The Punjab The Punjab The Punjab (pronounced or ; Punjabi: ਪੰਜਾਬ, The Punjab (pronounced or ; [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]: [[Gurmukhī script|ਪੰਜਾਬ]], The Punjab (pronounced or ; [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]: [[Gurmukhī script|ਪੰਜਾਬ]], [[Shahmukhi script|, ), also spelled Panjab ' onMouseout='HidePop("11256")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Bengal_famine_of_1770">Bengal famine of 1770
The Bengal famine of 1770 was a catastrophic famine between 1769 and 1773 that affected the lower Gangetic plain of India...
claimed millions of lives. Calcutta was named the capital of
British IndiaThe British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
in 1772. The
Bengal RenaissanceThe Bengal Renaissance refers to a social reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the region of Bengal in undivided India during the period of British rule...
and
Brahmo SamajBrahmo Samaj is the societal component of Brahmoism. It has without doubt proved to be the most influential religious movement of the nineteenth century...
socio-cultural reform movements had great impact on the cultural and economic life of Bengal. The failed
Indian rebellion of 1857The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May, 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
started near Calcutta and resulted in transfer of authority to the
British CrownThe Monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
, administered by the Viceroy of India. Between 1905 and 1911, an
abortive attemptThe Partition of Bengal in 1905, was made on 16 October by then Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. Due to the high level of political unrest generated by the partition, the eastern and western parts of Bengal were reunited in 1911.-Origin:...
was made to divide the province of Bengal into two zones.
Bengal has played a major role in the
Indian independence movementThe term Indian independence movement incorporates various national and regional campaigns, agitations and efforts of both nonviolent and militant philosophy. The term encompasses a wide spectrum of political organizations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending the British...
, in which
revolutionary groupsThe Revolutionary movement for Indian independence is often a less-highlighted aspect of the Indian independence movement -- the underground revolutionary factions. The groups believing in armed revolution against the ruling British fall into this category. The revolutionary groups were...
were dominant. Armed attempts to overthrow the
British RajThe British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
reached a climax when
Subhash Chandra BoseSubhas Chandra Bose , popularly known as Netaji , was a leader in the Indian independence movement.Bose was elected president of the Indian National Congress for two consecutive terms but...
led the
Indian National ArmyThe Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II.The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance...
against the British. Bengal was also central in the rising political awareness of the Muslim population—
Muslim LeagueThe All-India Muslim League , founded at Dhaka, Bengal, in 1906, was a political party in British India that played a role in the Indian independence movement and developed into the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state on the Indian subcontinent...
was established in Dhaka in 1906. In spite of a last ditch effort to form a United Bengal, when India
gained independenceThe History of the Republic of India began on August 15, 1947 when India became an independent Dominion within the British Commonwealth. Concurrently the Muslim-majority northwest and east of British India was separated into the Dominion of Pakistan. Lord Louis Mountbatten, and later Chakravarti...
in 1947, Bengal was
partitionedThe Partition of Bengal in 1947, part of the Partition of India, was a partition that divided the British Indian province of Bengal between India and Pakistan, with West Bengal becoming a province of India and East Bengal becoming a province of Pakistan...
along religious lines. The western part went to India (and was named West Bengal) while the eastern part joined
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
as a province called
East BengalEast Bengal was a province in the Dominion of Pakistan, and was in existence from August 15, 1947 to October 14, 1955. It came into being after the partition of Bengal in 1947...
(later renamed
East PakistanEast Pakistan was a former province of Pakistan which existed between 1947 and 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal Province based on a plebiscite in what was then British India in 1947. Eastern Bengal chose to join the Dominion of Pakistan and became a province of Pakistan by the name East...
, giving rise to
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
in 1971). The circumstances of partition was bloody, with widespread religious riots in Bengal.
The post-partition political history of East and West Bengal diverged for the most part. Starting from the Bengali Language Movement of 1952. political dissent against
West PakistanWest Pakistan was the popular and sometimes official name of the western wing of Pakistan until 1971, when the eastern wing became independent as Bangladesh...
i domination grew steadily.
Awami LeagueThe Bangladesh Awami League , commonly known as the Awami League, is the mainstream center-left, secular political party in Bangladesh...
, led by
Sheikh Mujibur RahmanSheikh Mujibur Rahman was a Bengali politician and the founding leader of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, generally considered in the country as the father of the Bengali nation. He headed the Awami League, served as the first President of Bangladesh and later became its Prime Minister...
