Assembly passes resolution to change name West Bengal to ‘Bangla’

(Adarsh Rout): The West Bengal Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution to change the name of the state from West Bengal to ‘Bangla’ in all languages. All parties, including the Left, the Congress and the BJP, agreed over the proposal of name change. The resolution will now be sent to the Centre for its approval.

It was during Partition in 1947 that the British province of Bengal was split into West Bengal, which stayed with India, and East Pakistan (formerly East Bengal) which went to the newly created Pakistan. While East Pakistan went on to become Bangladesh in 1971, its Indian counterpart continued to be called West Bengal. On August 29, 2016, the state Assembly had passed a resolution to change the name of West Bengal to ‘Bengal’ in English, ‘Bangla’ in Bengali and ‘Bangal’ in Hindi. The Union ministry of home affairs rejected the proposal saying that a state cannot have three different names in three different languages.