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Bengali Alphabet
The dialects of the Bengali language (বাংলা উপভাষাসমূহ Bangla Upobhashashomuho) are part of the EasternIndo-Aryan language group of the Indo-European language family widely spoken in the Bengal region of South Asia. Although the spoken dialects of Bengali are mutually intelligible with neighbouring dialects.
Bengali dialects can be thus classified along at least two dimensions: spoken vs. literary variations, and prestige vs. regional variations.
- 3Regional dialect differences
- 3.7Phonological variations
- 4Comparison Table
Classifications[edit]
Suniti Kumar Chatterji and Sukumar Sen classified Bengali Dialects in 6 classes by their phonology & pronunciation.[1][2] They are:
1. Rarhi dialect: Rarhi is the basis of official Standard Bengali language. This dialect is spoken across much of Southern West Bengal, India. The regions where it is spoken include the whole of Presidency division(Including the city of Kolkata and the Nadia district), the Southern half of Burdwan division and the district of Murshidabad.
2. Bangali dialect: Bangali is the most widely spoken dialect of Bengali language. It is spoken across the Khulna, Barisal, Dhaka, Mymensingh and ComillaDivisions of Bangladesh and the State of Tripura in India.
3. Varendri dialect: This variety is spoken in Malda division of India & Rajshahi division of Bangladesh (previously part of Varendra or Barind division). It is also spoken in some adjoining villages in Bihar bordering Malda, West Bengal.
4. Manbhumi dialect: Manbhumi is spoken in westernmost Bengali speaking regions which includes the whole of Medinipur division and the northern half of Burdwan division in West Bengal and the Bengali speaking regions of Santhal Pargana division and Kolhan division in Jharkhand state.
5. Rajbanshi dialect: This dialect is spoken in Rangpur division of Bangladesh & Jalpaiguri division of West Bengal, India and its nearby Bengali speaking areas in the bordering areas of Assam and Bihar.
6. : Some linguists have also mentioned this.[3] Dialect of the Sundarbans region in the Satkhira District of Bangladesh and the North & South 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal don't share some common features with the neighboring Bangali & Rarhi dialects. So this dialect is classified as a unique dialect. This is also the southernmost dialect of Bengali.
In addition to the six above, there is also Sylheti, which is considered by some as a dialect while others consider it as a separate language due to the history of the Greater Sylhet region and the fact that the language has had its own script in the past as well as its own 4 dialects. Secondly, there is the Chittagonian language which is also does not fit the other categories due to it being equally similar to both the Bengali language and the Rohingya language.
Spoken and literary variants[edit]
More than other languages of South Asia, Bengali exhibits strong diglossia between the formal, written language and the vernacular, spoken language. Two styles of writing, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax, have emerged :[4][5]
- Shadhubhasha (সাধুভাষা) is the written language with longer verb inflections and a more Sanskrit-derived (তৎসম tôtshôm) vocabulary (সাধু shadhu = 'chaste' or 'sage'; ভাষা bhasha = 'language'). Songs such as India's national anthem Jana Gana Mana (by Rabindranath Tagore) and national song Vande Mātaram (by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay) were composed in Shadhubhasha, but its use is on the wane in modern writing.
- Choltibhasha (চলতিভাষা ) or Cholitobhasha (চলিতভাষা), a written Bengali style that reflects a more colloquial idiom, is increasingly the standard for written Bengali (চলিত cholito = 'current' or 'running'). This form came into vogue towards the turn of the 19th century, in an orthography promoted in the writings of Peary Chand Mitra (Alaler ghare dulal, 1857),[6] Pramatha Chowdhury (Sabujpatra, 1914) and in the later writings of Rabindranath Tagore. It is modelled on the dialect spoken in the districts bordering the lower reaches of the Hooghly River, particularly the Shantipur region in Nadia district, West Bengal. This form of Bengali is sometimes called the 'Nadia standard'.[7]
Spoken Bengali exhibits far more variation than written Bengali. Formal spoken Bengali, including what is heard in news reports, speeches, announcements, and lectures, is modelled on Choltibhasha. This form of spoken Bengali stands alongside other spoken dialects, or Ancholik Bangla (আঞ্চলিক বাংলা) (i.e. 'regional Bengali'). The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one dialect – often, speakers are fluent in Choltibhasha, one or more Ancholik dialect, and one or more forms of Gramyo Bangla (গ্রাম্য বাংলা) (i.e. 'rural Bengali'), dialects specific to a village or town.
To a non-Bengali, these dialects may sound or look vastly different, but the differences are mostly in phonology and vocabulary, and not so much a grammatical one, one exception is the addition of grammatical gender in some eastern dialects. Many dialects share features with the so-called Shadhu Bhasha or 'pure language', which was the written standard until the 19th century. Comparison of Bengali dialects gives us an idea about archaic forms of the language as well.
During standardisation of Bengali in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the cultural elite were mostly from the regions of Kolkata, Hooghly, Howrah, 24 Parganas and Nadia. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect. While the language has been standardised today through two centuries of education and media, variation is widespread, with many speakers familiar with or fluent in both their socio-geographical variety as well as the standard dialect used in the media.
Regional dialect differences[edit]
Dialectal differences in Bengali manifest themselves in three forms: standardised dialect vs. regional dialect, literary language vs. colloquial language and lexical (vocabulary) variations. The name of the dialects generally originates from the district where the language is spoken.
While the standard form of the language does not show much variation across the Bengali-speaking areas of South Asia, regional variation in spoken Bengali constitutes a dialect continuum. Mostly speech varies across distances of just a few miles and takes distinct forms among the religious communities. Apart from the present dialects, there are a few more which have disappeared. For example, 'Bikramapuri', Sātagāiyã' (this is the name used in East Bengal for the dialect of South-western Rarh region). The present dialects of Bengali are listed below with an example sentence meaning:
- English translation: 'A man had two sons.' (M=male indicated i.e. A man had two sons, P= person indicated, without gender, i.e. A person had two sons)
- Bengali Shadhubhasha: 'æk bektir duiṭi putrô chhilô.' (P)
West Central dialects[edit]
These dialects are mostly spoken in and around the Bhagirathi River basin, in West Central Bengal. The standard form of the colloquial language (Choltibhasha) has developed out of the Nadia dialect.
- Nadia/Choltibhasha Standard: æk jon loker duţi chhele chhilo. (M)
- Kolkata: æk jon loker duţo chhele chhilo. (M)
Eastern Dialects[edit]
- Manikganj: æk zoner duiđi saoal asilo. (P)
- Mymensingh: æk zôner dui put asilo. (P)
- Munshiganj (Bikrampur): æk jôner duiđa pola asilo. (P)
- Comilla: æk bæđar/zôner dui put asilo. (M-bæđar/P-zôner)
- Noakhali (Sandwip): egga mainsher duga hut/hola asilo.(P)
- Noakhali (Feni): egga mainsher duga hut/hola asilo. (P)
- Noakhali (Hatia): egga mainsher duga hut/hola asilo. (P)
- Noakhali (Ramganj): egga mainsher duga hut/hola asilo. (P)
- Chittagong: ugga mainshôr dugga fua asil. (P)
- Sylhet: ex betar dugu fua aslo (M)
- Moulvibazar ex betar duita fua asil (M)
South Bengal dialects[edit]
- Chuadanga : æk jon lokir duiţo seile silo. (M)
- Khulna: æk zon manshir dui soal silo. (P)
- Jessore: æk zoner duđe soal sêlo. (P)
- Barisal (Bakerganj): æk bedar dugga pola alhe. (P)
- Faridpur: kero mansher dugga pola silo. (P)
- Satkhira: æk loker duđi sabal selo.
- Kushtia: æk mansher duđi seile silo.
North Bengal dialects[edit]
This dialect is mainly spoken in the districts of North Bengal. These are the only dialects in Bangladesh that pronounce the letters চ, ছ, জ, and ঝ as affricates [tʃ], [tʃʰ], [dʒ], and [dʒʱ], respectively, and preserve the breathy-voiced stops in all parts of the word, much like Western dialects (including Standard Bengali). The dialects of Rangpur and Pabna do not have contrastive nasalised vowels.
- Dinajpur: æk manusher dui chhaoa chhilô (P)
- Pabna: kono mansher dui chhaoal chhilô. (P)
- Bogra: æk jôn mansher dui chhara chhoul chhilô. (P)
- Malda: æk jôn manuser duţa bêţa achhlô. (P)
- Rangpur: æk zon mansher duikna bêţa asil. (P)
- Rajshahi: æk loker duida bæta chhilo. (P)
Western Border dialects[edit]
This dialect is spoken in the area which is known as Manbhum.
- Manbhumi: ek loker duţa beţa chhilô. (M)
- East Medinipur: gote loker duita toka thilo. (P)
The latter two, along with Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia, are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Rajbangsi and Hajong are considered separate languages, although they are very similar to North Bengali dialects. There are many more minor dialects as well, including those spoken in the bordering districts of Purnea and Singhbhum and among the tribals of eastern Bangladesh like the Hajong and the Chakma.
Closely related languages[edit]
- Assamese: manuh ezônôr duta putek asil.
- Hajong: ek zôn manôlôg duida pôla thakibar.
- Chakma: ek jônôtun diba poa el.
Phonological variations[edit]
There are marked dialectal differences between the speech of Bengalis living on the পশ্চিম Poshchim (western) side and পূর্ব Purbo (eastern) side of the Padma River.
