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Khan Mohammad Mirdha's mosque (built 1706) at Atish Khana, in Old Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 

 

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Bangladesh Coat of Arms

 

Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent. Today it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh (previously East Bengal / East Pakistan) and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous kingdoms of Bengal (during local monarchical regimes and British rule) are now part of the neighboring Indian states of Bihar, Assam, Tripura and Orissa. The majority of Bengal is inhabited by Bengali people who speak the Bengali language.

 

 

Diaspora

* Bangladeshi American

* British Bangladeshi

* Bangladeshi Canadian

* Bangladeshi Australian

* Bangladeshi in Japan

* Bangladeshi in Malaysia

 

 

BANGLADESHI

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

 

Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south. The name Bangladesh means "Country of Bengal" in the official Bengali language.

The majority ethnic group of Bangladesh are the Bengali people, comprising 98% of the population. The remainder are mostly Bihari migrants and indigenous tribal groups. There are thirteen tribal groups located in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the most populous of the tribes are the Chakmas. The region has been a source for ethnic tension since the inception of Bangladesh. The largest tribal groups outside the Hill Tracts are the Santhals and the Garos (Achiks). There are also Kaibartta, Mundas, Oraons, and Zomi ethnic groups.

 

Bengali People

The Bengali people are the ethnic community from Bengal (divided between Bangladesh and India) on the Indian subcontinent with a history dating back four millennia. They speak Bengali, a language of the eastern Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. They are an eastern Indo-Aryan people, who are also descended from Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian peoples, and closely related to the Oriya, Assamese, Biharis, and other East Indians, as well as to Munda and Tibeto-Burman peoples. As a result, Bengalis are a heterogeneous and considerably diverse ethnic group. They are mostly concentrated in Bangladesh and in the states of West Bengal and Tripura in India. There are also a number of Bengali communities scattered in New Delhi and several other states of India, such as Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharastra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, and the North-East Indian states, as well as in other countries such as Singapore, the Middle East, United Kingdom (In the London Borough of Tower Hamlets 30.5% of the population is Bangladeshi) and United States.

 

Language Movement Day is a unique part of the culture of Bangladesh. Every year on February 21 this day is observed to pay tribute to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives to establish Bengali as the official language of then East Pakistan in 1952. The mood of the day is sad and humble.

 

Indo-Aryan Peoples

Geographical distribution of the major Indo-Aryan languages (all the colored areas)

Indo-Aryan is an ethno-linguistic term referring to the wide collection of peoples united as native speakers of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranian family of Indo-European languages. Today, there are over one billion native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages, most of them native to South Asia, where they form the majority. It is believed that their linguistic roots can be traced back to the ancient Indo-Iranian peoples.

Origin: The separation of Indo-Aryans proper from the Iranians is commonly dated, on linguistic grounds, to roughly 1800 BC. The Nuristani languages probably split in such early times, and are classified as either remote Indo-Aryan dialects or as an independent branch of Indo-Iranian. By the mid 2nd millennium BC early Indo-Aryans had reached Assyria in the west (the Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni) and the northern Punjab in the east (the Rigvedic tribes).

The spread of Indo-Aryan languages has been connected with the spread of the chariot in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Some scholars trace the Indo-aryans (both Indo-Aryans and European aryans) back to the Andronovo culture (2nd millennium BC). Other scholars have argued that the Andronovo culture proper formed too late to be associated with the Indo-Aryans of India, and that no actual traces of the Andronovo culture (e.g. warrior burials or timber-frame materials) have been found in India and Southern countries like Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Archaeologist J.P. Mallory (1998) finds it "extraordinarily difficult to make a case for expansions from this northern region to northern India" and remarks that the proposed migration routes "only [get] the Indo-Iranian to Central Asia, but not as far as the seats of the Medes, Persians or Indo-Aryans" (Mallory 1998; Bryant 2001: 216). Therefore he prefers to derive the Indo-Aryans from the intermediate stage of the BMAC culture, in terms of a "Kulturkugel" model of expansion. Likewise, Asko Parpola (1988) connects the Indo-Aryans to the BMAC. But although horses were known to the Indo-Aryans, evidence for their presence in the form of horse bones is missing in the BMAC. Parpola (1988) has argued that the Dasas were the "carriers of the Bronze Age culture of Greater Iran" living in the BMAC and that the forts with circular walls destroyed by the Indo-Aryans were actually located in the BMAC. Parpola (1999) elaborates the model and has "Proto-Rigvedic" Indo-Aryans intrude the BMAC around 1700 BCE. He assumes early Indo-Aryan presence in the Late Harappan horizon from about 1900 BC, and "Proto-Rigvedic" (Proto-Dardic) intrusion to the Punjab as corresponding to the Swat culture from about 1700 BC.

Antiquity: An influx of early Indo-Aryan speakers over the Hindukush (comparable to the Kushan expansion of the first centuries AD) together with Late Harappan cultures gave rise to the Vedic civilization of the Early Iron Age. This civilization is marked by a continual shift to the east, first to the Gangetic plain with the Kurus and Panchalas, and further east with the Kosala and Videha. This Iron Age expansion corresponds to the black and red ware and painted grey ware cultures.

For Hellenistic times, Oleg N. Trubachev (1999; elaborating on a hypothesis by Kretschmer 1944) suggests that there were Indo-Aryan speakers in the Pontic steppe. The Maeotes and the Sindes, the latter also known as "Indoi" and described by Hesychius as an "an Indian people".

Middle Ages: Further information: Middle Indic, Middle Kingdoms of India, and History of Hindustani

The various Prakrit vernaculars developed into independent languages in the course of the Middle Ages (see Apabhramsha), forming the Abahatta group in the east and the Hindustani group in the west. The Romani people (also known as Gypsies) are believed to have left India around 1000 AD.

Contemporary Indo-Aryan Peoples: Contemporary Indo-Aryans are spread over most of the northern, western, central and eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, Hyderabad in southern India, and in most parts of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Non-native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages also reach the south of the peninsula. The largest groups are the Hindi, Bengali and Urdu (Hindustani) speakers of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, together with other dialects also grouped as Hindustani, numbering at roughly half a billion native speakers, constituting the largest community of speakers of any of the Indo-European languages. Of the 23 national languages of India, 16 are Indo-Aryan languages (see also languages of India).

Genetic Studies: A study headed by geneticist S.Sharma et al.(2009), collated information for 2809 Indians (681 Brahmins, and 2128 Tribals and Scheduled Castes). The results showed "no consistent pattern of the exclusive presence and distribution of Y-haplogroups to distinguish the higher-most caste, Brahmins, from the lower-most ones, schedule castes and tribals". In its conclusions, the study proposed "the autochthonous origin and tribal links of Indian Brahmins" as well as the origin of R1a1* in the Indian subcontinent

In a study led by Mukherjee et al.(2001), the R1a lineage was found to form around (35)–(45)% among all the castes in North Indian population.

Contradicting these findings, however, a genetic study in Kerala state of India found that the upper caste Hindus were closer relatives to Eastern-Europeans than to Hindus from lower castes.

A study conducted by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in 2009 (in collaboration with Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT) analyzed half a million genetic markers across the genomes of 132 individuals from 25 ethnic groups from 13 states in India across multiple caste groups. The study asserts, based on the impossibility of identifying any genetic indicators across caste lines, that castes in South Asia grew out of traditional tribal organizations during the formation of Indian society and that the Indian population derives largely from two groups, with the "ancient north indian" group predating the advent of the Indo-Aryan languages. According to Kumarasamy Thangarajan, "The initial settlement took place 65,000 years ago in the Andamans and in ancient south India around the same time, which led to population growth in this part...At a later stage, 40,000 years ago, the ancient north Indians emerged which in turn led to rise in numbers here. But at some point of time, the ancient north and the ancient south mixed, giving birth to a different set of population.". However, this study fails to explain the presence of R1a1 in significant frequencies (About 30% average over all of India) in the Indian population, given that R1a1 originated no more than 17,000 years ago.

