Districts

After India gained independence in 1947, the province of Bengal was partitioned along religious lines. The western part went to India and was named West Bengal while the eastern part joined Pakistan as a province called East Bengal – later renamed East Pakistan, giving rise to Bangladesh in 1971. At the time of its creation in 1947, the state of West Bengal was divided into 14 districts as Bankura, Birbhum, Burdwan, Calcutta, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Hooghly, Howrah, Malda, Midnapore, Murshidabad, Nadia, West Dinajpur & 24 Parganas. Cooch Behar district was a princely state named Koch Bihar till 20 August 1949, when the state formally agreed to join India. Transfer of administration was started on 12 September 1949 and was completed on 19 January 1950, when Cooch Behar became a district of West Bengal. Chandernagore, which was earlier part of the French India, had voted to join India in a plebiscite in 1949. Formally, it joined India in 1952 and finally became a part of the Hooghly district of West Bengal on 2 October 1954. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 reorganized boundaries of the Indian states along linguistic lines. As this act was implemented, the then West Dinajpur district was enlarged with the addition of some areas from Bihar, and the Purulia district was formed on 1 November 1956 from parts of the Manbhum district of Bihar.

Later, some large districts were divided into smaller districts. On 1 March 1986, the district of 24 Parganas was bifurcated into two districts—the North 24 Parganas district and the South 24 Parganas district. On 1 April 1992, the West Dinajpur district was bifurcated into the North Dinajpur district and the South Dinajpur district. On 1 January 2002, the erstwhile Midnapore district was bifurcated into the Purba Medinipur district and the Paschim Medinipur district.

Click on the links for a brief idea of historical background, places of interest, administration details of that particular district of West Bengal. Explore!

• 24 Parganas (North)
• 24 Parganas (South)
• Alipur Duar
• Bankura
• Burdwan (East)
• Burdwan (West)
• Birbhum
• Darjeeling
• Dinajpur (North)
• Dinajpur (South)
• Hoogly
• Howrah
• Jalpaiguri
• Jhargram
• Kalimpong
• Kochbihar
• Kolkata
• Malda
• Midnapore (East)
• Midnapore (West)
• Mursidabad
• Nadia
• Purulia

Data Compilation Going On.