West Bengal

• 1. Mountains To Mangroves

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  The state stretches from the snow-capped peaks of Sandakfu to the muddy banks of the Bay of Bengal. Sandakfu rises 3,636 meters above sea level as the highest point in West Bengal. This northern region belongs to the eastern Himalayas mountain range. A narrow strip called the Terai separates these hills from the North Bengal plains below. The plains transition into the vast Ganges delta toward the south. The Rarh region sits between the delta and the western plateau highlands. At the southernmost edge lies the Sundarbans mangrove forest. This area hosts the world's largest mangrove forest on Earth. Heavy monsoon rains arrive from June through September across the entire state. Darjeeling district receives over 250 centimeters of rainfall during this season. Winter brings mild temperatures to the plains but harsh cold to the mountains. Occasional snowfall blankets the Darjeeling Himalayan Hill region every year.

• 2. Empires And Trade Routes

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  Stone Age tools dating back 20,000 years have been excavated within the state boundaries. These artifacts show human occupation 8,000 years earlier than scholars had previously thought. Ancient Greeks mentioned a land named Gangaridai around 100 BCE near the mouths of the Ganges river. Prince Vijaya of the Vanga kingdom conquered Lanka and named it Sinhala kingdom according to the Mahavamsa chronicle. Shashanka reigned as the first recorded independent king of Bengal in the early 7th century. He is noted for destroying the Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya and replacing Buddha statues with Shiva lingams. The Pala dynasty ruled the region for four hundred years beginning in the 8th century. Islam spread across the entire Bengal region following Ghurid conquests led by Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji. During the Bengal Sultanate founded in 1352, Europeans called the territory the richest country to trade with. Mughal general Islam Khan conquered Bengal in the 16th century. After Emperor Aurangzeb died in the early 1700s, proto-industrialized Mughal Bengal became semi-independent under Nawabs of Bengal.

• 3. Famine And Partition

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  The British East India Company defeated Siraj ud-Daulah in the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The company gained revenue collection rights in 1765 after signing a treaty following the Battle of Buxar. Calcutta became the capital of British-held territories in India in 1773. The Bengal famine of 1770 claimed millions of lives due to tax policies enacted by the British company. West Bengal suffered from the Great Bengal famine in 1943 which claimed three million lives during World War II. When India gained independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned along religious lines into two separate entities. The western part went to the Dominion of India and was named West Bengal. The eastern part went to the Dominion of Pakistan as a province called East Bengal. This region later became the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971. Large influxes of refugees arrived during and after the partition in 1947. Refugee resettlement continued to play a significant role in politics for decades afterward. The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 resulted in an influx of millions more refugees causing infrastructure strain.

• 4. Decades Of Stagnation

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  West Bengal was ruled by the Left Front for thirty-four years between 1977 and 2011. This period represents the world's longest-running democratically elected communist government. Severe power shortages and strikes damaged much of the city's infrastructure during the 1970s and 1980s. A violent Marxist-Maoist movement known as Naxalites further crippled development efforts. The state's total financial debt stood at unspecified amounts as of 2011. Economic stagnation persisted until central government liberalizations were introduced in the mid-1990s. Information technology services helped aid economic recovery beginning in the mid-2000s. In 2015-2016, agriculture contributed 4.84% while industry made up 18.51% of gross value added. Service sectors grew faster than the national rate over many years. Many major industries experienced shutdowns in 2014 including the Uttarpara Hindustan Motors car unit. Plans for a 300 billion Jindal Steel project were mothballed that same year. West Bengal has been able to attract only 2% of foreign direct investment in the last decade.

• 5. Literature And Cinema

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  The Charyapada collection contains Buddhist mystic songs dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries. Rabindranath Tagore reshaped Bengali literature and music during the 19th and 20th centuries. Michael Madhusudan Dutt pioneered Bengali drama by introducing blank verse usage. Satyajit Ray is widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. His films were shot mostly in studios located in the Kolkata neighborhood of Tollygunge. The name Tollywood derives from this specific location similar to Hollywood or Bollywood. Bengali films have won India's annual National Film Award for Best Feature Film twenty-two times in sixty-seven years. This record stands highest among all Indian languages. Uttam Kumar was the most popular lead actor for decades alongside Suchitra Sen. Soumitra Chatterjee acted in many Satyajit Ray films achieving legendary status. Abanindranath Tagore started the Bengal School of Art promoting styles outside European realist traditions.