West bengal

Referred to as Vanga in the Mahabharata, this region has a long history predating the Aryan invasions of India. It was part of the Mauryan empire in the 3rd century BC before being overrun by the Guptas. For three centuries from around the 9th century AD, the Pala dynasty controlled a large area based in Bengal and including parts of Orissa,Bihar and modern Bangladesh. Bengal was brought under Muslim control by Qutb-ud-din, first of the sultans of Delhi, at the end of the 12th century. Following the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, Bengal became an independent Muslim state. European traders arrived later in the 15th century and their influence grew till the British East India Company gained taxation rights in the Bengal Province, leading to the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and the Battle of Buxar in 1764. The diplomatic effects and a series of conspiracies lead to the total capture of the Bengal region by the British. Other foreign traders in the Bengal historic and economic map included the Portuguese in the early 16th century, the Dutch in about 1632, the French influence between 1673 and 1676, the Danish in 1676 and British in 1690.   The Bengal Presidency established by 1765 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 Renaissance and Brahmo Samaj socio-cultural reform movements had great impact on the cultural and economic life of Bengal. In 1905, the British partitioned Bengal on the basis of religion, dividing it into two zones. The British then named Calcutta, now known as Kolkata, the capital of the British Empire 1772 and remained so till 1911.   Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement. Many revolutionary groups such as Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar were dominant. Armed attempts against the British Raj from Bengal reached a climax when Subhash Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army against the British. After independence, Bengal was divided between India and Pakistan. The part that belonged to India came to be known as West Bengal and the part the belonged to Pakistan was called East Pakistan. In 1955, the former French enclave of Chandannagar, which had passed into Indian control after 1950 and Cooch Behar were added into West Bengal; portions of Bihar were subsequently merged with West Bengal.  Bengal originally  extended beyond the present day region and comprised the present state of West Bengal in India and the country of Bangladesh; and were a people united by a common language, Bengali, a common social structure, a common religious mixture of Hindus and Muslims, and a largely shared history. The British established a trading post in Kolkata in 1698, which quickly prospered. Sensing rich pickings, Siraj-ud-daula, the nawab of Bengal, came down from his capital at Murshidabad and easily took Kolkata in 1756. Robert Clive defeated him the following year at the Battle of Plassey, helped by the treachery of Siraj-ud-daula’s uncle, Mir Jafar, who commanded the greater part of the nawab’s army. He was rewarded by succeeding his nephew as nawab, but after the Battle of Buxar in 1764 the British took full control of Bengal. In 1947 Indian independence from Britain and the subsequent partition of the country saw the state of Bengal divided on religious grounds, causing the upheaval of millions of Bengalis.