Global InformationBengalis information
| |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| c. 285 million[1][2][3] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Bangladesh | 175,000,000[4][5][6] |
 India | 97,228,917[7][8] |
 Pakistan | 2,000,000[9] |
| Languages | |
| Bengali and its dialects | |
| Religion | |
| |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Indo-Aryan peoples | |
a. Spoken as the first language by a significant number of Bengalis in Pakistan, India and Old Dhaka. | |
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| Culture of Bengal |
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Bengalis (Bengali: বাঙালি, বাঙ্গালী [baŋali, baŋgali] ⓘ), also rendered as endonym Bangalee,[16][17] are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the Bengal region of South Asia. The current population is divided between the sovereign country Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura, Barak Valley, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jharkhand and part of Meghalaya and Manipur.[18] Most speak Bengali, a language from the Indo-Aryan language family. Sub-section 2 of Article 6 of the Constitution of Bangladesh states, "The people of Bangladesh shall be known as Bengalis as a nation and as Bangladeshis as citizens."[19]
Bengalis are the third-largest ethnic group in the world, after the Han Chinese and Arabs.[20] Thus, they are the largest ethnic group within the Indo-Europeans and the largest ethnic group in South Asia. Apart from Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Manipur, and Assam's Barak Valley, Bengali-majority populations also reside in India's union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with significant populations in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland and Uttarakhand as well as Nepal's Province No. 1.[21][22] The global Bengali diaspora (Bangladeshi Bengalis and Indian Bengalis) have well-established communities in the Middle East, Pakistan, Myanmar, the United Kingdom, the United States, Malaysia, Italy, Singapore, Maldives, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea.
Bengalis are a diverse group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. Today, approximately 68% are adherents of Islam with a large Hindu minority and sizeable communities of Christians and Buddhists. Bengali Muslims, who live mainly in Bangladesh, primarily belong to the Sunni denomination. Bengali Hindus, who live primarily in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam's Barak Valley, Jharkhand and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, generally follow Shaktism or Vaishnavism, in addition to worshipping regional deities.[23][24][25] There also exist small numbers of Bengali Christians, a large number of whom are descendants of Portuguese voyagers, as well as Bengali Buddhists, the bulk of whom belong to the Bengali-speaking Barua group in Chittagong and Rakhine (who should not be confused with other Buddhists of Bangladesh that belong to different ethnic groups).
Like every large culture group in history, Bengalis have greatly influenced and contributed to diverse fields, notably the arts and architecture, language, folklore, literature, politics, military, business, science and technology.
- ^ "Bangladesh wants Bangla as an official UN language: Sheikh Hasina". The Times of India. PTI. 19 February 2012. Archived from the original on 29 September 2023. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
- ^ "General Assembly hears appeal for Bangla to be made an official UN language". UN.org. 27 September 2010. Archived from the original on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
- ^ "Hasina for Bengali as an official UN language". Ummid.com. Indo-Asian News Service. 28 September 2010. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
- ^ "Bangladesh Population (2024) - Worldometer". www.worldometers.info. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
- ^ "Bangladesh Population 1950-2024". www.macrotrends.net. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
- ^ "Bangladesh Population 2024 (Live)". worldpopulationreview.com. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
- ^ "Census of India Website : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India". Censusindia.gov.in. Archived from the original on 7 March 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
- ^ "Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength – 2011" (PDF). Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. 29 June 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
- ^ "Stateless and helpless: The plight of ethnic Bengalis in Pakistan". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 20 September 2022. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
- ^ Datta, Romita (13 November 2020). "The great Hindu vote trick". India Today. Archived from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
Hindus add up to about 70 million in Bengal's 100 million population, of which around 55 million are Bengalis.
- ^ Ali, Zamser (5 December 2019). "EXCLUSIVE: BJP Govt plans to evict 70 lakh Muslims, 60 lakh Bengali Hindus through its Land Policy (2019) in Assam". Sabrang Communications. Archived from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
Hence, about 70 lakh Assamese Muslims and 60 lakh Bengali-speaking Hindus face mass evictions and homelessness if the policy is allowed to be passed in the Assembly.
- ^ "Bengali speaking voters may prove crucial in the second phase of Assam poll". The News Web. April 2021. Archived from the original on 3 June 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
- ^ "Census 2022: Number of Muslims increased in the country". Dhaka Tribune. 27 July 2022. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
- ^ "Religions in Bangladesh | PEW-GRF". Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
- ^ Khan, Mojlum (2013). The Muslim Heritage of Bengal: The Lives, Thoughts and Achievements of Great Muslim Scholars, Writers and Reformers of Bangladesh and West Bengal. Kube Publishing Ltd. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-84774-052-6.
Bengali-speaking Muslims as a group consists of around 200 million people.
- ^ "Part I: The Republic – The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh". Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. 2010. Archived from the original on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
- ^ "Bangalees and indigenous people shake hands on peace prospects". Dhaka Tribune. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
- ^ Khan, Muhammad Chingiz (15 July 2017). "Is MLA Ashab Uddin a local Manipuri?". Tehelka. 14: 36–38.
- ^ "গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশের সংবিধান | ৬৷ নাগরিকত্ব" [Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh | 6. citizenship]. bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ roughly 163 million in Bangladesh and 100 million in India (CIA Factbook 2014 estimates, numbers subject to rapid population growth); about 3 million Bangladeshis in the Middle East, 2 million Bengalis in Pakistan, 0.4 million British Bangladeshi.
- ^ "Bengali - Worldwide distribution". Worlddata.info. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
- ^ "50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India" (PDF). nclm.nic.in. Ministry of Minority Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
- ^ McDermott, Rachel Fell (2005). "Bengali religions". In Lindsay Jones (ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 2 (2nd ed.). MacMillan Reference USA. p. 826. ISBN 0-02-865735-7.
- ^ Frawley, David (18 October 2018). What Is Hinduism?: A Guide for the Global Mind. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 26. ISBN 978-93-88038-65-2.
- ^ Tagore, Rabindranath (1916). The Home and the World ঘরে বাইরে [The Home and the World] (in Bengali). Dover Publications. p. 320. ISBN 978-0-486-82997-5.