West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in eastern India. It borders the nation of Bangladesh to the east, and the states of Jharkhand and Odisha to the north. To the south it has a coast on the Bay of Bengal. The state capital is Kolkata, the former capital of British India.
West Bengal is the third most populous Indian state, with over 91 million inhabitants, and the most densely populated state in India. In 2011, it was ranked as the seventh most developed state in India by the Indian Government. The state has a mixed economy, with a large service sector and a growing industrial base. The state is home to the Calcutta Stock Exchange, the second oldest stock exchange in the world.
The area that is now West Bengal has been inhabited by humans since the Upper Paleolithic era. The region was part of the Magadha kingdom, and was later ruled by the Maurya and Gupta empires. In the early 13th century, the region was conquered by the Delhi Sultanate. It was later ruled by the Bengal Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, the Nawabs of Bengal, and the British East India Company.
The area achieved independence from the British in 1947, and was constituted as a state of the Indian Union. The state witnessed widespread unrest during the Naxalite insurgency. The state was reorganized in 1956, with the creation of the states of Bihar and West Bengal. West Bengal was reorganized again in 2011, when the new states of Jharkhand and Telangana were created.