179-554: Sylhet ( Bengali : সিলেট IPA: [sileʈ] ; Sylheti : ꠍꠤꠟꠐ ) is a metropolitan city located in the northeastern region of Bangladesh . It is the administrative center of Sylhet Division and is situated on the banks of the Surma River . Sylhet is the fifth-largest city in Bangladesh, with a population of around 530,000 people in 2022. Sylhet is known for its tea plantations and natural beauty. The city has
358-408: A humid subtropical climate ( Cwa ) at higher elevations. The rainy season runs from April to October, and is generally hot and humid with heavy showers and thunderstorms almost every day. The shorter dry season runs from November to February, with very warm and fairly clear weather. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of 4,200 millimetres (170 in) occurs between May and September. The city
537-623: A referendum and the partition of British India , Sylhet became part of East Pakistan. In 1995, the Government of Bangladesh declared Sylhet as the sixth divisional headquarters of the country. Sylhet has played a vital role in the Economy of Bangladesh . Several of Bangladesh's finance ministers have been members of parliament from the city of Sylhet. Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran was a longtime mayor of Sylhet. Humayun Rashid Choudhury ,
716-661: A relay station headquartered in the Kazitula neighborhood. From 2000 to 2002, privately owned Ekushey Television broadcast terrestrially on VHF channel 11 in Sylhet. Cricket is the most popular sport in Sylhet. The Bangladesh Premier League franchise Sylhet Strikers are based in Sylhet International Cricket Stadium (M.A.G. Osmani Stadium), which was built in 2007 and has a capacity of 18,500 spectators. The Sylhet International Cricket Stadium
895-542: A "Major Port" of British India. Chittagong's port was used by Allied Forces of World War II during the Burma Campaign . The Port of Calcutta was the largest seaport of British India. The port was constructed by the British East India Company. It was one of the busiest ports in the world during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Calcutta was a major trading port with links to ports across
1074-542: A BPML government under Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin as prime minister was formed. Nazimuddin's tenure coincided with the Bengal famine of 1943. His government was replaced by Governor's rule . After the end of World War II, elections were held in 1946 in which the BPML won an overwhelming majority of 113 seats in the 250-seat assembly. A government under Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was formed. Prime Minister Suhrawardy continued with
1253-500: 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
1432-537: 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
1611-480: 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
1790-826: A diplomat from Sylhet, served as President of the UN General Assembly and Speaker of the Bangladesh National Parliament . In 2001, the municipality was upgraded to the Sylhet City Corporation . It was made a metropolitan city in 2009. Sylhet is located in the northeastern region of Bangladesh within the Sylhet Division, the Sylhet District, and Sylhet Sadar Upazila. Sylhet has a typical Bangladeshi tropical monsoon climate ( Köppen Am ) bordering on
1969-866: A founder of the BPML who later broke away to form the Krishak Praja Party, was elected as parliamentary leader and prime minister. Huq pursued a policy of Hindu–Muslim unity . His cabinet included leading Hindu and Muslim figures, including Nalini Ranjan Sarkar (finance), Bijoy Prasad Singha Roy (revenue), Maharaja Srish Chandra Nandy (communications and public works), Prasanna Deb Raikut (forest and excise), Mukunda Behari Mallick (cooperative credit and rural indebtedness), Sir Khwaja Nazimuddin (home), Nawab Khwaja Habibullah (agriculture and industry), Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (commerce and labour), Nawab Musharraf Hussain (judicial and legislative affairs), and Syed Nausher Ali (public health and local self-government). Huq promoted financial and land reforms with
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#17327722769412148-639: A history dating back to the 14th century and has been ruled by various dynasties and empires, including the Mughals , British , and the Nawabs of Bengal . The city is also home to several important landmarks, such as the Shah Jalal Dargah , which is one of the holiest Islamic sites in Bangladesh and attracts thousands of Muslim pilgrims every year. Sylhet is one of the most economically important cities in Bangladesh after Dhaka and Chittagong . Sylhet
2327-692: 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
2506-410: A lieutenant-governor, and that Assam Province would be reconstituted under a chief commissioner. On 21 March 1912 Thomas Gibson-Carmichael was appointed governor of Bengal. On 22 March the provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and Assam were constituted. The Government of India Act 1919 increased the number of nominated and elected members of the legislative council from 50 to 125, and the franchise
2685-714: A literacy rate of 67.8%. The majority of the population are Bengali Muslims , while significant minority population groups include the Bengali Hindus , Bishnupriya Manipuri and others. Sylheti is spoken by the vast majority of the people, while Standard Bengali is the official language used by the state government and officials. Ethnic minorities are 2,424 (0.45%), of which 2,040 are Manipuri . The majority of people in Sylhet are Muslims (86.5%), while other religious groups include Hindus (13.3%) and less than 0.2% of other religions, mainly Buddhists and Christians . The majority of Muslims in Sylhet are Sunnis who follow
2864-682: 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,
3043-657: A market in land. The former aim misunderstood the nature of landholding in India, and the latter was an abject failure. The Cornwallis Code , while defining the rights of the proprietors, failed to give adequate recognition to the rights of the under-tenants and the cultivators. This remained a serious problem for the duration of British Rule, as throughout the Bengal Presidency ryots (peasants) found themselves oppressed by rack-renting landlords, who knew that every rupee they could squeeze from their tenants over and above
3222-646: A part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali. Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency , officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal , later the Bengal Province , was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule and later a province of India . At
3401-657: A partial list of notable colleges, universities and learned societies in the Bengal Presidency. Mughal Bengal was a major exporter of raw silk, cotton, and rice. With its proto-industrial economy, Bengal contributed to the first Industrial Revolution in Britain (particularly in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution ). After 1757, the British placed Bengal under company rule (which led to Bengali deindustrialization ). Other European powers in
3580-401: A population of 532,839. 15.93% of the population was under 10 years of age. Sylhet had a literacy rate of 84.57% for those 7 years and older and a sex ratio of 107.51 males per 100 females. As of the 2011 Bangladesh census , Sylhet has a population of 485,138. The population growth rate of the city is 1.73%, a decrease from 1.93% in 1991. Sylhet has a sex ratio of 861 females to 1000 males and