 

 

Austro-Asiatic Languages

The Austro-Asiatic languages are a large language family of Southeast Asia, and also scattered throughout India and Bangladesh. The name comes from the Latin word for "south" and the Greek name of Asia, hence "South Asia." Among these languages, only Khmer, Vietnamese, and Mon have a long established recorded history, and only Vietnamese and Khmer have official status (in Vietnam and Cambodia, respectively). The rest of the languages are spoken by minority groups. Ethnologue identifies 168 Austro-Asiatic languages. These are traditionally divided into two families, Mon-Khmer and Munda, but two recent classifications have abandoned Mon-Khmer as a valid node, although this is tentative and not generally accepted.

Austro-Asiatic languages have a disjunct distribution across India, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia, separated by regions where other languages are spoken. It is widely believed that the Austro-Asiatic languages are the autochthonous languages of Southeast Asia and the eastern Indian subcontinent, and that the other languages of the region, including the Indo-European, Kradai, Dravidian and Sino-Tibetan languages, are the result of later migrations of people.

The Austro-Asiatic languages are well known for having a "sesqui-syllabic" pattern, with basic nouns and verbs consisting of a reduced minor syllable plus a full syllable. Many of them also have infixes.

Classification: Linguists traditionally recognize two primary divisions of Austro-Asiatic: the Mon-Khmer languages of Southeast Asia, Northeast India and the Nicobar Islands, and the Munda languages of East and Central India and parts of Bangladesh. However, no evidence for this classification has ever been published, and it is possible that the linguistic classification has been influenced by researchers' subjective perception of a racial dichotomy between the speakers of languages that have traditionally been classified as Mon-Khmer and those that have traditionally been classified as Munda.

Each of the families that is written in boldface type below is accepted as a valid clade. However, the relationships between these families within Austro-Asiatic is debated; in addition to the traditional classification, two recent proposals are given, neither of which accept traditional Mon-Khmer as a valid unit. It should be noted that little of the data used for competing classifications has ever been published, and therefore cannot be evaluated by peer review.

Austro-Asiatic peoples

Mon-Khmer peoples

• Mon people
• Khmer people
• Vietic peoples
  • Vietnamese people
  • Muong people
• Bahnar people
• Orang Asli
• Katuic peoples
• Pear (people)
• Khmu people

 

 

Dravidian Peoples

Dravidian people also Dravidians refers to the people who natively speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Populations of speakers are found mostly in southern India. Other Dravidian people are found in parts of central India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Dravidian people with the most speakers (30-70 million each) are Telugus, Tamils, Kannadigas, Malayalis. Others with 1-5 million speakers each are Tuluvas, Gonds and Brahui.

Origins: Kamil V. Zvelebil has suggested that proto-Dravidian was part of a larger Elamo-Dravidian language family. However, George Starostin has disputed the existence of an Elamo-Dravidian language family.

According to a view put forward by geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza in the book The History and Geography of Human Genes, the Dravidians were preceded in the subcontinent by an Austro-Asiatic people, and followed by Indo-European-speaking migrants sometime later. The original inhabitants may be identified with the speakers of the Munda languages, which are unrelated to either Indo-Aryan or Dravidian languages. However, the Munda languages, as a subgroup of the larger Austro-Asiatic language family, are presumed to have arrived in the Indian subcontinent from the east, possibly from the area that is now southwestern China, so any genetic similarity between the present-day speakers of the Munda languages and the "original inhabitants" of India is likely to be due to assimilation of the natives by Southeast Asian immigrants speaking a proto-Munda language.

Some linguists believe that Dravidian-speaking people were spread throughout the Indian subcontinent before a series of Indo-Aryan migrations. In this view, the early Indus Valley civilization (Harappa and Mohenjo Daro) is often identified as having been Dravidian. Cultural and linguistic similarities have been cited by researchers such as Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola as being strong evidence for a proto-Dravidian origin of the ancient Indus Valley civilization.

Some scholars like J. Bloch and M. Witzel believe that the Dravidians moved into an already Indo-Aryan speaking area after the oldest parts of the Rig Veda were already composed. This theory might be supported if a higher antiquity of the Indo-Aryan languages could be established. However, since this theory is mainly a linguistic hypothesis, the Dravidian influence on Aryan languages need not necessarily be equated to a movement of populations.

The Brahui population of Balochistan has been taken by some as the linguistic equivalent of a relict population, perhaps indicating that Dravidian languages were formerly much more widespread and were supplanted by the incoming Indo-Aryan languages.

Thomason & Kaufman (1988) state that there is strong evidence that Dravidian influenced Indic through "shift", that is, native Dravidian speakers learning and adopting Indic languages. Elst (1999) claims that the presence of the Brahui language, similarities between Elamite and Harappan script as well as similarities between Indo-Aryan and Dravidian indicate that these languages may have interacted prior to the spread of Indo-Aryans southwards and the resultant intermixing of languages. Erdosy (1995:18) states that the most plausible explanation for the presence of Dravidian structural features in Old Indo-Aryan is that the majority of early Old Indo-Aryan speakers had a Dravidian mother tongue which they gradually abandoned. Even though the innovative traits in Indic could be explained by multiple internal explanations, early Dravidian influence is the only explanation that can account for all of the innovations at once – it becomes a question of explanatory parsimony; moreover, early Dravidian influence accounts for the several of the innovative traits in Indic better than any internal explanation that has been proposed.

Zvelebil remarks that "Several scholars have demonstrated that pre-Indo-Aryan and pre-Dravidian bilingualism in India provided conditions for the far-reaching influence of Dravidian on the Indo-Aryan tongues in the spheres of phonology, syntax and vocabulary".

Genetics: The genetic views on race differ in their classification of Dravidians. According to population geneticist L.L. Cavalli-Sforza of Stanford, based on work done in the 1980s, Indians are genetically Caucasian, but Lewontin rejects the label Caucasian. Cavalli-Sforza found that Indians are about three times closer to West Europeans than to East Asians. Dr. Eduardas Valaitis, in 2006, found that India is genetically closest to East and Southeast Asians with about 15% more genetic similarity than to Europeans; he also found that India could be considered very distinct from other regions. Genetic anthropologist Stanley Marion Garn considered in the 1960s that the entirety of the Indian Subcontinent to be a "race" genetically distinct from other populations. Others, such as Lynn B. Jorde and Stephen P. Wooding, claim South Indians are genetic intermediaries between Europeans and East Asians.

A number of earlier anthropologists held the view that the Dravidian peoples together were a distinct race. Comprehensive genetic studies have proven that this is not the case. The genetic studies also indicated that the origin of both Dravidian and Indo-Aryan speakers is the Indian subcontinent. Recent studies of the distribution of alleles on the Y chromosome, microsatellite DNA, and mitochondrial DNA in India have cast overwhelmingly strong doubt for a biologically identifiable "Dravidian race" distinct from non-Dravidians in the Indian subcontinent. The only distinct ethnic groups present in South Asia, according to genetic analysis, are the Balochi, Brahui, Burusho, Hazara, Kalash, Pathan and Sindhi peoples, the vast majority of whom are found in today's Pakistan.