, emerged as the political voice of the Bengali-speaking population of East Pakistan by 1960s. In 1971, the crisis deepened when Rahman was arrested and a
sustained military assaultOperation Searchlight was a planned military extermination carried out by the Pakistan Army to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in erstwhile East Pakistan in March 1971. Ordered by the government in West Pakistan, this was seen as the sequel to "Operation Blitz" which had been launched in...
was launched on East Pakistan. Most of the Awami League leaders fled and set up a government-in-exile in West Bengal. The
guerrillaGuerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
Mukti BahiniMukti Bahini , also termed as the "Freedom Fighters", collectively refers to the armed organizations who fought against the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War. It was dynamically formed by Bengali regulars and civilians after the proclamation of Bangladesh's independence on March...
and Bengali regulars eventually received support from the
Indian Armed ForcesThe Indian Armed Forces is the overall unified military of the Republic of India encompassing the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force, the Indian Navy, and various other inter-service institutions.With an estimated total active force of 1,414,000 personnel, India maintains the world's third largest...
in December 1971, resulting in a decisive victory over Pakistan on 16 December in the Bangladesh Liberation War or
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian and Bangladeshi sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's 3 December 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
. The post independence history of Bangladesh was strife with conflict, with a long history of political assassinations and coups before parliamentary democracy was established in 1991. Since then, the political environment has been relatively stable.
West BengalWest Bengal is a state in eastern India. With Bangladesh, which lies on its eastern border, the state forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. To its northeast lie the states of Assam and Sikkim and the country Bhutan, and to its southwest, the state of Orissa...
, the western part of Bengal, became a state in India. In the 1960s and 1970s, severe power shortages, strikes and a violent
Marxist-NaxaliteNaxalite or Naxalvadis , are a group of far-left radical communists, supportive of Maoist political sentiment and ideology. Their origin can be traced to the split in 1967 of the Communist Party of India , leading to formation of Communist Party of India...
movement damaged much of the state's infrastructure, leading to a period of economic stagnation. The
Bangladesh Liberation WarThe Bangladesh Liberation War
was a civil war in Pakistan resulting in the separation of Bangladesh and West Pakistan . The war broke out after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared Bangladeshi independence on 26 March 1971...
of 1971 resulted in the influx of millions of refugees to West Bengal, causing significant strains on its infrastructure. West Bengal politics underwent a major change when the
Left FrontThe Left Front is an alliance of Indian leftist parties, shortly called LF. In West Bengal and Tripura there are state-level committees of the Left Front; Left Front governments currently rule both of these states.
...
won the 1977 assembly election, defeating the incumbent
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
. The Left Front, led by CPI(M) has governed for the last three decades. The state's economic recovery gathered momentum after economic reforms in India were introduced in the mid-1990s by the
central governmentThe Government of India, also known as the Union Government or the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of a union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
, aided by election of a new reformist
Chief MinisterA Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British overseas territory that has attained self-government...
Buddhadeb BhattacharyaBuddhadeb Bhattacharjee is an Indian Communist politician, who has served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal since November 6, 2000...
in 2000.
Geography
Most of the Bengal region is in the low-lying Ganges–Brahmaputra River Delta or
Ganges DeltaThe Ganges Delta is a river delta in the South Asia region of Bengal, consisting of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, India. It is the world's largest delta, and empties into the Bay of Bengal. It is also one of the most fertile regions in the world, thus earning the nickname The Green Delta...
. The Ganges Delta arises from the confluence of the rivers Ganges,
BrahmaputraThe Brahmaputra, also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, is a trans-boundary river and one of the major rivers of Asia.From its origin in southwestern Tibet as the Yarlung Zangbo River, it flows across southern Tibet to break through the Himalayas in great gorges and into Arunachal Pradesh where it is...
, and
MeghnaThe Meghna River is an important river in Bangladesh, one of the three that forms the Ganges Delta, the largest on earth fanning out to the Bay of Bengal. The Meghna is formed inside Bangladesh by the joining of different rivers originaing from the hilly regions of eastern India. The river meets...
rivers and their respective tributaries. The total area of Bengal is 232752 km²—West Bengal is 88,752 km² and Bangladesh 144,000 km².
Most parts of Bangladesh are within 10 meters (33 ft) above the sea level, and it is believed that about 10% of the land would be flooded if the sea level were to rise by 1 metre (3 ft). Because of this low elevation, much of this region is exceptionally vulnerable to seasonal flooding due to monsoons.
The highest point in Bangladesh is in Mowdok range at 1,052 metres (3,451 ft) in the
Chittagong Hill TractsThe Chittagong Hill Tracts comprise an area of 13,180 km2 in south-eastern Bangladesh, and borders India and Myanmar . It was a single district of Bangladesh till 1984. In that year it was divided into three separate districts: Khagrachari, Rangamati and Bandarban...
to the southeast of the country. A major part of the coastline comprises a
marshIn geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland which is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants. Woody plants will be low-growing shrubs. A marsh is different from a swamp,...
y
jungleA jungle is usually a dense forest in a hot climate, such as a tropical rainforest. The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which refers to uncultivated land, among other meanings. The term is prevalent in many languages of the Indian subcontinent and particularly Urdu and Hindi...
, the
SundarbansThe Sundarbans is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world.The name Sundarban can be literally translated as "beautiful jungle" or "beautiful forest" in the Bengali language...
, the largest
mangroveMangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S. The saline conditions tolerated by various species range from brackish water, through pure seawater , to water of over twice the salinity of ocean seawater,...
forest in the world and home to diverse flora and fauna, including the Royal Bengal Tiger. In 1997, this region was declared endangered.
