208-472: Traditional Bengali Hindus ( Bengali : বাঙ্গালী হিন্দু/বাঙালি হিন্দু , romanized : Bāṅgālī Hindu/Bāṅāli Hindu ) are an ethnoreligious population who make up the majority in the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura , Andaman and Nicobar Islands , Jharkhand , and Assam's Barak Valley region. In Bangladesh , they form the largest minority. They are adherents of Hinduism and are native to
416-735: A Hindu-majority province. In late April 1947, the Amrita Bazar Patrika published the results of an opinion poll, in which 98% of the Bengali Hindus favoured the creation of a separate homeland. The proposal for the Partition of Bengal was moved in the Legislative Assembly on 20 June 1947, where the Hindu members voted 58–21 in favour of the Partition with two members abstaining. The Boundary Commission awarded
624-500: A bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from
832-707: A derivative of Sanskrit that was prevalent in the eastern region of the Indian Subcontinent at that time. During the Sena period (11th – 12th century) the Bengali culture developed into a distinct culture, within the civilisation. Bengali Hindus were at the forefront of the Bengal Renaissance in the 19th century, the Bengal region was noted for its participation in the struggle for independence from
1040-596: A different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is লবণ lôbôṇ in the east which corresponds to নুন nun in the west. Bengali exhibits diglossia , though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax : Linguist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar categorises
1248-480: A diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following: In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic ; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in সহযোগিতা shô -hô- jo -gi- ta "cooperation", where
1456-453: A flurry in the literary activity especially after the emergence of the Bengali press. The first Bengali prose Raja Pratapaditya Charitra was written during this time. The Renaissance saw a rapid development in modern Bengali literature. Most of the epics, poems, novels, short stories and dramas of the modern classical literature were written during this period. The Bengal Literary Society that later came to be known as Bangiya Sahitya Parishad
1664-769: A former prime minister of the Bengal Sultanate. By the 17th century, the Mughals were able to fully absorb the region to their empire. Mughal Bengal had the richest elite and was the wealthiest region in the subcontinent. Bengal's trade and wealth impressed the Mughals so much that it was described as the Paradise of the Nations by the Mughal Emperors . A new provincial capital was built in Dhaka . Members of
1872-661: A joint family system. However, due to the Partition and subsequent urbanisation, the joint families have given way to the nuclear families . The Bengali Hindus were traditionally governed by the Dāyabhāga school of law, as opposed to the Mitākṣarā school of law, which governed the other Hindu ethno-linguistic groups. In India, after the promulgation of the Hindu code bills , the Bengali Hindus along with other Hindus are being governed by
2080-637: A large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced by each other. Small numbers of people in Midnapore , which borders Odisha , have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar , some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari , Kaithi and Tirhuta . In Sylhet and Bankura , modified versions of
2288-682: A majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects. Even in SCB,
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#17327733214382496-571: A new dimension as young artists like Devajyoti Ray , Sudip Roy and Paresh Maity started gaining international recognition. Devajyoti Ray is known for introducing Pseudorealism , which is one of the most original genres of Indian art today. The Bengali Hindus generally follow the beliefs and practices that fall under the broad umbrella of Hinduism . Majority of them follow either Shaktism (the Kalikula tradition ) or Vaishnavism ( Gaudiya Vaishnavism , Vaishnava-Sahajiya , Bauls ), and some follow
2704-425: A notable section of non-Bengali Hindus also exist, particularly among Marwaris , Biharis , Odias , Gurkhas , Punjabis , Sindhis , Gujaratis and various tribal communities such as Koch Raj bongshi , Santals , Munda and particularly Adivadis numbering around 1.557 crore comprising rest 15% of the state population. Hinduism has been existed in what is now called Bangladesh since the ancient times. In nature,
2912-599: A part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali. Bengal Bengal ( / b ɛ n ˈ ɡ ɔː l / ben- GAWL ) is a historical geographical , ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal . The region of Bengal proper
3120-921: A part of it. There are four World Heritage Sites in the region, including the Sundarbans , the Somapura Mahavihara , the Mosque City of Bagerhat and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway . Other prominent places include the Bishnupur, Bankura temple city, the Adina Mosque , the Caravanserai Mosque , numerous zamindar palaces (like Ahsan Manzil and Cooch Behar Palace ), the Lalbagh Fort ,
3328-463: A result of this jingoist movement, nearly 500,000 Bengali Hindus were forced to flee from Assam to take shelter in neighbouring West Bengal particularly in Jalpaiguri division in seek for safety. In the Bengali dominated Barak Valley region of Assam, violence broke out in 1960 and 1961 between Bengali Hindus and ethnic Assamese police over a state bill which would have made Assamese mandatory in
3536-576: A rounded total of 280 million) worldwide. The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal , which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura , southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Bengali is also spoken in
3744-558: A significant number of Bengali Muslims who are also ethnically Bengalis . The 'other' is usually identified as 'non-Bengali', a term that generically refers to the Hindu people who are not Bengali speaking, but sometimes specifically used to denote the Hindi speaking population. The Bengali Hindus constitute of numerous endogamous castes , which are sometimes further subdivided into endogamous subgroups. The caste system evolved over centuries and became more and more complex with time. In
3952-569: A significant, and sometimes dominant tribe/group/demographic for at least a period since the reign of Dhanya Manikya in the 15th century who hosted several Bengali Brahmin scholars in his court during his reign/rule. The Bengalis have been living in Barak Valley for at least 1,500 years, settling there much earlier than the Koch , Dimasa and the Tripuris . The Koches settled in Barak Valley in
4160-678: A single political entity and expanded it into an empire, conquering a major portion of North India . During this time, the Bengali Hindus excelled in art, literature, philosophy, mathematics, sciences and statecraft. The first scriptures in Bengali Charyapada was composed during the Pala rule . The Pala were followed by the Senas who made far reaching changes in the social structure of Bengali Hindus, introducing 36 new castes and orthodox institutions like Kulinism . The literary progress of
4368-408: A special diacritic, called the hôsôntô (্) , may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ম্ [m] ). This diacritic, however, is not common and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a hôsôntô , may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in
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#17327733214384576-581: A state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan . On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka ; they were the first ever martyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. 21 February has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO every year since 2000. In 2010,
4784-468: A synthesis of the two. The Shaktas belong to the upper castes as well as lowest castes and tribes, while the lower middle castes are Vaishnavas. The minor traditions include Shaivites . A small minority is atheist who do not follow any rituals. Brahmoism is also found among Bengali Hindus. A part of the parent tradition, the Bengali Hindus usually affiliate themselves to one of the many sects that have come to be established as institutionalised forms of
4992-603: A tributary state. The ruler of the Jaunpur Sultanate also sought refuge in Bengal. The vassal states of Bengal included Arakan, Tripura, Chandradwip and Pratapgarh . At its peak, the Bengal Sultanate's territory included parts of Arakan, Assam, Bihar, Orissa, and Tripura. The Bengal Sultanate experienced its greatest military success under Alauddin Hussain Shah , who was proclaimed as the conqueror of Assam after his forces led by Shah Ismail Ghazi overthrew
5200-529: A uniform Hindu law . There are two major social subgroups among the Bengali Hindus – the ghotis and the bangals . The Bengali Hindus who emigrated from East Bengal (Bangladesh) at the wake of the Partition and settled in West Bengal, came to known as the bangals, while the native Bengali Hindus of West Bengal came to known as ghotis. For several decades after partition, these two social subgroups possessed marked difference in their accents and their rivalry
5408-463: A vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in মই [moj] "ladder" and in ইলিশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি) . A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form. In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressing hôsôntô , three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are
5616-500: Is Bangladesh's national march, written by The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the Bangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses of Vande Mataram , a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it
5824-468: Is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs , and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words . Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called মাত্রা matra . Since
6032-572: Is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America, the Middle East and other regions. Bengali was accorded the status of a classical language by the government of India on 3 October 2024. It is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing language in India , following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei ( Manipuri ), along with Gujarati , in