In a 2009 study of 132 individuals, 560,000 SNPs in 25 different Indian groups were analyzed, providing strong evidence in support of the notion that modern Indians are a hybrid population descending from two pre-historic, genetically divergent populations, one of which, referred to as the 'Ancestral North Indians', aged 40.000 years and the other, called the 'Ancestral South Indians', aged 60.000 years. The intermingling of ANI's and ASI's happened in the same period as the ANI's first appeared, 40.000 years ago. The study also holds, that the caste system grew out of tribal-like organizations of the Indian society. In another study of 2009 conducted among 10 Asian countries, Dravidians were connected with the other Indian populations and peoples of Malaysia, Singapore and China.

 

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* Genetic Analysis of the STR System D20S161 in Japanese and Bangladeshi by Akira Kido, et al.

Abstract: The allele distributions of the STR locus D20S161 have been investigated in Japanese and Bangladeshi people. No deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was observed in either population. D20S161 was found to be a polymorphic STR with seven alleles in Japanese and with six alleles in Bangladeshi. The distribution of allele frequencies in Japanese was very similar to that in Bangladeshi. The D20S161 system can be a potential marker for medicolegal individualization and paternity testing.

 

 

* Genetic Data on 10 Autosomal STR Loci in the Bangladeshi Population by A. Ferdous, et al.

Abstract: Allele frequencies of 10 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci, D3S1358, vWA, D16S539, D2S1338, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D19S433, TH01 and FGA were determined in 211 unrelated Bangladeshi individual using AmpFLSTR SGM Plus PCR Amplification Kit. Statistical parameters of forensic importance, the power of discrimination (PD), observed and expected heterozygosity values (H), polymorphism information content (PIC), probability of match (PM), power of exclusion (PE) and typical paternity index (TPI) were calculated for the loci. These parameters indicated the usefulness of the loci in paternity testing and personal identification in the Bangladeshi population.

 

 

* Haplotype Diversity of 17 Y-chromosomal STR Loci in the Bangladeshi Population by Shafiul Alam, et al.

Abstract: Haplotype and allele frequencies of 17 Y-chromosomal STR loci were determined in 216 unrelated Bangladeshi males. AmpFlSTR® Y-filer™ PCR Amplification kit (Applied Biosystems) was used to type the following Y-STR markers: DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385a/b, DYS438, DYS439, DYS437, DYS448, DYS458, DYS456, DYS635, and Y-GATA-H4. A total of 211 haplotypes for the 17 Y-STR markers were detected and, of these, 206 haplotypes were unique. The haplotype diversity was 0.9998, indicating a high potential for differentiating between male individuals in this population. Comparison analysis via Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) and construction of Neighbor Joining Tree revealed a close association of Bangladeshi population with Indian Gaddi and Southern Indian populations.

 

 

* HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 Allele Frequencies in the Bangladeshi Population by ME Ali, et al.

Abstract: Population genetic studies have become an invaluable tool because of the extreme polymorphism found at some of the loci of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system. In this study, we are reporting for the first time the genetic polymorphism of 141 healthy unrelated Bangladeshi Bangalees living in central region of Dhaka. We studied the HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 loci using polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers. The allelic frequencies, two and three locus haplotype frequencies were statistically analyzed. A total of 16 HLA-A alleles, 26 HLA-B alleles and 14 HLA-DRB1 alleles were detected. A*33-B*44 (8.15%) was the most common two loci class 1 haplotype, whereas A*33-B*44-DRB1*07 (6.38%) was the most frequent three loci haplotype. The most common HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-DRB1 alleles were A*33 (17.02%), B*15 (19.5%) and DRB1*15 (29.07%), respectively. Construction of phylogenetic tree using average linkage between groups and correspondence analysis showed close associations with Indian non-tribal random Dravidians, north Indian Hindus and some relations with Mongolian and Pakistani populations. We believe this data will provide useful information for bone marrow registry, legal medicine, disease association and anthropological studies.

 

 

* Y-chromosome STR Haplotypes in a Bangladeshi Population by Y Dobashi, et al.

Abstract: Allele frequencies and haplotypes for 10 Y-chromosome STR loci, DYS19, DYS385, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS438 and DY439, were determined in 72 unrelated Bangladeshi males using Y-PLEX5 and Y-PLEX6 Amplification Kits. This population demonstrated 71 haplotypes, of which 70 were unique. The haplotype diversity calculated from the 10 Y-STR loci was 0.9996 and the discrimination capacity was 0.9861.

 

 

* Ethnic Variations of a Retinoblastoma Susceptibility Gene (RB1) Polymorphism in Eight Asian Populations by P Kadam-Pai, et al.

Abstract: An A --> G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at nucleotide 153,104 in the retinoblastoma susceptibility locus (RB1) at 13q14 was previously reported to be present only in Asians. In this study, we determined the distribution of this SNP in normal Southeast Asian populations (Chinese, Malay, Javanese, Thai, Filipino), in South Asian populations (Bangladeshi, Pakistani Pushtun and Indian) and in Chinese retinoblastoma cases and control subjects. The RB1 SNP was present in all populations at an overall frequency of =/< 0.18. Heterozygosity was higher in the Southeast Asian groups (0.14-0.34) than in the South Asian groups (Bangladeshi and Indian) (0.04-0.06). Significant differences in allele frequencies were found between the two population groups. Interestingly, our Pakistani population comprised of ethnic Pushtuns from northwest Pakistan was significantly different from the neighbouring Bangladeshi and Indian populations. No significant difference was found between Chinese case patients and control subjects. This RB1 SNP appears to be an ethnic variant prevalent in Southeast Asian populations and may be useful for studying RB1 inheritance by pedigree analysis.

 

 

Haplogroup O2 (Y-DNA)

In human genetics, Haplogroup O2 (P31, M268) is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. Haplogroup O2 is a descendent branch of the greater Haplogroup O.

Distribution: Although Haplogroup O2 is not found so frequently in modern human populations as its brother clade, Haplogroup O3, it is notable for the peculiarities of its geographical distribution. Like all clades of Haplogroup O, Haplogroup O2 is found only among the males of modern Eastern Eurasian populations. However, unlike Haplogroup O3, which is shared in common by almost all populations of Eastern Eurasia as well as many populations of Oceania, Haplogroup O2 is generally found only among certain populations, such as the Austroasiatic peoples of India, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia, the Nicobarese of the Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean, and the Koreans, Japanese, and southern Tungusic peoples in China.

Besides its widespread and patchy distribution, Haplogroup O2 is also notable for the fact that it can be divided into two major subclades that show almost completely disjunct distribution. One of these subclades, Haplogroup O2a (M95), is found among some (mostly tribal) populations of South and Southeast Asia, as well as among the Khmers of Cambodia and the Balinese of Indonesia. There are also some reports that Haplogroup O2a may be associated with the so-called Negrito populations of mainland Southeast Asia, such as the Semang and the Senoi, but it is not clear whether this is their original Y-chromosome heritage or rather the result of incursion of Austroasiatic Y-chromosomes from the Khmers and related peoples who may have lent the Negritos their Austroasiatic languages in a manner similar to the Bantus' hypothesized lending of their languages and Haplogroup E Y-chromosomes to the pygmoid peoples of Africa, such as the Baka and Mbuti. The other major subclade, Haplogroup O2b (SRY465, M176), is found almost exclusively among the Korean,Japanese,Thai,Vietnamese and Indonesian.

 

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South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities, also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as the Indian subcontinent south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is surrounded (clockwise, from west to east) by Western Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Asia, Southeastern Asia and the Indian ocean.