West Bengal is on the eastern bottleneck of India, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the
Bay of BengalThe Bay of Bengal IPA:ˈbɒŋɡopoʃɑːˈgoɽ), the largest bay of the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered by Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal to the north , India and Sri Lanka to the west and Myanmar and the Andaman and...
in the south. The state has a total area of . The
Darjeeling Himalayan hill regionDarjeeling Himalayan hill region is situated on the North-Western side of the state of West Bengal in India. This region belongs to the Eastern Himalaya range. The whole of the Darjeeling district except the Siliguri division constitutes the region. It starts abruptly up from the Terai region.The...
in the northern extreme of the state belongs to the eastern Himalaya. This region contains
SandakfuSandakfu or Sandakphu is the highest peak in the state of West Bengal, India. It is situated at the edge of the Singalila National Park on the West Bengal - Sikkim border, and is the highest point of the Singalila Ridge. Sandakphu has a small village on the peak with a number of hostels...
—the highest peak of the state. The narrow Terai region separates this region from the plains, which in turn transitions into the
Ganges deltaThe Ganges Delta is a river delta in the South Asia region of Bengal, consisting of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, India. It is the world's largest delta, and empties into the Bay of Bengal. It is also one of the most fertile regions in the world, thus earning the nickname The Green Delta...
towards the south. The
Rarh regionRarh region of West Bengal is the region that lies between the Western plateau and high lands and the Ganges Delta...
intervenes between the Ganges delta in the east and the
western plateau and high landsThe Western plateau and highlands is the eastern border of the Chota Nagpur Plateau. It is historically called Vajjabhumi or Bajrabhumi. Bajra means hard. Probably it refers to the hard nature of the red laterite solid found here....
. A small coastal region is on the extreme south, while the
SundarbansThe Sundarbans is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world.The name Sundarban can be literally translated as "beautiful jungle" or "beautiful forest" in the Bengali language...
mangroveMangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S. The saline conditions tolerated by various species range from brackish water, through pure seawater , to water of over twice the salinity of ocean seawater,...
forests form a remarkable geographical landmark at the Ganges delta. At least nine districts in West Bengal and 42 districts in Bangladesh have
arsenic levels in groundwaterArsenic contamination of groundwater is a natural occurring high concentration of arsenic in deeper levels of groundwater, which became a high-profile problem in recent years due to the use of deep tubewells for water supply in the Ganges Delta, causing serious arsenic poisoning to large numbers of...
above the World Health Organization maximum permissible limit of 50 µg/L.
Demographics
- Main articles: Demographics of Bangladesh
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Bangladesh, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
and Demographics of West Bengal
About 210 million people live in Bengal, around 60% of them in Bangladesh and the remainder in West Bengal. The population density in the area is more than 900/km²; making it among the most densely populated areas in the world.
BengaliBengali or Bangla is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages....
is the main language spoken in Bengal.
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
is often used for official work. There are small minorities who speak
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
,
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
,
Chakma-Introduction:The Chakma people were in origin Tibeto-Burman, related to the Burmese. The Chakma language which they now speak is Indo-European, part of the Southeastern Bengali branch of Eastern...
. There are several tribal languages including Santhali.
NepaliNepali is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...
is spoken primarily by the
GorkhaGorkha can mean:* Gurkha - the people from Nepal, who take their name from the eighth century Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath, and the name of the regiments recruited from these districts, that were a part of Britain's Indian Army and which are now a part of today's British Army.* Another name...
s of
Darjeeling districtDarjeeling district is the northern most district of West Bengal state in eastern India. The district is famous for its beautiful hill station, Darjeeling, often referred as the queen of the Himalayas and Darjeeling tea and its aroma. Kalimpong, Kurseong and Siliguri, three other major towns in...
of West Bengal.
66% of the total Bengali population is
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
, and 33% is
HinduA Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti and Smriti , lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra...
. In Bangladesh 89.7% of the population is Muslim and 9.2% are Hindus (Bangladesh Census 2001). In West Bengal, Hindus are the majority with 72.5% of the population while
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
s comprise 25%, and other religions make up the remainder. Other religious groups include
BuddhistsBuddhism is the third largest religion in Bangladesh with about 0.7% of population adhering to Theravada Buddhism. Most of the practitioners are from the south-eastern district of Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tracts.- Demographic overview :...
,
ChristiansChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
, and
AnimistsAnimism is a philosophical, religious or spiritual idea that souls or spirits exist not only in humans but also in other animals, plants, rocks, natural phenomena such as thunder, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the natural environment, a proposition also...
. About 2% of the population is tribal.
Life expectancy is around 63 years, and are almost same for the men and women. In terms of literacy, West Bengal leads with 69.22% literacy rate, in Bangladesh the rate is approximately 41%. The level of poverty is high, the proportion of people living below the poverty line is more than 30%.
