Bengal (
Bôngo,
Bangla,
Bôngodesh or
Bangladesh), is a historical and
geographical region in the northeast region of the
Indian Subcontinent.
Today it is mainly
divided between the sovereign state
of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
(previously
East Bengal / East Pakistan) and West
Bengal
in India
, although
some regions of the previous kingdoms of Bengal (during local
monarchical regimes and British rule)
are now part of the neighboring Indian states of Bihar
, Assam
, Tripura
and Orissa
. The
majority of Bengal is inhabited by
Bengali people (বাঙালি
Bangali) who
speak the
Bengali language (বাংলা
Bangla).
The region of Bengal is one of the most densely populated regions
on earth, with a population density exceeding 900/km².
Most of the Bengal
region lies in the low-lying Ganges
–Brahmaputra
River
Delta or Ganges
Delta, the world's largest delta. In the southern part
of the delta lies the Sundarbans
—the world's
largest mangrove forest and home of the
Bengal tiger. Though the population
of the region is mostly rural and agrarian, two megacities, Kolkata
(previously
Calcutta) and Dhaka
(previously
Dacca), are located in Bengal. The Bengal region is renowned
for its rich literary and cultural heritage as well as its immense
contribution to the socio-cultural uplift of Indian society in the
form of the
Bengal Renaissance,
and
revolutionary
activities during the
Indian independence
movement.
Etymology and ethnology
The exact origin of the word
Bangla or Bengal is unknown,
though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking
tribe
Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000
BC.
Other accounts speculate that the name is derived from
Vanga(বঙ্গ
bôngo), which came from the
Austric word "Bonga" meaning the Sun-god. The word
Vanga and other words speculated to refer to Bengal (such
as
Anga) can be found in ancient Indian texts
including the
Vedas,
Jaina
texts, the
Mahabharata and
Puranas. The earliest reference to "Vangala" (বঙ্গাল
bôngal) has been traced in the Nesari plates (805 AD) of
Rashtrakuta Govinda III which speak of
Dharmapala as the king of
Vangala.
Some accounts claim that the word may derive from
bhang, a preparation of
cannabis which is used in some
religious ceremonies in Bengal.
Dravidians
migrated to Bengal from the south, while Tibeto-Burman peoples migrated from the
Himalayas
, followed by
the Indo-Aryans from north-western
India. The
modern
Bengali people are a blend of
these people. Smaller numbers of
Pathans,
Persians,
Arabs and
Turks also migrated to the region in
the
late Middle Ages while
spreading Islam.
Major City
The following are the largest cities in Bengal:
- Kolkata
- Dhaka
- Chittagong
- Siliguri
- Sylhet
- Durgapur
- Khulna
- Asansol
- Rajshahi
- Howrah
- Barisal
- Chandannagar
History
Remnants of
Copper Age settlements in the
Bengal region date back 4,300 years,. After the arrival of
Indo-Aryans, the kingdoms of
Anga,
Vanga and
Magadha were formed by the 10th century BC, located
in the Bihar and Bengal regions.
Magadha was one of the four main kingdoms
of India at the time
of Buddha and consisted of several
Janapadas. One of the earliest
foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land named
Gangaridai by the
Greeks around 100 BC, located in an area in Bengal.
From the 3rd to the 6th centuries
CE, the
kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the
Gupta Empire.
The first recorded independent king of Bengal was
Shashanka, reigning around early 7th century.
After a
period of anarchy, the native Buddhist-Hindu Pala
Empire ruled the region for four hundred years, and expanded
across much of the Indian
subcontinent into Afghanistan
during the
reigns of Dharmapala and
Devapala. The Pala dynasty was
followed by a shorter reign of the
Hindu
Saiva Sena
dynasty.
Islam was introduced to Bengal by
Arab Muslim traders. A large number of people became Muslims in the
twelfth century through
Sufi missionaries.
Subsequent
Muslim conquests helped
spread Islam throughout the region.
Bakhtiar Khilji, a
Turkic general of the
Slave dynasty of
Delhi Sultanate, defeated
Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered
large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by
dynasties of
sultans and feudal lords under
the Delhi Sultanate for the next few hundred years. In the
sixteenth century, Mughal general
Islam
Khan conquered Bengal.
