BENGAL
Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in
which revolutionary groups were
dominant. Armed attempts to overthrow the British Raj began with the rebellion
of Titumir,
and reached a climax when Subhas Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army against the
British. Bengal was also central in the rising political awareness of the
Muslim population—the All-India Muslim
League was established in Dhaka in 1906. The Muslim homeland
movement pushed for a sovereign state in eastern British India with the Lahore
Resolution in 1943. Hindu
nationalism was also strong in Bengal, which was home to groups
like the Hindu Mahasabha. In spite of a last-ditch
effort to form a United Bengal, when India gained independence in 1947, Bengal
was partitioned along
religious lines. The
western part went to India (and was named West Bengal) while the eastern part
joined Pakistan as a province called East Bengal (later
renamed East Pakistan, giving rise to Bangladesh in
1971). The circumstances of partition were bloody, with widespread religious
riots in Bengal.
The 1970 Bhola cyclone took the lives of
500,000 people in Bengal, making it one of the deadliest recorded cyclones.
Post-partition
(1947–present)
West Bengal became one of India's most populous states.
Calcutta, the former capital of the British Raj, became the state capital of
West Bengal and continued to be India's largest city until the late 20th
century, when severe power shortages, strikes and a violent Marxist-Naxalite movement
damaged much of the state's infrastructure in the 1960s and 70s, leading to a
period of economic stagnation. West Bengal politics underwent a major change
when the Left Front won the 1977 assembly
election, defeating the incumbent Indian National Congress. The Left Front,
led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M))
governed the state for over three decades, which was the world's longest
elected Communist administration
in history.
Revenue
Stamp :-
Half Anna (BENGAL overprinted )
One Anna (BENGAL overprinted )
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