About 20,000 people live on chars. Chars are temporary islands formed by the deposition of sediments eroded off the banks of the Ganges in West Bengal which often disappear in the monsoon season. They are made of very fertile soil. The inhabitants of chars are not recognised by the Government of West Bengal on the grounds that it is not known whether they are Bengalis or Bangladeshi refugees. Consequently, no identification documents are issued to char-dwellers who cannot benefit from health care, barely survive due to very poor sanitation and are prevented from emigrating to the mainland to find jobs when they have turned 14. On a particular char it was reported that 13% of women died at childbirth.
Economy
AgricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
is the leading occupation in the region.
RiceRice is the seed of a monocot plant Oryza sativa, of the grass family . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East, South, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the West Indies...
is the staple food crop. Other food crops are pulses,
potatoThe potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species. Potatoes are the world's fourth largest food...
,
maizeMaize , is a herbaceous plant domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents...
, and oil seeds.
JuteJute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, family Tiliaceae....
is the principal
cash cropIn agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for profit.The term is used to differentiate from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family...
.
TeaTea is the agricultural product of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods...
is also produced commercially; the region is well known for
DarjeelingDarjeeling tea, tea from the Darjeeling region in West Bengal, India, has traditionally been prized above all other black teas, especially in the United Kingdom and the countries comprising the former British Empire. When properly brewed it yields a thin-bodied, light-colored liquor with a floral...
and other high quality teas. The service sector is the largest contributor to the
gross domestic productThe gross domestic product or gross domestic income is a basic measure of a country's economic performance and is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year...
of West Bengal, contributing 51% of the state domestic product compared to 27% from agriculture and 22% from industry. State industries are localized in the Kolkata region and the mineral-rich western highlands. Durgapur–Asansol colliery belt is home to a number of major steel plants.
West Bengal has the third largest economy (2003–2004) in India, with a
net state domestic productThe net domestic product equals the gross domestic product minus depreciation on a country's capital goods.Net domestic product accounts for capital that has been consumed over the year in the form of housing, vehicle, or machinery deterioration...
of
US$The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
21.5 billion. During 2001–2002, the state's average SDP was more than 7.8%—outperforming the National GDP Growth. The state has promoted
foreign direct investmentForeign direct investment in its classic form is defined as a company from one country making a physical investment into building a factory in another country. It is the establishment of an enterprise by a foreigner. Its definition can be extended to include investments made to acquire lasting...
, which has mostly come in the software and electronics fields; Kolkata is becoming a major hub for the
Information technologyInformation technology , as defined by the Information Technology Association of America , is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." IT deals with the use of electronic...
(IT) industry. Owing to the boom in Kolkata's and the overall state's economy, West Bengal is now the third fastest growing economy in the country.
Since 1990, Bangladesh has achieved an average annual growth rate of 5% according to the World Bank, despite the hurdles. The
middle classThe middle class are any class in the middle of a social schema. In Weberian socio-economic terms they are the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socioeconomically between the working class and upper class. In Marxist terms, middle class commonly refers to either the...
and the
consumerConsumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods and services generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer is used in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary....
industry have seen some growth. Bangladesh has seen a sharp increase in
foreign direct investmentForeign direct investment in its classic form is defined as a company from one country making a physical investment into building a factory in another country. It is the establishment of an enterprise by a foreigner. Its definition can be extended to include investments made to acquire lasting...
. A number of
multinational corporationA multinational corporation or transnational corporation , also called multinational enterprise , is a corporation or enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country...
s, including
Unocal CorporationUnion Oil Company of California, dba Unocal is a defunct company that was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headquartered in El Segundo, California, United States.On August 10, 2005, Unocal merged with...
and
TataThe Tata Group is a multinational conglomerate based in Mumbai, India. In terms of market capitalization and revenues, Tata Group is the largest private corporate group in India and has been recognized as one of the most respected companies in the world. It has interests in steel, automobiles,...
, have made major investments, the
natural gasNatural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...
sector being a priority. In December 2005, the
Central Bank of BangladeshBangladesh Bank is the Central bank of Bangladesh. It is the monetary authority of the country. It came into existence under the Bangladesh Bank Order 1972 which took effect on 16 December 1971...
projected GDP growth around 6.5%. Although two-thirds of Bangladeshis are farmers, more than three quarters of Bangladesh’s export earnings come from the garment industry,
which began attracting foreign investors in the 1980s due to cheap labour and low conversion cost. In 2002, the industry exported US$5 billion worth of products.
The industry now employs more than 3 million workers, 90% of whom are women.
A large part of foreign currency earnings also comes from the remittances sent by
expatriateAn expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence...
s living in other countries.
One significant contributor to the development of the economy of Bangladesh has been the widespread propagation of
microcreditMicrocredit is the extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit...
by
Grameen BankThe Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral. The word "Grameen", derived from the word "gram" or "village", means "of the village"...
(founded by
Muhammad YunusMuhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. He previously was a professor of economics where he developed the concept of microcredit. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Yunus is also the founder of Grameen Bank...
) and other similar organizations. Together, these organizations had about 5 million members by late 1990s.