However, administration by governors
appointed by the court of the Mughal
Empire gave way to semi-independence of the area under the
Nawabs of Murshidabad
, who
nominally respected the sovereignty of the Mughals in Delhi
. The
most notable among them is
Murshid
Quli Khan, who was succeeded by
Alivardi Khan.
Portuguese traders arrived late in
the fifteenth century, once
Vasco da
Gama reached India by sea in 1498. European influence grew
until the
British East India
Company gained taxation rights in Bengal
subah, or 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 1766, eventually including all
British territories north of the Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh
), from the
mouths of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra to the
Himalayas
and the
Punjab. The
Bengal famine of 1770 claimed millions
of lives. Calcutta was named the capital of
British India in 1772. The
Bengal Renaissance and
Brahmo Samaj socio-cultural reform movements
had great impact on the cultural and economic life of Bengal. The
failed
Indian rebellion of
1857 started near Calcutta and resulted in 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.
Bengal has played a major role in the
Indian independence movement,
in which
revolutionary
groups were dominant. Armed attempts to overthrow the
British Raj reached a climax when
Subhash Chandra Bose led the
Indian National Army against the
British. Bengal was also central in the rising political awareness
of the Muslim population—
Muslim League
was established in Dhaka in 1906. In spite of a last ditch effort
to form a United Bengal, 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, giving rise to
Bangladesh 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
Pakistani domination grew steadily.
Awami League, led by
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, 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 assault
was launched on East Pakistan. Most of the Awami League leaders
fled and set up a government-in-exile in West Bengal. The
guerrilla Mukti
Bahini and Bengali regulars eventually received support from
the
Indian Armed Forces in
December 1971, resulting in a decisive victory over Pakistan on
16 December in the Bangladesh Liberation
War or
Indo-Pakistani War of
1971. 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 Bengal, the western
part of Bengal, became a state in India. In 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.
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
CPI 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 government, aided by election of
a new reformist
Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in
2000.
Geography
Most of
the Bengal region is in the low-lying Ganges–Brahmaputra River Delta
or Ganges Delta. The Ganges Delta
arises from the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra
, and Meghna
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 Tracts to the southeast of the country.
A major part of the
coastline comprises a marshy jungle, the Sundarbans, the
largest mangrove 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 Bengal
in the
south. The state has a total area of .
The Darjeeling Himalayan hill
region in the northern extreme of the state belongs to the
eastern Himalaya. This
region contains
Sandakfu ( )—the highest
peak of the state. The narrow
Terai
region separates this region from the plains, which in turn
transitions into the
Ganges delta
towards the south. The
Rarh region
intervenes between the Ganges delta in the east and the
western plateau and high
lands.
A small coastal region is on the extreme
south, while the Sundarbans mangrove 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
groundwater above the World Health Organization maximum
permissible limit of 50 µg/L.
Demographics
- Main articles: Demographics of Bangladesh and
Demographics of West
Bengal
About 250 million people live in Bengal, around 68% 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.
Bengali is the main language spoken
in Bengal.
English is often used
for official work. There are small minorities who speak
Hindi,
Urdu,
Chakma. There are several tribal languages
including
Santhali.
Nepali is spoken primarily by the Gorkhas of Darjeeling
district
of West Bengal.
66% of the total Bengali population is
Muslim, and 33% is
Hindu. 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
Muslims
comprise 25%, and other religions make up the remainder. Other
religious groups include
Buddhists,
Christians, and
Animists. 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
Agriculture is the leading occupation in
the region.
Rice is the staple food crop. Other
food crops are
pulses,
potato,
maize, and
oil seeds.
Jute is the
principal
cash crop.
Tea is also produced commercially; the region is well
known for
Darjeeling and other high
quality teas. The
service sector is
the largest contributor to the
gross domestic product 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 product of
US$ 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 investment, which
has mostly come in the software and electronics fields; Kolkata is
becoming a major hub for the
Information technology (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 class and the
consumer industry have seen some growth. Bangladesh
has seen a sharp increase in
foreign direct investment. A
number of
multinational
corporations, including
Unocal
Corporation and
Tata, have made major
investments, the
natural gas sector
being a priority. In December 2005, the
Central Bank of Bangladesh 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
expatriates living in other
countries.
