West Bengal, the eastern bottleneck of India, forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal (East Bengal, which forms a part of Bengal is called Bangladesh today). The British East India Company cemented their hold on the region following the fierce Battle of Palassey in 1757, and thereby Kolkata, the city of Joy, served for many years as the capital for British India. A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century, Bengal was divided in 1947, thereby forming West Bengal and East Bengal (then a part of Pakistan).

Dependent mainly on agriculture, West Bengal is one of the most densely populated states in the country. The state has a total area of 88,752 square kilometers, with Bengalis forming the majority of 80,221,171 residents. There are 19 districts in West Bengal.

Owing to the varying altitude from the Himalayas in the north to the costal plains of Bay of Bengal, the flora and fauna of the state is diverse. Darjeeling Himalayan hill region borders the northern part of the state and the southern part is covered with world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans. This region is also noted for a reserve project for conserving Royal Bengal Tigers.

Bangla is the regional language of the state. This language boasts a rich literary heritage courtesy to the authors like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, to name a few.

Bengal had been the harbinger of modernism in fine arts with adherents like Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, Ramkinkar Baij, Jamini Roy. Bengali cinema industry, "Tollywood, mainly known for art & contemporary films, has gifted acclaimed directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Ritwik Ghatak, Buddhadev Dasgupta, Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh over the decades. West Bengal also holds a heritage in North Indian classical music, with "Rabindrasangeet", "Nazrul geeti", and Bengali folk music like 'Baul' and 'Bhatiali'.