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The region that is now West Bengal was a part of a number of empires and
kingdoms during the past two millennia. The British East India Company cemented
their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and the city of
Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, served for many years as the capital of British
India. A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century,
Bengal was divided in 1947 into two separate entities, West Bengal - a state of India,
and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) belonging to the new nation of Pakistan.

Following India's independence in 1947, West Bengal's economic and political
theatres were dominated for many decades by intellectual Marxism, Naxalite
movements and trade unionism. From late 1990s, economic rejuvenation led to a
spurt in the state's economic and industrial growth

Remnants of civilisation in the greater Bengal region date back 4,000 years, when
the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic peoples. The
exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be
derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang that settled in the area around the
year 1000 BCE. After the arrival of Indo-Aryans, the kingdom of Magadha was formed
in 7th century BCE, consisting of the Bihar and Bengal regions. It was one of the four
main kingdoms of India at the time of Mahavira and the Buddha, and consisted of
several Janapadas. During the rule of Maurya dynasty, the Magadha Empire
extended over nearly all of South Asia, including parts of Persia and Afghanistan
under Ashoka the Great in the 3rd century BCE. One of the earliest foreign
references to Bengal is the mention of a land named Gangaridai by the Greeks
around 100 BCE. The word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd (Land with
the Ganges in its heart) in reference to an area in Bengal.

From the 3rd to the 6th centuries CE, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of
the Gupta Empire. The first recorded independent king of Bengal was Shashanka,
reigning around early 7th century. After a period of anarchy, the Buddhist Pala
dynasty ruled the region for four hundred years, followed by a shorter reign of the
Hindu Sena dynasty. Islam was introduced to Bengal in the twelfth century by Sufi
missionaries. Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the
region. Bakhtiar Khilji, a Turkic general of the Slave dynasty of Delhi Sultanate,
defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal.
Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of sultans and feudal lords under
the Delhi Sultanate for the next few hundred years. In the sixteenth century, Mughal
general Islam Khan conquered Bengal. However, administration by governors
appointed by the court of the Mughal Empire gave way to semi-independence of the
area under the Nawabs of Murshidabad, who nominally respected the sovereignty of
the Mughals in Delhi.

European traders arrived late in the fifteenth century. Their influence grew until the
British East India Company gained taxation rights in Bengal subah, or province,
following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, when Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent
Nawab, was defeated by the British. The Bengal Presidency was established by
1765, eventually including all British territories 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.
Calcutta was named the capital of British India in 1772. The Bengal Renaissance
and Brahmo Samaj socio-cultural reform movements had great impact on the
cultural and economic life of Bengal. The failed Indian rebellion of 1857 started near
Calcutta and resulted in transfer of authority to the British Crown, administered by the
Viceroy of India. Between 1905 and 1911, an abortive attempt was made to divide the
province of Bengal into two zones. Bengal suffered from the Great Bengal famine in
1943 that claimed 3 million lives.



GENERAL INFORMATION


Time zone            IST (UTC+5:30)
Area                      88,752 kmē (34,267 sq mi)
Capital                  Kolkata
Largest city          Kolkata (Calcutta)
District(s)             19
Population           80,221,171 (4th)
Density                 904/kmē (2,341/sq mi)
Language(s)       Bengali