6240-400: Is an abugida , a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ ô ) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century). It
6448-707: Is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka ( Sri Lanka Matha ) was inspired by a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore , while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala . After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone ,
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6656-721: Is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects. During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata , a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia and Kushtia District . There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use
6864-449: Is considered as one of the most staple food by both Hindus and Muslims in Bengal. Bengali Hindu society used to be caste-oriented throughout centuries and the professional status of men depended exclusively on the hierarchical caste divisions . In traditional Bengali Hindu society , nearly every occupation is carried on by a ranked hierarchy of specialised caste groups such as weaving, pottery, carpentry and blacksmithing. However, with
7072-492: Is contiguous to Sylhet (Bengal plains), where the Bengali Hindus, according to historian J.B. Bhattacharjee, had settled well before the colonial period, influencing the culture of Dimasa Kacharis. Bhattacharjee describes that the Dimasa kings spoke Bengali and the inscriptions and coins written were in Bengali script. Migrations to Cachar increased after the British annexation of the region. Bengalis in plains of Cachar valley were
7280-428: Is divided between the modern-day sovereign nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . The ancient Vanga Kingdom is widely regarded as the namesake of the Bengal region. The Bengali calendar dates back to the reign of Shashanka in the 7th century CE. The Pala Empire was founded in Bengal during the 8th century. The Sena dynasty and Deva dynasty ruled between the 11th and 13th centuries. By
7488-541: Is divided into Terai and Dooars regions. North Bengal is also noted for its rich cultural heritage, including two UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Aside from the Bengali majority, North Bengal is home to many other communities including Nepalis, Santhal people , Lepchas and Rajbongshis. Northeast Bengal refers to the Sylhet region, which today comprises the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh and Karimganj district in
7696-553: Is estimated to have caused the deaths of between 1 million and 10 million people. In 1862, the Bengal Legislative Council was set up as the first modern legislature in India . Elected representation was gradually introduced during the early 20th century, including with the Morley-Minto reforms and the system of dyarchy . In 1937, the council became the upper chamber of the Bengali legislature while
7904-420: Is home to the longest natural sea beach in the world with an unbroken length of 120 km (75 mi). It is also a growing surfing destination. St. Martin's Island , off the coast of Chittagong Division, is home to the sole coral reef in Bengal. Bengal was a regional power of the Indian subcontinent. The administrative jurisdiction of Bengal historically extended beyond the territory of Bengal proper. In
8112-404: Is known as Apabhraṃśa , by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time. Though some archaeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of
8320-672: Is noted for its thalassocratic and seafaring heritage. The area was dominated by the Bengali Harikela and Samatata kingdoms in antiquity. It was known to Arab traders as Samandar in the 9th century. During the medieval period, the region was ruled by the Chandra dynasty , the sultanate of Bengal , the kingdom of Tripura , the kingdom of Mrauk U , the Portuguese Empire and the Mughal Empire , prior to
8528-459: Is now called Bangladesh (former East Pakistan) in various locations of Assam as permanent settlers and again in second patches between (1952–1958) of the same decade, around 212,545 Bengali Hindus from Bangladesh took shelter in various parts of the state permanently. After the 1964 East Pakistan riots many Bengali Hindus have poured into Assam as refugees and the number of Hindu migrants in the state rose to 1,068,455 in 1968 (sharply after 4 years of
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8736-659: Is on the extreme south, while the Sundarbans mangrove forests form a remarkable geographical landmark at the Ganges delta. At least nine districts in West Bengal and 42 districts in Bangladesh have arsenic levels in groundwater above the World Health Organization maximum permissible limit of 50 μg/L or 50 parts per billion and the untreated water is unfit for human consumption. The water causes arsenicosis, skin cancer and various other complications in
8944-681: Is present in an inscription in the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur , which is one of the oldest references to Bengal. The term Vangaladesa is used to describe the region in 11th-century South Indian records. The modern term Bangla is prominent from the 14th century, which saw the establishment of the Sultanate of Bengal , whose first ruler Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah was known as the Shah of Bangala . The Portuguese referred to
9152-490: Is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme). Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs , combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable . Two of these, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/ , are the only ones with representation in script, as ঐ and ঔ respectively. /e̯ i̯ o̯ u̯/ may all form the glide part of
9360-556: Is the third largest Hindu populated country in the world after India and Nepal . Out of 21 million population of Dhaka as far estimated by 2020, Bengali Hindus are at present the second largest community just after Bengali Muslims in Dhaka numbering around at 1,051,167 (5% of population) and are mainly concentrated in Shankhari Bazaar . The Barak Valley comprising the present districts of Cachar , Karimganj and Hailakandi
9568-509: The Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist . Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji , Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda , and Muhammad Enamul Haq . The Digital Revolution has also played
9776-615: The Arabic , Persian , and Turkic languages . The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist -ruling Pala Empire , from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. In the 13th century, subsequent Arab Muslim and Turco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population. Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including
9984-1076: The Austrian East India Company , the Ostend Company , and the Dutch East India Company . The Nawabs were also suspicious of the growing influence of these companies. Under Mughal rule, Bengal was a centre of the worldwide muslin and silk trades. During the Mughal era, the most important centre of cotton production was Bengal, particularly around its capital city of Dhaka, leading to muslin being called "daka" in distant markets such as Central Asia. Domestically, much of India depended on Bengali products such as rice, silks and cotton textiles. Overseas, Europeans depended on Bengali products such as cotton textiles, silks and opium; Bengal accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia, for example, including more than 50% of textiles and around 80% of silks. From Bengal, saltpetre
10192-579: The Bangladesh Liberation War , large number of Bengali Hindus were massacred . The Enemy Property Act of the Pakistan regime which is still in force in the new incarnation of Vested Property Act , has been used by successive Bangladeshi governments to seize the properties of the Hindu minorities who left the country during the Partition of India and Bangladesh liberation war. According to Professor Abul Barkat of Dhaka University ,
10400-557: The Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Odisha and Uttarakhand . Bengali
10608-555: The Bay of Bengal allowed for maritime trade with distant lands in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. The ancient geopolitical divisions of Bengal included Varendra , Suhma , Anga , Vanga , Samatata and Harikela . These regions were often independent or under the rule of larger empires. The Mahasthan Brahmi Inscription indicates that Bengal was ruled by the Mauryan Empire in the 3rd century BCE. The inscription
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#173277332143810816-564: The Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent . Comprising about one-third of the global Bengali population, they are the largest ethnic group among Hindus. Bengali Hindus speak Bengali , which belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family and adhere to Shaktism (majority, the Kalikula tradition ) or Vaishnavism (minority, Gaudiya Vaishnavism and Vaishnava-Sahajiya ) of their native religion Hinduism with some regional deities. There are significant numbers of Bengali-speaking Hindus in different Indian states . According to
11024-399: The Bengal Legislative Assembly was created. Between 1937 and 1947, the chief executive of the government was the Prime Minister of Bengal . The Bengal Presidency was the largest administrative unit in the British Empire . At its height, it covered large parts of present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia, and Singapore. In 1830, the British Straits Settlements on the coast of
11232-437: The Brahmins for the worship and teaching purpose in the Pagoda . Then afterwards 1920, most of them start settling to the urban areas and main cities, mainly in Yangon , Mandalay and in urban areas of Rakhine State . In modern times, they have faced persecution which was mainly started after 1962 coup by Ne Win . Both the United States and United Kingdom have large immigrant Bengali Hindu populations, who are mostly from
11440-405: The British rule . At the time of the independence of India in 1947, the province of Bengal was partitioned between India and East Pakistan , part of the Muslim-majority state of Pakistan. Millions of Bengali Hindus numbering around 25,19,557 (1941–1951) have migrated from East Bengal (later Bangladesh) and settled in West Bengal and other states of India. The migration continued in waves through