South Asia typically consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Some definitions may also include Afghanistan, Burma, Tibet, and the British Indian Ocean Territories. Iran is also included in the UN subregion of "Southern Asia," although many sources consider Iran as being part of West Asia. Various universities' departments of South Asian Studies also, by and large, reject the idea that Iran is part of South Asia

South Asia is home to well over one fifth of the world's population, making it both the most populous and most densely populated geographical region in the world. The region has often seen conflicts and political instability, including wars between the region's two nuclear-armed states, Pakistan and India. South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an economic cooperation organization in the region.

Ethnic Groups: South Asia, which consists of the nations of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, is ethnically diverse, with more than 2,000 ethnic entities with populations ranging from hundreds of millions to small tribal groups. South Asia has been invaded and settled by many ethnic groups over the centuries - including various Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and Iranian groups - and amalgamation of Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and native societies has produced composite cultures with many common traditions and beliefs. But, the traditions of different ethnic groups in South Asia have diverged throughout earlier times, sometimes giving rise to strong local traditions such as the distinct South Indian culture.

Other ethnic groups, successively streaming in later mainly from Central Asia and Iran, e.g. Sakas, Kushans, Huns etc. influenced pre-existing South Asian cultures. Among the last of these new arrivals were the Arabs followed by the Turks, the Pashtuns and the Moghuls. However, Arab influence remained relatively limited in comparison to that of the Turks, Pashtuns and Moghuls, who brought in much cultural influence and contributed to the birth of Urdu, a syncretic language of combined Indo-Persian heritage, which is widely spoken today. Ethnic Englishmen and other Britons are now practically absent after their two centuries long colonial presence, although they have left an imprint of western culture in the elite society.

 

 

Indian Subcontinent

The term "Indian subcontinent" refers to a large, self-contained landmass which is geographically separated from the rest of the Asian continent. Due to similar scope, the terms "South Asia" and "Indian subcontinent" are used by some academics interchangeably. Due to political sensitivities, some prefer to use the terms "South Asian Subcontinent", the "Indo-Pak Subcontinent", or simply "South Asia" or "the Subcontinent" over the term "Indian subcontinent". According to some academics, the term "South Asia" is in more common use in Europe and North America, rather than the terms "Subcontinent" or the "Indian Subcontinent". Indologist Ronald B. Inden argues that the usage of the term "South Asia" is getting more widespread since it clearly distinguishes the region from East Asia. However, this opinion is not shared by all.

By dictionary entries, the term subcontinent signifies "having a certain geographical or political independence" from the rest of the continent, or "a vast and more or less self-contained subdivision of a continent." It may be noted that geophysically the Tsang Po river in Tibet is situated at the outside of the border of the Subcontinental structure, while the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan is situated inside that border.

According to one clubbing of countries, it includes most parts of South Asia, including those on the continental crust (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan), an island country on the continental shelf (Sri Lanka), and an island country rising above the oceanic crust (the Maldives). Another clubbing includes only Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, the mainstay of the British Raj, as the Subcontinent.

This version also includes the disputed territory of Aksai Chin, which was part of British Indian princely state Jammu and Kashmir, but is now administered as a part of Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang. A booklet published by the United States Department of State in 1959 includes Afghanistan, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, Nepal, and Pakistan as part of the "Subcontinent of South Asia". When the term Indian Subcontinent is used to mean South Asia, the islands countries of Sri Lanka and the Maldives are sometimes not included, while Tibet and Nepal are included and excluded intermittently, depending on the context.

 

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Genetics and Archaeogenetics of South Asia

The genetics and archaeogenetics of the ethnic groups of South Asia aim at uncovering these groups' genetic history.

The geographic position of India makes Indian populations important for the study of the early dispersal of human populations on the Eurasian continent.

The Indian Genome Variation Consortium observed high levels of genetic divergence between groups of populations that cluster largely on the basis of ethnicity and language. Studies based on mtDNA variation have also reported genetic commonalities in Indian populations. Recent research based on molecular studies and archaeological record have also suggested an autochthonous differentiation of the genetic structure of the populations in South Asia.

It has been found that the node of the phylogenetic tree of mtDNA, ancestral to typically Central Asian, Middle Eastern and European maternal lineages are also to be found in south Asia at relatively high frequencies. The inferred divergence of this common ancestral node is estimated to have occurred slightly less than 50,000 years ago. The major maternal lineages represented by mtDNA Haplogroups in India are M, R and U, whose coalescence times have been dated back to 50,000 BP. The major paternal lineages represented by Y chromosomes are haplogroups L, H and variations of R. Early studies on paternal lineages based on Y chromosomal markers had taken haplogroup R1a1, which is widespread in central and western Asia (especially Iranian speakers) and large parts of Europe (especially Slavic and Scandinavian populations), as well as in the caste populations in India, as an indication of the Indo Aryan migration into India from Central Asia. But later studies revealed that R1a1 is widespread in the South Indian Dravidian speaking tribal populations also, which has led credence to the proposition that both caste and tribal populations of India derive largely from the same genetic heritage of Pleistocene southern and western Asians and have received limited gene flow from external regions since the Holocene.

 

mtDNA

The largest Indian mtDNA haplogroups are M, R and U The common "M" and "R" haplogroups seem to be confined to Asia, but the less encountered (in South Asia) "U" haplogroup centered on the Caucasus extensively overlaps and is frequent among Indian and European populations supporting the clearly detectable (but with relatively minor impact) recent (the last 15,000 years) enrichment (by flow to India) of the Indian mtDNA pool with the western-Eurasian lineages effected by the recent Aryan Invasion Theory mtDNA model.

Arguing for the longer term "rival Y-Chromosome model", Stephen Oppenheimer believes that it is highly suggestive that India is the origin of the Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups which he calls the "Eurasian Eves". According to Oppenheimer it is highly probable that nearly all human maternal lineages in Europe and East Asia descended from only four mtDNA lines that originated in South Asia 50,000-100,000 years ago.

Macrohaplogroup M: The macrohaplogroup M which is considered as a cluster of the proto-Asian maternal lineages, harbours more than 60% of Indian MtDNA.

The M macrohaplotype in India includes many subgroups that differ profoundly from other sublineages in East Asia especially Mongoloid populations. The deep roots of M phylogeny clearly ascertain the relic of Indian lineages as compared to other M sub lineages (in East Asia and elsewhere) suggesting 'in-situ' origin of these sub-haplogroups in South Asia, most likely in India. These deep rooting lineages are not language specific and spread over all the language groups in India.

Virtually all modern Central Asian MtDNA M lineages seem to belong to the Eastern Eurasian rather than the Indian subtypes of haplogroup M, which indicates that no large-scale migration from the present Turkic-speaking populations of Central Asia occurred to India. The absence of haplogroup M in Europeans, compared to its equally high frequency among Indians, eastern Asians and in some Central Asian populations is also inconsistent with the notion of 'Caucasoidness' of Indians.

Most important South Asian haplorgoups within M

Haplogroup	Important Sub clades	Populations
M2	M2a, M2b	All through out the continent except in Northwest Peaking in Bangladesh, Andhra Pradesh, coastal Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka
M3	M3a	All the subcontinent except the Northeast 20% in Rajastan and Madhya Pradesh, being also very dense in Maharastra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka
M4	M4a	Peaks in Pakistan and Kashmir
M6	M6a,M6b	Kashmir and near the coasts of the Bay of Bengal, Srilanka
M18		All through out the subcontinent Peaking at Rajastan and Andhra Pradesh
M25		Widespread in most of India (but rare outside it) western Maharastra and Kerala, Punjab

Macrohaplogroup R: The macrohaplogroup R (a very large and old subdivision of macrohaplogroup N) is also widely represented and accounts for the other 40%. A very old an most important subdivision of it is haplogroup U that, while also present in West Eurasia, has several subclades specific of South Asia.

