Ethnic group native to Bangladesh and India
This article is about the ethnic group. For the citizens of Bangladesh, see
Bangladeshis .
Ethnic group
Bengalis (Bengali : বাঙ্গালী, বাঙালি [baŋgali, baŋali] ⓘ ), also rendered as endonym Bangalee ,[16] [17] are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the Bengal region of South Asia . The population is divided between the sovereign country Bangladesh and the Indian regions of West Bengal , Tripura , Barak Valley , Goalpara , Andaman and Nicobar Islands , and parts of Meghalaya , Manipur and Jharkhand .[18] Most speak Bengali , a language from the Indo-Aryan language family. Sub-section 2 of Article 6 of the Constitution of Bangladesh states, "The people of Bangladesh shall be known as Bengalis as a nation and as Bangladeshis as citizens."[19]
Bengalis are the third-largest ethnic group in the world, after the Han Chinese and Arabs .[20] They are the largest ethnic group within the Indo-Europeans and the largest ethnic group in South Asia . Apart from Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Manipur, and Assam's Barak Valley, Bengali-majority populations also reside in India's union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands , with significant populations in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Odisha , Chhattisgarh , Jharkhand , Mizoram , Nagaland and Uttarakhand as well as Nepal 's Province No. 1 .[21] [22] The global Bengali diaspora have well-established communities in the Middle East , Pakistan , Myanmar , the United Kingdom , the United States , Malaysia , Italy , Singapore , Maldives , Canada , Australia , Japan and South Korea .
Bengalis are a diverse group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. Approximately 70% are adherents of Islam with a large Hindu minority and sizeable communities of Christians and Buddhists. Bengali Muslims , who live mainly in Bangladesh, primarily belong to the Sunni denomination. Bengali Hindus , who live primarily in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam's Barak Valley, Jharkhand and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, generally follow Shaktism or Vaishnavism , in addition to worshipping regional deities.[23] [24] [25] There exist small numbers of Bengali Christians , a large number of whom are descendants of Portuguese voyagers , as well as Bengali Buddhists , the bulk of whom belong to the Bengali-speaking Barua group in Chittagong and Rakhine .
Bengalis have influenced and contributed to diverse fields, notably the arts and architecture, language , folklore , literature, politics, military, business, science and technology.
^ "Bangladesh wants Bangla as an official UN language: Sheikh Hasina" . The Times of India . PTI. 19 February 2012. Archived from the original on 29 September 2023. Retrieved 10 September 2023 .
^ "General Assembly hears appeal for Bangla to be made an official UN language" . UN.org . 27 September 2010. Archived from the original on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022 .
^ "Hasina for Bengali as an official UN language" . Ummid.com . Indo-Asian News Service. 28 September 2010. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022 .
^ "Bangladesh Population (2024) - Worldometer" . www.worldometers.info . Retrieved 7 January 2024 .
^ "Bangladesh Population 1950-2024" . www.macrotrends.net . Retrieved 2 April 2024 .
^ "Bangladesh Population 2024 (Live)" . worldpopulationreview.com . Retrieved 2 April 2024 .
^ "Census of India Website : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India" . Censusindia.gov.in. Archived from the original on 7 March 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022 .
^ "Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength – 2011" (PDF) . Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India . 29 June 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2018 .
^ "Stateless and helpless: The plight of ethnic Bengalis in Pakistan" . Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 20 September 2022. Retrieved 17 December 2022 .
^ Datta, Romita (13 November 2020). "The great Hindu vote trick" . India Today . Archived from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2022 . Hindus add up to about 70 million in Bengal's 100 million population, of which around 55 million are Bengalis.
^ Ali, Zamser (5 December 2019). "EXCLUSIVE: BJP Govt plans to evict 70 lakh Muslims, 60 lakh Bengali Hindus through its Land Policy (2019) in Assam" . Sabrang Communications . Archived from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022 . Hence, about 70 lakh Assamese Muslims and 60 lakh Bengali-speaking Hindus face mass evictions and homelessness if the policy is allowed to be passed in the Assembly.
^ "Bengali speaking voters may prove crucial in the second phase of Assam poll" . The News Web . April 2021. Archived from the original on 3 June 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2023 .
^ "Census 2022: Number of Muslims increased in the country" . Dhaka Tribune . 27 July 2022. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2022 .
^ "Religions in Bangladesh | PEW-GRF" . Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2023 .
^ Khan, Mojlum (2013). The Muslim Heritage of Bengal: The Lives, Thoughts and Achievements of Great Muslim Scholars, Writers and Reformers of Bangladesh and West Bengal . Kube Publishing Ltd. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-84774-052-6 . Bengali-speaking Muslims as a group consists of around 200 million people.
^ "Part I: The Republic – The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh" . Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs . 2010. Archived from the original on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2017 .
^ "Bangalees and indigenous people shake hands on peace prospects" . Dhaka Tribune. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 16 April 2017 .
^ Khan, Muhammad Chingiz (15 July 2017). "Is MLA Ashab Uddin a local Manipuri?". Tehelka . 14 : 36–38.
^ "গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশের সংবিধান | ৬৷ নাগরিকত্ব" [Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh | 6. citizenship]. bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd . Retrieved 6 April 2024 .
^ roughly 163 million in Bangladesh and 100 million in India (CIA Factbook 2014 estimates, numbers subject to rapid population growth); about 3 million Bangladeshis in the Middle East , 2 million Bengalis in Pakistan , 0.4 million British Bangladeshi .
^ "Bengali - Worldwide distribution" . Worlddata.info . Retrieved 7 January 2024 .
^ "50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India" (PDF) . nclm.nic.in . Ministry of Minority Affairs . Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2018 .
^ McDermott, Rachel Fell (2005). "Bengali religions". In Lindsay Jones (ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion . Vol. 2 (2nd ed.). MacMillan Reference USA. p. 826. ISBN 0-02-865735-7 .
^ Frawley, David (18 October 2018). What Is Hinduism?: A Guide for the Global Mind . Bloomsbury Publishing . pp. 26 . ISBN 978-93-88038-65-2 .
^ Tagore, Rabindranath (1916). The Home and the World ঘরে বাইরে [The Home and the World ] (in Bengali). Dover Publications . p. 320. ISBN 978-0-486-82997-5 .