3759-461: A result. Sylhet also relies on religious tourism , with thousands of devotees visiting its Sufi shrines annually, as well as ecotourism in its broader natural hinterland. Nature resorts have been built in the city's outskirts. Several important Bangladeshi companies are based in Sylhet, including Jalalabad Gas Transmission and Distribution, Sylhet Gas Fields and Alim Industries . Biman Bangladesh Airlines operates several flights from Sylhet to
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#17327722769413938-576: 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
4117-653: A separate meeting and resolved to partition the province and join the Indian union. Most East Bengali legislators favored an undivided Bengal. The Bengal Assembly was divided into the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and East Bengal Legislative Assembly during the Partition of British India. English common law was applied to Bengal. Local legislation was enacted by the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly. Case law
4296-457: A similar arrangement with a lieutenant-governor of Bengal. All four provinces, i.e., North-Western Provinces, Bengal Presidency, Madras Presidency and Bombay Presidency were equal in status and independent of each other, subordinate only to the government of India. New conquests in Punjab (1849), Burma (1826) and Oudh (1856) were constituted as Chief Commissioner's Provinces directly administered by
4475-408: 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
4654-581: 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,
4833-479: A trade area into an occupied territory under a military-civil government, while the formation of a regularised system of legislation was brought in under John Shore . Acting through Lord Cornwallis , then governor-general, he ascertained and defined the rights of the landholders over the soil. These landholders under the previous system had started, for the most part, as collectors of the revenues, and gradually acquired certain prescriptive rights as quasi-proprietors of
5012-596: A trading company in London for the purposes of trade with the East Indies. The governance of the company was placed in the hands of a governor and a 24-member Court of Directors. The corporation became known as the Honourable East India Company (HEIC). It became the most powerful corporation of its time, with control over half of world trade . Edmund Burke described the company as "a state in
5191-463: 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
5370-500: 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
5549-606: Is Sylhet's first college in Bandarbazar area established by Rai Bahadur Raja Girish Chandra Roy named it after his maternal grandfather Murari Chand Roy. Sylhet is twinned with: As of 2009, Sylhet has friendly relations with: The friendship link with St Albans was established in 1988, when the St Albans' district council supported a housing project in Sylhet as part of the International Year of Shelter for
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5728-468: 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
5907-430: Is a major commercial and financial center, and it is home to several multinational companies and industries, including the tea industry, which generates a significant amount of revenue for the city. The city has a diverse population, with native Sylhetis , Bengalis , Manipur & Tripuris , and other ethnic groups. The official language of Sylhet is Standard Bengali , and Sylheti is the most spoken language. English
6086-520: 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
6265-400: 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
6444-707: 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 ,
6623-666: 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
6802-404: 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
6981-408: Is known for its distinct flavors and aromatic dishes. Popular delicacies in the city include pitha (rice cakes), shorshe ilish (hilsa fish in mustard sauce), shatkora beef, and doi chira (flattened rice with yogurt). The region's love for tea is evident in its numerous tea gardens and the consumption of "seven-layer tea," a unique layered beverage. State-owned Bangladesh Television operates
7160-428: Is located within a topographically distinctive region of Bangladesh characterized by dramatic hills and basins. The physiography of Sylhet consists mainly of hill soils and encompasses a few large depressions known locally as " beels ," which are frequently oxbow lakes caused by tectonic subsidence during the earthquake of 1762 . Geologically, the region is complex and diverse; higher-elevation regions date partly to
7339-460: Is responsible for the services that are provided within the city which includes traffic, roads, garbage collection, water supply, registrations and many others. The corporation consists of the Mayor and 22 other commissioners, and focuses on the development of the city. Sylhet is divided into 6 metropolitan thanas (police stations), 42 wards, and 1224 mahallas. Sylhet is strategically important for
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7518-490: 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
7697-405: Is the fifth most spoken native language and 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
7876-686: Is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and 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
8055-597: Is widely spoken and understood because people from Sylhet form a significant portion of the Bangladeshi diaspora , particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. According to The Daily Star , about 95% of Bangladeshi population in the UK comes from the Sylhet district. Sylhet has diverse transport infrastructure, with a modern airport, railway station, and bus terminals that connect it to other parts of
8234-509: 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
8413-615: 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
8592-871: The Bangladesh Armed Forces . The Bangladesh Army 's 17th Infantry Division is based at Jalalabad Cantonment in Sylhet. The cantonment is also home of the School of Infantry and Tactics (SI&T) and the 1st Para-commando Battalion , an elite commando unit of the Bangladesh Army. Sylhet is also home to many hospitals such as the Shahid Shamsuddin Hospital District Hospital, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College , Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College , North East Medical College , and Sylhet Women's Medical College . In 2018, Sylhet Medical University
8771-643: The Battle of Plassey and the Battle of Buxar , and Bengal came under British influence. In 1765, Emperor Shah Alam II granted revenue rights over Bengal to the Company and the judicial rights in 1793. After this, the Bengal province was later merged with the Presidency of Fort William but under the suzerainty of the Emperor until 1835. In 1836, the upper territories of the Bengal Presidency were organised into
8950-570: The Bengal Duars to the British. The British expedition to Tibet took place between 1903 and 1904. It resulted in the Treaty of Lhasa which acknowledged Qing China 's supremacy over Tibet. The United States of America began sending envoys to Fort William in the 18th century. President George Washington nominated Benjamin Joy as the first Consul to Fort William on 19 November 1792. The nomination
9129-473: The Bengal Presidency and later Eastern Bengal and Assam , the town became part of Colonial Assam in 1874. A devastating earthquake demolished almost the entire town on 12 June 1897 following which a modern and European model new town was built on the wreckage. From the beginning of the 20th century, the importance of Sylhet increased with the establishment of the tea industry. In 1947, following
