Bengal

Bengal (bĕng-gôl`, bĕn–), region, 77,442 sq mi (200,575 sq km), E India and Bangladesh, on the Bay of Bengal. The inland section is mountainous, with peaks up to 12,000 ft (3,660 m) high in the northwest, but most of Bengal is the fertile land of the Ganges-Brahmaputra alluvial plains and delta. Along the coast are richly timbered jungles, swamps, and islands. The heavy monsoon rainfall and predominantly warm weather make possible two harvests a year.

In the 3d cent. B.C., Bengal belonged to the empire of Asoka. It became a political entity in the 8th cent. A.D. under the Buddhist Pala kings. In the 11th cent. the Hindu Sena dynasty arose from the remnants of the Pala empire. Bengal was conquered (c.1200) by Muslims of Turki descent. When the Portuguese began their trading activities (late 15th cent.), Bengal was a part of the Muslim Mughal empire. The British East India Company established its first settlement in 1642 and extended its occupation by conquering the native princes and expelling the Dutch and French. Muslim control of Bengal ended with the defeat of Siraj-ud-Daula by British forces under Robert Clive at the Battle of Plassey in 1757.

Under British control, Bengal was a presidency of India. At various times the neighboring provinces of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa were administered under the Bengal presidency. In 1905, Bengal was split into two provinces. The population, which speaks mainly Bengali, is ethnically quite homogeneous but is almost equally divided between Muslims and Hindus. When India was partitioned in 1947, the province was divided along the line approximately separating the two main concentrations of the religious communities.

East Bengal, overwhelmingly Muslim in population, became East Pakistan in 1947 and the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971.

West Bengal (2001 provisional pop. 80,221,171), 33,928 sq mi (87,874 sq km), with its capital at Kolkata (Calcutta), became a state of India. It is bordered by Bangladesh and the state of Assam on the east; Nepal, Bhutan, and the state of Sikkim on the north; the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa on the west; and the Bay of Bengal on the south. A highly industrialized region, it has jute mills, steel-fabricating plants, and chemical industries, all mainly centered in the Hugliside industrial complex. Coal is mined and petroleum is refined.

In 1950, West Bengal absorbed the state of Cooch Behar. In the 1970s disputes between Hindus and Muslims, further complicated by droves of refugees from Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) and agitation by Maoist groups called Naxalites, created political instability. The 1980s saw an uprising by Gurkhas in the Darjeeling area, which became a semiautonomous district. West Bengal is governed by a chief minister and cabinet responsible to a bicameral legislature with one elected house and by a governor appointed by the president of India. Famous Bengalis include poet and Nobel laureate Sir Rabindranath Tagore and filmmaker Satyajit Ray.

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Bengal

Former province, northeastern British India. Generally corresponding to the area inhabited by speakers of the Bengali language, it is now divided between eastern India and Bangladesh. Bengal formed part of most of the early empires that controlled northern India. From the 8th to the 12th century it was under a Buddhist dynasty, and from 1576 it belonged to the Mughal Empire. In the 18th century it was dominated by the nawabs of Bengal; they came into conflict with the British, who had established themselves at Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1690. By 1764 the British had taken possession, and Bengal became the base for British expansion in India. Bengal was partitioned in 1905, and with the end of British rule in 1947, the western portion formed the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. East Bengal went to Pakistan; in 1971 it became Bangladesh. Jharkhand state was created from southern Bihar in 2000.

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Bengal

1. a former province of NE India, in the great deltas of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers: in 1947 divided into West Bengal (belonging to India) and East Bengal (Bangladesh)

2. Bay of. a wide arm of the Indian Ocean, between India and Myanmar

3. a breed of medium-large cat with a spotted or marbled coat