Culture of West Bengal

Bengal is one of the most important cultural hubs of India. There was a saying by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, “What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow”. It is the birthplace of India’s only Nobel laureate in literature, Rabindranath Tagore. The world famous film director Satyajit Ray was also born here. He along with Bhanu Athaiya is one of only two Oscar winners from India, and won an Oscar for Life Time Achievement.

Apart from this, Bengal gave birth to innumerable well known poets and writers who enriched the world literature ceaselessly. Some prominent members include Kazi Nazrul Islam, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay and Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.

Also from West Bengal is the famous Indian singer in films, Kishore Kumar ( a Bengali by lineage but born in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India), as well as the world-famous sitarist Ravi Shankar. One of the unique identifiers of Bengali Culture is Durga Puja.