Hinduism in West Bengal

The language of the Hindus in West Bengal is Bengali. A large number of Hindu religious texts like biographies of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Mangal-kavyas, Bratakathas and Panchalis as well as dharmik writings of modern Bengali philosophers and saints have been produced in Bengali for many centuries.

Festivals

Durga Puja, the biggest festival

Kali Puja, the second major festival

Bengali Hindus in West Bengal observe a number of festivals, hence the Bengali proverb Baro Mase Tero Parbon (Bengali: বারো মাসে তেরো পার্বণ, "thirteen festivals in twelve months").Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore which is celebrated as one of the major festivals of the state, Rathyatra and Janmashtami before the commencement of the autumnal festival season which starts with Vishwakarma Puja on the last day of Bengali month of Bhadra. The annual five-day Durga Puja is the biggest and most widely celebrated Hindu festival in West Bengal. Durga Puja is followed by Kojagari Lakshmi Puja, Kali Puja, Bhai Phonta, Jagaddhatri Puja and Kartik Puja. On 1 January Kalpataru Day is observed as an auspicious day associated with Ramakrishna Paramhansa. The winter solstice is celebrated a Paush Sankranti in mid January, followed by Netaji Jayanti or the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Saraswati Puja. The spring festival of Holi is celebrated in the form of Dolyatra. The year ends with Charak Puja and Gajan.

Temples

Dakshineswar Kali Temple, Kolkata

Kalighat Temple

Hangseshwari and Vasudev temple at Hooghly district

The temple at Caitanya Mahaprabhu's birthplace in Mayapur, Nadia established by Bhaktivinoda Thakur in 1880s.

Temple of Taraknath with Dudhpukur tank in the foreground

Krishna-Gouranga (Jor Bangla) Temple at Bishnupur, Bankura

The Temple of Tarapith at Birbhum

Sri Ramakrishna Temple, Belur Math.

Kapil Muni Ashram at Gangasagar

Kapil muni temple

Temple architecture in West Bengal architecture has assumed a unique identity and evolved into the Bengali terra cotta temple architecture which is also a very common style of Hindu temples in Bangladesh. Due to lack of suitable stone in the alluvial Gangetic delta, the temple makers had to resort to other materials instead of stone. This gave rise to using terra cotta as a medium for temple construction. Terra-cotta exteriors with rich carvings are a unique feature of Bengali temples. The town of Vishnupur in West Bengal is renowned for this type of architecture. Usually a part of the intended total motif was carved by hand on one side of a brick and then baked. While under construction, these carved bricks were arranged to make up the entire motif.

The Bengali style of temple is not luxurious. Rather, most are modeled on simple thatched-roof earthen huts used as dwellings by commoners. This can be attributed to the popularity of bhakti cults which taught people to view gods as close to themselves. Thus, various styles like do-chala, jor-bangla, char-chala, and aat-chala sprang up. However, there is also a popular style of building known as Navaratna (nine-towered) or Pancharatna (five-towered) in Bengal which is more luxurious than the Chala buildings. A typical example of Navaratna style is the Dakshineswar Kali Temple. The Shiva temples of rural Bengal has significantly impacted on the architectural style of Kalighat Temple, one of the oldest Hindu temples of India. The famous Birla Temple of Kolkata, built in 1996, has a unique blend of temple architecture of Odisha with Rajasthani temple arts. The Mahakal Temple in Darjeeling is a unique and important Hindu temple since 1782.

After the partition of Bengal, a large section of upper and middle class Bengali Hindus, numbering 2,519,557, from East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) migrated across the border. They settled primarily in Kolkata and other district headquarter towns. These were especially in across the state but particularly in Nadia, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Howrah, West Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri etc.

In 1971, during Bangladesh liberation war against Pakistan, a large group of refugees numbering an estimated 7,235,916 have arrived from Bangladesh to India's West Bengal, Out of which nearly 80% of them are Bengali Hindus and after Independence of Bangladesh, nearly 15,21,912 people belonging to Bengali Hindu refugees have decided to stay back in India particularly in West Bengal.[6] The Hindu population in Western part of Bengal i.e West Bengal during first census of 1951 was around 19,462,706 and in 2011 census it had increased to 64,385,546. But the percentage of Hindu population in the state decreased from 78.45% in 1951 to 70.54% in 2011 Census. However, at 1947 just after the partition of Bengal, Hindus have formed nearly 79.2% of West Bengal population. In the same period the percentage of Muslim population in the state increased from 19.85% in 1951 to 27.01% in 2011 due to having higher birth rate in comparison to majority.

Economic participation, work roles and distribution across professions for Bengali Hindus is similar to the wider population in the rural areas, where agriculture and related activities remain the primary occupation. In the urban areas, the largest segment of the Hindu population is engaged mostly as services professionals across sectors.

Historically, since the advent of Company rule in India, the upper-caste, landed Bengali Hindu gentry increasingly partnered with the East India Company to trade and supply goods such as silk, tea and jute to Europe. Subsequently, these families amassed massive wealth, increased their land holdings (Zamindars of Bengal|Zamindari) further. As the ruling elite of Kolkata, they established huge palaces and made the city a magnet for wealth. Businessmen like Dwarkanath Tagore and Raja Nabakrishna Deb are now recognized as some of India's earliest business tycoons in the modern era.

This continued to the 20th century when luminaries like Prafulla Chandra Ray established Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Rajendra Nath Mookerjee formed engineering firm Martin Burn and Surendra Mohan Bose created the Duckback brand during the Swadeshi movement, among many others.[9]

In India, after independence, large number of Bengali Hindus, both from West Bengal have also settled in the rest of India and abroad. The middle and upper middle class populations (who historically had levels of educational attainment) are now well entrenched in numerous professional fields like law, medicine, academics, engineering, journalism, liberal arts, corporates, banking, tax, etc. On the other hand, most of the rural and semi-rural population are now engaged in contractual agriculture, notably in Punjab and Haryana, construction in Kerala and Karnataka, logistics, manufacturing and small-scale businesses across the country.

Average literacy levels of Bengali Hindus remain higher than other communities in West Bengal. However, the opposite is true for the minority Hindu population in Bangladesh.

Noted West Bengali Hindu industrialists include:

• Gouri Sen
• Gourmohan Dutta of GD Pharmaceuticals-manufacturers
• Hari Ghosh
• Banamali Sarkar
• Gobindram Mitter
• Prasanna Coomar Tagore
• Ramanath Tagore
• Rajen Mookerjee
• Rajat Kumar Gupta
• Purnendu Chatterjee of The Chatterjee Group & Haldia Petrochemicals
• Prashant Mukherjee
• Sadhan Dutt
• Amar Gopal Bose of Bose Corporation
• Aveek Sarkar

• Hinduism in India
• Hinduism in East Bengal
• East Bengali refugees
• Bengali Hindus.