Where is West Bengal – east or west?

1. There is this scene in the movie Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani where Rani (Alia Bhatt) asks Rocky (Ranveer Singh) that where is West Bengal in India. To which Rocky replies that its in west. Then Rani says that its in east. And then Rocky says its a trick question.

Now the question is if West Bengal is in east of India then why is it named West Bengal. For this we need to go before the independence era when there was no east or west Bengal but just Bengal. However in 1947 when the akhanda Bharat got divided into religious lines; the Bengal state also got divided into West Bengal and East Bengal. West Bengal became a part of India in 1947. However in the 1971 war between India and Pakistan a new country came into existence. East Bengal became an independent country which we today know as Bangladesh.

If Bihar and Jharkhand are taken as reference then West Bengal is their neighbouring state in east. If East Bengal was still a part of India then its neighbouring state in west would be West Bengal.

What reference we are taking is very important. United Arab Emirates and Gulf Nations is considered as middle east with reference to European countries. But if India is taken as reference then United Arab Emirates and Gulf Nations is in west.

North, east, west, or south – it all depends on what geographical reference is being taken.

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