| West Bengal History |
| Map |
| Signs of civilisation in the Bengal region date back 4,000 years, when the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic peoples. After the arrival of Indo-Aryans in the 7th century BC the kingdom of Magadha was formed 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. One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BC. The word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd (Land with the Ganges in its heart). During the rule of the Maurya dynasty, the Magadha Empire extended over nearly all of South Asia, including Afghanistan and parts of Persia. From the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire. The first recorded independent king of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around the 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 general of the Delhi Sultanate, conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of sultans and feudal lords for the next few hundred years. In the 16th century the Mughal general Islam Khan conquered Bengal. European traders arrived late in the 15th century. Their influence grew until the British East India Company gained taxation rights in the Bengal 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 to the Himalayas. Calcutta was named the capital of British India in 1772. The failed Indian rebellion of 1857 started near Calcutta and resulted in a 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. Subhash Chandra Bose is one of the most prominent and highly respected freedom fighter from Bengal in the Indian independence movement against the British Raj. Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement. Armed attempts against the British Raj from Bengal reached a climax when Subhash Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army against the British. When India gained independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned along religious lines. The western part went to India and was named West Bengal, while the eastern part joined Pakistan as a province called East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan) becoming Bangladesh in 1971. |
| During the 1960s and 1970s, severe power shortages, strikes and a violent Marxist-Naxalite movement damaged much of the state's infrastructure, leading to a period of economic stagnation. The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 resulted in the influx of millions of refugees to West Bengal, causing significant strains on its infrastructure and the1974 smallpox epidemic killed thousands. West Bengal politics underwent a major change when the Left Front won the 1977 assembly election, defeating the incumbent Indian National Congress. The Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has governed the state for the subsequent three decades. |