Bengali dialects include Eastern and Southeastern Bengali dialects: The Eastern dialects serve as the primary colloquial language of the Dhaka district. In contrast to Western dialects where ট /ʈ/ and ড /ɖ/ are unvoiced and voiced retroflex stops respectively, most Eastern and Southeastern dialects pronounce them as apical alveolar /t̠/ and /d̠/, especially in less formal speech. These dialects also lack contrastive nasalised vowels or a distinction in approximant র /ɹ/, tap ড় /ɾ/ and flap ঢ় /ɽ/, pronouncing them mostly as /ɾ/, although some speakers may realise র /ɹ/ when occurring before a consonant or prosodic break. This is also true of the Sylheti language, which has a lot in common with the Kamrupi dialect of Assam in particular, and is often considered a separate language. The Eastern dialects extend into Southeastern dialects, which include parts of Chittagong. The Chittagongian dialect has Tibeto-Burman influences.
Fricatives[edit]
In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern Bangladesh (Barisal, Chittagong, and Dhaka), many of the stops and affricates heard in Kolkata Bengali are pronounced as fricatives.
Poshchim Bengali (Western Bengali) palato-alveolar affricates চ [tʃ], ছ [tʃʰ], জ [dʒ], and ঝ [dʒʱ] correspond to Purbo Bengali (Eastern Bengali) চʻ [ts]~[tɕ], ছ় [s]~[tsʰ], জʻ [dz]~[z], and ঝ় [z]. A similar pronunciation is also found in Assamese, a related language across the border in India.
The aspirated velar stop খ [kʰ] and the aspirated labial stop ফ [pʰ] of Poshchim Bengali correspond to খ় [x]~[ʜ] in some and ফ় [ɸ]~[f] in many dialects of Purbo Bengali.
Many Purbo Bengali dialects share phonological features with Assamese, including the debuccalisation of শ [ʃ] to হ [h] or খ় [x].
Tibeto-Burman influence[edit]
The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on the phonology of Purbo Bengali (Bangladesh) is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels, an alveolar articulation for the Retroflexstops ট [ʈ], ঠ [ʈʰ], ড [ɖ], and ঢ [ɖʱ], resembling the equivalent phonemes in languages such as Thai and Lao and the lack of distinction between র [ɹ] and ড়/ঢ় [ɽ]. Unlike most languages of the region, some Purbo Bengali dialects do not include the breathy voiced stops ঘ [ɡʱ], ঝ [dʑʱ], ঢ [ɖʱ], ধ [d̪ʱ], and ভ [bʱ]. Some variants of Bengali, particularly Chittagonian and Chakma Bengali, have contrastive tone; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. In dialects such as Hajong of northern Bangladesh, there is a distinction between উ and ঊ , the first corresponding exactly to its standard counterpart but the latter corresponding to the Japanese [ü͍] sound listen. There is also a distinction between ই and ঈ in many northern Bangladeshi dialects. ই representing the [ɪ] sound whereas ঈ represents a [i].
Comparison Table[edit]
English | Standard Bengali | Khulnaiya | Barishali | Old Dhakaiya | Faridpuri | Varendri | Mymensinghiya | Rarhi | Chittagonian | Sylheti | Rajbanshi |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
will eat (first person) | khabo | khabani | khamuoni | khamu | khaum | khæhibo | khaimu | khaibo | haiyyum | xaimu | kham |
Taka | ţaka | ţa(h)a | ţaha | ţæka | taha | ţæka | ţæa | ţaka | ţĩa | ţexa | ţeka |
Dhaka | đhaka | đaha | đaha | đhaka | đhaha | đhaka | đhaka | đhaka | đhaha | đaxa | đhaka |
Other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages[edit]
English | Assamese | Odia | Kosli | Rohingya |
---|---|---|---|---|
will eat (first person) | kham | khaibi | Khayeman | khai-yum |
Taka | tôka | tônka | tanka | tia |
Dhaka | dhaka | dhaka | Dhaka | Daha |
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^'Indian Journal of Linguistics'. 20. Bhasa Vidya Parishad. 2001: 79. NB Barendra refers to Varendri
- ^বাংলা ভাষা ও উপভাষা, সুকুমার সেন, আনন্দ পাবলিশার্স[full citation needed]
- ^http://www.satkhira.gov.bd/site/page/f63bad83-1c4a-11e7-8f57-286ed488c766/a/a
- ^Huq, Mohammad Daniul (2012). 'Chalita Bhasa'. In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
- ^Huq, Mohammad Daniul (2012). 'Sadhu Bhasa'. In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
- ^Huq, Mohammad Daniul (2012). 'Alaler Gharer Dulal'. In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
- ^Morshed, Abul Kalam Manjoor (2012). 'Dialect'. In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
References[edit]
- আহসান, সৈয়দ আলী (2000), বাংলা একাডেমী বাংলাদেশের আঞ্চলিক ভাষার অভিধান, Bangla Academy, Dhaka, ISBN984-07-4038-5.
- Haldar, Gopal (2000), Languages of India, National Book Trust, India, ISBN81-237-2936-7.
Region in Asia | |
Continent | Asia |
Countries |
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Iron Age India, Vedic India, Vanga Kingdom | 1500 – c. 500 BCE |
Gangaridai, Nanda Empire | 345–300 BCE |
Gupta Empire | 2nd century–5th century |
Pala Empire | 8th century–12th century |
Delhi Sultanate | 1204–1339 CE |
Bengal Sultanate | 1338–1576 CE |
Bengal Subah | 1565–1717 CE |
Nawabs of Bengal | 1717–1765 CE |
Bengal Presidency | 1765–1947 CE |
Principal Cities |
|
Area | |
• Total | 236,322 km2 (91,244 sq mi) |
Population | |
• Total | 250 million ~ 300 million |
• Density | 1,070/km2 (2,800/sq mi) |
Demonym(s) | Bengali |
Official languages | Bangladesh – Bengali[1]West Bengal – Bengali, English[2] |
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Bengalis |
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Bengal (/bɛŋˈɡɔːl/;[3]Bengali: বাংলা/বঙ্গ, romanized: Bānglā/BôngôBengali pronunciation: [bɔŋgo]) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Geographically, it is made up by the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta system, the largest such formation in the world; along with mountains in its north bordering the Himalayan states of Nepal and Bhutan and east bordering Burma.
Politically, Bengal is currently divided between Bangladesh (which covers two-thirds of the region) and the Indian territories of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley (altogether cover the remaining one-third). In 2011, the population of Bengal was estimated to be 250 million,[4] making it one of the most densely populated regions in the world.[5] Among them, an estimated 160 million people live in Bangladesh and 91.3 million people live in West Bengal. The predominant ethnolinguistic group is the Bengali people, who speak the Indo-AryanBengali language. Bengali Muslims are the majority in Bangladesh and Bengali Hindus are the majority in West Bengal and Tripura, while Barak Valley contains almost equal proportions of Bengali Hindus and Bengali Muslims. Outside Bengal proper, the Indian territories of Jharkhand, Bihar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are also home to significant communities of Bengalis.
Dense woodlands, including hilly rainforests, cover Bengal's northern and eastern areas; while an elevated forested plateau covers its central area. In the littoral southwest are the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest and home of the Bengal tiger. In the coastal southeast lies Cox's Bazar, the longest beach in the world at 125 km (78 mi).[6] The region has a monsoon climate, which the Bengali calendar divides into six seasons.
At times an independent regional empire, Bengal was a leading power in Southeast Asia and later the Islamic East, with extensive trade networks. In antiquity, its kingdoms were known as seafaring nations. Bengal was known to the Greeks as Gangaridai, notable for mighty military power. It was described by Greek historians that Alexander the Great withdrew from India anticipating a counterattack from an alliance of Gangaridai.[7] Later writers noted merchant shipping links between Bengal and Roman Egypt.
The Bengali Pala Empire was the last major Buddhist imperial power in the subcontinent,[8] founded in 750 and becoming the dominant power in the northern Indian subcontinent by the 9th century,[9][10] before being replaced by the Hindu Sena dynasty in the 12th century.[8]Islam was introduced during the Pala Empire, through trade with the Abbasid Caliphate.[11] The Islamic Bengal Sultanate, founded in 1352, was absorbed into the Mughal Empire in 1576. The Bengal Subah, described as the Paradise of the Nations,[12] was the empire's wealthiest province, and became a major global exporter,[13][14][15] a center of worldwide industries such as cottontextiles, silk,[16]shipbuilding,[17] making worth 12% of the world's GDP,[18][19][20] a value bigger than the entirety of western Europe and its citizens' living standards were among the world's most superior.[21][22]
Bengal was conquered by the British East India Company in 1757 by Battle of Plassey and became the Bengal Presidency of the British Raj, which experienced deindustrialization under British rule.[23] The Company increased agriculture tax rates from 10 percent to up to 50 which caused multiple famines such as the Great Bengal famine of 1770 which caused the deaths of 10 million Bengalis and the Bengal Famine of 1943.
Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in which revolutionary groups were dominant. Armed attempts to overthrow the British Raj began with the rebellion of Titumir, and reached a climax when Subhas Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army allied with Japan to fight against the British. A large number of Bengalis died in the independence struggle and many were exiled in Cellular Jail, located in Andaman.
The United Kingdom Cabinet Mission of 1946 split the region between India and Pakistan, an action popularly known as the partition of Bengal (1947). This was opposed by the Prime Minister of Bengal, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, and nationalist leader Sarat Chandra Bose. They campaigned for a united and independent nation-state of Bengal. The initiative failed owing to British diplomacy and communal conflict between Muslims and Hindus. Subsequently, Pakistan ruled East Bengal which later became the independent nation of Bangladesh by the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971.
Bengali culture has been particularly influential in the fields of literature, music, shipbuilding, art, architecture, sports, currency, commerce, politics, science and cuisine.
