History of West Bengal
West Bengal is the gateway to the beautiful north eastern states of India where the visitor can only gaze in wonder at the pristine beauty. Its capital was once the capital of the british empire, that is Calcutta remains the cultural capital of India with a strong tradition in litrature and fine arts.
West Bengal has a long history, that dates back before the Aryan invasion of India. Known as ‘Gauda’ or ‘Vanga’ in ancient Sanskrit literature, Bengal had a well – settled civilisation and culture, at the time of the Aryan penetration. An integral part of successive empires of the Mauryas and Guptas, Bengal also had its own dynasty of independent rulers, the Palas, who extended the existing boundaries considerably. The Senas and the Muslim Sultanate, who occupied Bengal, shaped the distinct identity of Bengal. After the Mughals, modern Bengal’s history began with the advent of European and English trading companies. The end of British imperialism, saw a divided Bengal in 1947, with East Bengal (now the soveriegn state of Bangladesh) becoming a part of Pakistan.
West Bengal is India’s 12th largest state. The state stretches from the foothills of Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. Gopal Krishna Gokhale once said What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.” And Bengal, can be perhaps be justifiably proud of producing men and women whose ideas helped to shape modern India. Ram Mohan Roy, lswarchandra Vidyasagar, Ramkrishna and Vivekanand, spearheaded social and religious movements, Bankimchandra Chatterjee, Madhusudan Dutta, Rabindranath Tagore among others ushered in an era of new literature. A movement to evolve a true ‘ Indian art form’ found its expression in Gaganendranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, Nandlal Bose, Jamini Roy and others.
Proscenium theatre came into the country with Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali and the new wave in Indian Cinema began. In this land India’s freedom movement found some of the great sons like Sir Suren Banerjee, C. R. Das, Netaji Bose, Maulana Azad, as it drew inspiration from Rishi Aurobindo. Bengal is a proud land of five Nobel Laureates (Tagore, Raman, Ronald Ross, Mother Teresa, Amartya Sen).
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