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#17327722769419308-729: The British Empire . At its territorial height in the mid nineteenth century, the Bengal Presidency extended from the Khyber Pass to Singapore. In 1853, the Punjab was separated from the Presidency into a new province. In 1861, the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories of the North-Western Provinces (which was then a division of the Bengal Presidency) were separated from the Presidency and merged with
9487-474: 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
9666-711: The Dutch East India Company , and the Danish East India Company . The Mughal court in Delhi was weakened by Nader Shah 's invasion from Persia (1739) and Ahmed Shah Durrani 's invasion from Afghanistan (1761). While the Bengal Subah suffered a decade of Maratha raids , through bands of Bargir-giri light cavalry, directed to pillage the territory, between 1741 and 1751. In 1742 the Company chooses to spend Rs. 25 thousand on
9845-532: The Government of India Act 1858 . The head of state became the British monarch , who was also given the title of Emperor of India / Empress of India . The monarch was represented through a viceroy. The Viceroy of India was based in the Bengal Presidency until 1911. The Secretary of State for India was also an important official. The Bengal Civil Service managed the provincial government. Modern scholars decry
10024-667: The Hanafi school of jurisprudence. Significant numbers of people also follow Sufi ideals, particularly the teachings of Abdul Latif Fultali . The Sylhet Metropolitan Area is one of Bangladesh's main business centres. Sylhet's economy is closely linked with the Bangladeshi diaspora , especially the British Bangladeshi community. The city receives a significant portion of the country's annual remittances , which have driven growth in real estate and construction. A number of shopping centres, restaurants and hotels have opened as
10203-410: 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
10382-530: 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
10561-473: 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
10740-488: The Nagpur Province to created the Central Provinces . In 1871, Ajmer and Merwara which were also administered as a part of the North-Western Provinces were separated from the Presidency to form the Ajmer-Merwara Province . In 1874, Assam was separated from Bengal. In 1862, Burma became a separate province. The Straits Settlements became a Crown Colony in 1867. In 1877, the North Western Provinces were finally separated from Bengal and merged with Oudh. Thus, by 1877,
10919-421: The Rajputana Agency . Other agencies covered the Chota Nagpur Tributary States and the Orissa Tributary States . Agents were also appointed to deal with tribal chiefs, such as the three tribal kings in the Chittagong Hill Tracts . At the time of the partition of India in 1947, the jurisdiction of the Bengal States Agency included Cooch Behar State and Hill Tipperah . Bengal was strategically important for
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#173277227694111098-433: The Rajshahi Public Library (1884), the Comilla Birchandra Library (1885), the Shah Makhdum Institute Public Library, Rajshahi (1891), the Noakhali Town Hall Public Library (1896), the Prize Memorial Library, Sylhet (1897), the Chittagong Municipality Public Library (1904) and the Varendra Research Library (1910). In 1925, the Great Bengal Library Association was established. Europeans played an important role in modernizing
11277-402: The Sylhet City Corporation . 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
11456-432: 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"
11635-499: 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
11814-557: 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
11993-410: The suzerainty of the British Crown in India. Initially, the Bengal Presidency managed the British government's relations with most princely states in the northern subcontinent, extending from Jammu and Kashmir in the north to Manipur in the northeast. An Agency was often formed to be the liaison between the government and the princely states. The largest of these agencies under Bengal once included
12172-517: The tributary states of Odisha and Chhota Nagpur were not part of Bengal, but British relations with them were managed by its government. The Indian Councils Act 1909 expanded the legislative councils of Bengal and Eastern Bengal and Assam provinces to include up to 50 nominated and elected members, in addition to three ex officio members from the executive council. Bengal's legislative council included 22 nominated members, of which not more than 17 could be officials, and two nominated experts. Of
12351-404: The zamindars . In 1854, four major public libraries were opened, including the Bogra Woodburn Library, the Rangpur Public Library, the Jessore Institute Public Library and the Barisal Public Library. Northbrook Hall was established in 1882 in honor of Governor-General Lord Northbrook . Other libraries built include the Victoria Public Library, Natore (1901), the Sirajganj Public Library (1882),
12530-457: 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
12709-405: The 18 elected members, three were elected by municipalities, five by district and local boards, two by landowners, four by Muslims, two by the tea interest, one by the jute interest, and one by the Commissioners of the Port of Chittagong . The partition of Bengal proved highly controversial, as it resulted in a largely Hindu West Bengal and a largely Muslim East. Serious popular agitation followed
12888-473: The 1946 election, rising Hindu-Muslim divisions across India forced the Bengal Assembly to decide on partition, despite calls for a United Bengal . The Partition of British India in 1947 resulted in the second partition of Bengal on religious grounds into East Bengal (present-day Bangladesh) and West Bengal . In 1599, a Royal Charter was granted by Queen Elizabeth I to allow the creation of
13067-652: 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
13246-667: The 26 elected members, one was elected by the Corporation of Calcutta , six by municipalities, six by district boards, one by the University of Calcutta , five by landholders, four by Muslims, two by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, and one by the Calcutta Trades Association. Eastern Bengal and Assam's legislative council included 22 nominated members, of which not more than 17 be officials and one representing Indian commerce, and two nominated experts. Of
13425-593: 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
13604-560: The Agra Division or North-Western Provinces and administered by a lieutenant-governor within the Presidency. The lower territories were organised into the Bengal Division and put in charge of lieutenant-governor as well in 1853. The office of the governor of the Presidency was abolished and the Presidency existed as only a nominal entity under the dual government of the two lieutenant-governors at Agra and Calcutta. The 1887,
13783-580: The Agra Division was separated from the Presidency and merged with the Oudh province, ending the dual government. In 1912, the governor was restored. In the early 20th century, Bengal emerged as a hotbed of the Indian independence movement and the Bengali Renaissance , as well as education, politics, law, science and the arts . It was home to the largest city in India and the second-largest city in