- 2Geography
- 2.1Geographic distinctions
- 4History
- 4.6Post-partition (1947–present)
- 4.6.2Bangladesh
- 4.6Post-partition (1947–present)
- 5Historical maps and flags of states
- 6Politics
- 8Economy
- 9Major cities
- 11Culture
Etymology[edit]
The name of Bengal is derived from the ancient kingdom of Banga,(pronounced Bôngô)[24][25] the earliest records of which date back to the Mahabharata epic in the first millennium BCE.[25] Theories on the origin of the term Banga point to the Proto-DravidianBong tribe that settled in the area circa 1000 BCE and the Austric word Bong (Sun-god).[26][self-published source?][27] The term Vangaladesa is used to describe the region in 11th-century South Indian records.[28][29][30] 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.[31] The Portuguese referred to the region as Bengala in the Age of Discovery.[32]
The modern English name Bengal is an exonym derived from the Bengal Sultanate period.[33][not in citation given][need quotation to verify]
Geography[edit]
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 the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers and their respective tributaries. The total area of Bengal is 232,752 km2—West Bengal is 88,752 km2 (34,267 sq mi) and Bangladesh 147,570 km2 (56,977 sq mi).
The flat and fertile Bangladesh Plain dominates the geography of Bangladesh. The Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet regions are home to most of 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).[34] 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).[35] A major part of the coastline comprises a marshyjungle, 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.[36]
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 km2 (34,267 sq mi).[37] The Darjeeling Himalayan hill region in 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.[38] 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 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.[39] The water causes arsenicosis, skin cancer and various other complications in the body.
- Landscapes
A river in Bangladesh
A mustard and date palm farm in West Bengal
A tea garden in Bangladesh
Geographic distinctions[edit]
North Bengal[edit]
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 (Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda) together and Bihar's parts include Kishanganj district. Darjeeling Hills are also part of North Bengal. Although only people of Jaipaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar identifies themselves as North Bengali. North Bengal 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[edit]
Northeast Bengal[40] refers to the Sylhet region, comprising Sylhet Division of Bangladesh and the Barak Valley in the Indian state of Assam. The region is noted for its distinctive fertile highland terrain, extensive tea plantations, rainforests and wetlands. The Surma and Barak rivers are the geographic markers of the area. The city of Sylhet is its largest urban center, and the region is known for its unique dialect. The ancient name of the region is Srihatta.[41] The region 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 Bishnupriya Manipuri, Khasia and other tribal minorities.[41]
The region is the crossroads of Bengal and northeast India.
Central Bengal[edit]
Central Bengal refers to the Dhaka Division of Bangladesh. It includes 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[edit]
South Bengal covers the southern part of the Indian state of West Bengal and southwestern Bangladesh. The Indian part of South Bengal includes 12 districts: Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan, East Midnapur, West Midnapur, Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum, Nadia, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas.[42][43][44] The Bangladeshi part includes the proposed Faridpur Division, Khulna Division and Barisal Division.[45][self-published source?][46]
The Sundarbans, a major biodiversity hotspot, is located in South Bengal. Bangladesh hosts 60% of the forest, with the remainder in India.
Southeast Bengal[edit]
Southeast Bengal[47][48][49] refers to the hilly and coastal Bengali-speaking areas of Chittagong Division in southeastern Bangladesh and the Indian state of Tripura. Southeast Bengal 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 Harkand in the 9th century.[50] During the medieval period, the region was ruled by the Sultanate of Bengal, the Kingdom of Tripura, the Kingdom of Mrauk U, the Portuguese Empire and the Mughal Empire, prior to the advent of British rule. The Chittagonian dialect 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, Tripuri and Bawm peoples.
Southeast Bengal is considered a bridge to Southeast Asia and the northern parts of Arakan are also historically considered to be a part of it.[51]
Places of interest[edit]
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, 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 is home to the longest natural beach in the world and a growing surfing destination.[52]St. Martin's Island, off the coast of Chittagong Division, is home to the sole coral reef in Bengal.
Flora and fauna[edit]
The flat Bengal Plain, which covers most of Bangladesh and West Bengal, is one of the most fertile areas on Earth, with lush vegetation and farmland dominating its landscape. Bengali villages are buried among groves of mango, jack fruit, betel nut and date palm. Rice, jute, mustard and sugarcane plantations are a common sight. Water bodies and wetlands provide a habitat for many aquatic plants in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. The northern part of the region features Himalayan foothills (Dooars) with densely wooded Sal and other tropical evergreen trees. Above an elevation of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), the forest becomes predominantly subtropical, with a predominance of temperate-forest trees such as oaks, conifers and rhododendrons. Sal woodland is also found across central Bangladesh, particularly in the Bhawal National Park. The Lawachara National Park is a rainforest in northeastern Bangladesh. The Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh is noted for its high degree of biodiversity.
The littoralSundarbans in the southwestern part of Bengal is the largest mangrove forest in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The region has over 89 species of mammals, 628 species of birds and numerous species of fish. For Bangladesh, the water lily, the oriental magpie-robin, the hilsa and mango tree are national symbols. For West Bengal, the white-throated kingfisher, the chatim tree and the night-flowering jasmine are state symbols. The Bengal tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh and India. The fishing cat is the state animal of West Bengal.
Bengali Language 2 Practice Set For Ctet Admit
History[edit]
Part of a series on the |
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Prehistory[edit]
Human settlement in Bengal can be traced back 20,000 years.[citation needed] Remnants of Copper Age settlements date back 4,300 years.[54][55]Archaeological evidence confirms that by the second millennium BCE, rice-cultivating communities inhabited the region. By the 11th century BCE, the people of the area lived in systemically-aligned housing, used human cemeteries and manufactured copper ornaments and fine black and red pottery.[56] The Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers were natural arteries for communication and transportation.[56]Estuaries on the Bay of Bengal allowed for maritime trade. The early Iron Age saw the development of metal weaponry, coinage, permanent field agriculture and irrigation.[56] From 600 BCE, the second wave of urbanization engulfed the north Indian subcontinent, as part of the Northern Black Polished Ware culture.
Antiquity[edit]
Ancient Bengal was divided between the regions of Varendra, Suhma, Anga, Vanga, Samatata and Harikela. Early Indian literature described the region as a thalassocracy, with colonies in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.[57] For example, the first recorded king of Sri Lanka was a Bengali prince called Vijaya. The region was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Gangaridai.[58] The Greek ambassador Megasthenes chronicled its military strength and dominance of the Ganges delta. The invasion army of Alexander the Great was deterred by the accounts of Gangaridai's power in 325 BCE. Later Roman accounts noted maritime trade routes with Bengal and a Roman amphora has been found in Purba Medinipur district, made in Aelana (present day Aqaba in Jordan) between the 4th and 7th centuries AD.[59] Another prominent kingdom in Ancient Bengal was Pundravardhana which was located in Northern Bengal with its capital being located in modern-day Bogra, the kingdom was prominently buddhist leaving behind historic Viharas such as Mahasthangarh.[60][61][62] In vedic mythology the royal families of Magadha, Anga, Vanga, Suhma and Kalinga were all related and descended from one King.[63]
Ancient Bengal was considered a part of Magadha region, which was the cradle of Indian arts and sciences. Currently the Maghada region is divided into several states that are Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal (West Bengal and East Bengal)[63] The legacy of Magadha includes the concept of zero, the invention of Chess[64] and the theory of solar and lunar eclipses and the Earth orbiting the Sun.[citation needed] Secular Sanskrit, or standard Old Indo-Aryan, was spoken across Bengal.[65] The Bengali language evolved from Old Indo-Aryan Sanskrit dialects. The region was ruled by Hindu, Buddhist and Jain dynasties, including the Mauryans, Guptas, Varmans, Khadgas, Palas, Chandras and Senas among others. In the 9th century, Arab Muslim traders frequented Bengali seaports and found the region to be a thriving seafaring kingdom with well-developed coinage and banking.[56]
Medieval era[edit]
The Pala Empire was an imperial power in the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Bengal. They were followers of the Mahayana and Tantric schools of Buddhism. The empire was founded with the election of Gopala as the emperor of Gauda in 750.[9] At its height in the early 9th century, the Pala Empire was the dominant power in the northern subcontinent, with its territory stretching across parts of modern-day eastern Pakistan, northern and northeastern India, Nepal and Bangladesh.[9][10] The empire enjoyed relations with the Srivijaya Empire, the Tibetan Empire, and the ArabAbbasid Caliphate. Islam first appeared in Bengal during Pala rule, as a result of increased trade between Bengal and the Middle East.[11] The resurgent HinduSena dynasty dethroned the Pala Empire in the 12th century, ending the reign of the last major Buddhist imperial power in the subcontinent.[8][66]
Muslim conquests of the Indian subcontinent absorbed Bengal in 1204.[67][68] The region was annexed by the Delhi Sultanate. Muslim rule introduced agrarian reform, a new calendar and Sufism. The region saw the rise of important city states in Sonargaon, Satgaon and Lakhnauti. By 1352, Ilyas Shah achieved the unification of an independent Bengal. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Bengal Sultanate was a major diplomatic, economic and military power in the subcontinent. It developed the subcontinent's relations with China, Egypt, the Timurid Empire and East Africa. In 1540, Sher Shah Suri was crowned Emperor of the northern subcontinent in the Bengali capital Gaur.
Mughal era (1576–1757)[edit]
The Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the 16th century. The Bengal Subah province in the Mughal Empire was the wealthiest state 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.[69] The region was also notable for its powerful semi-independent aristocracy, including the Twelve Bhuiyans and the Nawabs of Bengal.[70] It was visited by several world explorers, including Ibn Battuta, Niccolo De Conti and Admiral Zheng He.
