East India
East India is a region consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha
and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Chhattisgarh is sometimes included, due to its geographical proximity and cultural and economic integration with the Eastern region.
The states of Bihar and West Bengal lie on the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Jharkhand is situated on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. Odisha lies on the Eastern Ghats and the Deccan Plateau. West Bengal's capital Kolkata is the largest city of this region. The Kolkata Metropolitan Area is the country's third largest metropolitan region. The region is bounded by Bhutan, Nepal and the state of Sikkim in the north, the states of Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on the west, the state of Andhra Pradesh in the south and the country of Bangladesh in the east. It is also bounded by the Bay of Bengal in the south-east. It is connected to the Seven Sister States of Northeast India by the narrow Siliguri Corridor in the north east of West Bengal. East India has the fourth-largest gross domestic product of all Indian regions.
The region was ruled by several empires, including Gangaridai, Nandas, Mauryans, Guptas, Palas, Bhauma-Kara dynasty, Senas, Eastern Gangas, Gajapatis, Delhi Sultanate, Bengal Sultanate, Mughal Empire and the British Empire.
History
Ancient era
During the Neolithic period, agriculture started in South Asia. Neolithic settlements have been found in Chirand. In the Kabra-Kala mound at the confluence of the Sone and North Koel rivers in Palamu district, various antiquities and art objects from the Neolithic to medieval periods have been found; the pot-sherds of redware, black and red ware, black ware, black slipped ware, and NBP ware are from the Chalcolithic to late medieval periods. There are ancient cave paintings in Isko, Hazaribagh district, from the Meso-chalcolithic period. From Kuchai, near Baripada, various Neolithic tools like hoes, chisels, pounders, mace heads, grinding stones and also pieces of pottery. Prehistoric paintings and inscriptions have also been found in Garjan Dongar in Sundergarh district, and Ushakothi in Sambalpur district and Vimkramkhol in Jharsuguda district. There has been an uncertainty about the inscriptions at Ushakothi and Vimkramkhol regarding whether they are in a proto-Brahmi script. Yogimath near Khariar has cave paintings from the Neolithic. There is Chalcolithic sites in Pandu Rajar Dhibi in the lower Ajay valley in West Bengal. Dihar is an archaeological site of Neolithic and Early village farming culture located in the Bankura district of West Bengal. Construction of the settlement in Dihar is believed to have started around 2700 BC. Evidence of 42,000 years old human habitation has been found at the foothills of the Ajodhya Hills in West Bengal. Iron slag, microliths, and potsherds from 1400 BCE, according to carbon dating, were discovered in Singhbhum district. During the late Vedic period, several janapadas emerged in India. In the 6th century BCE, the mahajanapadas emerged in several parts of the Indian subcontinent.The region was the historical centre of the Nanda, Maurya, Shunga, Gupta and Pala empires that ruled much of the Indian sub-continent at their prime. In medieval India, it was incorporated into the Mughal, Maratha and then the British empire. After independence in 1947, the states joined the Indian Union and took their current form after the States Reorganisation Act of 1956. Today, they continue to face problems of overpopulation, environmental degradation and pervasive corruption despite significant economic and social progress.
After the Kalinga War the Maurya king Ashoka sent emissaries to spread Buddhism across Asia. The university of Nalanda was in Bihar. Chinese travellers visited Buddhist and Hindu temples and libraries in the universities of Magadha Empire. The Emperor of Kalinga Mahameghavahana Aira Kharavela was one of the most powerful monarchs of ancient India. The Jain thirkhankar Mahaveer was born here and founded Jainism.
Indo-Muslim era
Islamic invasions in the 13th century resulted in the collapse of Hindu kings and most Buddhists, especially in East Bengal, converted to Islam. East India including Bihar and West Bengal was part of the Mughal Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. Odisha remained the only powerful Hindu dynastic stronghold under the rule of Soma/Keshari Dynasty, Bhanja Dynasty, Eastern Ganga Dynasty, Suryavanshi Dynasty and Bhoi dynasty till the end of the 16th century. The mighty Nalanda University existed at Nalanda which was destroyed by Bakhtiar Khilji during the 12th century and also defeated Sena Dynasty. Sher Shah Suri, who became king of India after defeating Humayun, founded the city of Patna on the ruins of ancient Pataliputra.Islam arrived during the 7th century CE and became dominant gradually since the early 13th century with the advent of Muslim rulers as well as Sunni missionaries such as Shah Jalal in the region. Later, Muslim rulers, starting from the Delhi Sultanate initiated the preaching of Islam by building mosques. From the 14th century onward, it was ruled by the Bengal Sultanate, founded by king Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah, beginning a period of the country's economic prosperity and military dominance over the regional empires, which was referred by the Europeans to as the richest country to trade with. Afterwards, the entire East India came under the Mughal Empire, becoming as the most advanced parts in the world. Bengal Subah generated almost half of the empire's GDP and 12% of the world's GDP, larger than the entirety of western Europe.