13962-481: The Armenian Pogose School . Each district of Bengal had a district school , which were the leading secondary institutions. Due to Calcutta being the colonial capital, the city had a large concentration of educational institutions. It was followed by Dacca, which served as a provincial capital between 1905 and 1912. Libraries were established in each district of Bengal by the colonial government and
14141-641: The Awami League. The present foreign affairs minister DR. A K Abdul Momen , who is the younger brother of Abdul Muhith, currently represents the Sylhet-1 seat in parliament. Sylhet has high rates of electricity and water shortages. According to the Power Development Board, as of 2009, Sylhet was only receiving 50 MW , half of the required demand of 100 MW. The city corporation was also supplying only 22,500 gallons of water, far less than
14320-776: The Bengal Agricultural Debtors' Act (1938), The Money Lenders' Act (1938), and the Bengal Tenancy (Amendment) Act (1938). He introduced the Primary Education Bill to make primary education free and compulsory. He established schools such as the Lady Brabourne College . In 1941, Prime Minister Huq joined the Viceroy's Defence Council in support of Allied war efforts. In a letter to Governor John Herbert , Huq called for
14499-494: The Bengal Presidency included only modern-day Bihar , Jharkhand , Orissa and Bengal . In 1905, the first partition of Bengal resulted in the short-lived province of Eastern Bengal and Assam which existed alongside the Bengal Presidency. In 1912, the province was merged back with the Bengal Presidency while Bihar and Orissa became a separate province. In 1862, the Bengal Legislative Council became
14678-696: The Bengal government. The Bengal Civil Service was merged into the Indian Civil Service later along with the other two civil services and the Bengal Army was finally amalgamated into the new Indian Army in 1904–5, after a lengthy struggle over its reform between Lord Kitchener , the commander-in-chief, and Lord Curzon , the Viceroy. In 1830, the British Straits Settlements on the coast of the Malacca Straits
14857-456: 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,
15036-552: The Bengali language. The first book on Bengali grammar was compiled by a Portuguese missionary. English was the official language. The use of Persian as an official language was discontinued by Act no. XXIX of 1837 passed by the President of the Council of India in Council on 20 November 1837. However, Persian continued to be taught in some institutions. Several institutions had Sanskrit and Arabic faculties. The following includes
15215-426: 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,
15394-822: The British Cabinet meeting also hoped that Bengal would remain united. British Prime Minister Clement Attlee informed the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom on 2 June 1947 that there was a "distinct possibility that Bengal might decide against partition and against joining either India or Pakistan". On 6 July 1947, the Sylhet referendum gave a mandate for the District of Sylhet to be re-united into Bengal. However, Hindu nationalist leaders in West Bengal and conservative East Bengali Muslim leaders were against
15573-715: The British Empire. Its local hinterland spanned beyond Bengal to include north and northeast India, the Himalayan kingdoms and Tibet. The Bay of Bengal became one of the busiest shipping hubs in the world, rivaling the traffic of ports on the Atlantic . Calcutta was also an important naval base in World War II and was bombed by the Japanese. Chambers of commerce were established. The Bengal Chamber of Commerce
15752-853: The Central Provinces; and Sambalpur State and the five Oriya states of Bamra , Rairakhol , Sonepur , Patna and Kalahandi were transferred from the Central Provinces to Bengal. The remaining province of Bengal then consisted of the thirty-three districts of Burdwan , Birbhum , Bankura , Midnapur , Hughli , Howrah , Twenty-four Parganas , Calcutta , Nadia , Murshidabad , Jessore , Khulna , Patna , Gaya , Shahabad , Saran , Champaran , Muzaffarpur , Darbhanga , Monghyr , Bhagalpur , Purnea , Santhal Parganas , Cuttack , Balasore , Angul and Kandhmal , Puri , Sambalpur , Singhbhum , Hazaribagh , Ranchi , Palamau , and Manbhum . The princely states of Sikkim and
15931-666: The Chief Secretary of Bengal carried into execution in October 1905. The Chittagong , Dhaka and Rajshahi divisions, the Malda District and the States of Hill Tripura , Sylhet and Comilla were transferred from Bengal to a new province, Eastern Bengal and Assam ; the five Hindi-speaking states of Chota Nagpur , namely Changbhakar , Korea , Surguja , Udaipur and Jashpur State , were transferred from Bengal to
16110-624: The City Corporation. Subsequently, the expanded areas were reorganized and boundaries were defined on a ward basis under Sections 29 and 30 of the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009. Currently, the City Corporation consists of 42 wards and covers an area of 79.5 square kilometers. At present, Sylhet is the district-headquarters as well as the divisional headquarters of the districts of Sunamganj , Habiganj , Moulvibazar and Sylhet District . The Sylhet City Corporation
16289-546: The Company rule period culminated in the Indian Mutiny in 1857. In 1858, the British government gained direct control of Indian administration. Bengal was plugged into the market-driven economy and trade networks of the British Empire . The Bengal Presidency had the largest gross domestic product in British India. The first British colonial banks in the Indian subcontinent were founded in Bengal. These included
16468-496: The Council of India in Council on 20 November 1837. The Calcutta High Court was set up in 1862. The building was designed on the model of Ypres Cloth Hall in Belgium. The Dacca High Court building was built during the early 20th century, with elements of a Roman pantheon . District courts were established in all district headquarters of the Bengal Presidency. At the district level, tax collectors and revenue officers acted with
16647-510: The Crown. The Act relieved the governor-in-councils of Bombay and Madras of their legislative duties and consolidated all legislative functions to the governor-general-in-council of India at Calcutta and created a supreme government of India at Calcutta with the office of governor-general of India replacing the governor-general of Fort William. The Act also created for the establishment of a new Presidency of Agra with its own Governor-in-council from
16826-764: The European population of the Settlements sent a petition to the British Parliament asking for direct rule. In 1859, under the terms of the Queen's Proclamation issued by Queen Victoria, the Bengal Presidency, along with the rest of British India, came under the direct rule of the British Crown. The partition of the large province of Bengal, which was decided upon by Lord Curzon, and Cayan Uddin Ahmet,
17005-1048: The General Bank of Bengal and Bihar (1733); Bank of Hindostan (1770), Bank of Bengal (1784); and the General Bank of India (1786). Other banks in Bengal included the Bank of Calcutta (1806), Union Bank (1829); Government Savings Bank (1833); The Bank of Mirzapore ( c. 1835 ); Dacca Bank (1846); Kurigram Bank (1887), Kumarkhali Bank (1896), Mahaluxmi Bank, Chittagong (1910), Dinajpur Bank (1914), Comilla Banking Corporation (1914), Bengal Central Bank (1918), and Comilla Union Bank (1922). Loan offices were established in Faridpur (1865), Bogra (1872), Barisal (1873), Mymensingh (1873), Nasirabad (1875), Jessore (1876), Munshiganj (1876), Dacca (1878), Sylhet (1881), Pabna (1882), Kishoreganj (1883), Noakhali (1885), Khulna (1887), Madaripur (1887), Tangail (1887), Nilphamari (1894) and Rangpur (1894). The earliest records of securities dealings are
