A report on East Pakistan, Bengalis and Assam

The ancient political divisions of the Ganges delta.

Parts of the Charyapada, a collection of ancient Buddhist hymns which mention the Bengalis, in display at the Rajshahi College Library.

Map of Eastern Bengal and Assam during 1907–1909

Depiction of Gangaridai on a map by 11th-century polymath Ptolemy.

A map of the British Indian Empire in 1909 during the partition of Bengal (1905–1911), showing British India in two shades of pink (coral and pale) and the princely states in yellow. The Assam Province (initially as the Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam) can be seen towards the north-eastern side of India.

Atiśa is recognised as one of the greatest figures of classical Buddhism, having inspired Buddhist thought from Tibet to Sumatra.

Showing a historical incident at Kanaklata Udyan, Tezpur

Suhrawardy (middle) with US President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles

Ghazi Pir is thought to have lived in the Sundarbans some time between the 12th to 13th century.

Elizabeth II, seen here visiting Chittagong in 1961, was Pakistan's Queen until 1956.

15th-century Portuguese painting of "Bengalis".

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman announcing the Six Points

The Bengali artillery at the Battle of Plassey in 1757.

Blooming of Kopou Orchid marks the beginning of the festive season of Bihu in Assam.

A painting by Shaikh Muhammad Amir of Karraya displaying a syce of Bengal holding two carriage horses.

A Bengali woman in Dhaka clad in fine Bengali muslin, 18th century.

People gathered at Kamakhya Temple for the Ambubachi Mela

W.C. Bonnerjee, co-founder and first president of Indian National Congress.

Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, the co-founder and inaugural president of the Awami League.

Dean Mahomed is credited for introducing shampoo to the Europeans.

7th–8th century specimen of Assamese (Kamarupi) literature

President Ayub Khan (left) with Bengali industrialist Abul Kashem Khan (right) in Chittagong

Large numbers of Bengalis have settled and established themselves in Banglatown.

Entrance to the Adamjee Jute Mills, the world's largest jute processing plant, in 1950

I'tisam-ud-Din was the first educated Bengali and South Asian to have travelled to Europe.

1. Tinskia 2. Dibrugarh 3. Dhemaji 4. Charaideo 5. Sivasagar 6.Lakhimpur 7. Majuli 8. Jorhat 9. Biswanath 10. Golaghat 11. Karbi Anglong 12. Sonitpur 13. Nagaon 14. Hojai 15. Karbi Anglong West 16. Dima Hasao 17. Cachar 18. Hailakandi 19. Karimganj 20. Morigaon 21. Udalguri 22. Darrang 23. Kamrup Metro 24. Baksa 25. Nalbari 26. Kamrup 27. Barpeta 28. Chirang 29. Bongaigaon 30. Goalpara 31. Kokrajhar 32. Dhubri 33. South Salmara Mankachar 34. Bajali

The Daily Ittefaq edited by Tofazzal Hossain was the leading Bengali newspaper in Pakistan

Regional dialects form one of the determiners to the social stratification of Bengalis.

The first Bangladeshi flag was hoisted on 23 March 1971 across East Pakistan, as a protest on Republic Day

Bengali schoolboys in the port city of Chittagong.

The Indo-East Pakistan border as shown by the U.S. Army, c. 1960.

Central business district in Dacca, 1960s

The image represent's Dimaraji proposed state map

Baitul Mukarram Market Area, Dacca, 1967

A sculpture of the Nawab of Bengal's Royal Peacock Barge in Murshidabad.

Pakistani banknotes included Bengali script until 1971

A poster of the East Pakistan Helicopter Service

A Bengali man sporting a simple black sherwani.

A tea garden in Assam: tea is grown at elevations near sea level, giving it a malty sweetness and an earthy flavor, as opposed to the more floral aroma of highland (e.g. Darjeeling, Taiwanese) teas

Third president of Pakistan, Yahya Khan with Richard Nixon in 1970

Artistes from Purulia district of West Bengal performs Chhau dance

Assamese women busy planting paddy seedlings in their agricultural field in Pahukata village in the Nagaon district of Assam

Satyajit Ray, eminent film director who has made Bengali films popular all over the world

A group of 'Husori' for the occasion of Assamese Bohag Bihu in their traditional attire.

Gitanjali intro featuring its author Rabindranath Tagore

The application of mehndi onto one's hand hosts a ceremony of itself during Bengali wedding seasons.

A Bengali groom partaking in a supplication during his wedding.