Culture
The common
Bengali languageBengali or Bangla is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages....
and culture anchors the shared tradition of two parts of politically divided Bengal. Bengal has a long tradition in folk literature, evidenced by the
CharyapadaThe Charyapada is a collection of 8th-12th century Vajrayana Buddhist caryagiti, or mystical poems from the tantric tradition in eastern India. Being caryagiti, or 'songs of realization' the Charyapada were intended to be sung...
, Mangalkavya
, Shreekrishna KirtanaShreekrishna Kirtana Kabya or Sri Krishna Kirtana Kabya is a pastoral Vaishnava drama in verse composed by Boru Chandidas. It is considered to be the most significant work after Charyapada in the history of Bengali literature...
, Maimansingha GitikaMaimansingha gitika or Môemonshingha gitika is a collection of folk ballads from the region of Mymensingh and around of Bangladesh.Chandra Kumar De and Dinesh Chandra Sen were the collectors and editors; the collection was published from Calcutta University, along with another similar publication...
or Thakurmar JhuliThakurmar Jhuli is a collection of Bengali folk tales and fairy tales. Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder was the person who first collected some folk-stories of Bengal and published it under the name of Thakurmar Jhuli in 1907 . The Nobel-Laureate, Rabindra Nath Thakur wrote the introduction to the...
. Bengali literature in the medieval age was often either religious (e.g.
ChandidasChandidas refers to medieval poet of Bengal. Over 1250 poems related to the love of Radha and Krishna in Bengali with the bhanita of Chandidas are found with three different sobriquets along with his name, , Dvija and Dina as well as without any sobriquet also...
), or adaptations from other languages (e.g.
AlaolAlaol was a medieval poet in Bengal. He is thought to be born around 1607 in Faridpur in the present-day Bangladesh. His most well known work is Padmavati, which depicts the story of Padmavati, the Sinhala princess and the queen of Chittor. There is an important literary prize named after him in...
). During the
Bengal RenaissanceThe Bengal Renaissance refers to a social reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the region of Bengal in undivided India during the period of British rule...
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
Bengali literatureThe term Bengali literature refers to literary works written in Bengali language particularly from Bangladesh and the Indian provinces of West Bengal and Tripura. The history of Bengali literature traces back hundreds of years while it is impossible to separate the literary trends of the two...
was modernized through the works of authors such as Michael Madhusudan Dutta,
Bankim Chandra ChattopadhyayBankim Chandra Chatterjee was a Bengali poet, novelist, essayist and journalist, most famous as the author of Vande Mataram or Bande Mataram, that inspired the freedom fighters of India, and was later declared the National Song of...
,
Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, he reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
and
Kazi Nazrul IslamKazi Nazrul Islam was a Bengali poet, musician, revolutionary, and philosopher who pioneered poetic works espousing intense spiritual rebellion against orthodoxy and oppression. His poetry and nationalist activism earned him the popular title of Bidrohi Kobi...
.
The
BaulBauls are a group of mystic minstrels from Bengal. Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect and a musical tradition used as a vehicle to express Baul thought. Bauls are a very heterogeneous group, with many different streams to the sect, but their membership mainly consists of sahajiya...
tradition is a unique heritage of Bangla folk music. The scholar saint Sri Anirvan loved Baul music, and in fact described himself as a simple Baul. Other folk music forms include
GombhiraGambhira is a type of song . It is performed with a particularly distinctive rhythm and dance with two performers, always personifying a man and his maternal grandfather, discussing a topic to raise social awareness. This kind of song is also quite popular in Malda of West Bengal, India....
,
BhatialiBhatiali or Bhatiyali is a traditional form of folk music in Bengal, Bangladesh and West Bengal. Bhatiyali is a traditional boat song, sung by boatmen while going down streams of the river, as the word Bhatiyali comes from Bhata meaning ebb or downstream It mostly is sung in the Mymensingh District...
and
BhawaiyaBhawaiya is a musical form popular in Northern Bangladesh, especially Rangpur District and in North Bengal specially in Cooch Behar district and Jalpaiguri District. This type of song is sung by the coachman. They sing this song while driving their cow drawn cart...
. Folk music in Bengal is often accompanied by the
ektaraEktara is a one-string instrument used in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.thumb||Ektara...
, a one-stringed instrument. Other instruments include the
dotaraThe dotara is a two or four stringed musical instrument resembling a small guitar. It is commonly used in Bangladesh and West Bengal, and dates from the 15th-16th century when it was adopted by the ascetic cults of Bauls and Fakirs....
,
dholFor Armenian Dhol and Georgian Doli, see Nagara Not to be confused with doldrum, the dhol dohol , is a drum widely used in the Indian subcontinent, especially the Punjab region, and especially among the Sikhs of East Punjab...
,
fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, and
tablaThe tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in the classical, popular and religious music of the Indian subcontinent and in Hindustani classical music. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
. The region also has an active heritage in
North Indian classical musicHindustani Classical Music is the Hindustani or erstwhileNorth Indian style of Indian classical music...
.
