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West Bengal

AI-drafted · awaiting admin review

State · Capital: Kolkata

Key facts
TypeState
CapitalKolkata
Formed26 January 1950
Official languagesBengali, English, Nepali, Urdu, Hindi, Santali, Odia and Punjabi in specified areas
Population (Census 2011)9,12,76,115
Andaman and Nicobar IslandsAndhra PradeshArunachal PradeshAssamBiharChandigarhChhattisgarhDadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and DiuDelhiGoaGujaratHaryanaHimachal PradeshJammu and KashmirJharkhandKarnatakaKeralaLadakhLakshadweepMadhya PradeshMaharashtraManipurMeghalayaMizoramNagalandOdishaPuducherryPunjabRajasthanSikkimTamil NaduTelanganaTripuraUttar PradeshUttarakhandWest Bengal

Known for

  • Kolkata, capital of British India until 1911 and a centre of the Bengal Renaissance
  • The Sundarbans mangrove forest, home of the Royal Bengal tiger and a UNESCO World Heritage Site
  • Darjeeling tea and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
  • Durga Puja in Kolkata, on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage
  • Rabindranath Tagore and Santiniketan, home of Visva-Bharati
  • Fish and rice cooking, and sweets made from chhena such as rosogolla and sandesh
  • Terracotta temples of Bishnupur and the handloom sarees of Bengal

Main sources of income

Agriculture and small enterprises employ the largest number of people, while services earn the largest share of the State’s income.

  • Services: Trade, transport, banking, real estate, education, health care and IT, centred on Kolkata and its suburbs such as Salt Lake (Bidhannagar) and New Town
  • Agriculture: Rice is the main crop; the State is also a leading grower of jute, potatoes and vegetables, and grows mustard, pulses and fruit such as mango and litchi
  • Manufacturing: Jute mills along the Hooghly, iron and steel at Durgapur, petrochemicals and port-based industry at Haldia, engineering, leather and food processing
  • Tea plantations: Tea gardens in the Darjeeling hills, the Terai and the Dooars of north Bengal
  • Fisheries: Freshwater fish raised in ponds and wetlands, marine fishing in the Bay of Bengal, and shrimp from the coastal districts
  • Handloom, handicrafts and small industries: Weaving, terracotta, dokra metal casting, conch-shell work and a large number of micro and small enterprises

Top 5 specialities

  1. Darjeeling tea: Tea grown on the slopes of the Darjeeling hills; it was the first product in India to receive a GI tag and is sold to buyers around the world
  2. Jute and jute goods: Raw jute grown by farmers and spun and woven in mills into sacks, bags, yarn and fabric, a living for many families in rural and industrial Bengal
  3. Bengal handloom sarees: GI-tagged weaves such as Baluchari of Bishnupur and the tant sarees of Shantipur and Dhaniakhali, woven by handloom families and sold across India
  4. Banglar Rosogolla and Bengali sweets: GI-tagged rosogolla and other chhena sweets made by thousands of neighbourhood sweet shops
  5. Gobindobhog rice: A GI-tagged short-grain aromatic rice from the Bardhaman region, used for khichuri and payesh and sold under its name

Best practices

  • Kanyashree Prakalpa: A conditional cash-transfer scheme that pays girls to stay in school and not marry before 18. It won the United Nations Public Service Award in 2017.
  • East Kolkata Wetlands: Fish farmers use the city’s wastewater in shallow ponds, where sunlight and fish clean it naturally while producing fish and vegetables. The wetlands are a Ramsar site of international importance.
  • Community festivals run by neighbourhood clubs: Sarbojanin (public) Durga Pujas are organised and funded by local clubs, giving work to idol makers, artisans, decorators and caterers each year; UNESCO noted the festival’s role in bringing people together.

Dance & performing arts

  • Purulia Chhau (UNESCO)
  • Gaudiya Nritya
  • Baul music

Festivals

  • Durga Puja in Kolkata (UNESCO)
  • Poila Baishakh
  • Poush Mela (Santiniketan)

Food

  • Shorshe ilish
  • Mishti doi
  • Banglar Rosogolla (GI)

Crafts & heritage

  • Baluchari saree
  • Kantha embroidery
  • Bankura terracotta horse

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Traditional recipes (40)

  • Shorshe ilish (hilsa in mustard sauce)

    Hilsa steaks cooked in a sharp sauce of ground mustard seeds, green chillies and mustard oil, Bengal’s best-loved fish dish of the monsoon.

  • Chingri malai curry

    Large prawns simmered in a mild, sweetish coconut-milk gravy with whole spices and ghee, a dish for weddings and special lunches.

  • Macher jhol (everyday fish curry)

    A light, thin curry of rohu or katla with potatoes and vegetables, flavoured with cumin, ginger and panch phoron, eaten with rice in Bengali homes every day.

  • Kosha mangsho

    Mutton slow-cooked with onions, ginger, garlic and spices and stirred until the dark, thick masala clings to the meat.

  • Doi maach (fish in curd gravy)

    Rohu or katla cooked in a gently spiced curd gravy with a touch of sweetness, a dish of feasts and festive lunches.

  • Bhetki paturi (fish steamed in banana leaf)

    Fillets of bhetki coated in mustard and coconut paste, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed or roasted on a tawa.

  • Muri ghonto (fish-head pulao)

    A rich, thick dish of rice cooked with the fried head of a large rohu or katla, potatoes, ghee and warm spices.

  • Kolkata biryani

    A lightly spiced, fragrant mutton biryani with soft potatoes and boiled eggs, cooked by the dum method.