17184-609: The Himalayan regions of Nepal, Tibet , Bhutan and Sikkim. The Anglo-Nepalese War between the East India Company and the Kingdom of Nepal was concluded with the Treaty of Sugauli , which ended Gorkha territorial expansion. The Treaty of Titalia was signed in 1817 between the HEIC and the Kingdom of Sikkim to establish British hegemony over Sikkim. The Bhutan War in the 1860s saw the Kingdom of Bhutan lose control of
17363-467: The Homeless. Sylhet was chosen because it is the home region for a large ethnic minority population in St Albans. In March 2009 the Mayor of Sylhet, Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to form another friendship link between Sylhet and Rochdale, home to around 10,000 people with Sylheti heritage. The Mayor of Sylhet signed it alongside the Mayor of Rochdale, Cllr Keith Swift, at
17542-475: The Indian and Home governments, and this led to the decision being reversed in 1911. At the Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911, Emperor George V announced the transfer of the seat of the government of India from Calcutta to Delhi, the reunification of the five predominantly Bengali-speaking divisions into a unified province of Bengal under a governor, the creation of a new province of Bihar and Orissa under
17721-622: The Indo-Burmah Petroleum Company, Orient Airways , Shaw Wallace , Carew & Co , Aditya Birla Group , Tata Group , Balmer Lawrie , Biecco Lawrie , Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction Company , Braithwaite & Co. , Bridge and Roof Company , Britannia Industries , Burn Standard Company and Andrew Yule and Company . Some of these enterprises were nationalized after the Partition of India. Agricultural products included rice, sugarcane and vegetables. The main cash crops were jute and tea. The jute trade
17900-542: The Mughals' most significant imperial outpost in Bengal east of Dhaka, and its importance remained as such throughout the seventeenth century. British rule began in the 18th century under the administration of the East India Company . Sylhet became a key source of lascars in the British Empire due in part to its ancient seafaring tradition. The Sylhet municipal board was established in 1867. Originally part of
18079-787: The Plio- Miocene age. Available limestone deposits in different parts of the region suggest that the whole area was under the ocean in the Oligo-Miocene. In the last 150 years, three major earthquakes have hit the city with magnitude of at least 7.5 on the Richter Scale , most recently in 1918. Robert Lindsay , who served as the District Collector of Sylhet from 1778 to 1790. In his autobiography, Oriental Miscellanies: Anecdotes of Indian Life , he mentioned to Sylhet as 'a small bazaar (market)'. He wrote, "The town
18258-551: The United Kingdom and the Middle East. Roads connect Sylhet with the Indian states of Meghalaya and Assam. Sylhet's hinterland plays a vital role in the economy of Bangladesh . It is home to the country's largest natural gas fields, sole crude oil field, largest tea plantations, rubber, palm oil , cane , agarwood and citrus farms. Rice production in the region is one of the country's highest. Heavy industries include power plants , fertilizer plants, cement plants and liquefied petroleum gas plants. Other major industries in
18437-443: The United Kingdom and the United States. The most prevalent airlines at the airport are Biman Bangladesh Airlines , US-Bangla Airlines and Novoair . Osmani International Airport received its first international arrival on 3 November 2002, with a Biman plane arriving from Kuwait via Abu Dhabi en route to Dhaka. Sylhet's first direct international flight arrived on 15 March 2017 when a Flydubai direct flight from Dubai landed at
18616-842: The adoption of the Lahore Resolution in 1940. He envisaged Bengal as one of the "independent states" outlined by the resolution. The first Huq cabinet dissolved after the BPML withdrew from his government. Huq then formed a second coalition with the Hindu Mahasabha led by Syama Prasad Mukherjee . This cabinet was known as the Shyama-Huq Coalition. The cabinet included Nawab Bahabur Khwaja Habibullah, Khan Bahadur Abdul Karim, Khan Bahadur Hashem Ali Khan, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Syama Prasad Mukherjee, Santosh Kumar Bose and Upendranath Barman. Huq's government fell in 1943 and
18795-521: The airport. Work began in 2006 to upgrade the airport to international standards, including a new terminal building, a jetway, a taxiway, and expansion of the runway to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft. In May 2007, Biman announced direct Hajj flights originating from the airport later that year. As of 2020, Biman Bangladesh operates direct flight to London from Sylhet. All Bangladeshi airlines operate regular domestic flights to Dhaka and Biman operates regular domestic flights to Cox's Bazar . In response to
18974-536: 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
19153-489: The ceded and conquered territories of the Presidency of Fort William and also sought to separate the functions of the Presidency of Fort William from the government of India and governor-general of India in council. This was however never fully implemented and instead another Act of Parliament in 1835 created the North-Western Provinces with a lieutenant-governor at Agra and also provided for the creation of
19332-524: The city with Bangladesh's capital and largest city, Dhaka, as well as with many other parts of the country. The N2 highway is also part of the Asian Highway Network 's two longest routes, AH1 and AH2 . Sylhet is served by Osmani International Airport , located at the north of the city. It is Bangladesh's third busiest airport, and it became an international airport due to demand driven by expatriate Bangladeshis and their families living in
19511-498: The city, but only 15% maintain sanitary facilities and 85% have unhygienic conditions that are unsafe for the public. The cultural identity of Sylhet has been shaped by a blend of indigenous practices, Sufi influences, and the assimilation of diverse communities. Sylhet is also known for its music scene, and it is home to several renowned musicians and artists. The city has a rich literary tradition, producing several notable writers and poets including Syed Mujtaba Ali . Sylheti cuisine
19690-522: The city. The city of Śrīhaṭṭa takes its name from Śrīhaṭṭanātha , the tutelary deity of the Nātha dynasty who promoted the early settlement of Nāthas in the Surma and Barak valleys between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, founding the Śrīhaṭṭa janapada and establishing Śrīhaṭṭanātha idols across the region. The later Hindu monarchs of Sylhet, such as Gour Govinda , continued to pay tribute to
19869-580: The colonial system as bureaucratic authoritarianism. Established by Charter Act of 1833 , the Governor-General in Council was subordinate to the Court of Directors of the East India Company and the British Crown. The governor-general in council in Fort William enacted legislation, such as the prohibition of Persian as an official language under Act no. XXIX of 1837 passed by the president of
20048-733: The company joined other already established European trading companies to trade in the wealthy Bengal Subah in the east. However, the power of the Mughal Empire declined from 1707, as the Nawab of Bengal in Murshidabad became financially independent with the help of bankers such as the Jagat Seth . The Nawabs began entering into treaties with numerous European companies, including the French East India Company ,