Under Mughal rule, Bengal was a center of the worldwide muslin and silk trades. During the Mughal era, the most important center 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.[16] 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.[13] From Bengal, saltpeter 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,[14] cotton cloth was exported to the Americas and the Indian Ocean.[15] Bengal also had a large shipbuilding industry. In terms of shipbuilding tonnage during the 16th–18th centuries, economic historian Indrajit Ray estimates 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.[17]
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 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.[70]
Colonial era (1757–1947)[edit]
[[File:Clive.jpg|thumb|250px|The Battle of Plassey in 1757 ushered British rule[[File:Rabindranath Tagore.jpg|thumb|Rabindranath Tagore a famous figure in the Bengal Renaissanece]]]]In Bengal effective political and military power was transferred from the old regime to the British East India Company around 1757–65.[71]Company rule in India began under the Bengal Presidency. Calcutta was named the capital of British India in 1772. The presidency was run by a military-civil administration, including the Bengal Army, and had the world's sixth earliest railway network. Great Bengal famines struck several times during colonial rule (notably the Great Bengal famine of 1770 and Bengal famine of 1943). 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 the rebellion led to the abolishment of the Mughal Court and direct rule by 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 1912, an abortive attempt was made to divide the province of Bengal into two zones, that included the short-lived province of Eastern Bengal and Assam based in Dacca and Shillong.[72] Under British rule, Bengal experienced deindustrialization.[23]m
In 1876, 200,000 people were killed in Bengal by the Great Bangladesh cyclone.[73]
Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in which revolutionary groups were dominant. Armed attempts to overthrow 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 British India with the Lahore Resolution in 1943. Hindu nationalism was also strong in Bengal, which was home to groups like the Hindu Mahasabha. In spite of a last-ditch effort to form a United Bengal,[74] when India gained independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned along religious lines.[75] The western part went to 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.[75][76]
The 1970 Bhola cyclone took the lives of 500,000 people in Bengal, making it one of the deadliest recorded cyclones.
Post-partition (1947–present)[edit]
India[edit]
- West Bengal
West Bengal became one of India's most populous states. Calcutta, the former capital of the British Raj, became the state capital of West Bengal and continued to be India's largest city until the late 20th century, when severe power shortages, strikes and a violent Marxist-Naxalite movement damaged much of the state's infrastructure in the 1960s and 70s, leading to a period of economic stagnation. West Bengal politics underwent a major change when the Left Front won the 1977 assembly election, defeating the incumbent Indian National Congress. The Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) governed the state for over three decades, which was the world's longest elected Communist administration in history.[77] Since the 2000s, West Bengal has experienced an economic rejuvenation, particularly in its IT industry.
- Tripura
Urdu Language
The princely state of Hill Tippera, that was under the suzerainty of British India, was ruled by a Bengali-speaking monarchy. Following the death of MaharajaBir Bikram Kishore Debbarman, the princely state acceded to the Union of India on 15 October 1949 under the Tripura Merger Agreement signed by MaharaniRegentKanchan Prava Devi. By the 1950s, the region had a Bengali majority population due to the influx of Hindus from East Pakistan after partition. It became a Union Territory of India in November 1953. It was granted full statehood with an elected legislature in July 1963. An insurgency by indigenous people affected the state for several years. The Left Front ruled the state between 1978 and 1988, followed by a stint of Indian National Congress rule until 1993, and then a return to the Communists.[78]
- Barak Valley
The Barak Valley joined the union of India after its partition from Sylhet in 1947 and has been a part of the state of Assam. One of the most significant events in the region's history was the language movement in 1961, in which the killing of agitators by state police led to Bengali being recognized as one of the official languages of Assam. The issue of Bengali settlement in the state has been a contentious part of the Assam conflict.
Bangladesh[edit]
East Pakistan (1947–1971)[edit]
In 1948, the Government of the Dominion of Pakistan ordained Urdu as the sole national language, sparking extensive protests among the Bengali-speaking majority of East Bengal. Facing rising sectarian tensions and mass discontent with the new law, the government outlawed public meetings and rallies. The students of the University of Dhaka and other political activists defied the law and organised a protest on 21 February 1952. The movement reached its climax when several student demonstrators were shot dead by police firing. As a result of the movement, Pakistan government in 1956 included Bengali as national lanuage along with Urdu. UNESCO in 1999 declared 21 February as International Mother Language Day honoring the 1952 incident.
East Bengal, which was later renamed to East Pakistan in 1955, was home to Pakistan's demographic majority and played an instrumental role in the founding of the new state. Strategically, Pakistan joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization under the Bengali prime minister Mohammad Ali of Bogra as a bulwark against communism.[79] However, tensions between East and West Pakistan grew rapidly over political exclusion, economic neglect and ethnic and linguistic discrimination. The State of Pakistan was subjected to years of military rule due to fears of Bengali political supremacy under democracy. Elected Bengali-led governments at the federal and provincial levels, which were led by statesmen such as A. K. Fazlul Huq and H. S. Suhrawardy, were deposed.[80][81]
East Pakistan witnessed the rise of Bengali self determination calls led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Maulana Bhashani in the 1960s.[82] Rahman launched the Six point movement for autonomy in 1966. After the 1970 national election, Rahman's party, the Awami League, had emerged as the largest party in Pakistan's parliament. The erstwhile Pakistani military junta refused to accept election results which triggered civil disobedience across East Pakistan. The Pakistani military responded by launching a genocide that caused the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. The first Government of Bangladesh and the Mukti Bahini waged a guerrilla campaign with support from neighboring India, which hosted millions of war refugees. Global support for the independence of East Pakistan increased due to the conflict's humanitarian crisis, with the Indian Armed Forces intervening in support of the Bangladesh Forces in the final two weeks of the war and ensuring Pakistan's surrender.[83]
Bangladesh (1971–present)[edit]
After independence, Bangladesh adopted a secular democracy under its new constitution in 1972. Awami League premier Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the country's strongman and implemented many socialist policies. A one party state was enacted in 1975. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated later that year during a military coup that ushered in sixteen years of military dictatorships and presidential governments. The liberation war commander Ziaur Rahman emerged as Bangladesh's leader in the late 1970s. He reoriented the country's foreign policy towards the West and restored free markets and the multiparty polity. President Zia was assassinated in 1981 during a failed military coup. He was eventually succeeded by his army chief Hussain Muhammad Ershad. Lasting for nine years, Ershad's rule witnessed continued pro-free market reforms and the devolution of some authority to local government.[84] The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was founded in Dhaka in 1985.[85] The Jatiya Party government made Islam the state religion in 1988.[86]
A popular uprising restored parliamentary democracy in 1991. Since then, Bangladesh has largely alternated between the premierships of Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, as well as technocratic caretaker governments. Emergency rule was imposed by the military in 2007 and 2008 after widespread street violence between the League and BNP. The restoration of democratic government in 2009 was followed by the initiation of the International Crimes Tribunal to prosecute surviving colloborators of the 1971 genocide. Today, the country is an emerging economy, listed as one of the Next Eleven and experiencing growing industrial development, but continues to face political, economic and social challenges.[87][88]
Historical maps and flags of states[edit]
Bengal has been an independent territory during several periods in history, while at other times, it has been part of larger empires. Bengal has also been a regional empire, ruling over neighboring regions like Bihar, Orissa, Arakan, and parts of North India, Assam and Nepal.
Maps[edit]
Gangaridai in Ptolemy's map, 1st century
The Pala Empire, 9th century
The Bengal Sultanate, 16th century
Bengal & Bihar in 1776 by James Rennell
Colonial Bengal, 19th century
Colonial Eastern Bengal and Assam, early 20th century
Map of West Bengal
Map of Bangladesh
Flags[edit]
Flag of Bengal Sultanate
Flag of the Principality of Bengal (15-18th Century)
Flag of Bangladesh during Bangladesh Liberation War
Flag of Bangladesh
Politics[edit]
Politically, the region is divided between the People's Republic of Bangladesh, an independent state, and the eastern provinces of the Republic of India, including West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. Politically both Bangladesh and Indian Bengal are socialist, with left wing parties dominating the region's politics.
Bangladeshi Republic[edit]
The state of Bangladesh is a parliamentary republic based on the Westminster system, with a written constitution and a President elected by parliament for mostly ceremonial purposes. The government is headed by a Prime Minister, who is appointed by the President from among the popularly elected 300 Members of Parliament in the Jatiyo Sangshad, the national parliament. The Prime Minister is traditionally the leader of the single largest party in the Jatiyo Sangshad. Under the constitution, Islam is recognized as the state religion; while Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and people of all other denomiations are stated to enjoy equal rights.
Between 1975 and 1990, Bangladesh had a presidential system of government. Since the 1990s, it was administered by non-political technocratic caretaker governments on four occasions, the last being under military-backed emergency rule in 2007 and 2008. The Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are the two largest political parties in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is a prominent member of the United Nations, being the largest contributor of peacekeeping forces in the world and a key promoter of multilateral diplomacy. It is also a member of SAARC, the Developing 8 Countries, BIMSTEC, the World Trade Organization, NAM, the OIC and the Commonwealth of Nations. A developing country with high levels of poverty, Bangladesh has achieved significant strides in human development compared to its neighbors.
Indian Bengal[edit]
West Bengal, Tripura and Assam (home to the Barak Valley) are provincial states of the Republic of India, with local executives and assemblies- features shared with other states in the Indian federal system. The president of India appoints a governor as the ceremonial representative of the union government. The governor appoints the chief minister on the nomination of the legislative assembly. The chief minister is the traditionally the leader of the party or coalition with most seats in the assembly. President's rule is often imposed in Indian states as a direct intervention of the union government led by the prime minister of India.
Each state has popularly elected members in the Indian lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha. Each state nominates members to the Indian upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha.
The state legislative assemblies also play a key role in electing the ceremonial president of India. The former president of India, Pranab Mukherjee, was a native of West Bengal and a leader of the Indian National Congress.
The two major political forces in the Bengali-speaking zone of India are the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress being minor players.