Most important South Asian haplogroups within R:

Haplogroup	Populations
R2	Distributed widely across the sub continent
R5	widely distributed by most of India. Peaks in coastal SW India
R6	widespread at low rates across India. Peaks among Tamils and Kashmiris
W	Found in Pakistan, Kashmir and Punjab. It is rare further east and not to be found in India.

Haplogroup U: Haplogroup U is sub group of Macrohaplogroup R. The distribution of haplogroup U is a mirror image of that for haplogroup M: the former has not been described so far among eastern Asians but is frequent in European populations as well as among Indians. Indian U lineages differ substantially from those in Europe and their coalescence to a common ancestor also dates back to about 50,000 years.

Haplogroup	Populations
U2*	(a parahaplogroup) is sparsely distributed specially in the northern half of the subcontinent. It is also found in SW Arabia.
U2a	shows relatively high density in Pakistan and NW India but also in Karnataka, where it reaches its higher density.
U2b	has highest concentration in Uttar Pradesh but is also found in many other places, specially in Kerala and Sri Lanka. It is also found in Oman.
U2c	is specially important in Bangla Desh and West Bengal.
U2l	is maybe the most important numerically among U subclades in South Asia, reaching specially high concentrations (over 10%) in Uttar Pradesh, Sri Lanka, Sindh and parts of Karnataka. It also has some importance in Oman. mtDNA haplogroup U2i is dubbed "Western Eurasian" in Bamshad et al. study but "Eastern Eurasian (mostly India specific)" in Kivisild et al. study.
U7	is a mainly West Eurasian haplogroup that has a significative presence in NW India and Pakistan.

 

Y Chromosome

The major Y chromosome DNA haplogroup in the sub continent are L, H and variations of R like R1 and R2.

Haplogroup L

India: Haplogroup L is currently present in the Indian population at an overall frequency of ca. 7-15%. The presence of haplogroup L is quite rare among tribal groups (ca. 5,6-7%) (Cordaux et al. 2004, Sengupta et al. 2006, Thamseem et al. 2006)

Earlier studies (e.g. Wells et al. 2001) report a very high frequency (approaching 50%) of Haplogroup L in South India appear to have been due to extrapolation from data obtained from a sample of 84 Kallars, a Tamil-speaking warrior caste of Tamil Nadu, among whom 40 (approx. 48%) displayed the M20 mutation that defines Haplogroup L.

Pakistan: Haplogroup L3 (M357) is found frequently among Burusho (approx. 12%) and Pashtuns (approx. 7%), with a moderate distribution among the general Pakistani population (approx. 2%). Its highest frequency and diversity can be found in south western Balochistan province along the Makran coast (28%) to Indus River delta.

L3a (PK3) is found in approximately 23% of Nuristani in northwest Pakistan.

Haplogroup H: see haplogroup H

Haplogroup R2: see haplogorup R2

R1a1

In South Asia R1a1a has been observed, often with high frequency, in a wide spectrum of demographic groups, such as the Khatri (67%); Hindus in Nepal/India (69%) and in Punjab (47%); and the Mohanna (71%) and Sindhi (49%) in Pakistan. It has also been found in several South Indian Dravidian-speaking tribes including the Chenchu and Valmikis of Andhra Pradesh and the Kallar of Tamil Nadu suggesting that M17 is widespread in tribal southern Indians. To the south of India, it has also been found in >10% of Sinhalese in Sri Lanka.

Haplogroup J2: The J2 haplogroup is almost absent from tribals, but occurs among some Austro-Asiatic tribals (11%). The frequency of J2 is higher in South Indian castes (19%) than in North Indian castes (11%) or Pakistan (12%).

 

Autosomal Markers

Kivisild et al. 2003 emphasize that the combined results from mtDNA, Y-chromosome and autosomal markers suggest that "Indian tribal and caste populations derive largely from the same genetic heritage of Pleistocene southern and western Asians and have received limited gene flow from external regions since the Holocene"

 

South Asia and Central Asia

A recent study (Sengupta 2006) found that the “influence of Central Asia on the pre-existing gene pool was minor. The ages of accumulated microsatellite variation in the majority of Indian haplogroups exceed 10,000–15,000 years, which attests to the antiquity of regional differentiation.” and it concluded: “Our reappraisal indicates that pre-Holocene and Holocene-era—not Indo-European—expansions have shaped the distinctive South Asian Y-chromosome landscape.”

The neolithic spread of farmers to Europe from Levant/Middle East has also been linked to 12f2 (haplogroup J) and the markers M35 (haplogroup E1b1b) and M201 (haplogroup G). But while M35 (E1b1b) is present in Europe, Anatolia, South Caucasus and Iran. Indians generally do not have the Alu insertion in their Y chromosomes. The lack of YAP+ chromosomes (haplogroup E) in India suggests that M35 appeared in the Middle East only after a migration from Iran to South Asia had taken place, but earlier than the later migration of Near and Middle Eastern farmers to Europe.

According to Sahoo (2006), “The sharing of some Y-chromosomal haplogroups between Indian and Central Asian populations is most parsimoniously explained by a deep, common ancestry between the two regions, with diffusion of some Indian-specific lineages northward. The Y-chromosomal data consistently suggest a largely South Asian origin for Indian caste communities and therefore argue against any major influx, from regions north and west of India, of people associated either with the development of agriculture or the spread of the Indo-Aryan language family.”

Several recent studies of the distribution of alleles on the Y chromosome, microsatellite DNA, and mitochondrial DNA in India have cast strong doubt for a biological Dravidian "race" distinct from non-Dravidians in the Indian subcontinent. The only distinct ethnic groups present in South Asia, according to genetic analysis, are the Balochi, Brahui, Burusho, Hazara, Kalash, Pathan and Sindhi peoples, the vast majority of whom are found in today's Pakistan. A 2009 study of 132 individuals using 560,000 SNPs concluded that the modern Indian population is a varying admixture of two divergent ancient populations, the Ancestral South Indians (60,000 ya) and the Ancestral North Indians (40,000 ya).

 

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Bengali Language

Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script. With nearly 230 million total speakers, Bengali is one of the most spoken languages (ranking fifth or sixth) in the world.

Along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali evolved circa 1000-1200 AD from the Magadhi Prakrit, a declined, vernacular form of the ancient Sanskrit language. It is now the primary language spoken in Bangladesh and is the second most spoken language in India.

With a long and rich literary tradition, Bengali binds together a culturally diverse region and contributes significantly to Bengali nationalism. In former East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh), the strong linguistic consciousness led to the Bengali Language Movement, in which several people were killed during protests to maintain writing Bengali in the Bengali script and to gain its recognition as a state language on 21 February 1952. The day has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh, and was declared the International Mother Language Day by UNESCO.

History: Like other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali arose from the eastern Middle Indic languages of the Indian subcontinent. Magadhi Prakrit and Maithili, the earliest recorded spoken languages in the region and the language of the Buddha, evolved into Ardhamagadhi ("Half Magadhi") in the early part of the first millennium AD. Ardhamagadhi, as with all of the Prakrits of North India, began to give way to what are called Apabhramsa languages just before the turn of the first millennium. The local Apabhramsa language of the eastern subcontinent, Purvi Apabhramsa or Apabhramsa Abahatta, eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups: the Bihari languages, the Oriya languages, and the Bengali-Assamese languages. Some argue that the points of divergence occurred much earlier—going back to even 500 but the language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects. For example, Magadhi Prakrit is believed to have evolved into Apabhramsa Abahatta around the 6th century which competed with Bengali for a period of time.