11648-415: The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan . At a separate meeting of legislators from West Bengal , it was decided (58 votes to 21) that the province should be partitioned and West Bengal should join the Constituent Assembly of India . At another meeting of legislators from East Bengal , it was decided (106 votes to 35) that the province should not be partitioned and (107 votes to 34) that East Bengal should join
11856-414: The Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh. The Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 , made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the de facto national language of
12064-443: The Damodar River valley near Durgapur. Microliths, potteries, copper fishhooks and iron arrowheads have been found at Pandu Rajar Dhibi . In the ancient times, some of the Bengali Hindus were seafaring people as evident from Vijay Singha's naval conquest of Lanka , the tales of merchants like Chand Sadagar and Dhanapati Saudagor whose ships sailed to far off places for trade and establishment of colonies in South East Asia . By
12272-407: The Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876 in the Barisal region. About 50 million were killed in Bengal due to massive plague outbreaks and famines which happened in 1895 to 1920, mostly in western Bengal. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was initiated on the outskirts of Calcutta, and spread to Dhaka, Chittagong, Jalpaiguri, Sylhet and Agartala, in solidarity with revolts in North India. The failure of
12480-419: The Great Caravanserai ruins , the Shaista Khan Caravanserai ruins , the Kolkata Victoria Memorial , the Dhaka Parliament Building, archaeologically excavated ancient fort cities in Mahasthangarh , Mainamati , Chandraketugarh and Wari-Bateshwar , the Jaldapara National Park , the Lawachara National Park , the Teknaf Game Reserve and the Chittagong Hill Tracts . Cox's Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh
12688-400: The Indian subcontinent , speaking a broad range of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages and adhering to the native belief systems, rooted in the Vedas . The word Hindu is popularly believed to be a Persian exonym for the people native to the Indian subcontinent. The word is derived from Sindhu , the Sanskrit name for the river Indus and it initially referred to the people residing to
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#173277332143812896-410: The Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing matra . Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in c. 1869 . Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in
13104-400: The Karrani dynasty . The Battle of Raj Mahal and the capture of Daud Khan Karrani marked the end of the Bengal Sultanate during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar . In the late 16th-century, a confederation called the Baro-Bhuyan resisted Mughal invasions in eastern Bengal. The Baro-Bhuyan included twelve Muslim and Hindu leaders of the Zamindars of Bengal . They were led by Isa Khan ,
13312-539: The Khen dynasty and annexed large parts of Assam. In maritime trade, the Bengal Sultanate benefited from Indian Ocean trade networks and emerged as a hub of re-exports . A giraffe was brought by African envoys from Malindi to Bengal's court and was later gifted to Imperial China . Ship-owing merchants acted as envoys of the Sultan while travelling to different regions in Asia and Africa. Many rich Bengali merchants lived in Malacca. Bengali ships transported embassies from Brunei , Aceh and Malacca to China. Bengal and
13520-401: The Kingdom of Mrauk U was heavily influenced by Bengal. Bengali Muslims served in the royal court as ministers and military commanders. Bengali Hindus and Bengali Buddhists served as priests. Some of the most important poets of medieval Bengali literature lived in Arakan, including Alaol and Daulat Qazi . In 1660, Prince Shah Shuja , the governor of Mughal Bengal and a pretender of
13728-551: The Malacca Straits was made a residency of Bengal. The area included the erstwhile Prince of Wales Island , Province Wellesley , Malacca and Singapore . In 1867, Penang , Singapore and Malacca were separated from Bengal into the Straits Settlements . British Burma became a province of India and a later a Crown colony in itself. Western areas, including the Ceded and Conquered Provinces and The Punjab , were further reorganised. Northeastern areas became Colonial Assam . In 1876, about 200,000 people were killed in Bengal by
13936-402: The Maldives had a vast trade in shell currency . The Sultan of Bengal donated funds to build schools in the Hejaz region of Arabia. The five dynastic periods of the Bengal Sultanate spanned from the Ilyas Shahi dynasty , to a period of rule by Bengali converts, to the Hussain Shahi dynasty , to a period of rule by Abyssinian usurpers; an interruption by the Suri dynasty ; and ended with
14144-425: The Meghna River . Bengal was probably used as a transit route to China by the earliest Muslims. Abbasid coins have been discovered in the archaeological ruins of Paharpur and Mainamati . A collection of Sasanian, Umayyad and Abbasid coins are preserved in the Bangladesh National Museum . In 1204, the Ghurid general Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji began the Islamic conquest of Bengal. The fall of Lakhnauti
14352-530: The Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal was a part of the Greater Magadhan realm. The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire , and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam , and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi . Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what
14560-473: The Nadia region . Bengali shows a high degree of diglossia , with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. Modern Bengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings from Persian , Arabic , Austroasiatic languages and other languages with which it has historically been in contact. In
14768-444: The Nawab of Bengal from 1757 after the Battle of Plassey, thus signalling the start of British influence in India. British control of Bengal increased between 1757 and 1793 while the Nawab was reduced to a puppet figure. with the Presidency of Fort William asserting greater control over the entire province of Bengal and neighbouring territories. Calcutta was named the capital of British territories in India in 1772. The presidency
14976-556: The Nitish Kumar government had promised to solve this problems and also to raise the status of Bangla as a language in the state. Bengali Hindus constitute a minority ethnic group of the total population in both Bangladesh and India, forming less than 10% of the population in both countries. Hinduism has existed in Bengal before the 16th century BC and by the third century, Buddhism has also gain popularity in Bengal . West Bengal
15184-628: The Pala Empire . The first Pala emperor Gopala I was chosen by an assembly of chieftains in Gauda. The Pala kingdom grew into one of the largest empires in the Indian subcontinent. The Pala period saw advances in linguistics, sculpture, painting, and education. The empire achieved its greatest territorial extent under Dharmapala and Devapala . The Palas vied for control of Kannauj with the rival Gurjara-Pratihara and Rashtrakuta dynasties. Pala influence also extended to Tibet and Sumatra due to
15392-759: The Peacock Throne of India, was forced to seek asylum in Arakan. Bengali influence in the Arakanese royal court persisted until Burmese annexation in the 18th-century. The modern-day Rohingya population is a legacy of Bengal's influence on Arakan. The Rohingya genocide resulted in the displacement of over a million people between 2016 and 2017, with many being uprooted from their homes in Rakhine State. The Indian state of Assam shares many cultural similarities with Bengal. The Assamese language uses
15600-631: The Shreekrishna Kirtana and the Vaishnava padavalis followed by translation literatures like Ramayana and Srikrishna Vijaya . In the medieval period literary works on the life and teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu were composed. This period saw the emergence of Shakta padavalis . The characteristic feature of Bengali Hindu literature in the middle age are the mangalkavyas , that glorify various Hindu gods and goddesses often using folkloristic backgrounds. The early modern period saw
15808-517: The Sylhet referendum and votes by the Bengal Legislative Council and Bengal Legislative Assembly , the region was again divided along religious lines in 1947 . Bengali culture, particularly its literature , music , art and cinema, are well known in South Asia and beyond. The region is also notable for its economic and social scientists, which includes several Nobel laureates . Once home to
16016-607: The University of Karachi (established by East Pakistani politicians before Independence of Bangladesh ) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature. The national anthems of both Bangladesh ( Amar Sonar Bangla ) and India ( Jana Gana Mana ) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore . Notuner Gaan known as " Chol Chol Chol"
16224-499: The boldface represents primary and secondary stress. Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters ; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e., one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as গেরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইস্কুল iskul (VC.CVC) for স্কুল skul (CCVC) "school". The Bengali-Assamese script
16432-628: The deindustrialisation of its pre-colonial economy. Company policies led to the deindustrialisation of Bengal's textile industry. The capital amassed by the East India Company in Bengal was invested in the emerging Industrial Revolution in Great Britain , in industries such as textile manufacturing . Economic mismanagement, alongside drought and a smallpox epidemic, directly led to the Great Bengal famine of 1770, which
16640-492: The mountains in Bangladesh . Most parts of Bangladesh are within 10 metres (33 feet) above the sea level, and it is believed that about 10% of the land would be flooded if the sea level were to rise by 1 metre (3.3 feet). Because of this low elevation, much of this region is exceptionally vulnerable to seasonal flooding due to monsoons. The highest point in Bangladesh is in Mowdok range at 1,052 metres (3,451 feet). A major part of
