West Bengal is a state in the eastern part of India, functioning as a primary political and administrative unit within the Indian Union. It is the fourth-most populous state in the country, with its capital at Kolkata. The state was formally created on August 15, 1947, following the partition of the Bengal Province of British India. The creation of West Bengal was the solution to the problem of dividing the province along religious lines, with the western, Hindu-majority areas forming the Indian state, and the eastern, Muslim-majority areas forming East Bengal (later East Pakistan, and then Bangladesh). The decision to partition the province was taken by the Bengal Legislative Council and Assembly on June 20, 1947.
As a state, its mechanism involves a state government administering a diverse geography that includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region, the Ganges delta, and the coastal Sundarbans. West Bengal is intrinsically connected to the Partition of India in 1947 and the earlier, short-lived partition of Bengal in 1905 by Lord Curzon, which had sparked the Swadeshi Movement.
The state has undergone recent legislative and policy changes. In July 2026, the West Bengal Public Safety and Control of Anti-social Activities Act, 2026, and the West Bengal Maintenance of Public Order (Amendment) Act, 2026, came into effect, providing for stricter action against anti-social activities and allowing for preventive detention for up to one year. Furthermore, the state has recently implemented the central health scheme Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY. The government is also planning to introduce new investment and land policies, including a land pooling policy, to facilitate industrial growth. While the state government proposed changing the official name to Paschim Banga in 2011, the name West Bengal remains in use.