West Bengal, state of India, located in the eastern part of the country. It is bound-
ed to the north by the state of Sikkim and the country of Bhutan, to the northeast
by the state of Assam, to the east by the country of Bangladesh, to the south by
the Bay of Bengal, to the southwest by the state of Odisha, to the west by the states
of Jharkhand and Bihar, and to the northwest by the country of Nepal.
Cultural Life
The culture of West Bengal is an Indian Culture which has its roots in the Bengali
literature, music, fine arts, drama and cinema. Different geographic regions of West
Bengal have subtle as well as more pronounced variations between each other,
with Darjeeling Himalayan hill region and Duars showing particularly different
socio-cultural aspects.
West Bengal’s capital Kolkata - as the former capital of India—was the birthplace
of modern Indian literary and artistic thought,and is referred to as the “cultural [or
literary] capital of India”. The presence of paras, which are cluster of neighbourhoods
that possess a strong sense of community, is characteristic of West Bengal. Typically,
each para has its own community club and, on occasion, a playing field. Residents
engage in addas, or leisurely chats, that often take the form of freestyle intellectual
conversation. However, with the growth of apartments, expansion of neighbour-
hoods and rapid urbanization, this culture is on decline. Adda is very common
among the old peoples. West Bengal has a long tradition of popular literature,
music and drama largely based on Bengali folklore and Hindu epics and Puranas.
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Religion, specially Hinduism, the principal and predominant religion of the state,
plays a vital role in the culture of West Bengal. Durga Puja, a five-day annual au-
tumnal celebration in honour of Hindu goddess Durga, is the biggest festival of