16848-557: The phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of western Bengal). Some varieties of Bengali, particularly Sylheti , Chittagonian and Chakma , have contrastive tone ; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong
17056-439: The seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language . Bengali is the official , national , and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh , with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. It is the second-most widely spoken language in India . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and
17264-464: The 14th century, Bengal was absorbed by Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent . An independent Bengal Sultanate was formed and became the eastern frontier of the Islamic world . During this period, Bengal's rule and influence spread to Assam, Arakan , Tripura, Bihar, and Orissa. Bengal Subah later emerged as a prosperous part of the Mughal Empire . The last independent Nawab of Bengal
17472-623: The 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of
17680-525: The 16th century, while the Dimasas settled in the late 16th - early 17th century A.D respectively. Bengali Hindus first came into Assam's Brahmaputra valley during the time of British era of 1826 from neighbouring Bengal region as colonial official workers, bankers, railway employees, bureaucrats and later on during the time Partition of Bengal in 1947. Between the period of first patches (1946–1951), around 274,455 Bengali Hindu refugees have arrived from what
17888-652: The 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali: In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the Bengali language movement . This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh ), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as
18096-579: The 250 member Bengal Legislative Assembly a disproportionate 119 seats were reserved for the Muslims, 17 for Europeans, Anglo-Indians & Indian Christians , 34 for the institutions, and the rest 80 were left as General. The Communal Award further divided the Hindus into Scheduled Caste Hindus and Tribal Hindus. Out of the 80 General seats, 10 were reserved for the Scheduled Castes . In response
18304-569: The 3rd century B.C.E. they were united into a powerful state, known to the Greeks as Gangaridai , whose military prowess demoralised Alexander from further expedition to the east. In the middle of the 8th century, the Bengali Hindu nobility democratically elected Gopala as the ruler of Gauda , ushering in an era of peace and prosperity in Bengal, ending almost a century of chaos and confusion. The Buddhist Pala rulers unified Bengal into
18512-484: The 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty . During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of the word-final অ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the Sanskrit Schwa . Slowly, the word-final ô disappeared from many words influenced by
18720-652: The 9th century, the Pala Empire of Bengal ruled large parts of northern India. The Bengal Sultanate controlled Bengal, Assam, Arakan, Bihar and Orissa at different periods in history. In Mughal Bengal, the Nawab of Bengal had a jurisdiction covering Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Bengal's administrative jurisdiction reached its greatest extent under the British Empire, when the Bengal Presidency extended from
18928-514: The Act has been used to misappropriate 2,100,000 acres (8,500 km) of land from the Bengali Hindus, roughly equivalent to the 45% of the total landed area owned by them. In Assam's, Assamese dominated Brahmaputra Valley region Bongal Kheda movement (which literally means drive out Bengalis) was happened in the late 1948-80s, where several thousands of Hindu Bengalis was massacred by jingoists Assamese nationalists mob in various parts of Assam and as
19136-628: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands; as well as in Myanmar's Rakhine State. Arakan (now Rakhine State , Myanmar ) has historically been under strong Bengali influence. Since antiquity, Bengal has influenced the culture of Arakan. The ancient Bengali script was used in Arakan. An Arakanese inscription recorded the reign of the Bengali Candra dynasty . Paul Wheatley described the "Indianization" of Arakan. According to Pamela Gutman , "Arakan
19344-691: The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, where around at that time, nearly 1,381,649 Bengalis (mostly Hindus) have came into various parts of Tripura to take refugees and most of them have settled here permanently afterwards. Parts of the state were shelled by the Pakistan Army during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 . Following the war, the Indian government reorganised the North East region to try to improve control of
19552-698: The Bangladeshi Hinduism closely resembles the ritual and customs of Hinduism practised in the Indian state of West Bengal, with which Bangladesh (at one time known as East Bengal ) was united until the partition of India. While in Bangladesh, Bengali Hindus are the second largest community with a population of 12.8 million out of 149.77 million people constituting (8.5%) of the country as per 2011 year census. But distinct Hindu population also exist among indigenous tribes like Garo , Khasi , Jaintia , Santhal , Bishnupriya Manipuri , Tripuri , Munda , Oraon , Dhanuk etc. In terms of population, Bangladesh
19760-502: The Barak Valley are eligible for citizenship if the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 becomes a law. Most Bengali Hindus came into Jharkhand during the colonial period, brought up by the British as colonial workers mainly from the western part of Bengal. In Jharkhand , the Bengali Hindu population is over 2.5 million comprising 8.09% but the overall Bengali speaking population are a slight majority there and
19968-849: The Barak Valley region where they a form a slide majority and the population of Bengali Hindus in Barak Valley is 2 million, constituting 55% of the total population of the region. In Assam's Brahmaputra valley region, their numbers are 4 million covering up 14.5% of the valley population respectively and are mainly concentrated in Hojai District where Bengali are spoken by (53%) of the district population, Goalpara District , Nagaon district , Bongaigaon district , Barpeta District , Kamrup District , Darrang district , Dhubri District , Morigaon district , Tinsukia district , Karbi Anglong , Guwahati , BTAD , Dibrugarh district , Jorhat district , Sonitpur district with percentage ranging 15-25% in all those districts mentioned above. In January 2019,
20176-653: The Bengali Hindu people, prompting the latter to form the Bengali Tiger Force. Discrimination against refugee Bengali Hindu population is not limited to the North East . In Odisha , in a family of ten individuals, only half of them has been recognised as Indians while the rest were branded as Bangladeshis. The Bengali refugees who had settled in Bihar after the partition of India are denied land owning rights, caste certificates and welfare schemes. However,
20384-480: The Bengali Hindus a territory far less in proportion to their population which was around 46% of the population of the province, awarding the Bengali Hindu majority district of Khulna to Pakistan. However, some Bengali Muslim majority districts such as Murshidabad and Malda were handed to India. After the Partition , the majority of the urban upper class and middle class Bengali Hindu population of East Bengal immigrated to West Bengal. The ones who stayed back were
20592-452: The Bengali Hindus were reduced to minorities. The Bengalis, however, opposed to the Partition tooth and nail, embarked on a political movement of Swadeshi , boycott and revolutionary nationalism. On 28 September 1905, the day of Mahalaya , 50,000 Bengali Hindus resolved before the Mother at Kalighat to boycott foreign goods and stop employing foreigners. The British Raj finally annulled
20800-468: The Bengali New Year's Day or Pohela Boishakh which usually falls on 15 April. Traditional business establishment commence their fiscal year on this day, with the worship of Lakshmi and Ganesha and inauguration of the halkhata (ledger). People dress in ethnic wear and enjoy ethnic food. Poila Baishakh is followed by Rabindra Jayanti , Rath Yatra and Janmashtami before the commencement of
21008-405: The Bengali chiefs along with some Bengali Muslims consolidated themselves into confederacies and resisted the Mughals. After the fall of the confederacies, the Mughals brought a major part of Bengal under their control, and constituted a subah . During the decline of the Mughal Empire , Nawabs of Bengal (who were Muslim) ruled a large part of Bengal. During the reign of Alivardi Khan . a Nawab,
21216-456: The Bengali equivalent of a full stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra . The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example,
21424-426: The Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments , but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel , either [ɔ] as in মত [m ɔ t] "opinion" or [o] , as in মন [m o n] "mind", with variants like the more open [ɒ] . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it,
21632-420: The Bengali word Vanga which was one of the five historical kingdoms of Eastern India. According to Harivamsa , Bali , the king of the asuras had five sons from his wife Sudeshna through sage Dirghatama. The five sons namely Anga , Vanga , Kalinga , Pundra and Sumha went on to found five kingdoms of the same name in the eastern region of the Indian subcontinent. In ancient times Vanga proper consisted of
21840-759: The British Raj began with the rebellion of Titumir , and reached a climax when Subhas Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army against the British. Bengal was also central in the rising political awareness of the Muslim population—the All-India Muslim League was established in Dhaka in 1906. The Muslim homeland movement pushed for a sovereign state in eastern India with the Lahore Resolution in 1943. Hindu nationalism
22048-713: The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan if Bengal was partitioned. On 6 July, the Sylhet district of Assam voted in a referendum to join East Bengal . The English barrister Cyril Radcliffe was instructed to draw the borders of Pakistan and India. The Radcliffe Line created the boundary between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan , which later became the Bangladesh-India border . The Radcliffe Line awarded two-thirds of Bengal as