One significant contributor to the development of the economy of
Bangladesh has been the widespread propagation of
microcredit by
Grameen
Bank (founded by
Muhammad Yunus)
and other similar organizations. Together, these organizations had
about 5 million members by late 1990s.
Culture
The common
Bengali language and
culture anchors the shared tradition of two parts of politically
divided Bengal. Bengal has a long tradition in folk literature,
evidenced by the
Charyapada,
Mangalkavya,
Shreekrishna Kirtana,
Maimansingha Gitika or
Thakurmar Jhuli. Bengali literature in
the medieval age was often either religious (e.g.
Chandidas), or adaptations from other languages
(e.g.
Alaol). During the
Bengal Renaissance of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries,
Bengali
literature was modernized through the works of authors such as
Michael Madhusudan Dutta,
Bankim Chandra
Chattopadhyay,
Rabindranath
Tagore and
Kazi Nazrul
Islam.
The
Baul 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
Gombhira,
Bhatiali and
Bhawaiya. Folk
music in Bengal is often accompanied by the
ektara, a one-stringed instrument. Other instruments
include the
dotara,
dhol,
flute, and
tabla. The
region also has an active heritage in
North Indian classical
music.
Bengal had also been the harbinger of
modernism 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
Santiniketan
.
Santiniketan in course of time had produced many important Indian
artists like
Gaganendranath
Tagore,
Nandalal Bose,
Jamini Roy,
Benode Bihari Mukherjee and
Ramkinkar Baij. 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
Hilsa
preparations, a favorite among Bengalis. Bengalis make distinctive
sweetmeat from milk products,
including
Rôshogolla,
Chômchôm, and several kinds of
Pithe.
Bengali women commonly wear the
shaŗi
and the
salwar kameez, 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
panjabi with
dhuti or
pyjama, often on religious occasions. The
lungi, a kind of long skirt, is widely worn by
Bangladeshi men.
The greatest religious festivals are the two
Eid (
Eid
ul-Fitr and
Eid ul-Adha) for the
Muslims, and the autumnal
Durga Puja for
Hindus.
Christmas (called
Bôŗodin
(Great day) in Bangla),
Buddha Purnima are
other major religious festivals. Other festivities include
Pohela Baishakh (the Bengali New Year),
Basanta-Utsab,
Nobanno, and
Poush parbon (festival of
Poush).
Bengali cinema are made both in
Kolkata and Dhaka. The Kolkata film industry is older and
particularly well known for its
art films.
Its long tradition of film making has produced world famous
directors like
Satyajit Ray, while contemporary directors
include
Buddhadev Dasgupta and
Aparna Sen. Dhaka also has a vibrant
commercial industry and more recently has been home to critically
acclaimed directors like
Tareque
Masud. Mainstream Hindi films of
Bollywood 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.
Cricket and
football are popular sports in the
Bengal region. Local games include sports such as
Kho Kho and
Kabaddi, 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
Bengal and Bangladesh 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 with
Dhaka and Chittagong.
A bus
service between Kolkata and Dhaka is
operational. The primary road link is the Jessore Road which crosses the border at
Petrapole
-Benapole
about
175 km north-west of Kolkata. The Train service between
Kolkata and Dhaka, which was stopped after the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, 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 Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi.
India has a
liberal visa policy and nearly
500,000 visas are issued every year to Bangladeshi students, 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
Bengal hosts the
celebrated and controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen.
Undocumented immigration of Bangladeshi workers is a
controversial issue championed by right-wing nationalist parties in
India but finds little sympathy in West
Bengal.
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 argues with
merit that India 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
Bengal 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.
, Canada
, UK
,
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
Notes
References
External links
Geo Links for Bengal
- Maps
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at
University of Texas at Austin
Libraries
- * India from The Historical Atlas by William R.
Shepherd, 1923
- * India 1760 from The Public Schools Historical Atlas
edited by C. Colbeck. Longmans, Green, and Co. 1905
- * India 1882 from A Dictionary Practical, Theoretical, and
Historical of Commerce and Commercial Navigation by J.R.
M'Culloch. Longmans, Green and Co. London, 1882
Map of the Bengal
region: West Bengal
)
.gif/200px-Pala_Empire_(Dharmapala).gif)
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