West Bengal is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of 88,752 km2 (34,267 sq mi) as of 2011. The population estimate as of 2023 is 99,723,000. West Bengal is the fourth-most populous and thirteenth-largest state by area in India, as well as the eighth-most populous country subdivision of the world. As a part of the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, it borders Bangladesh in the east, and Nepal and Bhutan in the north. It also borders the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Sikkim and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata, the third-largest metropolis, and seventh largest city by population in India. West Bengal includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region, the Ganges delta, the Rarh region, the coastal Sundarbans and the Bay of Bengal. The state's main ethnic group are the Bengalis, with the Bengali Hindus forming the demographic majority.
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, 80 km (50 mi) west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary financial and commercial centre of eastern and northeastern India. Kolkata is the seventh most populous city in India with an estimated city proper population of 4.5 million (0.45 crore) while its metropolitan region Kolkata Metropolitan Area is third most populous metropolitan region of India with a metro population of over 15 million. Kolkata is regarded by many sources as the cultural capital of India and a historically and culturally significant city in the historic region of Bengal.
The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (CU), is a public state university located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate colleges and 16 institutes in Kolkata and nearby areas. It was established on 24 January 1857 and is the oldest multidisciplinary university of Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asian Region. Today, the university's jurisdiction is limited to a few districts of West Bengal, but at the time of its establishment it had a catchment area ranging from Kabul to Myanmar. It is accredited as an "A" grade university by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant works. A national library is that library which has the duty of collecting and preserving the literature of the nation within and outside the country. Thus, national libraries are those libraries whose community is the nation at large. Examples include the British Library in London, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.
The Belvedere Estate consists of Belvedere House and the 30-acre (12 ha) grounds surrounding it. It is located in Alipore, near the zoo, in Kolkata. It served as the main residence of 1st Governor-General of Bengal Presidency, Warren Hastings. In 1803, after the residence was shifted to Government House, it was used for various purposes before the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal took up residence in Belvedere House from 1854 onwards. When the capital moved from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, who had hitherto resided in Belvedere House, was upgraded to a full governor and transferred to Government House. Belvedere House has been the home of the National Library of India since 1948.
The Kolkata Police, is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and crime prevention within the metropolitan area of the city of Kolkata, West Bengal. It is one of the two primary police forces in West Bengal, the other being the West Bengal Police.
The Pashchimbanga Bangla Akademi is the official regulatory body of the Bengali language in India. It was founded on 20 May 1986 in Kolkata to act as the official authority of the language and is entrusted with the responsibility of reforming Bengali spelling and grammar, compiling dictionaries, encyclopedias and terminologies and promoting Bengali language and culture in West Bengal. They are widely accepted by the Governments of West Bengal and Tripura as well as a considerable number of private publishing houses and institutions such as the Oxford University Press and the Ramakrishna Mission.
Prithwindra Mukherjee was a French-Indian writer and researcher. Until his retirement in 2003, he was a researcher in the Human and Social Sciences Department (Ethnomusicology) of the French National Centre of Scientific Research in Paris. Mukherjee was also an author of a number of books and other publications on various subjects.
Bhowanipore is a neighbourhood of South Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
The India Government Mint, Kolkata was first established in 1757, and was located in a building next to the Black Hole in the old fort – where the GPO stands today. It was called the Calcutta Mint and used to produce coins with the mint name Murshidabad.
Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy (ACPA) is an Armenian school in Kolkata, India. As of 2015, it is the sole Armenian-centred school in the eastern section of the world, and has been so throughout its history. It is commonly known as the Armenian College.
The National Archives of India (NAI) is a repository of the non-current records of the Government of India and holds them in trust for the use of administrators and scholars. Originally established as the Imperial Record Department in 1891, in Calcutta, the capital of British India, the NAI is situated at the intersection of the Janpath and Kartavya Path, in Delhi. It functions as an Attached Office of the Department of Culture under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
The Rampur Raza Library located in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India is a repository of Indo-Islamic cultural heritage established in the last decades of the 18th century. It was built up by successive Nawabs of Rampur and is now managed by the Government of India, named after Raza Ali Khan Bahadur.
Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library is one of the national libraries of India, located in Patna, Bihar. It was opened to public on 29 October 1891 by Khan Bahadur Khuda Bakhsh with 4,000 manuscripts, of which he inherited 1,400 from his father Maulvi Mohammed Bakhsh. It is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and is governed by a Board with the Governor of Bihar as its ex officio Chairman, and is known for its rare collection of Persian and Arabic manuscripts. It also hosts paintings made during the Rajput and Mughal eras of India.
Uttarpara Jaykrishna Public Library is a district library in Uttarpara, West Bengal, India, and is the first of its kind in Asia. Located in Uttarpara, a small town on the banks of the Hoogly river, this library was established by Babu Jaykrishna Mukherjee and opened to the public in 1859. At present, the library has been declared a Group ‘A’ Library by the West Bengal State Government. Efforts are being made to have it declared an Institution of National Importance.
Kazi Nazrul University (KNU) is a public state research university located in Asansol, West Bengal. The CM Mamata Banerjee laid the foundation stone on 10 January 2013. The university has been named after the poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. The university was established under the Kazi Nazrul University Act, 2012. Anuradha Mukherjee was appointed as the first vice-chancellor of the university. In 2018 in a special convocation the university honored Ex Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina with honorary Doctorate of Literature.
The Gurusaday Museum is a folk arts and crafts museum located in Kolkata, India.
Meera Mukherjee (1923–1998) was an Indian sculptor and writer, known for bringing modernity to the ancient Bengali sculpting art. She is known to have used innovative bronze casting techniques, improving the Dhokra method employing Lost-wax casting, which she learnt during her training days of the Bastar sculpting tradition of Chhattisgarh. She received the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri from the Government of India in 1992 for her contributions to Arts.
Ramkrishna Biswas was an Indian revolutionary and martyr. He was an active member of Surya Sen's revolutionary group.