Bengal had also been the harbinger of
modernismModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late...
in Indian fine arts. Abanindranath Tagore, one of the important 18th century artist from Bengal is often referred to as the father of Indian modern art. He had established the first non-British art academy in India known as the Kalabhavan within the premises of
SantiniketanSantiniketan is a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India, approximately 180 kilometres north of Kolkata . It was made famous by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose vision became what is now a university town that attracts thousands of visitors each year...
. Santiniketan in course of time had produced many important Indian artists like
Gaganendranath TagoreSee Tagore for disambiguationGaganendranath Tagore was an Indian painter and cartoonist of the Bengal school. He belongs to the Tagore family and was born at Jorasanko.-Early life:Gaganendranath Tagore was born in Calcutta...
,
Nandalal BoseNandalal Bose was a noted Indian painter. His paintings are considered among India's best modern paintings by many critics...
,
Jamini RoyJamini Roy was an Indian painter.-Early life:Jamini Roy was born in 1887 into a middle-class family of land-owners at a small village called Chhandar in the District of Bankura in Bengal ....
, Benode Bihari Mukherjee and
Ramkinkar BaijRamkinkar Baij is an Indian sculptor, known as the Pioneer of Modern Indian Sculpture. He was one of the first Indian artists to understand the language of modern Western art and use it in his sculptures...
. In the post-independence era, Bengal had produced important artists like Somenath Hore, Meera Mukherjee and Ganesh Paine.
Rice and fish are traditional favorite foods, leading to a saying that in Bengali, mach ar bhaath bangali baanaay
, that translates as "fish and rice make a Bengali". Bengal's vast repertoire of fish-based dishes includes HilsaHilsa is the national fish of Bangladesh, also popular in India's Assamese-, Bengali- Oriya-speaking regions and in Telugu-speaking regions and in Pakistan Sindh . In Gujarat it is known as either Modenn or Palva. It is an economically important tropical fish...
preparations, a favorite among Bengalis. Bengalis make distinctive sweetmeats from milk products, including RôshogollaRasgulla is a syrupy dessert of Orissa and Bengal.It is made from balls of chhena and semolina dough, cooked in sugar syrup.-Preparation:...
, Chômchôm
, and several kinds of PithePithe or Piţha are a kind of home made dessert or snack from Bangladesh, Assam, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and the general Northeast Indian region...
.
Bengali women commonly wear the shaŗiA sari or saree or shari is a female garment in the Indian Subcontinent. A sari is a strip of unstitched cloth, ranging from four to nine metres in length that is draped over the body in various styles...
and the salwar kameezSalwar kameez is a traditional dress worn by both women and men in South Asia. Salvar or shalvar are loose pajama-like trousers. The legs are wide at the top, and narrow at the ankle. The kameez is a long shirt or tunic...
, often distinctly designed according to local cultural customs. In urban areas, many women and men wear Western-style attire. Among men, European dressing has greater acceptance. Men also wear traditional costumes such as the panjabiA kurta is a traditional item of clothing worn in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It is a loose shirt falling either just above or somewhere below the knees of the wearer, and is worn by both men and women...
with dhutiThe Dhotī or Doti in Hindi, called Dhotiyu in Gujarati, Suriya in Assamese, Vaytti or Veshti in Tamil, Dhuti in Bangla, Dhoti or Kachche Panche in Kannada, Dhotar,Angostar,Aad-neschey or Pudve in Konkani, mundu in Malayalam, Dhotar in Marathi , Laacha in Punjabi and Pancha in Telugu is...
or pyjama
, often on religious occasions. The lungiThe lungi, also known as a sarong, is a garment worn around the waist in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar , Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula...
, a kind of long skirt, is widely worn by Bangladeshi men.
The greatest religious festivals are the two EidA religious festival is a time of special importance marked by adherents to that religion. Religious festivals are commonly celebrated on recurring cycles in a calendar year or lunar calendar.-Ludi:...
s (Eid ul-FitrEid ul-Fitr , often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity", while Fiṭr means "to break fast"; and so the holiday symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period...
and Eid ul-AdhaEid al-Adha "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid" is a Muslim Holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismael as an act of obedience to God....
) for the Muslims, and the autumnal Durga PujaIn Hinduism, the Goddess Durga or Maa Durga "one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress"...
for Hindus. ChristmasChristmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini...
(called Bôŗodin
(Great day) in Bangla), Buddha PurnimaVesak is an annual holiday observed traditionally by practicing Buddhists in South Asian and South East Asian countries like Nepal, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indonesia, Pakistan and India...
are other major religious festivals. Other festivities include Pohela BaishakhBengali New Year or Pohela Boishakh is the first day of the Bengali calendar, celebrated in both Bangladesh and West Bengal, and in Bengali communities in Assam and Tripura...
(the Bengali New Year), Basanta-Utsab, NobannoNobanno is the festival of harvest in Bengal. The word translates as "New Rice". The festival takes place in the month of Agrohayon or Aghran of the Bangla Calendar. Festivities include making traditional cakes named "pitha"....
