab.

West Bengal suffered from the Great West Bengal famine in 1943, which claimed threemillion lives during World WarII.

Armed attempts against the British Raj from West Bengal reached a climax when news of Subhas Chandra Bose leading the Indian National Army against the British reached West Bengal.

The eastern part went to the Dominion of Pakistan as a province called East West Bengal, becoming the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971.

West Bengal politics underwent a major change when the Left Front won the 1977 assembly election, defeating the incumbent Indian National Congress.

West Bengal is on the eastern bottleneck of India, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south.

West Bengal receives the Bay of Bengal branch of the Indian Ocean monsoon that moves in a southeast to northwest direction.

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.

West Bengal is governed through a parliamentary system of representative democracy, a feature the state shares with other Indian states.

Years after independence, West Bengal is dependent on the central government for help in meeting its demands for food; food production remained stagnant, and the Indian green revolution bypassed the state.

Economy of West Bengal has witnessed many surprising changes in direction.

The tea industry of West Bengal has witnessed shutdowns for financial and political reasons.

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The tourism industry of West Bengal was negatively impacted in 2017 because of the Gorkhaland agitation.

Study conducted in three districts of West Bengal found that accessing private health services to treat illness had a catastrophic impact on households.

West Bengal is home to indigenous tribal Adivasis such as: Santhal, Munda, Oraon, Bhumij, Lodha, Kol and Toto.

West Bengal is religiously diverse, with regional cultural and religious specificities.

Hindu population of West Bengal is 64, 385, 546 while the Muslim population is 24, 654, 825, according to the 2011 census.

Folk music in West Bengal is often accompanied by the ektara, a one-stringed instrument.

West Bengal has been in the vanguard of modernism in fine arts.

West Bengal produces several varieties of cotton and silk saris in the country.

West Bengal schools are run by the state government or private organisations, including religious institutions.

In 2005 West Bengal had 505 published newspapers, of which 389 were in Bengali.

Notable sports persons from West Bengal include former Indian national cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly, Pankaj Roy, Olympic tennis bronze medallist Leander Paes and chess grand master Dibyendu Barua.