Colonial era
With the arrival of the Europeans in the 17th century, outposts were established in Odisha Coast and Bengal. The European traders established their trade centres in the ports of Balasore, Pipili, Palur in the Odisha Coast during the rule of the last independent Hindu king Gajapati Prataprudra Dev. The Portuguese were in Chittagong, Dutch in Chinsura, French in Pondicherry and the English founded Calcutta. The Maratha Invasion of Bengal badly affected the economy of Bengal and it is estimated that 400,000 people were butchered by the Hindu Maratha bargis and many women and children gang raped, and the genocide has been considered to be among the deadliest massacres in Indian history. In 1756, the British East India Company defeated the local Indian Muslim rulers in Plassey and established British Rule in the subcontinent. Its capital Calcutta grew into one of the world's greatest ports. Tea from Calcutta was off-loaded by American separatists in the American War of Independence in the 1770s. In the 19th century, Calcutta's traders and merchants traded with the rest of the British Empire, continental Europe, the United States and China. Indentured Indian labourers from Bihar, sailed to new homes in Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana, Surinam and South Africa.India's independence movement had strong roots in East India. The feudal land system, established through the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, was unpopular among the peasant cultivators and the numerous agricultural labourers found all over Bihar and Bengal. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 started in Bengal. Eventually the British prevailed, and Calcutta remained capital of Britain's Asian dominions until 1911. During Gandhi's independence movement, the Bihari village of Champaran was an important supporter of non-violent resistance. Great poets of the stature of Rabindranath Tagore championed the movement for self-rule.
File:Bengal partition 1947.jpg|left|thumb|The 1947 partition of Bengal saw East Bengal become East Pakistan, and in 1971 it became Bangladesh
The Partition also had its roots in undivided Eastern India. The Muslim League was founded in Dhaka in 1906. In the 1937 provincial elections, it came to power in Bengal in alliance with the Krishak Praja Party. in 1944, it gained an absolute majority in the Bengal Assembly, and Hussein Suhrawardy became the Chief Minister. After widespread communal violence during the Direct Action Day protests in Calcutta, leading to further communal violence across British India, the creation of Pakistan became inevitable. In 1947, further communal violence displaced millions as independence and partition of British India occurred. Some Bihari and Bengali Muslims fled to the newly created East Pakistan. Most East Bengal Hindus fled to India.
Contemporary era
The 1950s saw industrial progress in East India. These were cut short with the conflict in neighbouring East Pakistan and by the Communist movement at home. In 1971, in the course of Bangladesh's independence struggle, millions of refugees poured into East India. Bihar and Odisha struggled with economic issues during the British rule and in the beginning of post independent India due to rising naxalism and frequent natural calamities such as flood and cyclone.But in recent years, the state of Odisha has shown impressive growth record and developed steadily. The economic boom since 2005 started to spread new malls, highways, airports and IT office complexes, but not evenly across the region. Jharkhand became a separate state on 15 November 2000 from Bihar. In the modern times, these states have seen rapid transformation and home to several mineral and metal based industries, coal based thermal powers units, oil refineries, ports, textile industries and well established public and private educational institutes. West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand rank 6th, 16th, 14th and 18th in the List of Indian states by GDP. Odisha has shown consistent growth in the state GDP and received the recognition of the fastest-growing economy among the states in India.
Education
, Puspagiri and Vikramshila universities were the famed institutions of higher learning in ancient India located in Eastern India. One of the first great universities in recorded history was the ancient Nalanda University located in Bihar and another institute of higher learning was the ancient Puspagiri University recently discovered in Odisha. Education in the eastern part of India has seen rapid transformation. Several new educational institutes have been established to cater the needs of students. East India is now the home to some of the great Indian universities and Institutions of National Importance. Some prominent institutions of higher learning located in the states of Eastern India are listed below.File:Ratnagiri Jajpur district Odisha.jpg|thumb|right|Ratnagiri, Odisha, Part of Puspagiri University
File:Udayagiri WIKI.JPG|thumb|right|Udayagiri, Odisha, Part of Puspagiri University