Crossborder relations[edit]
India and Bangladesh are the world's second and eighth most populous countries respectively. Bangladesh-India relations began on a high note in 1971 when India played a major role in the liberation of Bangladesh, with the Indian Bengali populace and media providing overwhelming support to the independence movement in the former East Pakistan. The two countries had a twenty five-year friendship treaty between 1972 and 1996. However, differences over river sharing, border security and access to trade have long plagued the relationship. In more recent years, a consensus has evolved in both countries on the importance of developing good relations, as well as a strategic partnership in South Asia and beyond. Commercial, cultural and defense cooperation have expanded since 2010, when Prime Ministers Sheikh Hasina and Manmohan Singh pledged to reinvigorate ties.
The Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi operates a Deputy High Commission in Kolkata and a consular office in Agartala. India has a High Commission in Dhaka with consulates in Chittagong and Rajshahi. Frequent international air, bus and rail services connect major cities in Bangladesh and Indian Bengal, particularly the three largest cities- Dhaka, Kolkata and Chittagong. Undocumented immigration of Bangladeshi workers is a controversial issue championed by right-wing nationalist parties in India but finds little sympathy in West Bengal.[89] India has since fenced the border which has been criticized by Bangladesh.[90]
Demographics[edit]
The Bengal region is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. With a population of 300 million, Bengalis are the third largest ethnic group in the world after the Han Chinese and Arabs.[note 1]According to provisional results of 2011 Bangladesh census, the population of Bangladesh was 142,319,000;[91] however, CIA's The World Factbook gives 163,654,860 as its population in a July 2013 estimate. According to the provisional results of the 2011 Indian national census, West Bengal has a population of 91,347,736.[92] So, the Bengal region, as of 2011, has at least 233 million people. This figures give a population density of 1003.9/km2; making it among the most densely populated areas in the world.[93][94]
Bengali is the main language spoken in Bengal. Many phonological, lexical, and structural differences from the standard variety occur in peripheral varieties of Bengali; these include Sylheti, Chittagonian, Chakma, Rangpuri/Rajbangshi, Hajong, Rohingya, and Tangchangya.[95]
English is often used for official work alongside Bengali. Other major Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Assamese, and Nepali are also familiar to Bengalis.[citation needed]
In addition, several minority ethnolinguistic groups are native to the region. These include speakers of other Indo-Aryan languages (e.g., Bishnupriya Manipuri, Oraon Sadri, various Bihari languages), Tibeto-Burman languages (e.g., A'Tong, Chak, Koch, Garo, Megam, Meitei Manipuri, Mizo, Mru, Pangkhua, Rakhine/Marma, Kok Borok, Riang, Tippera, Usoi, various Chin languages), Austroasiatic languages (e.g., Khasi, Koda, Mundari, Pnar, Santali, War), and Dravidian languages (e.g., Kurukh, Sauria Paharia).[95]
Life expectancy is around 70.36 years for Bangladesh[96] and 70.2 for West Bengal.[97][98] In terms of literacy, West Bengal leads with 77% literacy rate,[93] in Bangladesh the rate is approximately 71%.[99][note 2] The level of poverty in West Bengal is at 19.98%, while in Bangladesh it stands at 12.9%[100][101][102]
West Bengal has one of the lowest total fertility rates in India. West Bengal's TFR of 1.6 roughly equals that of Canada.[103]
About 20,000 people live on chars. Chars are temporary islands formed by the deposition of sediments eroded off the banks of the Ganges in West Bengal, which often disappear in the monsoon season. They are made of very fertile soil. The inhabitants of the chars are not recognised by the Government of West Bengal on the grounds that it is not known whether they are Bengalis or Bangladeshi refugees. Consequently, no identification documents are issued to char-dwellers who cannot benefit from health care, barely survive because of very poor sanitation and are prevented from emigrating to the mainland to find jobs when they have turned 14. On a particular char, it was reported that 13% of women died at childbirth.[104]
Economy[edit]
Historically, Bengal has been the industrial leader of the subcontinent.
The region is one of the largest rice producing areas in the world, with West Bengal being India's largest rice producer and Bangladesh being the world's fourth largest rice producer.[105][105] Other key crops include jute, tea, sugarcane and wheat. There are significant reserves of limestone, natural gas and coal. Major industries include textiles, leather goods, pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding, banking and information and communication technology.
Three stock exchanges are located in the region, including the Dhaka Stock Exchange, the Chittagong Stock Exchange and the Calcutta Stock Exchange.
Below is a comparison of economies in the region of Bengal
Bangladesh | West Bengal (India) |
US$314.66 billion[106] | US$180 billion[107] |
US$1,925 per person[108] | US$2,000 per person[109] |
Intra-Bengal trade[edit]
Bangladesh and India are the largest trading partners in South Asia, with two-way trade valued at an estimated US$6.9 billion.[110] Much of this trade relationship is centered on some of the world's busiest land ports on the Bangladesh-India border, particularly the West Bengal section.
The partition of India severed the once strong economic links which integrated the region. Decades later, frequent air, rail and bus services are increasingly connecting cities in Bangladesh and West Bengal, as well as the wider region, including Northeast India, Nepal and Bhutan. However the overall economic relationship remains well below potential.
Major cities[edit]
Metropolises[edit]
The following are the largest cities in Bengal (in terms of population):
Rank | City | Country | Population (2011) | Image |
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1 | Dhaka | Bangladesh | 14,543,124 (Statistical Metropolitan Area)[111][self-published source?] | National Parliament House, Dhaka |
2 | Kolkata | India | 14,035,959 (Urban Agglomeration)[112] | Kolkata Victoria Memorial |
3 | Chittagong | Bangladesh | 4,009,423 (Statistical Metropolitan Area)[113][self-published source?] | |
4 | Gazipur | Bangladesh | 1,820,374[114][self-published source?] | Islamic University of Technology, Gazipur |
5 | Narayanganj | Bangladesh | 1,636,441[114][self-published source?] | Kanchpur Industrial Area, Narayanganj |
6 | Khulna | Bangladesh | 1,046,341[114][self-published source?] | Gollamari War Memorial, Khulna |
7 | Rajshahi | Bangladesh | 763,952[114] | Rajshahi Skyview |
8 | Rangpur | Bangladesh | 650,000 | Bangladesh Bank building in Rangpur |
9 | Durgapur | India | 566,517[115] | Durgapur Express Way |
10 | Asansol | India | 563,917[116] | Modernised ISP, Asansol |
11 | Sylhet | Bangladesh | 526,412[114][self-published source?] | Rose View Hotel, Sylhet |
12 | Siliguri | India | 513,264[117][118] | Siliguri City Center |
13 | Bogra | Bangladesh | 412,537[114][self-published source?] | Bangladesh Bank regional office, Sherpur Road, Bogra |
14 | Cumilla | Bangladesh | 407,901[114][self-published source?] | Street view of Chawk Bazar Road, Comilla |
15 | Agartala | India | 400,004[119] | Ujjayanta Palace, Agartala |
Major ports[edit]
Port Name | Type | Status | Location | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|
Port of Chittagong | Sea Port | Active | Chittagong, Chittagong | Bangladesh |
Port of Haldia | Sea Port River Port | Active | Haldia, East Midnapur | India |
Port of Mongla | Sea Port | Active | Mongla, Bagerhat, Khulna | Bangladesh |
Port of Payra | Sea Port | Active | Kalapara, Patuakhali, Barisal | Bangladesh |
Port of Kolkata | River Port | Active | Kolkata, Kolkata | India |
Port of Narayanganj | River Port | Active | Narayanganj, Dhaka | Bangladesh |
Port of Benapole-Petrapole | Landport | Active | Sharsha, Jessore-Bangaon, North 24 Parganas | Jessore-Bangaon |
Tourist attractions[edit]
Name | Type | City/Area | Sample Image |
---|---|---|---|
Sundarbans | world largest natural mangrove | Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat, South 24 Parganas | A Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) from Sundarbans |
Cox's Bazar | world's longest uninterrupted sea beach | Cox's Bazar | Cox's Bazar sea beach |
Kuakata | sea beach | Patuakhali | Kuakata sea beach |
Digha | sea beach | East Midnapur | Digha sea beach |
Chittagong Hill Tracts | hilly areas inhabited by different indigenous tribes | Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Bandarban | A view of Sajek, Rangamati |
Ratargul | only swamp forest in Bengal region | Sylhet District | A view of Ratargul |
Lawachara National Park | major national park and nature reserve | Moulvibazar, Sylhet | A view of Lawachara national park |
Satchhari | reserve forest | Habiganj, Sylhet | A view of Satchari national park |
Siliguri | hilly area of foothills of Himalayas | Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri | A view of Siliguri Metropolis |
Strategic importance[edit]
The Bengal region is located at the crossroads of two huge economic blocs, the SAARC and ASEAN. It gives access to the sea for the landlocked countries of Nepal and Bhutan, as well as the Seven Sister States of North East India. It is also located near China's southern landlocked region, including Yunnan and Tibet.
Both India and Bangladesh plan to expand onshore and offshore oil and gas operations. Bangladesh is Asia's seventh-largest natural gas producer. Its maritime exclusive economic zone potentially holds many of the largest gas reserves in the Asia-Pacific.[120]
The Bay of Bengal is strategically important for its vital shipping lanes and its central location between the Middle East and the Pacific. The Bay of Bengal Initiative, based in Dhaka, brings together Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka to promote economic integration in the subregion. Other regional groupings include the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation (BCIM) and the Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal (BBIN) Initiative.
Culturally, Bengal is significant for its huge Hindu and Muslim populations. Bengali Hindus make up the second largest linguistic community in India. Bengali Muslims are the world's second largest Muslim ethnicity (after Arab Muslims), and Bangladesh is the world's third largest Muslim-majority country (after Indonesia and Pakistan).
