I think they have over 25 "official" languages. (They're listed on the money.) One of the reasons that English is used as an alternative language of business and government is that it's considered a "neutral" language--it's not on one side or the other of debates over ethnic and cultural identity.
The "idea" of India was a creation of the British East India Company; in the 18th and 19th centuries they cobbled together a bunch of different little kingdoms in the region and the corporation governed them. Kolkata was a little market town that the company developed to be their seat of government.
Until 1949, "India" included what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh. Literally days before Indian independence was finalized, a very small group of British civil servants decided that the Muslim regions were too troublesome and would bring down the fledgling nation, so they drew literally lines on the map and separated off East and West Pakistan. (Now Bangladesh and Pakistan.) West Bengal and Bangladesh were basically one country with their own language and culture; the eastern part was majority Muslim and was split off as East Pakistan. The majority Hindu part became West Bengal.
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