Geographic
Year : 2017, Volume : 12, Issue : 1
First page : ( 38) Last page : ( 43)
Print ISSN : 0975-4121.

The Two Bengals: Understanding the Development Dilemma in Western Region of West Bengal

Mohapatra A.C.

Professor, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong

Online published on 30 December, 2017.

Abstract

Perhaps, historically Bengal could be viewed in two ways, the riverine tracts to the east and south (much of which now lies in the sovereign nation of Bangladesh) and the undulating outliers of the Peninsula, adjacent areas bordering Odisha and Jharkhand. While the former was quickly populated with extensive rice culture on the fertile alluvium, the latter contained impenetrable deciduous hardwood forests, largely populated, yet non-farming Gond tribes of various denominations till the arrival of the British. It is search for natural resources, coal in mid-nineteenth century that the British realized the immense natural resources potentials of the latter region. The railways arrived and the sal forest became the immediate fodder of the expanding railways network. The aim of the paper is to provide a historical-geographical narrative of underdevelopment of the western West Bengal which is quite different from the processes and possibilities of development in the riverine Bengal.

Top