Girl in traditional Mekhela chador dress with a Dhol wrapped with Gamosa

A decorative Assamese Jaapi laid over a Gamosa

Qazi Azizul Haque is recognised for his contributions to the development of modern fingerprint biometrics, a discovery of worldwide importance.

Meghnad Saha, J C Bose, J C Ghosh, Snehamoy Dutt, S N Bose, D M Bose, N R Sen, J N Mukherjee, N C Nag

A sculpture honoring Fazlur Khan at the Willis Tower

Mising girls dancing during Ali Ai Ligang (Spring Festival)

A lathi khela event taking place in Tangail.

Actors of Abinaswar Gosthi performs the play "Surjya Mandirot Surjyasta" directed by Dipok Borah

A Nouka Baich competition taking place in the monsoon season.

Mohammed Salim, the first South Asian footballer to play for a foreign club. Due to playing in bare feet, he is having them bandaged by Jimmy McMenemy in 1936.

An ethnic preparation of Ghost chili chicken curry of Assam

Cricketer Shakib Al Hasan is currently crowned the world's best all-rounder in all formats for ODI cricket, and one of the greatest of all times.

Lakshminath Bezbaroa, one of the foremost figures of Assamese literature.

Imaginary portrait of Srimanta Sankardeva by Bishnu Prasad Rabha

School girls in the classroom, Lakhiganj High School, Assam

National Institute of Technology, Silchar

Jorhat Engineering College of Assam Science and Technology University

Statue of Bishnu Prasad Rabha, Jyoti Prasad Agarwala and Phani Sarma at District Library, Guwahati.

A folio from the Hastividyarnava manuscript

<center>A page of manuscript painting from Assam; The medieval painters used locally manufactured painting materials such as the colours of hangool and haital and papers manufactured from aloewood bark</center>

Bell metal made sorai and sophura are important parts of culture

The current population is divided between the independent country Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and parts of Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur.

- Bengalis

The rise of self-determination and Bengali nationalism movements in East Bengal, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

- Bengalis

The growth in the Western districts and Southern districts was high primarily due to the influx of people from East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

- Assam

The largest ethnic group of the province were Bengalis, who in turn were the largest ethnic group in Pakistan.

- East Pakistan

East Pakistan was home to immigrant Muslims from across the Indian subcontinent, including West Bengal, Bihar, Sindh, Gujarat, the Northwest Frontier Province, Assam, Orissa, the Punjab and Kerala.

- East Pakistan

Durga Puja, a festival introduced and popularised by Bengalis, is widely celebrated across the state.

- Assam

4 related topics with Alpha

West Bengal

3 links

West Bengal (, Bengali: Poshchim Bongo,, abbr.

Coin of the King Shashanka, who created the first separate political entity in Bengal, called the Gauda Kingdom

The Pala Empire was an imperial power during the Late Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Bengal.

Firoz Minar at Gauḍa was built during the Bengal Sultanate.

Subhas Chandra Bose, he was a leading freedom fighter of India

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

Many areas remain flooded during the heavy rains brought by a monsoon.

A hut in a village in the Hooghly district

The Grand Hotel in Kolkata. Tourism, especially from Bangladesh, is an important part of West Bengal's economy.

Freshly sown saplings of rice in a paddy; in the background are stacks of jute sticks.

Satyajit Ray, a pioneer in Bengali cinema along with Ravi Sankar.

Panchchura Temple in Bishnupur, one of the older examples of the terracotta arts of India.

Jamdani Sari of Bangladesh is very popular in West Bengal.

Salt Lake Stadium / Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport is a hub for flights to and from Bangladesh, East Asia, Nepal, Bhutan and north-east India.

Kolkata Metro, India's first metro rail system

University of Calcutta, the oldest public university of India.

The front entrance to the academic block of NUJS, Kolkata.

Prajna Bhavan, housing the School of Mathematical Sciences and School of RKMVU.

It also borders the Indian states of Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim and Assam.

The state's main ethnic group are the Bengalis, with the Bengali Hindus forming the demographic majority.

In 1947, at the end of British rule over the Indian subcontinent the Bengal Legislative Council and the Bengal Legislative Assembly voted on the Partition of Bengal along religious lines into two separate entities: West Bengal, which continued as an Indian state and East Bengal, a province of Pakistan, which came to be known be as East Pakistan and later became the independent Bangladesh.

Bengal

3 links

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, predominantly covering present-day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.

On a clear day, the snowy peaks of the Himalayas in Nepal and Sikkim can be seen from northern Bangladesh and Darjeeling district of West Bengal

A 2015 census of Sundarbans Bengal tigers found 106 in Bangladesh and 76 in West Bengal.