Usually three periods are identified in the history of Bengali:

1. Old Bengali (900/1000–1400)—texts include Charyapada, devotional songs; emergence of pronouns Ami, tumi, etc; verb inflections -ila, -iba, etc. Assamese branch out in this period and Oriya just before this period (8th century-1300).
2. Middle Bengali (1400–1800)—major texts of the period include Chandidas's Srikrishnakirtan; elision of word-final ô sound; spread of compound verbs; Persian influence. Some scholars further divide this period into early and late middle periods.
3. New Bengali (since 1800)—shortening of verbs and pronouns, among other changes (e.g. tahar → tar "his"/"her"; koriyachhilô → korechhilo he/she had done).

Historically closer to Pali, Bengali saw an increase in Sanskrit influence during the Middle Bengali (Chaitanya era), and also during the Bengal Renaissance. Of the modern Indo-European languages in South Asia, Bengali and Marathi maintain a largely Sanskrit vocabulary base while Hindi and others such as Punjabi, Sindhi and Gujarati are more influenced by Arabic and Persian.

Until the 18th century, there was no attempt to document Bengali grammar. The first written Bengali dictionary/grammar, Vocabolario em idioma Bengalla, e Portuguez dividido em duas partes, was written by the Portuguese missionary Manoel da Assumpcam between 1734 and 1742 while he was serving in Bhawal. Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, a British grammarian, wrote a modern Bengali grammar (A Grammar of the Bengal Language (1778)) that used Bengali types in print for the first time. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the great Bengali reformer, also wrote a "Grammar of the Bengali Language" (1832).

During this period, the Choltibhasha form, using simplified inflections and other changes, was emerging from Shadhubhasha (older form) as the form of choice for written Bengali.

Bengali was the focus, in 1951–52, of the Bengali Language Movement (Bhasha Andolon) in what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Although the Bengali language was spoken by the majority of Pakistan's population, Urdu was legislated as the sole national language. On February 21, 1952, protesting students and activists were fired upon by military and police in Dhaka University and three young students and several other people were killed. Later in 1999, UNESCO decided to celebrate every 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the deaths of the three students. In a separate event on May 19, 1961, police in Silchar, India, killed eleven people who were protesting legislation that mandated the use of the Assamese language.

 

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History of the Bengali People

Ancient History: Remnants of civilisation in the greater Bengal region date back 4,000 years, when the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic peoples. The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000 BC.

After the arrival of Indo-Aryans, the kingdoms of Anga, Vanga and Magadha were formed in and around Bengal and were first described in the Atharvaveda around 1000 BC. From the 6th century BC, Magadha expanded to include most of the Bihar and Bengal regions. It was one of the four main kingdoms of India at the time of Buddha and was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas. Under the Maurya Empire founded by Chandragupta Maurya, Magadha extended over nearly all of South Asia, including parts of Persia and Afghanistan, reaching its greatest extent under the Buddhist emperor Ashoka the Great in the 3rd century BC. One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land ruled by the king Xandrammes named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BC. The word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd (Land with the Ganges in its heart) in reference to an area in Bengal. Later from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire.

Middle Ages: One of the first recorded independent king of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around the early 7th century. After a period of anarchy, Gopala came to power in 750 by democratic election. He founded the Bengali Buddhist Pala Empire which ruled the region for four hundred years, and expanded across much of Southern Asia, from Assam in the northeast, to Kabul in the west, to Andhra Pradesh in the south. Atisha was a renowned Bengali Buddhist teacher who was instrumental in revival of Buddhism in Tibet and also held the position of Abbot at the Vikramshila university. Tilopa was also from Bengal region.

The Pala dynasty was later followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sena Empire. Islam was introduced to Bengal in the twelfth century by Sufi missionaries. Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region. Bakhtiar Khilji, an Afghan general of the Slave dynasty of Delhi Sultanate, defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of sultans and feudal lords under the Delhi Sultanate for the next few hundred years. Islam was introduced to the Sylhet region by the Muslim saint Shah Jalal in the early 14th century. In the early 17th century, Mughal general Islam Khan conquered Bengal. However, administration by governors appointed by the court of the Mughal Empire gave way to semi-independence of the area under the Nawabs of Murshidabad, who nominally respected the sovereignty of the Mughals in Delhi. After the weakening of the Mughal Empire with the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, Bengal was ruled independently by the Nawabs until 1757, when the region was annexed by the East India Company after the Battle of Plassey.

Bengal Renaissance: The Bengal Renaissance refers to a social reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the region of Bengal in undivided India during the period of British rule. The Bengal renaissance can be said to have started with Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1775-1833) and ended with Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), although there have been many stalwarts thereafter embodying particular aspects of the unique intellectual and creative output. Nineteenth century Bengal was a unique blend of religious and social reformers, scholars, literary giants, journalists, patriotic orators and scientists, all merging to form the image of a renaissance, and marked the transition from the 'medieval' to the 'modern'.

Independence Movement: Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in which revolutionary groups such as Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar were dominant. Bengalis also played a notable role in the Indian independence movement. Many of the early proponents of the freedom struggle, and subsequent leaders in movement were Bengalis such as Chittaranjan Das, Khwaja Salimullah, Surendranath Banerjea, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Titumir (Sayyid Mir Nisar Ali), Prafulla Chaki, A. K. Fazlul Huq, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Bagha Jatin, Khudiram Bose, Surya Sen, Binoy-Badal-Dinesh, Sarojini Naidu, Aurobindo Ghosh, Rashbehari Bose and many more. Some of these leaders, such as Netaji, did not subscribe to the view that non-violent civil disobedience was the best way to achieve Indian Independence, and were instrumental in armed resistance against the British force. Netaji was the co-founder and leader of the Indian National Army (distinct from the army of British India) that challenged British forces in several parts of India. He was also the head of state of a parallel regime, the Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind, that was recognized and supported by the Axis powers. Bengal was also the fostering ground for several prominent revolutionary organisations, the most notable of which was Anushilan Samiti. A large number of Bengalis were martyred in the freedom struggle and many were exiled in Cellular Jail, the much dreaded prison located in Andaman.

* 1905 Partition of Bengal and 1947 Partition of Bengal, Bangladesh Liberation War

 

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Bengal Renaissance

Raja Ram Mohan Roy is regarded as the "Father of the Bengal Renaissance."

The Bengal Renaissance refers to a social reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the region of Bengal during the period of British rule. The Bengal renaissance can be said to have started with Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1775-1833) and ended with Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), although there have been many stalwarts thereafter embodying particular aspects of the unique intellectual and creative output. Nineteenth century Bengal was a unique blend of religious and social reformers, scholars, literary giants, journalists, patriotic orators and scientists, all merging to form the image of a renaissance, and marked the transition from the 'medieval' to the 'modern'.

Background: During this period, Bengal witnessed an intellectual awakening that is in some way similar to the Renaissance in Europe during the 16th century, although Europeans of that age were not confronted with the challenge and influence of alien colonialism. This movement questioned existing orthodoxies, particularly with respect to women, marriage, the dowry system, the caste system, and religion. One of the earliest social movements that emerged during this time was the Young Bengal movement, that espoused rationalism and atheism as the common denominators of civil conduct among upper caste educated Hindus.