22256-589: The Great was deterred by the accounts of Gangaridai's power in 325 BCE, including a cavalry of war elephants . Later Roman accounts noted maritime trade routes with Bengal. 1st century Roman coins with images of Hercules were found in the region and point to trade links with Roman Egypt through the Red Sea . The Wari-Bateshwar ruins are believed to be the emporium (trading centre) of Sounagoura mentioned by Roman geographer Claudius Ptolemy . A Roman amphora
22464-555: The Indian army. In 1766, the British troops were completely routed by the sanyasi s and fakir s or the warrior monks at Dinhata , where the latter resorted guerrilla warfare . Bankim Chandra 's Anandamath is based on the Famine and consequential Sannyasi Rebellion . According to author James Jeremiah Novak, as British rulers took power from Bengal's ruling Muslim class, they strategically catered to Bengali Hindus (a majority in Bengal region at that time). The British rule destroyed
22672-411: The Indian state of Assam . The region is famous for its fertile land terrain, many rivers, extensive tea plantations, rainforests and wetlands. The Brahmaputra and Barak river are the geographic markers of the area. The city of Sylhet is its largest urban centre, and the region is known for its unique regional Sylheti language . The ancient name of the region is Srihatta and Nasratshahi. The region
22880-611: The Leftist organisation Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) claimed that there are around 2 million Hindu Bangladeshis in Assam who would become Indian citizens if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is passed. BJP, however claimed that only eight lakh Hindu Bangladeshis will get citizenship. The number of Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh in Barak Valley has varied estimates. According to the Assam government, 1.3 lakh such people residing in
23088-673: The Maharajahs of Tripura much before Indian independence . Since the partition of India, many Bengali Hindus have migrated to Tripura as refugees fleeing religious persecution in Muslim-majority East Pakistan, especially after 1949 and this is primarily attributed by the immigration of 610,000 Bengalis — the figure almost equal to the State's total population in 1951 — from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) between 1947 and 1951. Settlement by Hindu Bengalis increased during
23296-593: The Mauryans and the Gupta Empire . The region was a centre of artistic, political, social, spiritual and scientific thinking, including the invention of chess , Indian numerals , and the concept of zero . The region was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Gangaridai . The Greek ambassador Megasthenes chronicled its military strength and dominance of the Ganges delta . The invasion army of Alexander
23504-426: The Mughal emperor. The wealth of Bengal was vital for the Mughal court because Delhi received its biggest share of revenue from the Nawab's court. The Nawabs presided over a period of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity, including an era of growing organisation in textiles, banking, a military-industrial complex, the production of fine quality handicrafts , and other trades. A process of proto-industrialisation
23712-581: The Mughals in 1666. In the 18th-century, the Mughal Court rapidly disintegrated due to Nader Shah's invasion and internal rebellions, allowing European colonial powers to set up trading posts across the territory. The British East India Company eventually emerged as the foremost military power in the region; and defeated the last independent Nawab of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The British East India Company began influencing and controlling
23920-593: The Pala and Sena period came to a halt after the Turkish conquest in the early 13th century. Except for Haridas Datta's Manasar Bhasan no significant literary work was composed for about a century after the conquest. Even though the ruling classes resisted the invaders, Gauda, the centre of Bengal polity, fell to the Islamic invaders. During this period hundreds of temples and monasteries were desecrated. The next attack on
24128-466: The Partition in 1911. The Raj, however, carried out some restructuring, and carved out Bengali Hindu majority districts like Manbhum , Singbhum, Santal Pargana and Purnia awarding them to Bihar and others like Cachar that were awarded to Assam , which effectively made the Bengali Hindus a minority in the united province of Bengal. The Britishers also transferred the capital from Calcutta to New Delhi. The revolutionary movement gained momentum after
24336-815: The Partition. Bengali revolutionaries collaborated with the Germans during the War to liberate British India . Later the revolutionaries defeated the British army in the Battle of Jalalabad and liberated Chittagong . During the Quit India Movement , the revolutionaries liberated the Tamluk and Contai subdivision of Midnapore district from British rule and established the Tamralipta National Government. The British, unable to control
24544-543: The Pujas. Bengali language Bengali , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ), is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024, Bengali is the fifth most spoken native language and
24752-544: The Straits of Malacca in the east to the Khyber Pass in the west. In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, administrative reorganisation drastically reduced the territory of Bengal. Several regions bordering Bengal proper continue to have high levels of Bengali influence. The Indian state of Tripura has a Bengali majority population. Bengali influence is also prevalent in the Indian regions of Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar and
24960-464: The advent of British rule. The Chittagonian language , a sister of Bengali is prevalent in coastal areas of southeast Bengal. Along with its Bengali population, it is also home to Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups, including the Chakma , Marma , Tanchangya and Bawm peoples. Southeast Bengal is considered a bridge to Southeast Asia and the northern parts of Arakan are also historically considered to be
25168-702: The advent of the Iron Age , people in Bengal adopted iron-based weapons, tools and irrigation equipment. From 600 BCE, the second wave of urbanisation engulfed the north Indian subcontinent as part of the Northern Black Polished Ware culture. Ancient archaeological sites and cities in Dihar , Pandu Rajar Dhibi , Mahasthangarh , Chandraketugarh and Wari-Bateshwar emerged. The Ganges , Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers were natural arteries for communication and transportation. Estuaries on
25376-542: The ancient guru-shishya traditions . Major amongst them include the Ramakrishna Mission , Bharat Sevashram Sangha , Bijoy Krishna Goswami , Anukul Thakur , Matua , ISKCON , Gaudiya Mission , Ananda Marga , Ram Thakur etc. The main devis of the Shakta Kalikula tradition are Kali , Chandi , Jagaddhatri , Durga , as well as regional goddesses such as Bishahari and Manasa ,
25584-467: The annual output of Bengal at 223,250 tons, compared with 23,061 tons produced in nineteen colonies in North America from 1769 to 1771. Since the 16th century, European traders traversed the sea routes to Bengal, following the Portuguese conquests of Malacca and Goa. The Portuguese established a settlement in Chittagong with permission from the Bengal Sultanate in 1528 but were later expelled by
25792-521: The bases of Bengali Muslim society. Bengali Hindus got favours from the British rulers, and experienced development in education and social mobility. In the 19th century, the elite class of Bengali Hindu people underwent radical social reforms and rapid modernisation; the phenomenon came to be known as the Bengal Renaissance . Public media like press and theatres became vents of nationalist sentiments, apolitical organisations had given way to political platforms, secret revolutionary societies emerged and
26000-536: The basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh ( Barisal , Chittagong , Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal and western Bangladesh are pronounced as fricatives . Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [ tɕɔ ] , ছ [ tɕʰɔ ] , জ [ dʑɔ ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ] , ছ [tsʰɔ~sɔ] , জ [dzɔ~zɔ] . The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on
26208-712: The body. North Bengal is a term used for the north-western part of Bangladesh and northern part of West Bengal. The Bangladeshi part comprises Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division . Generally, it is the area lying west of Jamuna River and north of Padma River , and includes the Barind Tract . Politically, West Bengal's part comprises Jalpaiguri Division and most of Malda division (except Murshidabad district ) together and Bihar's parts include Kishanganj district . Darjeeling Hilly are also part of North Bengal. The people of Jaipaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar usually identify themselves as North Bengali. North Bengal
26416-453: The census in 1881, 12.81 per cent of Bengali Hindus belonged to the three upper castes while the rest belonged to the Shudra and Dalit castes, while a 2020 Deccan Herald publication puts the percentage of the upper castes ( Brahmins , Kayasthas and Vaidyas ) at 15 to 18 per cent of the Hindu population. Around the 8th century, the Bengali language branched off from Magadhi Prakrit ,
26624-549: The city with the highest per capita income level in British India, the region is today a leader in South Asia in terms of gender parity , the gender pay gap and other indices of human development . The name of Bengal is derived from the ancient kingdom of Vanga (pronounced Bôngô), the earliest records of which date back to the Mahabharata epic in the first millennium BCE . The reference to 'Vangalam'
26832-473: The coastline comprises a marshy jungle , the Sundarbans , the largest mangrove forest in the world and home to diverse flora and fauna, including the royal Bengal tiger . In 1997, this region was declared endangered. West Bengal is on the eastern bottleneck of India, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. The state has a total area of 88,752 km (34,267 sq mi). The Darjeeling Himalayan hill region in
27040-469: The consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a few visual formulas to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in
