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West Bengal is a state in
eastern India. With Bangladesh,
which lies on its eastern
border, the state forms the
ethno-linguistic region of
Bengal. To its northeast lie the
states of Assam and Sikkim and
the country Bhutan, and to its
southwest, the state of Orissa.
To the west it borders the state
of Jharkhand and Bihar, and to
the northwest, Nepal.
The region that is now West
Bengal was a part of a number of
empires and kingdoms during the
past two millennia. The British
East India Company cemented
their hold on the region
following the Battle of Plassey
in 1757 CE, and the city of
Kolkata, then Calcutta, served
for many years as the capital of
British India. A hotbed of the
Indian independence movement
through the early 20th century,
Bengal was divided in 1947 into
two separate entities, West
Bengal—a state of India, and
East Pakistan belonging to the
new nation of Pakistan.
Following India's independence
in 1947, West Bengal's economic
and political systems were
dominated for many decades by
Marxism, Naxalite movements and
trade unionism.
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