The parallel socio-religious movement, the Brahmo Samaj, developed during this time period and counted many of the leaders of the Bengal Renaissance among its followers. In the earlier years the Brahmo Samaj, like the rest of society, could not however, conceptualize, in that feudal-colonial era, a free India as it was influenced by the European Enlightenment (and its bearers in India, the British Raj) although it traced its intellectual roots to the Upanishads. Their version of Hinduism, or rather Universal Religion (similar to that of Ramakrishna), although devoid of practices like sati and polygamy that had crept into the social aspects of Hindu life, was ultimately a rigid impersonal monotheistic faith, which actually was quite distinct from the pluralistic and multifaceted nature of the way the Hindu religion was practiced. Future leaders like Keshub Chunder Sen were as much devotees of Christ, as they were of Brahma, Krishna or the Buddha. It has been argued by some scholars that the Brahmo Samaj movement never gained the support of the masses and remained restricted to the elite, although Hindu society has accepted most of the social reform programmes of the Brahmo Samaj. It must also be acknowledged that many of the later Brahmos were also leaders of the freedom movement.

The renaissance period after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 saw a magnificent outburst of Bengali literature. While Ram Mohan Roy and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar were the pioneers, others like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee widened it and built upon it. The first significant nationalist detour to the Bengal Renaissance was given by the brilliant writings of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Later writers of the period who introduced broad discussion of social problems and more colloquial forms of Bengali into mainstream literature included the great Saratchandra Chatterjee.

The Tagore family, including Rabindranath Tagore, were leaders of this period and had a particular interest in educational reform. Their contribution to the Bengal Renaissance was multi-faceted. Indeed, Tagore's 1901 Bengali novella, Nastanirh was written as a critique of men who professed to follow the ideals of the Renaissance, but failed to do so within their own families. In many ways Rabindranath Tagore's writings (especially poems and songs) can be seen as imbued with the spirit of the Upanishads. His works repeatedly allude to Upanishadic ideas regarding soul, liberation, transmigration and -- perhaps most essentially -- about a spirit that imbues all creation not unlike the Upanishadic Brahman. Tagore's English translation of a set of poems titled the Gitanjali won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He was the first Asian to win this award. That was the only example at the time but the contribution of the Tagore family is enormous.

Comparison With European Renaissance: The word "renaissance" in European history meant "rebirth" and was used in the context of the revival of the Graeco-Roman learning in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries after the long winter of the dark medieval period. A serious comparison was started by the dramatis personae of the Bengal renaissance like Keshub Chunder Sen, Bipin Chandra Pal and M. N. Roy. For about a century, Bengal’s conscious awareness and the changing modern world was more developed and ahead of the rest of India. The role played by Bengal in the modern awakening of India is thus comparable to the position occupied by Italy in the European renaissance. Very much like the Italian Renaissance, it was not a mass movement; but instead restricted to the upper classes. Though the Bengal Renaissance was the "culmination of the process of emergence of the cultural characteristics of the Bengali people that had started in the age of Hussein Shah, it remained predominantly Hindu and only partially Muslim." There were, nevertheless, examples of Muslim intellectuals such as Saiyed Amir Ali, Mosharraf Hussain, Sake Dean Mahomed, Kazi Nazrul Islam, and Roquia Sakhawat Hussain.

Some scholars in Bangladesh, now hold Bengal Renaissance in a different light. As Professor Muin-ud-Din Ahmad Khan of the department of Islamic History and Culture of Chittagong University, observes:

“

During nineteenth century A.D., Bengal produced a galaxy of reform movements among the Hindus as well Muslims… the Islamic reform movements such as Faraizi, Tariquah-i-Muhhamadiyah, and Taaiyni and Ahl-i-Hadith, occupied a conspicuous position amongst them. These Islamic movements were revivalist in character… these Islamic movements were born of the circumstances, which had also given birth to the contemporary Hindu reform movements such as Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj, which thrived in Bengal side by side with them… Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s movement is generally regarded as ‘Renaissance movement’. It is called by some as ‘Hindu Renaissance’ and by others as ‘Bengali Renaissance’ movement. It should nevertheless be observed that compared with the European ‘Renaissance model’, it was a Renaissance with a difference, especially, deeply inlaid by a revivalist make-up of pristine Hindu or Aryan religious spirit… Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s Renaissance aimed at resuscitating the pristine Aryan spirit, ‘Unitarianism of God’, with the help of modern Western rationalist spirit.

”

Science: During the Bengal Renaissance science was also advanced by several Bengali scientists such as Satyendra Nath Bose and Jagadish Chandra Bose. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was a polymath: a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, and writer of science fiction. He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made very significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent. He is considered one of the fathers of radio science, and is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction. He was the first from the Indian subcontinent to get a US patent, in 1904.

Satyendra Nath Bose was a physicist, specializing in mathematical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose-Einstein condensate. He is honoured as the namesake of the boson. Although more than one Nobel Prize was awarded for research related to the concepts of the boson, Bose-Einstein statistics and Bose-Einstein condensate—the latest being the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, which was given for advancing the theory of Bose-Einstein condensates—Bose himself was never awarded the Nobel Prize.

Literature: According to historian Romesh Chunder Dutt:

“

The conquest of Bengal by the English was not only a political revolution, but ushered in a greater revolution in thoughts and ideas, in religion and society... From the stories of gods and goddesses, kings and queens, princes and princesses, we have learnt to descend to the humble walks of life, to sympathise with the common citizen or even common peasant … Every revolution is attended with vigour, and the present one is no exception to the rule. Nowhere in the annals of Bengali literature are so many and so bright names found crowded together in the limited space of one century as those of Ram Mohan Roy, Akshay Kumar Dutt, Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Hem Chandra Banerjee, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Dina Bandhu Mitra. Within the three quarters of the present century, prose, blank verse, historical fiction and drama have been introduced for the first time in the Bengali literature...

 

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Bangladeshi Cuisine

Bangladeshi cuisine refers to the Bengali cuisine prevalent in Bangladesh. Bangladesh was part of West Bengal before partition, hence the two regions have a common cuisine. However, Bangladeshi cuisine incorporated beef which is not eaten by Hindus. It has considerable regional variations. A staple across the country however is rice and various kinds of lentil, which is locally known as dal (sometimes written as daal) & fish. As a large percentage of the land (over 80% on some occasions) can be under water, either intentionally because of farming practices or due to severe climatological, topographical or geographical conditions, not surprisingly fish features as the major source of protein in the Bangladeshi diet. There is also a saying which goes, "Mach-e-Bhat-e-Bangali" (Fish and rice make a Bengali)

Another integral part of Bangladeshi cuisine is beef, presence of which is a must in most of the feasts and banquets across the country, though consumption of beef is prohibited among the Hindu minority. Regional feasts such as Mezbaan of Chittagong, Ziafat of Sylhet/Comilla or Dawat of Dhaka will remain incomplete without serving hot beef.

Staple Ingredients and Spices: The staples of Bangladeshi cuisine are rice, atta (a special type of whole wheat flour), and at least five dozen varieties of pulses, the most important of which are chana (bengal gram), toor (pigeon pea or red gram), urad (black gram), and mung (green gram). Pulses are used almost exclusively in the form of dal, except chana, which is often cooked whole for breakfast and is processed into flour (besan).

The most important spices in Bangladeshi cuisine are garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin, turmeric and chilli. In sweet dishes, cardamom and cinnamon are amongst the natural flavours.