, and Poush parbon (festival of
PoushPoush is the 9th month of both the Bangla calendar and the Nepali Calendar. It overlaps December and January of the Gregorian calendar. It is the first month of the winter season....
).
Bengali cinemaBengali cinema refers to the Bengali language filmmaking industries in the Bengal region of South Asia. There are two major filmmaking hubs in the region: one in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and one in Dhaka, Bangladesh....
are made both in Kolkata and Dhaka. The Kolkata film industry is older and particularly well known for its
art filmAn art film is typically a serious, noncommercial, independently made film or a foreign language film that may have these qualities, but may have been made by a major company in its home territory and achieved popular success...
s. Its long tradition of film making has produced world famous
directorsA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
like
Satyajit RaySatyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and letters...
, while contemporary directors include Buddhadev Dasgupta and
Aparna SenAparna Sen is a critically acclaimed Indian filmmaker, script writer, and actress. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and eight international film festival awards.-Early life:...
. Dhaka also has a vibrant commercial industry and more recently has been home to critically acclaimed directors like
Tareque MasudTareque Masud is an award-winning Bangladeshi independent film director. He is known for directing the critically acclaimed films Muktir Gaan and Matir Moina , for which he won a number of international awards, including the International Critics' Prize and FIPRESCI Prize for Directors'...
. Mainstream Hindi films of
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian film industry. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the...
are also quite popular in both West Bengal and Bangladesh. Around 200 dailies are published in Bangladesh, along with more than 1800 periodicals. West Bengal had 559 published newspapers in 2005, of which 430 were in Bangla.
CricketCricket is a bat-and-ball team sport that is first documented as being played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, cricket had developed to the point where it had become the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being...
and football are popular sports in the Bengal region. Local games include sports such as
Kho KhoKho Kho is an Indian sport played by teams of twelve players who try to avoid being touched by members of the opposing team, only 9 players of the team enter the field. Kho Kho and Kabaddi, in spite of popular misconception, are not the same....
and
KabaddiKabaddi is a team sport that originated in India. Two teams occupy opposite halves of a field and take turns sending a "raider" into the other half, in order to win points by tagging or wrestling members of the opposing team; the raider then tries to return to his own half, holding his breath...
, the later being the national sport of Bangladesh. An Indo-Bangladesh Bangla Games has been organized among the athletes of the Bengali speaking areas of the two countries.
Intra-Bengal relations today
Geographic, cultural, historic, and commercial ties are growing, and both countries recognize the importance of good relations. During and immediately after Bangladesh's struggle for independence from Pakistan in 1971, India assisted refugees from East Pakistan, and intervened militarily to help bring about the independence of Bangladesh. The Indo-Bangladesh border length of , West Bengal has a border length of . Despite overlapping historic, geographic and cultural ties, the relation between
West BengalWest Bengal is a state in eastern India. With Bangladesh, which lies on its eastern border, the state forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. To its northeast lie the states of Assam and Sikkim and the country Bhutan, and to its southwest, the state of Orissa...
and
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
is still well below the potential. The pan-Bengali sentiment among the people of the two parts of Bengal was at its height during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. While the government radio and national press in India might have backed the struggle out of strategic considerations, the Bengali broadcast and print media went out of its way to lend overwhelming support.
Frequent air services link
Kolkata, formerly , is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly. When referred to as Calcutta, it usually includes the suburbs, and thus its population exceeds 15 million, making it India's third-largest metropolitan area and...
with
DhakaDhaka , is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia...
and
ChittagongChittagong is Bangladesh's main seaport and its second-largest city. The capital of the eponymous district and division, it is situated in the southeastern portion of the country, and was built on the banks of the Karnaphuli River, which ends nearby, in the Bay of Bengal. The city has a...
. A bus service between
Kolkata, formerly , is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly. When referred to as Calcutta, it usually includes the suburbs, and thus its population exceeds 15 million, making it India's third-largest metropolitan area and...
and
DhakaDhaka , is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia...
is operational. The primary road link is the Jessore Road which crosses the border at
PetrapolePetrapole is the Indian side of Petrapole-Benapole border checkpoint between India and Bangladesh. It is also referred to as Haridaspur border check post.-Location:...
-
BenapoleBenapole is a township in in Sharsha Upazila in the Jessore District of Bangladesh. The Petrapole Customs station of India is situated across the border and since 1971 , a large number of people have travelled between Bangladesh and India through Benapole Customs station...
about 175 km north-west of Kolkata. The Train service between Kolkata and Dhaka, which was stopped after the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between India and Pakistan. This conflict became known as the Second Kashmir War fought by India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir, the first having been fought in 1947...
, was resumed in 2008.
Visa services are provided by Bangladesh's consulate at Kolkata's Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Road and India's high commissions in
DhakaDhaka , is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia...