27248-409: The consumption of meat is often avoided in diets due to the Hindu principle of ahimsa which prohibits meat consumption. However, Bengali Hindus adore eating meat of goat , chicken , duck and lamb . Most of the Hindus refrain from eating beef. Meat, especially beef is readily consumed in Bangladesh and where it is considered the meal's main course and the Fish curry (or Machher Jhol ) with rice
27456-455: The country. In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam . Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. In Pakistan , Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi mainly spoken by stranded Bengalis of Pakistan . The Department of Bengali in
27664-475: The deltaic region between Bhagirathi , Padma and Madhumati , but later on extended to include the regions which now roughly comprise Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . In India, they tend to identify themselves as Bengalis while in Bangladesh they tend to identify themselves as Hindus . In the global context, the terms Indian Bengali and Bangladeshi Hindu are respectively used. In India, Bengali generally refers to Bengali Hindus, excluding
27872-430: The development of Dobhashi . Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah . Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian , which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on
28080-439: The early modern period, and especially after the first paper mill was set up in 1809. During the rise of nationalism in the early 20th century, the Bengali Hindus pioneered the Bengal school of art . It provided the artistic medium of expression to the Hindu nationalist movement . Though the Bengal school later gave way to modernist ideas, it left an enduring legacy. In the post-liberalisation phase of India, modern art acquired
28288-403: The east of the river. The Hindus are constituted into various ethno-linguistic subgroups, which in spite of being culturally diverse, share a common bond of unity. The word Bengali is derived from the Bengali word bangali . The English word Bengali denoting the people as well as the language is derived from the English word Bengal denoting the region, which itself is derived ultimately from
28496-410: The east to Meherpur in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam , composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet . After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan ; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement. In
28704-443: The eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages , the Bihari languages , and the Odia language . The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around
28912-400: The eastern wing of Pakistan, although the historic Bengali capitals of Gaur , Pandua , Murshidabad and Calcutta fell on the Indian side close to the border with Pakistan. Dhaka's status as a capital was also restored. Most of the Bengal region lies in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta , but there are highlands in its north, northeast and southeast. The Ganges Delta arises from the confluence of
29120-410: The elevated Madhupur tract with a large Sal tree forest . The Padma River cuts through the southern part of the region, separating the greater Faridpur region. In the north lies the greater Mymensingh and Tangail regions. South Bengal covers the southwestern Bangladesh and the southern part of the Indian state of West Bengal.The Bangladeshi part includes Khulna Division , Barisal Division and
29328-451: The emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement. Although Sanskrit has been spoken by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the 3rd century BC, the local Buddhist population spoke varieties of the Prakrit . These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit ", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji , as
29536-423: The fifties and sixties, especially as a results of the 1950 East Pakistan riots , which led to the migration of 4.5 million Hindus to India, according to one estimate. The 1964 East-Pakistan riots caused an estimated 135,000 Hindus to migrate to India. The massacre of East Pakistanis in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 led to exodus of millions of Hindus to India. The Hindus are a religious group, native to
29744-466: The final ন in মন [m o n] or the medial ম in গামলা [ɡamla] ). A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent [ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures . These allographs, called কার kar , are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example,
29952-459: The first Muslim army enter Nepal and stretched from Varanasi in the west to Orissa in the south to Assam in the east. The Delhi army continued to fend off the new Bengali army. The Bengal-Delhi War ended in 1359 when Delhi recognised the independence of Bengal. Ilyas Shah's son Sikandar Shah defeated Delhi Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq during the Siege of Ekdala Fort. A subsequent peace treaty recognised Bengal's independence and Sikandar Shah
30160-423: The forest with his followers. The overthrow of the Sena king has been described as a coup d'état, which "inaugurated an era, lasting over five centuries, during which most of Bengal was dominated by rulers professing the Islamic faith. In itself this was not exceptional, since from about this time until the eighteenth century, Muslim sovereigns ruled over most of the Indian subcontinent. What was exceptional, however,
30368-403: The fullest height of their stature, a land that will truly be plentiful. It will be rich in agriculture, rich in industry and commerce and in course of time it will be one of the powerful and progressive states of the world. If Bengal remains united this will be no dream, no fantasy". On 2 June 1947, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee told the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom that there
30576-606: The government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002. In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations . Regional varieties in spoken Bengali constitute a dialect continuum . Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters: Rarhi , Vangiya , Kamrupi and Varendri ; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects ( Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form
30784-429: The government to stop the mayhem. Later in the year, the Muslim League government orchestrated the infamous Noakhali genocide . After the failure of the United Bengal plan, it became evident that either all of Bengal would go to Pakistan, or it would be partitioned between India and Pakistan. Direct Action Day and the Noakhali genocide prompted the Bengali Hindu leadership to vote for the Partition of Bengal to create
30992-499: The graph মি [mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i] , where [i] is represented as the diacritical allograph ি (called ই-কার i-kar ) and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma] , মী [mi] , মু [mu] , মূ [mu] , মৃ [mri] , মে [me~mɛ] , মৈ [moj] , মো [mo] and মৌ [mow] represent the same consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures,
31200-412: The graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden. Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke । daṛi –
31408-414: The imperial family were appointed to positions in Mughal Bengal, including the position of governor ( subedar ). Dhaka became a centre of palace intrigue and politics. Some of the most prominent governors included Rajput general Man Singh I , Emperor Shah Jahan 's son Prince Shah Shuja , Emperor Aurangzeb 's son and later Mughal emperor Azam Shah , and the influential aristocrat Shaista Khan . During
31616-477: The international borders – three new states came into existence on 21 January 1972: Meghalaya, Manipur, and Tripura. Before independence, most of the population was indigenous. In Tripura , now Bengali Hindus form a clear majority due to immigration from neighbouring East Pakistan during 1947 and 1971 and as a result Tripura has become a Bengali dominant state with Bangla as its official language along with Kokborok and English. Bengali Hindus comprise nearly 60% of
31824-400: The introduction of British rule and appearance of urban civilisation, the former rural agrarian and artisan economy gradually crumbled and gave way to modern middle class economy. However, agriculture, land tenure, farming and fishing form the predominant economic activity in most of the rural area till now. The proper Bengali literary history begins with the early Vaishnava literature like
32032-413: The language as: While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh, such as the Midnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However,
32240-429: The language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in
32448-436: The last Prime Minister of Bengal Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy held a press conference in New Delhi where he outlined his vision for an independent Bengal. Suhrawardy said "Let us pause for a moment to consider what Bengal can be if it remains united. It will be a great country, indeed the richest and the most prosperous in India capable of giving to its people a high standard of living, where a great people will be able to rise to
32656-423: The leading Bengali Hindu landholders , lawyers and professionals signed the Bengal Hindu Manifesto on 23 April 1932 rejecting the justification of reservation of separate electorates for Muslims in the Bengal Legislative Assembly. They joined hands with Sikhs and non-Bengali Hindus in attacking Muslims and ultimately it turned out to be a violent reprisal that resulted in heavy casualties of Muslims, finally forcing
32864-428: The letter ত tô and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra , as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e , also the letter হ hô and Bengali Ôbogroho ঽ (~ô) and letter ও o and consonant cluster ত্ত ttô . The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between
33072-493: The main successor of the Palas by the 11th century. The Senas were a resurgent Hindu dynasty which ruled much of Bengal. The smaller Deva dynasty also ruled parts of the region. Ancient Chinese visitors like Xuanzang provided elaborate accounts of Bengal's cities and monastic institutions. Muslim trade with Bengal flourished after the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the Arab takeover of Persian trade routes. Much of this trade occurred with southeastern Bengal in areas east of
