West Bengal
West Bengal ( Bengali: পশ্চিমবঙ্গ, Paścimbaṅga, Pashchimbanga, English: West Bengal ) is an Indian state with an area of 88,752 km ² and 91 million inhabitants ( 2011 census ). The capital of West Bengal is Kolkata ( Calcutta) in the south of the state. The predominant language of the state is Bengali.
- 2.1 demographics
- 2.2 languages
- 2.3 religions
- 2.4 Largest cities
- 4.1 Political system
- 4.2 parties
Geography
West Bengal borders the states of Orissa (southwest), Jharkhand (west), Bihar (northwest), Sikkim (north) and Assam ( northeast), and to the northwest by Nepal, on the northeast by Bhutan, on the east by Bangladesh and on the south by the Bay of Bengal.
Relief
The surface shape in West Bengal is dominated by the Indo-Gangetic plain, with altitudes between 0 and 150 m. To the southwest, the marginal areas of the Peninsular plateau are with heights between 150 and 300 m. North of the level, however, is the massif of the Himalayan front, which extends to the border with Sikkim already over 3000 m. South of it is a major border fault, followed by the foremost mountain range of the Himalayas, the Siwaliks. At the foot of this mountain chain, the Bharbar formed is by the erosion of the Siwaliks and the Terai, special wetlands, the year-round flowing.
Climate
West Bengal is subject mostly a hot tropical summer rain climate, partly subhumid, semiarid in part, with the exception of the northernmost districts that are under the influence of a subtropical, continental climate due to the monsoon. The annual rainfall is below 2000 mm.
Average temperatures:
- January: 17 ° C - 21 ° C depending on the region
- April: 27 ° C - 30 ° C
Possible effects of global warming: For the flat-lying West Bengal global warming is expected to attain momentous importance. Already, the country has struggled in the time of the summer monsoon floods; a sea level rise of a few meters would have to extremely low relief surface catastrophic losses.
Flora and Fauna
The potential tree vegetation consists mainly of deciduous moist forests with dense undergrowth. In the Near Himalaya one encounters high chestnuts and oaks, to subtropical mountains and pine forests as well as moist mixed forests, but also on conifers, which are actually native to Siberia. Near the coast are mangrove forests, which act as important breeding grounds for fish. The mangroves are also the refuge of the critically endangered Bengal tiger.
Population
Demography
According to the Indian census of 2011, the population of West Bengal 91,347,736. This gives the state more inhabitants than Germany. In terms of population is West Bengal to Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar is the fourth largest state of India. The population of West Bengal is steadily increasing. Between 2001 and 2011 the population grew by 13.9 percent. This value lies slightly below the all-India average of 17.6 percent. West Bengal is inhabited extremely dense: On a square kilometer on average 1,029 people live. This is about half times as much as the national average of India. Among the Indian states, the population density is still higher only in Bihar. 31.9 percent of the population of West Bengal live in cities. The urbanization rate, equivalent to the average of India.
The literacy rate is 77.1 percent of West Bengal ( 82.7 per cent men, women 71.2 percent ), and thus is only slightly above the average of 74.0 percent of total India (as of 2011 census ).
Most of the inhabitants of West Bengal belong to the people of Bengal. Besides living in the state of Biharis, nepalesischstämmige Gurkha in the district of Darjeeling ( demanded Gorkhaland Autonomous Area ) and various indigenous Adivasi tribes. The 2001 census classified 5.5 percent of the population as belonging to the tribal population ( scheduled tribes ). The largest tribal people in West Bengal are the Santal with approximately 2,280,000 members, followed by the Oraon ( 617,000 ), Munda ( 342,000 ), Bhumji ( 336,000 ) and other (as of 2001 census).
Languages
The official language of West Bengal is Bengali. With around 200 million speakers in Bangladesh, West Bengal and adjoining areas, it is one of the ten largest languages in the world. According to the 2001 census, Bengali is spoken by 85.3 percent of the population of West Bengal as their mother tongue.
The largest linguistic minority, the speaker of Hindi, which account for 7.2 percent of the population. Mostly it involves speakers of regional languages from the closely related to the Hindi Bihari Group, which are subsumed in official statistics, the term Hindi. Some Muslims also speak Urdu ( 2.1 percent ), the Muslim variant of Hindi. Under the tribal population are of different languages spread, the largest belonging to the group of the Munda languages in the Austro-Asiatic language family Santali (2.8 per cent). In the district of Darjeeling also Nepali is also spoken (1.3 percent).
Religions
The majority of the population are Hindus of West Bengal. According to the 2001 census, they account for 72.5 percent of the population of the state. There is also a large Muslim minority of 25.2 percent. After Jammu and Kashmir and Assam West Bengal has the third-highest Muslim population of all Indian states. In absolute terms, West Bengal is home to 20.2 million after Uttar Pradesh is the second largest Muslim population in India. Other religions play only a minor role. There is a small minority of followers of animist Adivasi beliefs ( 1.1 percent ), Christians ( 0.6 percent) and Buddhists ( 0.3 per cent).
Largest cities
As of census 2011.
History
In 1905, Bengal was divided by the British along the Hindu- Muslim religious boundary into two parts. The western part was something like today's (2005) Indian states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar. After public protests, the English revised 1912 the division. Bihar - the then Jharkhand included - however, and Orissa remained autonomous provinces. It was not until 1947, the British colony into a Hindu part (about the India of today ) and a Muslim part ( the present states of Bangladesh and Pakistan about ) was split, the western part of Bengal came under the name West Bengal as a state to India. From the eastern part of Bengal was named after a war of independence in 1971 today's Bangladesh. The second partition of Bengal in 1947 corresponded approximately to the boundaries of 1905.
Since the 1960s, fighting radical Marxist-Leninist rebels, the Naxalites in West Bengal.
Policy
Political system
The Parliament of West Bengal, the Vidhan Sabha, is a one -chamber parliament with 295 deputies directly elected. A parliamentary term lasts five years. The Chief Minister, the head of government of West Bengal, is elected by the deputies. Formally at the head of the state is, however, appointed by the President of India Governor ( Governor ). Its main tasks include the appointment of the Chief Minister and his commission to form a government. The ministers will also be introduced on the recommendation of the Chief Minister by the Governor in her office. In addition, the Governor is responsible for the dissolution of Parliament at the end of its term or at a government crisis. In this case, it may inform the State under the direct administration of the President of India ( " President's rule" ) position.
The Calcutta High Court in Kolkata is the highest judicial body for the State of West Bengal and the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Parties
West Bengal has traditionally been a communist stronghold. The Communist Party of India ( Marxist) (CPI (M)) reigned from 1977 to 2011 continuously. Thus, the State had the longest ruling democratically elected communist government in the world. Jyoti Basu ( Chief Minister from 1977 to 2000 ) is still the längstamtierende Chief Minister of the Indian state. At the Federal State election in 2011 won the All India Trinamool Congress, which had emerged in 1997 under the leadership of a politician Mamata Banerjee as a splinter group from the Indian National Congress, but the absolute majority of the seats and ended the three -decade rule of the CPI ( M). Acting Chief Minister of West Bengal since the May 20, 2011 Mamata Banerjee (see List of Chief Minister of West Bengal ).
Administrative divisions
West Bengal is divided into three divisions Bardhaman, Jalpaiguri and Presidency and the following 19 districts divided (population and population density according to the 2011 census ):