Culture[edit]
Part of a series on the |
Culture of Bengal |
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Folk genres Devotional Classical genres Modern genres People Instruments Dance Theater Organizations People |
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Language[edit]
The Bengali language developed between the 7th and 10th centuries from Apabhraṃśa and Magadhi Prakrit.[121] It is written using the indigenous Bengali alphabet, a descendant of the ancient Brahmi script. Bengali is the 10th most spoken language in the world. It is an eastern Indo-Aryan language and one of the easternmost branches of the Indo-European language family. It is part of the Bengali-Assamese languages. Bengali has greatly influenced other languages in the region, including Odia, Assamese, Chakma, Nepali and Rohingya. It is the sole state language of Bangladesh and the third most spoken language in India.
Bengali binds together a culturally diverse region and is an important contributor to regional identity. The 1952 Bengali Language Movement in East Pakistan is commemorated by UNESCO as International Mother Language Day, as part of global efforts to preserve linguistic identity.
Currency[edit]
In both Bangladesh and West Bengal, currency is commonly denominated as taka. The Bangladesh taka is an official standard bearer of this tradition, while the Indian rupee is also written as taka in Bengali script on all of its banknotes. The history of the taka dates back centuries. Bengal was home one of the world's earliest coin currencies in the first millennium BCE. Under the Delhi Sultanate, the taka was introduced by Muhammad bin Tughluq in 1329. Bengal became the stronghold of the taka. The silver currency was the most important symbol of sovereignty of the Sultanate of Bengal. It was traded on the Silk Road and replicated in Nepal and China's Tibetan protectorate. The Pakistani rupee was scripted in Bengali as taka on its banknotes until Bangladesh's creation in 1971.
Literature[edit]
Bengali literature বাংলা সাহিত্য | |
---|---|
Bengali literature | |
By category Bengali language | |
Bengali literary history | |
History of Bengali literature | |
Bengali language authors | |
Chronological list – Alphabetic List | |
Bengali writers | |
Writers – Novelists – Poets | |
Forms | |
Novel – Poetry – Science Fiction | |
Institutions and awards | |
Literary Institutions Literary Prizes | |
Related Portals Literature Portal West Bengal Portal |
Bengali literature has a rich heritage. It has a history stretching back to the 3rd century BCE, when the main language was Sanskrit written in the brahmi script. The Bengali language and script evolved circa 1000 CE from Magadhi Prakrit. Bengal has a long tradition in folk literature, evidenced by the Chôrjapôdô, Mangalkavya, Shreekrishna Kirtana, Maimansingha Gitika or Thakurmar Jhuli. Bengali literature in the medieval age was often either religious (e.g. Chandidas), or adaptations from other languages (e.g. Alaol). During the Bengal Renaissance of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Bengali literature was modernised through the works of authors such as Michael Madhusudan Dutta, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Satyendranath Dutta and Jibanananda Das. In the 20th century, prominent modern Bengali writers included Syed Mujtaba Ali, Jasimuddin, Manik Bandopadhyay, Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Buddhadeb Bose, Sunil Gangopadhyay and Humayun Ahmed.
Prominent contemporary Bengali writers in English include Amitav Ghosh, Tahmima Anam, Jhumpa Lahiri and Zia Haider Rahman among others.
Personification[edit]
The Mother Bengal is a female personification of Bengal which was created during the Bengali renaissance and later adopted by the Bengali nationalists.[122] The Mother Bengal represents not only biological motherness but its attributed characteristics as well – protection, never ending love, consolation, care, the beginning and the end of life. In Amar Sonar Bangla, the national anthem of Bangladesh, Rabindranath Tagore has used the word 'Maa' (Mother) numerous times to refer to the motherland i.e. Bengal. Despite her popularity in patriotic songs and poems, her physical representations and images are rare.
Art[edit]
The Pala-Sena School of Art developed in Bengal between the 8th and 12th centuries and is considered a high point of classical Asian art.[123][124] It included sculptures and paintings.[125]
Islamic Bengal was noted for its production of the finest cotton fabrics and saris, notably the Jamdani, which received warrants from the Mughal court.[126] The Bengal School of painting flourished in Kolkata and Shantiniketan in the British Raj during the early 20th century. Its practitioners were among the harbingers of modern painting in India.[127]Zainul Abedin was the pioneer of modern Bangladeshi art. The country has a thriving and internationally acclaimed contemporary art scene.[128]
Architecture[edit]
Classical Bengali architecture features terracotta buildings. Ancient Bengali kingdoms laid the foundations of the region's architectural heritage through the construction of monasteries and temples (for example, the Somapura Mahavihara). During the sultanate period, a distinct and glorious Islamic style of architecture developed the region.[129] Most Islamic buildings were small and highly artistic terracotta mosques with multiple domes and no minarets. Bengal was also home to the largest mosque in South Asia at Adina. Bengali vernacular architecture is credited for inspiring the popularity of the bungalow.[130]
The Bengal region also has a rich heritage of Indo-Saracenic architecture, including numerous zamindar palaces and mansions. The most prominent example of this style is the Victoria Memorial, Kolkata.
In the 1950s, Muzharul Islam pioneered the modernist terracotta style of architecture in South Asia. This was followed by the design of the Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban by the renowned American architect Louis Kahn in the 1960s, which was based on the aesthetic heritage of Bengali architecture and geography.[131][132]
Sciences[edit]
The Gupta dynasty, which is believed to have originated in North Bengal, pioneered the invention of chess, the concept of zero, the theory of Earth orbiting the Sun, the study of solar and lunar eclipses and the flourishing of Sanskrit literature and drama.[64][133] Bengal was the leader of scientific endeavors in the subcontinent during the British Raj. The educational reforms during this period gave birth to many distinguished scientists in the region. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose pioneered the investigation of radio and microwaveoptics, made very significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimentalscience in the Indian subcontinent.[134]IEEE named him one of the fathers of radio science.[135] He was the first person from the Indian subcontinent to receive a US patent, in 1904. In 1924–25, while researching at the University of Dhaka, Prof Satyendra Nath Bose well known for his works in quantum mechanics, provided the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate.[136][137][full citation needed][138]Meghnad Saha was the first scientist to relate a star's spectrum to its temperature, developing thermal ionization equations (notably the Saha ionization equation) that have been foundational in the fields of astrophysics and astrochemistry.[139]Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri was a physicist, known for his research in general relativity and cosmology. His most significant contribution is the eponymous Raychaudhuri equation, which demonstrates that singularities arise inevitably in general relativity and is a key ingredient in the proofs of the Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems.[140] In the United States, the Bengali American engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan emerged as the 'father of tubular designs' in skyscraper construction. Ashoke Sen is an Indian theoretical physicist whose main area of work is string theory. He was among the first recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize “for opening the path to the realisation that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory”.[141]
Music[edit]
The Baul tradition is a unique heritage of Bengali folk music.[142] The 19th century mystic poet Lalon Shah is the most celebrated practitioner of the tradition.[143] Other folk music forms include Gombhira, Bhatiali and Bhawaiya. Hason Raja is a renowned folk poet of the Sylhet region. Folk music in Bengal is often accompanied by the ektara, a one-stringed instrument. Other instruments include the dotara, dhol, flute, and tabla. The region also has a rich heritage in North Indian classical music.
Cuisine[edit]
Bengali cuisine is the only traditionally developed multi-course tradition from the Indian subcontinent. Rice and fish are traditional favourite foods, leading to a saying that 'fish and rice make a Bengali'.[144] Bengal's vast repertoire of fish-based dishes includes Hilsa preparations, a favourite among Bengalis. Bengalis make distinctive sweetmeats from milk products, including Rôshogolla, Chômchôm, and several kinds of Pithe. The old city of Dhaka is noted for its distinct Indo-Islamic cuisine, including biryani, bakarkhani and kebab dishes.
Boats[edit]
There are 150 types of Bengali country boats plying the 700 rivers of the Bengal delta, the vast floodplain and many oxbow lakes. They vary in design and size. The boats include the dinghy and sampan among others. Country boats are a central element of Bengali culture and have inspired generations of artists and poets, including the ivory artisans of the Mughal era. The country has a long shipbuilding tradition, dating back many centuries. Wooden boats are made of timber such as Jarul (dipterocarpus turbinatus), sal (shorea robusta), sundari (heritiera fomes), and Burma teak (tectons grandis). Medieval Bengal was shipbuilding hub for the Mughal and Ottoman navies.[145][146] The British Royal Navy later utilized Bengali shipyards in the 19th-century, including for the Battle of Trafalgar.
Attire[edit]
Bengali women commonly wear the shaŗi and the salwar kameez, often distinctly designed according to local cultural customs. In urban areas, many women and men wear Western-style attire. Among men, European dressing has greater acceptance. Men also wear traditional costumes such as the kurta with dhoti or pyjama, often on religious occasions. The lungi, a kind of long skirt, is widely worn by Bangladeshi men.
Festivals[edit]
Durga Puja is the biggest festival of the Hindus in Bengal as well as the most significant socio-cultural event of the region in general.[147]The two Eids and Muharram are the important festivals for Muslims. Christmas (called Borodin in Bengali) is also a major festival where people irrespective of their beliefs and faiths participate. Other major festivals include Kali Puja, Saraswati Puja, Holi, Rath Jatra, Janmashtami, Poila Boishakh and Poush Parbon.
Media[edit]
Bangladesh has a diverse, outspoken and privately owned press, with the largest circulated Bengali language newspapers in the world. English-language titles are popular in the urban readership.[148] West Bengal had 559 published newspapers in 2005,[149] of which 430 were in Bengali.[149]Bengali cinema is divided between the media hubs of Kolkata and Dhaka.
Sports[edit]
Cricket and football are popular sports in the Bengal region.
Local games include sports such as Kho Kho and Kabaddi, the latter being the national sport of Bangladesh.