33280-473: The medieval period, several castes were boycotted by the ruling classes from time to time and this isolation continued till the 19th century. These social boycotts were somewhat discriminatory in nature. After the Renaissance , the rigidity of the caste system ceased to a great extent, so much so that the first celebrated intercaste marriage took place as early as in 1925. The Bengali Hindu families are patriarchal as well as patrilocal and traditionally follow
33488-421: The neighbouring states of Odisha , Bihar , and Jharkhand , and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi , Mumbai , Thane , Varanasi , and Vrindavan . There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East , the United States , Singapore , Malaysia , Australia , Canada , the United Kingdom , and Italy . The 3rd article of
33696-425: The northern extreme of the state belongs to the eastern Himalaya. This region contains Sandakfu (3,636 m (11,929 ft))—the highest peak of the state. The narrow Terai region separates this region from the plains, which in turn transitions into the Ganges delta towards the south. The Rarh region intervenes between the Ganges delta in the east and the western plateau and high lands . A small coastal region
33904-419: The ones who had significant landed property and believed that they will be able to live peacefully in an Islamic state. However, after the genocide of 1950 , Bengali Hindus fled East Bengal in thousands and settled in West Bengal. In 1964, tens of thousands of Bengali Hindus were massacred in East Pakistan and most of the Bengali Hindu owned businesses and properties of Dhaka were permanently destroyed. During
34112-469: The parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language. As of January 2023, no further action has been yet taken on this matter. However, in 2022, the UN did adopt Bangla as an unofficial language, after a resolution tabled by India. In 2024, the government of India conferred Bengali with the status of classical language . Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming
34320-406: The percentage of Bengali speakers ranges from 38%–40%. The non-tribal population of Tripura, the mostly Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims, constitute more than two-thirds of the state's population. The resident and the migrant Bengali population benefitted from the culture and language of the royal house of Tripura thanks to embracement of Hinduism and adoption of Bengali as the state language by
34528-444: The professional classes and have migrated through education and employment. Former Cricketer Isa Guha and Rhona Mitra are prominent descendants of the Bengali Hindu diaspora . Bengali cuisine is mainly influenced by the diet habits similar to the Hindus and includes a very large variety of sweets and dishes. The Bengali sweets includes desserts made by milk, includes Rasgulla , Sandesh , Cham cham , etc. In Hinduism ,
34736-471: The proposed Faridpur Division The part of South Bengal of West Bengal includes Presidency division , Burdwan division and Medinipur division . The Sundarbans , a major biodiversity hotspot , is located in South Bengal. Bangladesh hosts 60% of the forest, with the remainder in India. Southeast Bengal refers to the hilly-coastal Chittagonian -speaking and coastal Bengali-speaking areas of Chittagong Division in southeastern Bangladesh. The region
34944-401: The rebellion led to the abolition of the Company Rule in India and establishment of direct rule over India by the British, commonly referred to as the British Raj . The late 19th and early 20th century Bengal Renaissance had a great impact on the cultural and economic life of Bengal and started a great advance in the literature and science of Bengal. Between 1905 and 1911, an abortive attempt
35152-411: The region as Bengala in the Age of Discovery . Neolithic sites have been found in several parts of the region. In the second millennium BCE, rice-cultivating communities dotted the region. By the eleventh century BCE, people in Bengal lived in systematically aligned homes, produced copper objects, and crafted black and red pottery. Remnants of Copper Age settlements are located in the region. At
35360-435: The revolutionary activities, decided to hinder the Bengali Hindu people through administrative reforms. The Government of India Act 1919 introduced in the 144 member Bengal Legislative Assembly, 46 seats for the Muslims, 59 for the institutions, Europeans & others and left the rest 39 as General, where the Bengali Hindus were to scramble for a representation. The situation worsened with the Communal Award of 1932, where in
35568-470: The riot). The fourth patches numbering around 347,555 have just arrived after Bangladesh liberation war of 1971 as refugees and most of them being Bengali speaking Hindus have decided to stay back in Assam permanently afterwards. Bengali Hindus are now the third largest community in Assam after Assamese people and Bengali Muslims with a population of 6,022,677 (million), comprising (19.3%) of state population as of 2011 census. They are highly concentrated in
35776-432: The rivers Ganges , Brahmaputra , and Meghna rivers and their respective tributaries. The total area of Bengal is 237,212 square kilometres (91,588 sq mi)—West Bengal is 88,752 km (34,267 sq mi) and Bangladesh 148,460 km (57,321 sq mi). The flat and fertile Bangladesh Plain dominates the geography of Bangladesh . The Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet region are home to most of
35984-404: The ruler of Satgaon, Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah , unified the region into an independent state. Ilyas Shah established his capital in Pandua . The new breakaway state emerged as the Bengal Sultanate , which developed into a territorial, mercantile and maritime empire. At the time, the Islamic world stretched from Muslim Spain in the west to Bengal in the east. The initial raids of Ilyas Shah saw
36192-426: The same script as the Bengali language. The Barak Valley has a Bengali-speaking majority population. During the Partition of India , Assam was also partitioned along with Bengal. The Sylhet Division joined East Bengal in Pakistan, with the exception of Karimganj which joined Indian Assam. Previously, East Bengal and Assam were part of a single province called Eastern Bengal and Assam between 1905 and 1912 under
36400-502: The secondary education curriculum. On 19 May 1961, eleven Bengali protesters were killed by Assamese police fired on a demonstration at the Silchar railway station . Subsequently, the Assam government allowed Bengali as the medium of education and held it as an official position in Barak Valley. The United Liberation Front of Asom , National Democratic Front of Bodoland , Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam and National Liberation Front of Tripura militants have selectively targeted
36608-465: The semi-independent Bengali Hindu kingdoms outside the pale of Muslim occupied Bengal. In some cases, even when their rulers have been captured or killed, the ordinary people began to carry on the fight. These resistances took the form of Chuar ( Chuar is a derogatory term used by the Britishers and local zamindars to denote the Bhumij peoples ) and Paik Rebellion . These warring people were later listed as criminal tribes and barred from recruitment in
36816-472: The severe taxation and frequent Maratha raids made the life miserable for the ordinary Bengali Hindus. A section of the Bengali Hindu nobility helped the British East India Company in overthrowing the Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah regime. After obtaining the revenue rights, the East India Company imposed more oppressive taxation. In the famine of 1770, approximately one third of the Bengali population died. The British began to face stiff resistance in conquering
37024-407: The snake goddesses, Shashthi , the protectress of children, Shitala , the smallpox goddess, Annapurna and Umā (the Bengali name for Parvati ). According to a famous Bengali proverb, there are thirteen festivals in twelve months ( Bengali : বারো মাসে তেরো পার্বণ , romanized : Bārō māsē tērō pārbaṇa ). Bengali Hindus celebrate all major Indian festivals. The year begins with
37232-427: The so-called "inherent" vowel [ɔ] is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant sign ম [mɔ] . The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent
37440-414: The society at large became restive. With rising nationalism among Bengalis, the British rulers applied divide and rule policy, and started to make favours to Bengali Muslims. To keep the rising Bengali Hindu aspirations at bay, the British partitioned the province in 1905 and along with some additional restructuring came up with two provinces – Eastern Bengal & Assam and Bengal itself, in each of which
37648-440: The society came from the Islamic missionaries . Local chieftains like Akananda , Dakshin Ray and Mukut Ray, resisted the missionary activities. During the Pathan occupation of Bengal, some regions were held in sway by different Bengali Hindu rulers. Islam religion gradually spread throughout the Bengal region, and many Bengali Hindus converted to Islam. When the Delhi-based Mughals tried to bring Bengal under their direct rule,
37856-623: The state population which is around 2.2 million whereas native Tripuris are 30% of the state population which is around 1.2 million as of 2011 census. There is also a significant number of Bengali Hindus residing in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands , estimated approximately 100,000 comprising 26%–28% of the population. Bengali is also the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, despite it lacking official status. The Bengali Hindus in Myanmar are present from long back historical times, when they were brought from Bengal region to Arakan region by many Arakanese kings , especially
38064-536: The superposed chôndrôbindu (ঁ) , denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in চাঁদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed ônusbar (ং) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed bisôrgô (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in দুঃখ [dukʰːɔ] "sorrow"). The Bengali consonant clusters ( যুক্তব্যঞ্জন juktôbênjôn ) are usually realised as ligatures, where
38272-447: The tenure of Shaista Khan, the Portuguese and Arakanese were expelled from the port of Chittagong in 1666. Bengal became the eastern frontier of the Mughal administration. By the 18th century, Bengal became home to a semi-independent aristocracy led by the Nawabs of Bengal . Bengal premier Murshid Quli Khan managed to curtail the influence of the governor due to his rivalry with Prince Azam Shah. Khan controlled Bengal's finances since he
