'''Kolkata''' is the name now used in [[India]] and overseas for the city formerly known as [[Calcutta]].
+
'''Kolkata''' is the name now used in [[India]] and overseas for the city formerly known as [[Calcutta]]. Until Delhi was declared capital in the early twentieth century, Kolkata was the capital of [[British India]] and it was the largest city in India until its populationw was overtaken by that of [[Mumbai]] in the 1980s. Today Kolkata has a population of 4.5 million (city) 14.6 million ([[conurbation]]).
+
+
Kolkata is the capital of the state of [[West Bengal]]. However, it had suffered a severe blow to its prosperuity in 1947 when, during the [[Partition]] of India, the larger part of the province of [[Bengal]] was allotted to the new state of [[Pakistan]], becoming [[East Pakistan]] and later, in 1971, [[Bangladesh]]. This partition deprived the city of much of its economic hinterland.