West Bengal

West Bengal (/wɛst bɛŋˈɡɔːl/; Bengali pronunciation: [pɔʃtʃimbɔŋɡɔ]) is a state in eastern India and is the nation's fourth-most populous state, with over 91 million inhabitants. Spread over 34,267 sq mi (88,750 km²), it is bordered by the countries of Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, and the Indian states of Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim, and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata. Together with the neighboring nation of Bangladesh, it makes up the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal.

Ancient Bengal was the site of several major janapadas (kingdoms). It was also part of large empires such as the Maurya Empire (second century BC) and Gupta Empire (fourth century AD); and part of the regional Buddhist Pala Empire (8th to 11th century) and Sena dynasty (11th–12th century). From the 13th century onward, the region was controlled by the Bengal Sultanate, Hindu kings and Baro-Bhuyan landlords under the suzerainty of the Mughal Empire, until the British East India company took control of the region from the Mughals in the late 18th century. The company consolidated their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and Battle of Buxar in 1764 and by 1793 took complete control of the region. Kolkata (or Calcutta) served for many years as the capital of British controlled territories in India. The early and prolonged exposure to British administration resulted in the expansion of Western education, culminating in development of science, institutional education, and social reforms in the region, including what became known as the Bengali renaissance. A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century, Bengal was divided during India's independence in 1947 along religious lines into two separate entities: West Bengal—a state of India—and East Bengal—a part of the newly created Dominion of Pakistan that later became the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971.

Indian Gorkha

Indian Gorkhas ( Nepali: भारतीय गोर्खा , Bharatiya Gorkhas) are Nepali language speaking Indian peoples indigenous to Gorkhaland of India, Indian Gorkhas are spread all over the nation, with a large concentration of population in North Eastern parts of India. The term "Indian Gorkha" is used to differentiate between Indian citizens who identify themselves as Gorkhas and the Citizens of Nepal who prefer being referred to as Nepali or Nepalese.

In the introduction to the book Gorkhas Imagined (2009), Prem Poddar makes an important point about the Gurkhas in Nepal versus the Gorkhas in India: "the word 'Gorkha' (or the neologism 'Gorkhaness') as a self-descriptive term ... has gained currency as a marker of difference for Nepali speaking Indian Gorkha living in India as opposed to their brethren and sistren in Nepal.

History

Some of present-day Northern India were under the kingdom of Nepal before becoming a part of East-India during the British Raj. For example, the Darjeeling District of West Bengal was a part of Sikkim and for some time a part of Nepal. Sikkim, the only state in India with ethnic Indian Gorkha majority, became part of India in 1975. Other areas with significant Indian Gorkha population include Uttrakhand, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya. The Indian Gorkha population is also scattered throughout India in all major cities, especially Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Patna, Lucknow, Bhopal.