38480-474: The third place, according to the 2011 census of India . Bengali has developed over more than 1,400 years. Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history, was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to
38688-412: The travels and preachings of Atisa . The university of Nalanda was established by the Palas. They also built the Somapura Mahavihara , which was the largest monastic institution in the subcontinent. The rule of the Palas eventually disintegrated. The Chandra dynasty ruled southeastern Bengal and Arakan . The Varman dynasty ruled parts of northeastern Bengal and Assam . The Sena dynasty emerged as
38896-484: The visible matra and an invisible baseline). There is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem. Throughout history, there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on
39104-435: The vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit ( tadbhava ), whereas Hindus are more likely to use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example: The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels . The inventory
39312-407: Was a "distinct possibility Bengal might decide against partition and against joining either Hindustan or Pakistan". On 3 June 1947, the Mountbatten Plan outlined the partition of British India . On 20 June, the Bengal Legislative Assembly met to decide on the partition of Bengal. At the preliminary joint meeting, it was decided (126 votes to 90) that if the province remained united, it should join
39520-419: Was also mounted by Bakhtiyar. Bengal was under the formal rule of the Delhi Sultanate for approximately 150 years. Delhi struggled to consolidate control over Bengal. Rebel governors often sought to assert autonomy or independence. Sultan Iltutmish re-established control over Bengal in 1225 after suppressing the rebels. Due to the considerable overland distance, Delhi's authority in Bengal was relatively weak. It
39728-404: Was also shipped to Europe, opium was sold in Indonesia , raw silk was exported to Japan and the Netherlands, cotton and silk textiles were exported to Europe, Indonesia, and Japan, cotton cloth was exported to the Americas and the Indian Ocean. Bengal also had a large shipbuilding industry. In terms of shipbuilding tonnage during the 16th–18th centuries, economic historian Indrajit Ray estimates
39936-599: Was also strong in Bengal, which was home to groups like the Hindu Mahasabha . In spite of a last-ditch effort by politicians Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy , Sarat Chandra Bose to form a United Bengal , when India gained independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned along religious lines. The western joined India (and was named West Bengal) while the eastern part joined Pakistan as a province called East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan , giving rise to Bangladesh in 1971). The circumstances of partition were bloody, with widespread religious riots in Bengal. On 27 April 1947,
40144-454: Was an administrative order instructing relief for a distressed segment of the population. Punch-marked coins found in the region indicate that coins were used as currency during the Iron Age. The namesake of Bengal is the ancient Vanga Kingdom which was reputed as a naval power with overseas colonies. A prince from Bengal named Vijaya founded the first kingdom in Sri Lanka . The two most prominent pan-Indian empires of this period included
40352-448: Was created in 1947 as an act of Bengali Hindu Homeland Movement to save guard the political, economical, cultural, religious, demographic and land owning rights of Bengali Hindus of undivided Bengal region and as a result predominantly Hindu majority West Bengal became a part of Indian union. The vast majority of Hindus in West Bengal are Bengali Hindus numbering around 5.5 crore out of the total estimated state population of 10 crore, but
40560-439: Was defeated in 1757 at the Battle of Plassey by the East India Company . The company's Bengal Presidency grew into the largest administrative unit of British India with Calcutta as the capital of both Bengal and India until 1911. As a result of the first partition of Bengal , a short-lived province called Eastern Bengal and Assam existed between 1905 and 1911 with its capital in the former Mughal capital Dhaka . Following
40768-471: Was found in Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal which was made in Aelana (present-day Aqaba, Jordan ) between the 4th and 7th centuries AD. The first unified Bengali polity can be traced to the reign of Shashanka . The origins of the Bengali calendar can be traced to his reign. Shashanka founded the Gauda Kingdom . After Shashanka's death, Bengal experienced a period of civil war known as Matsyanyayam. The ancient city of Gauda later gave birth to
40976-490: Was founded. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote commentaries on Krishna Charita, Dharmattatva, Bhagavad Gita . The literary development during the Renaissance culminated in Tagore's Nobel prize for literature. In the Post-Partition period, the Bengali Hindus pioneered the Hungry generation , Natun Kabita and the little magazine movements. Of late, some of them have made their mark in contemporary English literature. The Kalighat school of painting flourished in Bengal in
41184-452: Was gifted a golden crown by the Sultan of Delhi. The ruler of Arakan sought refuge in Bengal during the reign of Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah . Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah later helped the Arakanese king to regain control of his throne in exchange for becoming a tributary state of the Bengal Sultanate. Bengali influence in Arakan persisted for 300 years. Bengal also helped the king of Tripura to regain control of his throne in exchange for becoming
41392-427: Was in charge of the treasury. He shifted the provincial capital from Dhaka to Murshidabad . In 1717, the Mughal court in Delhi recognised the hereditary monarchy of the Nawab of Bengal. The ruler was officially titled as the "Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa ", as the Nawab ruled over the three regions in the eastern subcontinent. The Nawabs began issuing their own coins but continued to pledge nominal allegiance to
41600-413: Was left to local governors to expand territory and bring new areas under Muslim rule, such as through the Conquest of Sylhet in 1303. In 1338, new rebellions sprung up in Bengal's three main towns. Governors in Lakhnauti, Satgaon and Sonargaon declared independence from Delhi. This allowed the ruler of Sonargaon, Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah , to annexe Chittagong to the Islamic administration. By 1352,
41808-460: Was made to divide the province of Bengal into two: Bengal proper and the short-lived province of Eastern Bengal and Assam where the All India Muslim League was founded. In 1911, the Bengali poet and polymath Rabindranath Tagore became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the Nobel Prize in Literature . Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement , in which revolutionary groups were dominant. Armed attempts to overthrow
42016-514: Was manifested in many spheres of life, most notably in the support for the football clubs of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan respectively. Several such differences have eased with passing years. 20,000-year-old stone weapons including small axes, potteries and charcoal remains have been unearthed from Chandthakurer Danga in Haatpara mouza, 8 km northeast of Sagardighi in Murshidabad . Microliths dating to 10000 BC has been excavated from Birbhanpur, situated in Paschim Bardhaman district on
42224-419: Was recounted by historians circa 1243. Lakhnauti was the capital of the Sena dynasty. According to historical accounts, Ghurid cavalry swept across the Gangetic plains towards Bengal. They entered the Bengali capital disguised as horse traders. Once inside the royal compound, Bakhtiyar and his horsemen swiftly overpowered the guards of the Sena king who had just sat down to eat a meal. The king then hastily fled to
42432-485: Was ruled by kings who adopted Indian titles and traditions to suit their own environment. Indian Brahmins conducted royal ceremonies, Buddhist monks spread their teachings, traders came and went and artists and architects used Indian models for inspiration. In the later period, there was also influence from the Islamic courts of Bengal and Delhi". Arakan emerged as a vassal state of the Bengal Sultanate . It later became an independent kingdom. The royal court and culture of
42640-408: Was ruled by the Kamarupa and Harikela kingdoms as well as the Bengal Sultanate . It later became a district of the Mughal Empire . Alongside the predominant Bengali population resides a small Garo , Bishnupriya Manipuri , Khasia and other tribal minorities. The region is the crossroads of Bengal and northeast India . Central Bengal refers to the Dhaka Division of Bangladesh. It includes
42848-416: Was run by a military-civil administration, including the Bengal Army , and had the world's sixth earliest railway network. Between 1833 and 1854, the Governor of Bengal was concurrently the Governor-General of India for many years. Great Bengal famines struck several times during colonial rule (notably the Great Bengal famine of 1770 and Bengal famine of 1943 ). Under British rule, Bengal experienced
43056-431: Was that among India's interior provinces only in Bengal—a region approximately the size of England and Scotland combined—did a majority of the indigenous population adopt the religion of the ruling class, Islam". Bengal became a province of the Delhi Sultanate . A coin featuring a horseman was issued to celebrate the Muslim conquest of Lakhnauti with inscriptions in Sanskrit and Arabic. An abortive Islamic invasion of Tibet
43264-420: Was underway. Under the Nawabs, the streets of Bengali cities were filled with brokers, workers, peons, naibs, wakils, and ordinary traders. The Nawab's state was a major exporter of Bengal muslin , silk, gunpowder and saltpetre . The Nawabs also permitted European trading companies to operate in Bengal, including the British East India Company , the French East India Company , the Danish East India Company ,
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