20227-541: The company's factories at Cossimbazar and Calcutta were besieged and captured by the forces of the Nawab of Bengal, with the company's goods, treasure and weapons seized. Calcutta being renamed Alinagar in honour of the Siraj ud-Daulah's predecessor. A Company force, led by Watson and Robert Clive , recaptured Fort William in January 1757, with the Nawab, Siraj ud-Daulah, agreeing the Treaty of Alinagar , reestablishing
20406-652: The company's right to trade in Bengal, and fortify Fort William. In parallel Robert Clive conspired with Jagat Seth, Omichand and Mir Jafar to install the latter on the musnud of Bengal, a plan that they would implement in June 1757. The East India Company's victories at the Battle of Plassey (1757) and the Battle of Buxar (against the Nawabs of Bengal and Oudh in 1764) led to the abolition of local rule (Nizamat) in Bengal in 1793. The Company gradually began to formally expand its territories across India and Southeast Asia. By
20585-469: 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
20764-457: The construction of a 3 km Maratha ditch around Calcutta, to protect its facilities from the raiders. The Nawab of Bengal later signed a peace treaty with the Marathas in 1751, and ceded Orrisa and paid Rs. 1.2 million annually as the chauth . The Nawab of Bengal also paid Rs. 3.2 million to the Marathas, towards the arrears of chauth for the preceding years. In June 1756
20943-455: 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
21122-456: The country. The city also has several educational institutions, including Sylhet Agricultural University , Shahjalal University of Science and Technology , and Sylhet Cadet College . Sylhet is the anglicisation of শিলহট ( Śilhôṭ ), one of the archaic native names for the city. The local name is generally thought to be directly derived from শ্রীহট্ট ( Śrīhaṭṭa ), the Sanskrit name of
21301-781: The deity as Hāṭkeśvara or Haṭṭanātha as evident from the Devipurana and copper-plate inscriptions. In 1303, the Sultan of Lakhnauti Shamsuddin Firoz Shah conquered Sylhet by defeating Gour Govinda . Sylhet was a realm of the Bengal Sultanate . In the 16th century, Sylhet was controlled by the Baro-Bhuyan zamindars and later became a sarkar (district) of the Mughal Empire . Sylhet emerged after 1612 as
21480-483: The demand of about 65,000. The major sources of water to the city are the tube wells and the Surma River . Tests of tube wells in Sylhet District by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1997 found that about 27.6% contained more arsenic than the acceptable limit set by Bangladesh of 50 micrograms per liter, and 49.2% contained more arsenic than the World Health Organization standard of 10 micrograms per liter. There are about 331 registered restaurants in
21659-430: 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
21838-410: 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
22017-443: 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
22196-451: 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
22375-498: The emergence of a large educated middle class, most of the population did not have access to a proper education. Some of the leading schools included the Oriental Seminary in Calcutta, the St. Gregory's High School in Dacca, the Rajshahi Collegiate School in Rajshahi and the Chittagong Collegiate School in Chittagong. European missionaries, Hindu philanthropists and Muslim aristocrats were influential promoters of education. Ethnic minorities maintained their own institutions, such as
22554-431: The establishment of liberal arts colleges in many districts of Bengal. There were only two full-fledged universities in Bengal during British rule, including the University of Calcutta and the University of Dacca. Both universities were represented in the Bengal Legislative Assembly under the Government of India Act 1935. Primary education was mandatory under the Compulsory Education Acts. Despite significant advances and
22733-403: The estates entrusted to them by the government. In 1793 Lord Cornwallis declared their rights perpetual, and gave over the land of Bengal to the previous quasi-proprietors or zamindars , on condition of the payment of a fixed land tax. This piece of legislation is known as the Permanent Settlement of the Land Revenue. It was designed to "introduce" ideas of property rights to India, and stimulate
22912-528: The existing Constituent Assembly of India. In another separate meeting of legislators from East Bengal, it was decided by 106 votes to 35 that the province should not be partitioned and 107 votes to 34 that East Bengal should join Pakistan in the event of partition. There was no vote held on the proposal for an independent United Bengal. Initially, Bengal was under the administration of the East India Company, which appointed chief agents/presidents/governors/lieutenant governors in Fort William. The governor of Bengal
23091-466: 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,
23270-453: The first legislature in British India with native representation, after a petition from the British Indian Association of Calcutta. As part of efforts towards home rule , the Government of India Act 1935 created a bicameral legislature , with the Bengal Legislative Assembly becoming the largest provincial assembly in India in 1937. The office of the Prime Minister of Bengal was established as part of growing provincial autonomy. After
23449-411: The fixed revenue demanded from the government represented pure profit. Furthermore, the Permanent Settlement took no account of inflation, meaning that the value of the revenue to government declined year by year, whilst the heavy burden on the peasantry grew no less. This was compounded in the early 19th century by compulsory schemes for the cultivation of opium and indigo , the former by the state, and
23628-789: The following. There are two public universities in Sylhet: Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and Sylhet Agricultural University . There are some prominent colleges and schools in Sylhet such as Jalalabad Cantonment Public School and College ,Jalalabad Ragib Rabeya Medical college, Pathantula Parkview Medical College, MAG Osmani Medical College, Sylhet , Sylhet Women's Medical College , North East Medical College , Sylhet Engineering College , Sylhet Cadet College , Murari Chand College , Institute of Health Technology, Sylhet , Border Guard Public School And College , Scholarshome, Blue Bird High School and College , Sylhet Science And Technology College , Sylhet Polytechnic Institute , and Sylhet Government Women's College . Murari Chand College
23807-606: 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
23986-429: The government of India. The Government of India Act 1853 finally allocated a lieutenant-governor to Bengal, which until now had been administered by the governor-general of India. The act also allocated lieutenant-governors to Punjab and Burma. The Bengal Army and the Bengal Civil Service continued to operate in the three lieutenant governorships, however they were under the control of the government of India rather than
24165-454: The governor's council. The Government of India Act 1935 established the Bengal Legislative Assembly as the lower chamber of the Bengali legislature. It was a 250-seat assembly where most members were elected by either the General Electorate or the Muslim Electorate (under the Communal Award ). Other members were nominated. The separate electorate dividing Muslims from the general electorate was deeply controversial. The Prime Minister of Bengal