  • Kolkata chilli chicken

    Fried chicken tossed with garlic, green chillies, onion, capsicum and soy sauce, a signature dish of Kolkata’s Indian-Chinese cooking.

  • Kolkata egg roll

    A flaky paratha fried with a layer of egg, rolled around sliced onion, green chilli, lime and sauces, Kolkata’s favourite street food.

  • Mughlai paratha

    A square, stuffed paratha filled with beaten egg, onion and green chilli, shallow-fried until crisp and served with potato curry and onion salad.

  • Shukto

    A mildly bitter and gently sweet mixed-vegetable stew with bitter gourd, raw banana, drumsticks and sweet potato in a milk and mustard base, served at the start of a Bengali meal.

See all 40

Traditional dances (6)

  • Purulia Chhau

    A vigorous masked dance-drama of Purulia district, with leaps, somersaults and large painted masks, telling stories from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas.

  • Baul song and dance

    Wandering mystic minstrels of Bengal who sing of the divine within the human body and dance as they sing, playing the one-stringed ektara.

  • Raibenshe

    A martial folk dance of Bengal performed by men with acrobatic moves that imitate drawing a bow, hurling a spear and wielding a sword.

  • Gambhira

    A masked folk dance and song form of Malda, performed at the Chaitra festival of Shiva, which mixes devotion with sharp comments on everyday life.

  • Jatra

    Bengal’s popular open-air folk theatre, with loud dialogue, songs and live music, played on an open stage surrounded by the audience.

  • Dhunuchi naach

    A devotional dance performed during Durga Puja, holding clay censers (dhunuchi) full of burning coconut husk and incense before the goddess.

Cultural practices (1)

  • Durga Puja

    Kolkata's great festival of the Goddess, with artistic pandals and community celebration. UNESCO heritage since 2021.

Festivals and New Years (2)

  • Pohela Boishakh (Bengali New Year)

    The Bengali New Year, on the first day of Boishakh, celebrated in West Bengal, Tripura and by Bengalis everywhere. Traders open new account books (Haal Khata) and people wear new clothes and visit fairs.

  • Durga Puja

    The great autumn festival of Bengal, when artistic pandals with idols of Durga fill cities and villages. UNESCO inscribed Durga Puja in Kolkata as intangible heritage of humanity in 2021.

Pilgrimages and sacred places (17)

  • Shrinkhala Devi (Pandua)

    A Shakti Peetha at Pandua, Hooghly district, where Sati's stomach is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Shrinkhala.

  • Attahas

    A Shakti Peetha at Attahas, Birbhum district, where Sati's lips is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Phullara.

  • Bahula Devi

    A Shakti Peetha at Purba Bardhaman district, where Sati's left arm is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Bahula.

  • Bakreshwar

    A Shakti Peetha at Bakreshwar, Birbhum district, where Sati's the space between the eyebrows is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Mahishamardini.

  • Kalighat Temple

    A Shakti Peetha at Kolkata, where Sati's toes of the right foot is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Kali.

  • Kankalitala

    A Shakti Peetha at near Bolpur, Birbhum district, where Sati's waist is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Devgarbha.

  • Kiriteswari

    A Shakti Peetha at Murshidabad district, where Sati's crown (kirit) is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Kiriteshwari.

  • Ratnavali

    A Shakti Peetha at Hooghly district, where Sati's right shoulder is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Kumari.

  • Bhramari Devi (Jalpaiguri)

    A Shakti Peetha at Jalpaiguri district, where Sati's left leg is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Bhramari.

  • Nandikeshwari

    A Shakti Peetha at Sainthia, Birbhum district, where Sati's necklace is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Nandini.

  • Mangal Chandika (Ujani)

    A Shakti Peetha at Ujani, Purba Bardhaman district, where Sati's right wrist is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Mangal Chandika.

  • Bargabhima Temple (Tamluk)

    A Shakti Peetha at Tamluk, Purba Medinipur district, where Sati's left ankle is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Kapalini (Bargabhima).

See all 17

Famous places (9)

  • Victoria Memorial, Kolkata

    A large white marble memorial hall set in gardens on the Maidan, now a museum of the history of Kolkata and India.

  • Dakshineswar Kali Temple

    A 19th-century riverside temple of Bhavatarini Kali on the Hooghly, where Sri Ramakrishna lived and worshipped.

  • Belur Math

    Headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission on the west bank of the Hooghly, founded by Swami Vivekananda.

  • Sundarbans National Park

    Part of the world’s largest mangrove forest, in the delta of the Ganga and Brahmaputra, home to the Royal Bengal tiger, which swims between the islands.

  • Darjeeling and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

    A hill town of tea gardens and views of Kanchenjunga, reached by the narrow-gauge ‘toy train’, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Mountain Railways of India.

  • Santiniketan

    The town in Birbhum where Rabindranath Tagore built his school and the Visva-Bharati university, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

  • Terracotta temples of Bishnupur

    Brick and laterite temples of the Malla kings, covered in terracotta panels showing scenes from the epics, Krishna’s life and daily life.

  • Hazarduari Palace, Murshidabad

    A 19th-century palace of the Nawabs of Murshidabad on the Bhagirathi, named for its ‘thousand doors’, many of them false, now an ASI museum.

  • Gangasagar (Sagar Island)

    The island where the Ganga meets the Bay of Bengal, site of the Kapil Muni temple and the Gangasagar Mela on Makar Sankranti.

Heritage (3)

Sources

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