Regional Specialties

• Aloo Bhaji occurs across the region.
• Luchi a flatbred.
• Shujeer Halwa a sweet from across the region.
• Fuchka a popular spicy snack.

Other Famous Bangladeshi Dishes

• Torkari
• Biryani

There are several styles of Bangladeshi bread, including Luchi, chapati and paratha

Bangladeshi Cuisine Abroad: The United Kingdom has a particularly strong tradition of what the general population would term Indian cuisine which is in fact a misnomer as the restaurants in question are mainly created by people of Bangladeshi origin. In the second half of the 20th century there was a spurt in the development of so-called Anglo-Indian cuisine, as families from countries such as Bangladesh (particularly from the Sylhet Division) migrated to London to look for work. Some of the earliest such restaurants were opened in Brick Lane in the East End of London, a place that is still famous for this type of cuisine and now popularly known as Bangla Town, with even the street signs bilingual.

In the 1960s, a number of inauthentic "Indian" foods were developed by British Bangladeshi chefs, including the widely popular "chicken tikka masala". This tendency has now been reversed, with subcontinental restaurants being more willing to serve authentic Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani food, and to show their regional variations.

Bangladeshi food is now a staple of the British national cuisine. Until the early 1970s more than three quarters of Indian restaurants in Britain were identified as being owned and run by people of Bengali origin. Most were run by migrants from East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh in 1971. Bangladeshi restaurateurs overwhelmingly come from the northern district of Sylhet. Until 1998, as many as 85% of curry restaurants in the UK were Bangladeshi restaurants but in 2003 this figure declined to just over 65%. Currently the dominance of Bangladeshi restaurants is generally declining in some parts of London and the further north one travels.

Meanwhile in the United States, the majority of "Indian" restaurants in New York are run by Bangladeshi Americans. It has been estimated that as many as 95% of them may be run by Bangladeshis.

 

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Monica Ali

(Photo by Robin Matthews/Scriber)

Monica Ali (born October 20, 1967) is a British writer of called Asudi Bangladeshi origin. She is the author of Brick Lane, her debut novel, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003. Ali was voted Granta's Best of Young British Novelists on the basis of the unpublished manuscript.

Biography: Ali was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh to a Bangladeshi father and English mother, moving to Bolton, England at the age of three, where she was raised. Her father is originally from the district of Mymensingh. She went to Bolton School and then studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Wadham College, Oxford. She lives in south London with her husband, Simon, a management consultant, and their two children, Felix and Shumi.

Brick Lane: Brick Lane — named after Brick Lane, a street at the heart of London's Bangladeshi community — follows the life of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi woman who moves to Tower Hamlets in London at the age of 18 — her English consisting of "sorry" and "thank you" — to marry an older man, Chanu, described by The Observer as "one of the novel's foremost miracles: twice her age, with a face like a frog, a tendency to quote Hume and the boundless doomed optimism of the self-improvement junkie, he is both exasperating and, to the reader at least, enormously loveable." Geraldine Bedell wrote in The Observer that the "most vivid image of the marriage is of her [Nazneen] cutting her husband's corns, a task she seems required to perform with dreadful regularity. [Her husband] is pompous and kindly, full of plans, none of which ever come to fruition, and then of resentment at Ignorant Types who don't promote him or understand his quotations from Shakespeare or his Open University race, ethnicity and class module".

Controversy: The novel caused controversy within the Bangladeshi community in Britain because of what certain groups perceived as negative portrayal of people from the Sylhet region. The majority of Bangladeshis living in Bricklane are originally from Sylhet. (Ali is from Dhaka.) Parts of the community were opposed to plans by Ruby Films to film parts of the novel in the Brick Lane area, and formed the "Campaign Against Monica Ali's Film Brick Lane". The film, starring well-known Indian actress Tannishtha Chatterjee, was successfully made and distributed both in the UK and internationally.

The campaign was allegedly supported by Germaine Greer, who wrote that: "As British people know little and care less about the Bangladeshi people in their midst, their first appearance as characters in an English novel had the force of a defining caricature ... [S]ome of the Sylhetis of Brick Lane did not recognise themselves. Bengali Muslims smart under an Islamic prejudice that they are irreligious and disorderly, the impure among the pure, and here was a proto-Bengali writer with a Muslim name, portraying them as all of that and more." Greer's involvement has angered some within the British literary community. Salman Rushdie has called it "philistine, sanctimonious, and disgraceful, but ... not unexpected".

Activists told The Guardian they intended to burn copies of Ali's book during a rally to be held on July 30, 2006, but the demonstration passed without incident.

Ali herself portrays the elders of the community as reluctant to face criticism of the youth: "There were no gangs at all. The white press had made them up to give Bangladeshis a bad name..."

Richard & Judy Bookclub: Although Brick Lane was selected for the first Richard & Judy Book Club in 2004, the Richard and Judy producer, Amanda Ross, has subsequently admitted publicly that she regretted selecting Ali's book for the program. Ali failed to turn up for the book club award ceremony, and Ross claims that Ali was not as supportive of the book club as she would have hoped. Brick Lane is the only book that Ross selected for the book club that she says she didn't believe in.

Film: The book was adapted to a film of the same name in 2007.

Miscellaneous: Ali opposes the British government's attempt to introduce the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, something she writes about in her contribution to Free Expression Is No Offence, a collection of essays published by Penguin in November 2005.

Her writings are perhaps comparable to those of Bernardine Evaristo, Michel Faber and Abdulrazak Gurnah.

Brick Lane: A novel by Monica Ali

 

 

 

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Zainul Abedin

Painting of Jainul Abedin by Sheikh Afjalee

Zainul Abedin (December 29, 1914 – May 28, 1976) was a Bangladesh painter. Like many of his contemporaries, His paintings on the Bengal famine of 1940s is probably his most characteristic work. In Bangladesh, he is referred with honor as Shilpacharya (Great Teacher of the Arts) in Bangladesh.

Early Life and Education: Zainul Abedin was born in Mymensingh, East Bengal, on December 29, 1914. Much of his childhood was spent near the scenic banks of the Brahmaputra River. The Brahmaputra would later appear in many of his paintings and be a source of inspiration all throughout his career. In 1933, Abedin was admitted to Calcutta Government Art School in Kolkata. He joined the faculty of the school after his education there was completed. A series of watercolours that Zainul did as his tribute to the Brahmaputra River earned him the Governor's Gold Medal in an all-India exhibition in 1938. This award gave Abedin the confidence to create his own visual style.

Famine Paintings: The man-made Great Bengal Famine of 1943 moved Zainul deeply. He created his famine paintings, which, when exhibited in 1944, brought him even more critical acclaim. He was an influential member of the Calcutta Group of progressive artists.

Abedin in Liberation Movement: Zainul Abedin was involved in all stages of liberation war movement that finally made the creation of Bangladesh possible. He was in the forefront of the cultural movement to re-establish the Bengali identity, marginalised by the Pakistan government. In 1969, Abedin painted a scroll using Chinese ink, watercolour and wax named Nobanno. This was to celebrate the ongoing non-cooperation movement.

Post-Independence Era: In 1975, he founded the Folk Art Museum at Sonargaon, near Dhaka, and Zainul Abedin Sangrahashala, a gallery of his own works in Mymensingh. Abedin developed lung cancer towards the end of his life and died on May 28, 1976 in Dhaka. Two faces was his last painting, painted shortly before his demise. In 1982, 17 of the 70 pictures housed in Zainul Abedin Sangrahashala were stolen. Only 10 were later recovered.

 

Valiant freedom fighters by Abedin

 

Rebel cow by Abedin