24344-499: 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,
24523-412: 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 –
24702-418: The guise of a merchant". It was described as a "state within a state", and even "an empire within an empire". The company was given a monopoly for British trade in the Indian Ocean. In 1608, Mughal Emperor Jahangir allowed the English East India Company to establish a small trading post on the west coast of India. It was followed in 1611 by a factory on the Coromandel Coast in South India, and in 1612
24881-440: The height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and Southeast Asia. Bengal proper covered the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal (present-day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal ). Calcutta , the city which grew around Fort William , was the capital of the Bengal Presidency. For many years, the governor of Bengal was concurrently the governor-general of India and Calcutta
25060-489: The hinterland. In 1907, 20 firms were engaged in the jute trade of Narayanganj, including 18 European firms. Hindu merchants opened several cotton mills in the 1920s, including the Dhakeshwari Cotton Mill, the Chittaranjan Cotton Mill and the Laxmi Narayan Cotton Mill. Other goods traded in Narayanganj included timber, salt, textiles, oil, cotton, tobacco, pottery, seeds and betel nut. Raw goods were processed by factories in Calcutta, especially jute mills. The Port of Chittagong
25239-458: The increase in passenger and cargo demand at the airport, work began in 2020 on a new 34,919 square metres (375,860 sq ft) international passenger terminal building, as well as a cargo building, a control tower, parking areas, and a taxiway. The Sylhet railway station is the main railway station providing trains on national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway . Some train routes originating or terminating in Sylhet include
25418-413: 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,
25597-429: 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
25776-403: The latter by British planters. Peasants were forced to grow a certain area of these crops, which were then purchased at below market rates for export. This added greatly to rural poverty. In 1833, the British Parliament enacted the Government of India Act 1833 abolishing the monopoly rights of the Company and converting it into a purely governing body holding its territories in India in trust of
25955-428: 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
26134-440: The loan securities of the British East India Company . In 1830, bourse activities in Calcutta were conducted in the open air under a tree. The Calcutta Stock Exchange was incorporated in 1908. Some of the leading companies in British Bengal included Messrs. Alexander and Co, Waldies , Martin Burn , M. M. Ispahani Limited , James Finlay and Co. , A K Khan & Company , the Calcutta Chemical Company , Bourne & Shepherd ,
26313-408: The mid-19th century, the East India Company had become the paramount political and military power in the Indian subcontinent . Its territory was held in trust for the British Crown . The company also issued coins in the name of the nominal Mughal Emperor (who was exiled in 1857). Under Warren Hastings , the consolidation of British imperial rule over Bengal was solidified, with the conversion of
26492-421: 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
26671-469: 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
26850-450: The policy of power-sharing between Hindus and Muslims. He also advocated a plan for a Bengali sovereign state with a multiconfessionalist political system. The breakdown of Hindu-Muslim unity across India eventually upended Bengali power-sharing. Religious violence, including the Noakhali riots and Direct Action Day riots, contributed to the polarization. When the Bengal Assembly met to vote on Partition, most West Bengali legislators held
27029-434: The power of magistrates . In 1829, magisterial power was given to all Collectors and Revenue Officers. The controversy regarding the lack of separation of powers continued until 1921. The British government began to appoint legislative councils under the Indian Councils Act 1861 . The Bengal Legislative Council was established in 1862. It was one of the largest and most important legislative councils in British India. Over
27208-712: The principle of dyarchy , whereby certain responsibilities such as agriculture, health, education, and local government, were transferred to elected ministers. However, the important portfolios like finance, police and irrigation were reserved with members of the governor's executive council. Some of the prominent ministers were Surendranath Banerjee (Local Self-government and Public Health 1921–1923), Sir Provash Chunder Mitter (Education 1921–1924, Local Self-government, Public Health, Agriculture and Public Works 1927–1928), Nawab Saiyid Nawab Ali Chaudhuri (Agriculture and Public Works) and A. K. Fazlul Huq (Education 1924). Bhupendra Nath Bose and Sir Abdur Rahim were executive members in
27387-411: The prospect. On 20 June 1947, the Bengal Legislative Assembly met to vote on partition plans. At the preliminary joint session, the assembly decided by 126 votes to 90 that if it remained united it should join the new Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. Later, a separate meeting of legislators from West Bengal decided by 58 votes to 21 that the province should be partitioned and that West Bengal should join
27566-407: The region include ceramics , machinery and equipment, ready-made garments and pharmaceuticals. Most of the tea production in Bangladesh is based around Sylhet, much of which is eventually exported internationally. Two Bangladeshi finance ministers from the city have been elected to the Jatiyo Sangshad for Sylhet: Saifur Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party; and Abul Maal Abdul Muhith of
27745-459: The region included the French East India Company , the Dutch East India Company , the Ostend Company and the Danish East India Company . Initially, the English East India Company promoted opium cultivation which caused the Opium Wars with Qing China . The East India Company's promotion of indigo farming caused the Indigo revolt . The British were much criticized for favoring textile imports and suppressing local muslin production. The chaos of
27924-407: The resurrection of a Bengal Army. He wrote "I want you to consent to the formation of a Bengali Army of a hundred thousand young Bengalis consisting of Hindu and Muslim youths on a fifty-fifty basis. There is an insistent demand for such a step being taken at once, and the people of Bengal will not be satisfied with any excuses. It is a national demand which must be immediately conceded". Huq supported
28103-427: 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
28282-441: The step, partly on the grounds that this was part of a cynical policy of divide and rule, and partly that the Bengali population, the centre of whose interests and prosperity was Calcutta, would now be divided under two governments, instead of being concentrated and numerically dominant under the one, while the bulk would be in the new division. In 1906–1909 the unrest developed to a considerable extent, requiring special attention from
28461-536: 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
28640-474: 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
28819-484: 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
28998-435: 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