,
ChittagongChittagong is Bangladesh's main seaport and its second-largest city. The capital of the eponymous district and division, it is situated in the southeastern portion of the country, and was built on the banks of the Karnaphuli River, which ends nearby, in the Bay of Bengal. The city has a...
and
RajshahiRajshahi is the divisional headquarter of Rajshahi division and one of the six metropolitan cities of Bangladesh. Often nicknamed The Silk City and The Education City, Rajshahi is located at the North-Western zone of the country, has an estimated population of around 475,000 people and spans over...
.
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
has a liberal
visaA visa is an indication that a person is authorized to enter the country which "issued" the visa, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
policy and nearly 500,000 visas are issued every year to Bangladeshi
studentThe word student is etymologically derived through Middle English from the Latin second-type conjugation verb studēre, meaning "to direct one's zeal at"; hence a student could be described as "one who directs zeal at a subject"...
s, tourists, health-tourists and others who visit West Bengal and often transit to other parts of India. West Bengalis visit Bangladesh for limited numbers of tourism, pilgrimage, trade, expatriate assignments; there is significant potential for growth as Bangladesh's stability, economy, moderation in religion and tourist infrastructure improves. In addition
West BengalWest Bengal is a state in eastern India. With Bangladesh, which lies on its eastern border, the state forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. To its northeast lie the states of Assam and Sikkim and the country Bhutan, and to its southwest, the state of Orissa...
hosts the celebrated and controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen.
Undocumented
immigrationImmigration is the arrival of new individuals into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, differentiated from emigration and migration.-As a political term:...
of Bangladeshi workers is a controversial issue championed by right-wing nationalist parties in India but finds little sympathy in
West BengalWest Bengal is a state in eastern India. With Bangladesh, which lies on its eastern border, the state forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. To its northeast lie the states of Assam and Sikkim and the country Bhutan, and to its southwest, the state of Orissa...
. India has fenced the border to control this flow but immigration is still continuing. A rallying cry for the right-wing Hindu parties in India is that the demographics changed such as in West Bengal's border district of Malda from Hindu-majority to Muslim-majority.
The official land border crossing at Petrapole-Benapole is the primary conduit for the over $1 billion trade between the two halves of Bengal. The volume of unofficial exports to Bangladesh from India is reportedly in the range of $350–500 million each year.
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
argues with merit that
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
needs to open up its border more to Bangladeshi exports. Other landports between the two Bengals are Changrabandha-Burimari and Balurghat-Hili.
Cultural exchanges between the two parts of Bengal have been somewhat (but not fully) impacted by ups and downs in India-Bangladesh relations and in the influence of extremist Islamist groups in Bangladesh.
West BengalWest Bengal is a state in eastern India. With Bangladesh, which lies on its eastern border, the state forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. To its northeast lie the states of Assam and Sikkim and the country Bhutan, and to its southwest, the state of Orissa...
singers and actors complained about being rejected visas in previous years. Bangladesh television channels are widely watched in West Bengal. West Bengal media have an audience in Bangladesh. In foreign countries such as the U.S.,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, and UAE, it is common for Bengalis from both sides to form joint cultural associations and friendships, although inter-marriage is not significant, especially across religious barriers.
See also
- History of Bengal
The history of Bengal includes modern day Bangladesh and West Bengal, dates back four millennia. To some extent, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra rivers separated it from the mainland of India, though at times, Bengal has played an important role in the history of India.- Etymology :The exact origin...
- History of India
The known history of India - the name in this context includes the areas now known as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - begins with the Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent, from c. 3300 to 1300 BCE. Its Mature Harappan period...
- Bangladesh
, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
- Bengali people
The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...
- Bangals and Ghotis
The Ghotis are the people of western Bengal, who have a culture, traditions, and cuisine distinct from their Bangal counterparts of Bengal.The term came into greater use after many people from Bangladesh migrated to West Bengal during and after the Partition of Bengal in 1947...
- List of Bengalis
- Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages....
- Bengali cuisine
Bengali cuisine is a style of food preparation originating in Bengal, a region in the eastern South Asia which is now divided between the Indian state of West Bengal and the independent country of Bangladesh...
- Music of Bangladesh
Bangladesh is traditionally very rich in its musical heritage. From the ancient times, music documented the lives of the people and was widely patronized by the rulers....
- Music of Bengal
The music of Bengal, also referred to as Bangla music, comprises a long tradition of religious and secular song-writing over a period of almost a millennium...
- Bengali cinema
Bengali cinema refers to the Bengali language filmmaking industries in the Bengal region of South Asia. There are two major filmmaking hubs in the region: one in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and one in Dhaka, Bangladesh....
- East Bengal
East Bengal was a province in the Dominion of Pakistan, and was in existence from August 15, 1947 to October 14, 1955. It came into being after the partition of Bengal in 1947...
- West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in eastern India. With Bangladesh, which lies on its eastern border, the state forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. To its northeast lie the states of Assam and Sikkim and the country Bhutan, and to its southwest, the state of Orissa...
- Bengal architecture
External links
Geo Links for Bengal
Maps
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at
University of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a public research university located in Austin, Texas, United States, and is the flagship institution of The University of Texas System. The main campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol...
Libraries