If you speak not for argument’s sake, then Bengal is an excellent pick because most already say they’re from Bengal. However, formally dropping the ‘West’ would be a tad bit tacky. There is a reason it’s West Bengal, ‘poshchim banga.’ When India was partitioned, apart from murder, plundering, personal gains, emotional drainout and hypocrisy, land too was divided as never before.

Bengal was divided based on what was termed as religious preference, which obviously was a messed up judgment. Anyways, they did separate the seemingly largish Bengal into East Bengal, and West Bengal. And for anyone who thought that all damage happened in our northern frontier, truth is the exodus resultant of the’ Partition of Bengal’ has been the greatest human history. Two important words here, Human, and history, both of which some people care two hoots about.

Moving on, West Bengal came to India and East Bengal went to Pakistan. It was later called East Pakistan, and then there was the 1971 war and East Pakistan chose to sign the ‘Instrument of Surrender’, and it ended a short war. They chose to be called ‘Bangladesh’, quite literally the ‘Country of Bengal’. Now you see, we may eat the west from Bengal but that wouldn’t change facts. The entire length and breadth of West Bengal and Bangladesh is what deserved to be called, Bengal, Vanga, Banga or Bangla. When we say Bengal, we already make a reference to erstwhile Bengal because quite honestly we have made deliberate attempts to keep tension out. As a rule of thumb we all adapt, so they speak ‘Bangal’ in Bangladesh, and ‘Bangla’ in West Bengal.

Banga is easily understandable as a sanskritized version of the name Bengal. There has always been two distinct literary variations of the Bengali language (bhasa), namely Shadhu bhasha and Cholit bhasha. The sanskritized version is not limited to sadhus but is certainly more difficult than the cholit lingo which can loosely be referred to as what’s accepted, what challofies, and almost everyone speaks this way.

Thing is if Rawdon Street can be Sarojini Naidu Sarani, and Loudon Street switches to U N Bramhachari Sarani, while Esplanade changes to Dharamtala, anything can happen. They took a long list of meaningful street names and found apt regional names. Bengal by itself may suddenly seem too Brit for some since they got rid of all English street names. For laugh’s sake, imagine saying, I’m from Bongo. Bangla has always been a reference to the language but can mean the state as well. So, you can drop some, add some, and get placed towards the top of the Indian state’s list and be heard earlier if that helps improve things.