29177-440: The years, the council's powers were gradually expanded from an advisory role to debating government policies and enacting legislation. Under the Government of India Act 1935 , the council became the upper chamber of the Bengali legislature. British India's Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms of 1919, enacted in 1921, expanded the Bengal Legislative Council to 140 members to include more elected Indian members. The reforms also introduced
29356-413: Was a member of the assembly. In the 1937 election , the Congress emerged as the single largest party but short of an absolute majority. The second-largest party was the Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML), followed closely in third place by the Krishak Praja Party (KPP). After negotiations between Congress and the KPP broke down, the BPML and KPP formed a coalition government. A. K. Fazlul Huq ,
29535-415: Was also an important source of law. Many laws enacted in British Bengal are still in use today, including the Indian Penal Code . In 1919, the Rowlatt Act extended wartime powers under the Defence of India Act 1915, including arbitrary arrests and trial without juries. Press freedom was muzzled by the Indian Press Act 1910. The Seditious Meetings Act 1908 curtailed freedom of assembly. Regulation III of 1818
29714-524: Was also considered draconian. King George V granted a royal amnesty to free political prisoners. Some draconian laws were repealed, including the Rowlatt Act. Despite being a common law jurisdiction, British India did not enjoy the same level of protection for civil liberties as in the United Kingdom. It was only after independence in 1947 and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, that human rights were clearly enshrined in law. Princely states were autonomous principalities under
29893-505: Was awarded the FIDE Women's International Master (WIM) title in 1985, while her son Kaiser Hamid was the captain of the Bangladesh national football team in the early 90s. The main transport systems used in Sylhet are cycle rickshaws , auto rickshaws (mainly known as baby-taxis or CNGs), buses, mini-buses and cars. About 80,000 rickshaws run each day within the city. Bus service prices have increased up to 30% higher, and as of 2008 prices range from Tk 4 to 15.95. The N2 connects
30072-440: Was central to the British Bengali economy. Bengal accounted for the bulk of the world's jute production and export. Raw jute was sourced from the hinterland of Eastern Bengal. The British government declared the Port of Narayanganj as a "Tax Free Port" in 1878. Rally Brothers & Co. was one of the earliest British companies in the jute business of Narayanganj. British firms used middlemen, called beparis , to source raw jute from
30251-410: Was concurrently the governor-general of India for many years. The East India Company maintained control with its private armies and administrative machinery. Nevertheless, the East India Company was a quasi-official entity, having received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1600. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 caused the British government to assume direct control of India's administration under
30430-407: Was established in 1853. The Narayanganj Chamber of Commerce was set up in 1904. The textile trade of Bengal enriched many merchants. For example, Panam City in Sonargaon saw many townhouses built for wealthy textile merchants. Tea became a major export of Bengal. Northwestern Bengal became the center of Darjeeling tea cultivation in the foothills of the Himalayas. Darjeeling tea became one of
30609-431: Was established in the city, following the Prime Minister's order to found a medical university in each division with the goal of maintaining medical standards in colleges. According to the order, Chittagong and Rajshahi Medical University have already been established, and Sylhet Medical University is the fourth Medical University of the directive. As of 2022 census results, Sylhet City Corporation had 116,711 households and
30788-451: Was expanded. Bihar and Orissa became separate provinces in 1936. Bengal remained in its 1912 boundaries until Independence in 1947, when it was again partitioned between the dominions of India and Pakistan. On 8 May 1947, Viceroy Earl Mountbatten cabled the British government with a partition plan that made an exception for Bengal. It was the only province that would be allowed to remain independent should it choose to do so. On 23 May,
30967-525: Was made a residency of the Presidency of Bengal in Calcutta. The area included the erstwhile Prince of Wales Island and Province Wellesley , as well as the ports of Malacca and Singapore. Under the administration of the East India Company, the Settlements were used as penal settlements for Indian civilian and military prisoners, earning them the title of the "Botany Bays of India". The years 1852 and 1853 saw minor uprisings by convicts in Singapore and Penang. Upset with East India Company rule, in 1857
31146-407: Was re-organized in 1887 under the Port Commissioners Act. Its busiest trade links were with British Burma , including the ports of Akyab and Rangoon ; and other Bengali ports, including Calcutta, Dhaka and Narayanganj. In the fiscal year 1889–90, Chittagong handled exports totalling 125,000 tons. The Strand Road was built beside the port. In 1928, the British government declared Chittagong as
31325-486: Was renovated in 2013 specifically to host matches for the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 . It is situated near lush green tea gardens on the city fringe. In the National Cricket League , Sylhet Division has not won any titles but did win in the One-Day Cricket League during the 2001–02 season . Notable players from Sylhet who have played for the Bangladesh national cricket team include Rajin Saleh , Enamul Haque Jr , Tapash Baisya , and Alok Kapali . Chess player Rani Hamid
31504-469: Was supported by the erstwhile Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and approved by the U. S. Senate on 21 November 1792. Benjamin Joy reached Calcutta in 1794. The HEIC did not recognize Joy as an official consul but allowed him to be a Commercial Agent. The American Consulate General was established during formal British rule. A consular agency for Chittagong was created in the 1860s. Many other countries also set up consulates in Calcutta. British rule saw
31683-412: Was the capital of India until 1911. The Bengal Presidency emerged from trading posts established in the Bengal province during the reign of Emperor Jahangir in 1612. The East India Company (HEIC), a British monopoly with a Royal Charter, competed with other European companies to gain influence in Bengal. In 1757 and 1764, the Company defeated the Nawab of Bengal , who acted on Mughal sovereignty, at
31862-439: Was then merely a small market. The inhabitants’ houses were situated on the hills and hidden behind forests and jungles." Exactly 100 years after his tenure, in 1878, Sylhet was upgraded into a municipality with an approximate area of about 1.75 square kilometers. The civic body of Sylhet was formed according to the Sylhet City Corporation Act, 2001, which came into effect on April 10, 2001. On July 28, 2002, Sylhet Municipality board
32041-433: Was upgraded to a City Corporation, which covering an area of 26.50 square kilometers and divided into 27 wards, and currently the city is administered by the Sylhet City Corporation . On August 31, 2021, a gazette notification was issued to expand the area of Sylhet City Corporation. According to the gazette, several mouzas from four unions of Sylhet Sadar Upazila and three unions of Dakshin Surma Upazila were included in
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