An Indo-Bangladesh Bengali Games has been organised among the athletes of the Bengali speaking areas of the two countries.[150]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^Roughly 163 million in Bangladesh and 100 million in the Republic of India (CIA Factbook 2014 estimates, numbers subject to rapid population growth); about 3 million Bangladeshis in the Middle East, 1 million Bengalis in Pakistan, 0.4 million British Bangladeshi.
- ^CRI do not give a breakdown by gender or state the age bracket for the data
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- ^'Chittagong (Bangladesh): City Districts and Subdistricts – Population Statistics in Maps and Charts'. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
- ^ abcdefg'Bangladesh: Divisions and Urban Areas'. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
- ^'West Bengal: Durgapur'. Census of India.
- ^'West Bengal: Asansol'. Census of India.
- ^'West Bengal: Siliguri (Part – Darjiling)'. Census of India.
- ^'West Bengal: Siliguri (Part – Jalpaiguri)'. Census of India.
- ^'Tripura: Agartala'. Census of India.
- ^Jack Detsch, The Diplomat. 'Bangladesh: Asia's New Energy Superpower? | The Diplomat'. thediplomat.com. Archived from the original on 29 December 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^'Bengali language | Britannica.com'. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^Symbols of Water and Woman on Selected Examples of Modern Bengali Literature in the Context of Mythological TraditionArchived 12 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Bagchi, J. (1993). The History and Culture of the Pālas of Bengal and Bihar, Cir. 750 A.D.-cir. 1200 A.D. Abhinav Publications. p. 127. ISBN9788170173014. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^Huntington, S. L. (1984). The 'Påala-Sena' Schools of Sculpture. E.J. Brill. p. 4. ISBN9789004068568. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^'Pala art | Britannica.com'. Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^'In Search of Bangladeshi Islamic Art | The Metropolitan Museum of Art'. metmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 12 August 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^Mitter, P. (1994). Art and Nationalism in Colonial India, 1850–1922: Occidental Orientations. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-44354-8. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^Yee, Amy (13 March 2014). 'Log In – New York Times'. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^'Bait Ur Rouf Mosque | Aga Khan Development Network'. akdn.org. Archived from the original on 19 November 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^Oxford English Dictionary, 'bungalow'; Online Etymology DictionaryArchived 6 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine
- ^'WORLDVIEW'. worldviewcities.org. Archived from the original on 30 December 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^'WORLDVIEW'. worldviewcities.org. Archived from the original on 2 January 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^Thomas Khoshy, Elementary Number Theory with Applications, Academic Press, 2002, p. 567. ISBN0-12-421171-2.
- ^Chatterjee, Santimay and Chatterjee, Enakshi, Satyendranath Bose, 2002 reprint, p. 5, National Book Trust, ISBN81-237-0492-5
- ^Sen, A. K. (1997). 'Sir J. C. Bose and radio science'. Microwave Symposium Digest. IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium. Denver, CO: IEEE. pp. 557–560. doi:10.1109/MWSYM.1997.602854. ISBN0-7803-3814-6.
- ^Dr Subodh Mahanti. 'Satyendra Nath Bose, The Creator of Quantum Statistics'. Vigyan Prasar. Archived from the original on 12 July 2016.
- ^Wali 2009, p. xvii, xviii, xx (Foreword).
- ^J J O'Connor and E F Robertson (October 2003). 'Satyendranath Bose'. The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017.
- ^Kean, Sam (2017). 'A forgotten star'. Distillations. 3 (1): 4–5. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
- ^Desikan, Shubashree (5 March 2015). 'No Big Bang, the universe was there all along: studies'. Archived from the original on 21 June 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018 – via www.thehindu.com.
- ^Pulakkat, Hari (19 December 2013). 'How many of us know about Breakthrough Prize winner, Ashoke Sen?'. The Economic Times.
- ^'The Bauls of Bengal'. Folk Music. BengalOnline. Archived from the original on 19 January 2003. Retrieved 26 October 2006.
- ^Banik, Nandadulal. 'Anirvan'. Banglapedia. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
- ^Gertjan de Graaf, Abdul Latif. 'Development of freshwater fish farming and poverty alleviation: A case study from Bangladesh'(PDF). Aqua KE Government. Archived from the original(PDF) on 1 November 2006. Retrieved 22 October 2006.
- ^Hossain, Khandakar Akhter (2012). 'Shipbuilding Industry'. In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
- ^'Prospects of shipbuilding industry in Bangladesh'. New Age. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
- ^'Durga Puja'. Festivals of Bengal. West Bengal Tourism, Government of West Bengal. Archived from the original on 28 November 2006. Retrieved 28 October 2006.
- ^'Bangladesh profile – Media'. BBC News. Archived from the original on 31 July 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ^ ab'General Review'. Registrar of Newspapers for India. Archived from the original on 18 January 2010. Retrieved 1 September 2006.
- ^'Bangladesh dominate Indo-Bangla Games, clinch 45 gold medals'. Thaindian News. Indian-Asian News Service. 26 February 2008. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2008.
External links[edit]
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Bengal. |
- Bangladesh at Curlie
- West Bengal at Curlie
Languages of Bangladesh | |
---|---|
Official | Bengali |
National | Bengali |
Regional | UnofficialChittagonian, Sylheti, Rangpuri |
Minority | Bishnupuriya, Chakma, Hajong, Tangchangya, Oraon Sadri, Khasi, Koda, Mundari, Pnar, Santali, War-Jaintia, Kurukh, Sauria Paharia, A'Tong, Chak, Chin, Asho, Bawm, Falam, Haka, Khumi, Koch, Garo, Megam, Meitei Manipuri, Mizo, Mru, Pangkhua, Rakhine/Marma, Kok Borok, Riang, Tippera and Usoi |
Immigrant | Bihari • • Rohingya • Urdu |
Foreign | Arabic, English and Hindustani |
The national language, Bengali, is the only official language of Bangladesh according to the third article of the Constitution of Bangladesh.[1] With 98% of Bangladeshis fluent in Bengali (including dialects) as their first language, Bangladesh is the only monolingual country in South Asia.[2]Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 made it mandatory to use Bengali in all government affairs except in the cases of foreign relations.[3]
The indigenous people of northern and southeastern Bangladesh speak a variety of native languages.
- 2Non-Indo-Aryan languages
- 3Other languages
Indo-Aryan languages[edit]
The lowlands of Bangladesh form the eastern half of the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal and the Bengali language is spoken by the majority of the country's inhabitants. There are also some Eastern Indic language varieties, which are variously classified either as dialects of Bengali or separate but closely related languages. They can be thought of forming a dialect continuum.
- Bengali branch:
- Bengali proper: spoken all over the country.
- Bishnupriya Manipuri: An Indo-Aryan language by the Bishnupriya Manipuri people who live in Bangladesh. Bishnupriya Manipuri is distinct from the Bengali languages and contains many features and elements of the Tibeto–Burman languages.
- Chakma: Spoken in the Chittagong Hill Tract Region. Unrelated to the Tibeto-Burman languages commonly found in the region.
- Chittagonian: Spoken in the South–East region of Chittagong, it is often considered to be a dialect of Bengali, but both languages are largely mutually unintelligible.
- Hajong: Originally a Tibeto-Burman language that has shifted over time to an Indic language.
- Marma: Originated from Tibeto-Burman language and mother tongue of Marma ethnic people.
- Rohingya: Spoken in Arakan State, Burma and by refugees from that region, currently living in Bangladesh's Chittagong Division. It is also often called Arkani by native speakers.
- Sylheti: Spoken by Sylhetis in the North–East region of Sylhet.
- Tangchangya: Tanchangya is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Tanchangya people of Bangladesh. It is closely related to Chakma.
- Oraon Sadri: Also a major language of Jharkhand State, India.
- Bihari: Spoken primarily by the refugees from Bihar State, India.
Non-Indo-Aryan languages[edit]
The indigenous languages of the region are members of the Austroasiatic, Dravidian and Tibeto-Burman families. Most of these languages are spoken in mountainous areas.
Austroasiatic languages[edit]
While the more widely spoken and better-known Austroasiatic languages are spoken in Southeast Asia (e.g. Khmer and Vietnamese), smaller languages of that family are spoken by indigenous communities of northern and eastern Bangladesh.
- Khasi: also a major language of Meghalaya State, India
Dravidian languages[edit]
Two Dravidian languages are spoken by indigenous communities of western Bangladesh.
Tibeto-Burman languages[edit]
The mountainous areas along the northern and eastern edges of the Indian Subcontinent are inhabited primarily by speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages. Indigenous Tibeto-Burman-speaking communities are found through the northern, eastern, and especially the southeastern parts of Bangladesh.
- Chin languages:
- Garo: also a major language of Meghalaya State, India
- Meitei Manipuri: also a major language of Manipur State, India
- Mizo: also a major language of Mizoram State, India
- Rakhine/Marma: also a major language of Arakan State, Burma
- Tripuri languages: a major language group of Tripura State, India
Other languages[edit]
English (previous colonial)[edit]
English is used marginally in the Judiciary.[4] Before the commencement of Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987, English had a considerable presence in the official affairs, but since 1987, the usage of English waned significantly in the government affairs to the exclusion of a marginal presence in the higher tier of the Judiciary. However, English is taught as a compulsory subject in all schools, colleges and universities.
Arabic (previous ceremonial language, religious and minor literary language)[edit]
Arabic (عربي) was an official language ever since the territory of the modern state People's Republic of Bangladesh became a part of the Bengal Sultanate. However some disagree and believe the presence of Arabic came before during the Delhi Sultanate. Arabic is used in many Muslim congregations such as the weekly Jumu'ah Salah in which a sermon (khutbah) is given in Arabic in addition to Bengali. In the Constitution of Bangladesh, there are two references to Arabic to in the introduction and Part I of the constitution. The document begins with the Arabic phrase بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ which is translated as “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful”. Article 2A declares that Islam is the state religion of the republic.
