West BengalWest Bengal (bɛnˈɡɔːl, Bengali: Poshchim Bongo, ˈpoʃtʃim ˈbɔŋɡo, abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of as of 2011. The population estimate as of 2023 is 102,552,787. West Bengal is the fourth-most populous and thirteenth-largest state by area in India, as well as the eighth-most populous country subdivision of the world.
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India (ISO: ISO), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area; the most populous country as of June 2023; and from the time of its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east.
BangladeshBangladesh (%baeNgl@"dES,_%bA:N-; বাংলাদেশ, ˈbaŋlaˌdeʃ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most-populous country in the world, with a population of around 169 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the most densely populated countries in the world, and shares land borders with India to the west, north, and east, and Myanmar to the southeast; to the south it has a coastline along the Bay of Bengal.
Partition of IndiaThe Partition of India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent and the creation of two independent dominions in South Asia: India and Pakistan. The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan—which at the time comprised two regions lying on either side of India—is now the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
British RajThe British Raj (rɑːdʒ ; from Hindi , 'kingdom', 'realm', 'state', or 'empire') was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; it is also called Crown rule in India, or Direct rule in India, and lasted from 1858 to 1947. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India from the East India Company in the form of the new British Raj through the Government of India Act 1858.
Bengali languageBengali (bɛnˈɡɔːli ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (বাংলা, ˈbaŋla), is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With approximately 300 million native speakers and another 50 million as second language speakers, Bengali is the sixth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. Bengali is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language. Bengali is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh, with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language.
Bengal PresidencyThe Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of British India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and Southeast Asia. Bengal proper covered the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal (present-day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal). Calcutta, the city which grew around Fort William, was the capital of the Bengal Presidency.
PakistanPakistan ( ˈpaːkɪstaːn), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (ISO: , islāmi jamhūriyāh pākistān), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of 241.5 million people, and has the world's largest Muslim population as of year 2023. Islamabad is the nation's capital, while Karachi is its largest city and financial centre, followed by Lahore and Faisalabad. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest country in the world by area and the second-largest in South Asia, spanning .
KolkataKolkata (UKkɒlˈkɑːtə or kɒlˈkʌtə, USkoʊlˈkɑːtɑː, kolˈkata; also known as Calcutta kælˈkʌtə which was the official name until 2001) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the financial center of eastern and northeastern India. According to the 2011 Indian census, Kolkata is the seventh-most populous city in India, with a population of 4.5 million residents within its city proper.
AurangzebMuhi al-Din Muhammad (1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known as Aurangzeb (ˌaʊɹəŋˈzɛb Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir I (ɐlˈæmɡɪ͡ɹ Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling from July 1658 until his death in 1707. Under his emperorship, the Mughal Empire reached its greatest extent with territory spanning nearly the entirety of the Indian subcontinent.
DhakaDhaka (ˈdɑːkə or ˈdækə ; Ḍhākā, ˈɖɦaka), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh. It is the ninth-largest and seventh-most densely populated city in the world. Dhaka is a megacity, and has a population of 10.2 million residents as of 2022, and a population of over 22.4 million residents in Greater Dhaka. It is widely considered to be the most densely populated built-up urban area in the world. Dhaka is the most important cultural, economic, and scientific hub of Eastern South Asia, as well as a major Muslim-majority city.
Indian independence movementThe Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India also known as British Raj. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. It later took root in the newly formed Indian National Congress with prominent moderate leaders seeking the right to appear for Indian Civil Service examinations in British India, as well as more economic rights for natives.
Hindi cinemaHindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Hollywood". The industry is a part of the larger Indian cinema, which also includes South Indian cinema and other smaller film industries. In 2017, Indian cinema produced 1,986 feature films, of which the largest number, 364 have been in Hindi.
Bengal SultanateThe Bengal Sultanate (Middle Bengali: শাহী বাঙ্গালা Shahī Baṅgala, Classical Persian: Saltanat-e-Bangālah) was a Sunni Muslim empire based in Bengal for much of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. It was the dominant power of the Ganges–Brahmaputra Delta, with a network of mint towns spread across the region. The Bengal Sultanate had a circle of vassal states in the subcontinent, including parts of Odisha in the southwest, Arakan in the southeast, and Tripura in the east.
SikhismSikhism (ˈsIkɪzəm), more properly known as Sikhi (ਸਿੱਖੀ , ˈsɪk.khiː, from ਸਿੱਖ), is an Indian religion, and is a philosophy, that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups and stands at fifth-largest worldwide, with about 25–30 million adherents (known as Sikhs). Sikhism developed from the spiritual teachings of Guru Nanak (1469–1539), the faith's first guru, and the nine Sikh gurus who succeeded him.
Northeast IndiaNortheast India (officially the North Eastern Region (NER)) is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political administrative division of the country. It comprises eight states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura (commonly known as the "Seven Sisters"), and the "brother" state Sikkim. The region shares an international border of (about 99 percent of its total geographical boundary) with several neighbouring countries – with China in the north, with Myanmar in the east, with Bangladesh in the south-west, with Nepal in the west, and with Bhutan in the north-west.
South AsiaSouth Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethnic-cultural terms. As commonly conceptualised, South Asia consists of the countries predominantly Afghanistan Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian subcontinent and defined largely by the Indian Ocean in the south, and the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Pamir mountains in the north. The Amu Darya, which rises north of the Hindu Kush, forms a part of the northwestern border.
Delhi SultanateThe Delhi Sultanate, or the Sultanate of Delhi, was a Muslim empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent during the period of Medieval India, for 320 years (1206–1526). Following the invasion of South Asia by the Ghurid dynasty, five largely unrelated dynasties ruled over the Delhi Sultanate sequentially: the Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290), the Khalji dynasty (1290–1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1414), the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451), and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526).
Tamil NaduTamil Nadu (ˌtæmᵻl_ˈnɑːduː; ˈtamiɻ ˈnaːɽɯ, TN) is the southernmost state of India. The tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population, Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language—one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world—is widely spoken in the state and serves as its official language. The capital and largest city is Chennai.
