ABSTRACT
The State of West Bengal lies in north-eastern India, at the head of the Bay of Bengal. Ancient Bengal (Bangla) consisted of the flat, fertile plains of the mighty GangaBrahmaputra delta and it developed a distinct regional identity, strengthened under foreign rule, when Calcutta (now Kolkata) was the capital of all of British India between 1773 and 1911. However, the legacy of Muslim rule and a still numerous Hindu population led to the final Partition of Bengal at independence, when the last Empire of India gave way to modern India, which retained West Bengal, and Pakistan, in which East
Bengal became East Pakistan (later, upon achieving its own independence in 1971, Bangladesh). West Bengal consists of a large block of territory on the coast, connected by a corridor of varying narrowness to a northern block of territory beneath the Himalayas. The international frontier with Bangladesh therefore runs the length of West Bengal’s eastern border, which curls over the northern end of that country. This northernmost part of West Bengal has the kingdom of Bhutan to the north-east and that of Nepal to the west, but it also connects the bulk of the Republic of India to its north-eastern states, the ‘Seven Sisters’, through Assam to the east, and Sikkim, to the north. To the west of the north-south corridor is Bihar (upstream on the Ganga-Ganges), and, further south, Jharkhand (which formed a part of Bihar until 2000), into which a horn of the main block of West Bengal abuts. Orissa lies down the coast to the south-west. The total area of the state is 88,752 sq km (34,258 sq miles), making it slightly larger than the island of Ireland.