Arabic is the religious language of Muslims. The Quran, Sunnah, Hadith and Muslim theology is taught in Arabic with Bengali translation. The Bangladeshi diaspora living in the Middle East has further increased the number of people who can speak Arabic in Bangladesh. Arabic is taught as a religious language in mosques, schools, colleges, universities and madrassahs as well as in tradition Bengali Muslim households. A majority of Bangladesh's Muslim population has had some form of formal or informal education in the reading, writing and pronunciation of the Arabic language as part of their religious education.
Persian (previous colonial language)[edit]
- 'Farsi in Bangladesh' — Banglapedia
From ancient times Bengal and Persia had been in contact with each other. There were many trading posts around coastal Bengal.[5] As people converted to Islam, they became acquainted with Arabic scriptures, as well as with Persian, the language of the Sufi preachers. The influence of the language spread rapidly after it gained the status of court language and it was the official for over 600 years (1203-1837 AD).
Urdu (previous language)[edit]
Urdu (اردو) was an official language in East Pakistan. It is still spoken by the Bihari community, Muhajirs from Uttar Pradesh, and in Old Dhaka.
References[edit]
- ^'Article 3. The state language'. The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd. Ministry of Law, The People's Republic of Bangladesh. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
- ^Faquire, A.B.M. Razaul Karim (December 2010). 'Language Situation in Bangladesh'. The Dhaka University Studies. 67: 63–77.
- ^'Bangla Bhasha Procholon Ain, 1987' বাংলা ভাষা প্রচলন আইন, ১৯৮৭ [Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987]. Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. Government of Bangladesh. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
- ^'Bangla Rules in All Domains of National Life'. Daily Sun. Archived from the original on 25 April 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
- ^'Persian - Banglapedia'. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
Further reading[edit]
- UNESCO, 'Bangladesh: Some endangered languages (information from Ethonologue, UNESCO)', June 2010.
External links[edit]
Subject classification: this is a language-learning resource. |
Completion status: Deliberately incomplete for educational purposes. |
This course is intended to teach the Bengali language. The Bengali taught here is (unless mentioned otherwise) the standard colloquial version of the Bengali language that is widely used in the media both in the country of Bangladesh and in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Who is this course for?[edit]
This is a comprehensive course for people who want to develop linguistic (lexical, grammatical and phonetic) and communication skills in the Bengali language.
First contact[edit]
Let's dive straight into some simple Bengali sentences to give you a first impression of how Bengali is structured.
Sentence 1 : I speak Bengali.
আমি aa•mi | বাংলা baang•laa | বলি bo•li |
---|---|---|
I | Bengali (Language) | speak. |
Subject | Direct Object | Verb |
aa = আ m = ম mi = মি Aami = আমি | b = ব baa = বা baang = বাং l = ল laa = লা baanglaa = বাংলা | b = ব bo = ব l = ল li = লি boli = বলি |
Note : The simple affirmative present tense Bengali sentence follows the Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order. To learn more about this, see Bengali Word Order
Sentence 2 : I do not speak Bengali.
আমি aa•mi | বাংলা baang•laa | বলি bo•li | না naa. |
---|---|---|---|
I | Bengali (Language) | speak | not. |
Subject | Direct Object | Verb | Negative marker for Present |
aa = আ m = ম mi = মি aami = আমি | b = ব baa = বা baang = বাং l = ল laa = লা baanglaa = বাংলা | b = ব bo = ব l = ল li = লি Boli = বলি | n = ন naa = না |
New tamil video songs download 2018. Note : The simple negative present tense Bengali sentence adds the negative marker -naa after the verb to make it negative.
Sentence 3 : Do you speak Bengali ? (informal you)
তুমি tu•mi | কি ki | বাংলা baang•laa | বল? baw•lo? |
---|---|---|---|
You (informal) | [no meaning] | Bengali (Language) | speak? |
Subject | yes-no question marker without meaning | Direct Object | Verb |
t = ত tu = তু m = ম mi = মি tumi = তুমি | k = ক ki = কি | b = ব baa = বা baang = বাং l = ল laa = লা baanglaa = বাংলা | b = ব baw = ব l = ল lo = ল bawlo = বল |
Note :
1.The dummy yes/no question marker ki is placed right after the Subject.
2. Also, as the subject changes from aami (I) to tumi (You), observe that the form of the present tense verb changes. To learn more about this, see Verbs
List of Grammar Lessons (not in order)[edit]
- Lesson x. Subject Pronouns
- Lesson x. Nouns
- Lesson x. Verbs
- Lesson x. Adjectives
- Lesson x. Adverbs
- Lesson x. Degree Modifiers for adjectives, adverbs and verbs
- Lesson x. Comparison with nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs
- Lesson x. Object Pronouns
- Lesson x. Word Order
- Lesson x. Postpositions
- Lesson x. Expressing temporal information (When or how often something happens)
- Lesson x. Expressing locative information (Where something happens)
- Lesson x. Expressing Obligation with Verb (modal auxiliary 'uchit')
- Lesson x. Expressing Possibility with Verb (modal auxiliary 'paaraa')
- Lesson x. Expressing Ability or Knowhow with Verb (modal auxiliary 'jaanaa' or 'paaraa')
- Lesson x. Expressing Want with Verb (modal auxiliary 'chaaoaa')
- Lesson x. Expressing Need with Verb (modal auxiliary 'dawrkaar' or 'laagaa')
- Lesson x. Expressing Cause (Why something happens)
- Lesson x. Expressing Consequence
- Lesson x. Expressing Goal (For what something happens)
- Lesson x. Expressing Opposition (how to say but, on the contrary, however, etc.)
- Lesson x. Expressing Addition of Ideas (how to say and, moreover, etc)
- Lesson x. Expressing Conditions (how to say if, unless, depends etc)
- Lesson x. Expressing Anteriority, Posteriority and Simultaneity (how to say before, after, during etc)
- Lesson x. Characterizing using relative clauses (how to add information using who, which, where, whose, that etc)
- Lesson x. Asking Questions
List of Vocabulary Lessons (not in order)[edit]
- Lesson x. Greetings and basic polite expressions
- Lesson x. Numbers
- Lesson x. Measurements and Quantities
- Lesson x. Characteristics of Objects: Size, Shape, Material, Texture, Color
- Lesson x. Geography and nationalities
- Lesson x. Languages
- Lesson x. Human Body
- Lesson x. Movements, Gestures and Postures
- Lesson x. Cycle of Life
- Lesson x. Family and Relationships
- Lesson x. Personal Information
- Lesson x. Daily activities
- Lesson x. Housing
- Lesson x. Appearance and Clothing
- Lesson x. Places in the city
- Lesson x. Directions
- Lesson x. Traveling, roads and transport
- Lesson x. Personal Objects
- Lesson x. Education
- Lesson x. Work and Workplaces
- Lesson x. Shops and shopping
- Lesson x. Vacation
- Lesson x. Leisure activities
- Lesson x. Animals
- Lesson x. Plants and Trees
- Lesson x. Food
- Lesson x. Eating out
- Lesson x. Cooking, Recipes and Gastronomy
- Lesson x. Shops and shopping
- Lesson x. Graphic Arts
- Lesson x. Theater
- Lesson x. Cinema
- Lesson x. Music
- Lesson x. Architecture
- Lesson x. Photography
- Lesson x. Sports and games
- Lesson x. Post office and other services
- Lesson x. Media
- Lesson x. Computers and Internet
- Lesson x. Books and literature
- Lesson x. Intellectual life
- Lesson x. Communication
- Lesson x. Feelings and Emotions
- Lesson x. Health and Medicine
- Lesson x. Fashion
- Lesson x. Money and Banking
- Lesson x. Character and Personality
- Lesson x. Science and Research
- Lesson x. Crime, Law and Justice
- Lesson x. Environment
- Lesson x. Weather and Climate
- Lesson x. Economy and Finances
- Lesson x. Politics
- Lesson x. Social Issues
- Lesson x. Morality
- Lesson x. Mind and psychology
- Lesson x. Time
- Lesson x. The Past
- Lesson x. The Future
- Lesson x. Belief and religion
Appendices[edit]
- Appendix x. Foreign words
Also found in: Thesaurus, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Ben·ga·li
(bĕn-gô′lē, bĕng-)adj.Bengali
(bɛnˈɡɔːlɪ; bɛŋ-) nBen•ga•li
(bɛnˈgɔ li, -ˈgɑ-, bɛŋ-)n., pl. -lis.
Noun | 1. | Bengali - (Hinduism) a member of a people living in Bangladesh and West Bengal (mainly Hindus) Hindooism, Hinduism - a body of religious and philosophical beliefs and cultural practices native to India and based on a caste system; it is characterized by a belief in reincarnation, by a belief in a supreme being of many forms and natures, by the view that opposing theories are aspects of one eternal truth, and by a desire for liberation from earthly evils Bangla Desh, Bangladesh, East Pakistan, People's Republic of Bangladesh - a Muslim republic in southern Asia bordered by India to the north and west and east and the Bay of Bengal to the south; formerly part of India and then part of Pakistan; it achieved independence in 1971 |
2. | Bengali - an ethnic group speaking Bengali and living in Bangladesh and eastern India ethnic group, ethnos - people of the same race or nationality who share a distinctive culture | |
3. | Bengali - a Magadhan language spoken by the Bengali people; the official language of Bangladesh and Bengal Magadhan - a subfamily of Indic languages | |
Adj. | 1. | Bengali - of or relating to or characteristic of Bengal or its people; 'Bengali hills' |
Bengali
[beŋˈgɔːlɪ]Bengali
[bɛnˈgɔːli bɛŋˈgɔːli]nBengali
Bengali
[bɛnˈgɔːlɪ]2.nWant to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content.
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