Inscriptions on the Adina Mosque proclaim the builder Sikandar Shah as "the wisest, the most just, the most perfect and most liberal of the Sultans of Arabia, Persia and India."

A woman in Dhaka clad in fine Bengali muslin, 18th century.

The Battle of Plassey in 1757 ushered British rule

The former royal palace of Hill Tippera in Agartala

Shaheed Minar in Dhaka commemorates the 1952 Language Movement

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led Bengali's decade long independence struggle including the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971

Bangabhaban (the House of Bengal) is the official residence of the president of Bangladesh

Writers' Building, the official seat of the Government of West Bengal

Biman Bangladesh Airlines is the largest airline based in the Bengal region

New Mooring Terminal, Port of Chittagong

The strategically important city of Chittagong is home to the busiest port on the Bay of Bengal

A silver coin with Proto-Bengali script, 9th century

Rabindranath Tagore, known as the Bengali Shakespeare, being hosted at the Parliament of Iran in the 1930s

Bangladeshi paintings on sale at an art gallery in Dhaka

Bungalows originated from Bengali architecture

A sculpture on Fazlur Rahman Khan at the Sears Tower in the United States

A Baul musician. The Baul ballads of Bengal are classified by UNESCO as humanity's intangible cultural heritage

A mustard and date palm farm in West Bengal

Kanchenjunga from Singalila National Park, West Bengal

Gangaridai in Ptolemy's map, 1st century

At its greatest extent, the Bengal Sultanate's realm and protectorates stretched from Jaunpur in North India in the west to Tripura and Arakan in the east

Colonial Eastern Bengal and Assam, early 20th century

Flag of the Bengal Subah (15-18th Century)

Flag of Bengal Presidency, under British rule

Flag of Bangladesh during Bangladesh Liberation War and after

Today, Bengal is divided between Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal; the historical region encompassed the modern-day states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Assam, among others in India, and some parts of Myanmar or Burma (Rakhine State).

The predominant ethnolinguistic group is the Bengali people, who speak the Indo-Aryan language of Bengali.

The western joined 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).

Muslim-majority districts of Bengal highlighted in green on a map of 1909

Bengali Muslims

2 links

The Mosque City of Bagerhat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

A manuscript painting from the Bengal Sultanate depicting Alexander the Great in Nizami Ganjavi's Iskandarnama. The manuscript was produced during the reign of Sultan Nusrat Shah.

Ruins of Adina, once the largest mosque in the Indian subcontinent

The giraffe gifted by the Sultan of Bengal to China's emperor being presented by a Bengali envoy on 20 September 1414

"People of the Kingdom of Bengal", 16th-century Portuguese illustration

A scene from the Gazi scrolls. Pir Gazi was a Sufi preacher. Sufi-led villages were centers of Islamic conversion during the Mughal period.

The Prime Ministers of British Bengal were from the Muslim community of the Bengal Presidency

Awami League leaders Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Tajuddin Ahmad, Syed Nazrul Islam and others in 1970

The award-winning modernist Bait Ur Rouf Mosque

Areas of the Hanafi school are shaded in light green

Ustad Alauddin Khan (centre), one of the greatest maestros of South Asian classical music, performing with his ensemble at Curzon Hall in Dhaka, 1955

Mausoleum of Lalon Shah, a syncretic Baul poet inspired by Sufism

Shaheed Minar (Martyr Monument), at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh, commemorates those who were killed on 21 February 1952 Bengali Language Movement demonstration.

Kazi Nazrul Islam, the national poet of Bangladesh

A Bengali language Quran. Bengali Muslims are fiercely proud of the indigenous Bengali script. Since the 14th century, Arabic texts were added to Bengali texts as part of the Dobhashi tradition

Hason Raja was a mystic Muslim poet whose songs are widely popular in the region

Baitul Mukarram, the national mosque of Bangladesh and the headquarters of the nation's Islamic Foundation

Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize

Bengali Muslims (বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis.

Bengali Muslims make up the majority of Bangladesh's citizens, and are the largest minority in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam.

After the Partition of India in 1947, they comprised the demographic majority of Pakistan until the independence of East Pakistan (historic East Bengal) as Bangladesh in 1971.

Bengali Hindus

2 links

Ethnoreligious population who make up the majority in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jharkhand, and Assam's Barak Valley region.

Devi Durga Sculpture by Sandalwood. Found in Murshidabad, West Bengal. Now kept in Indian Museum, Kolkata.

Dancing Ganesha sculpture from North Bengal, 11th century CE, Asian Art Museum of Berlin (Dahlem).

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism

Swami Vivekananda was a leading figure of the Bengal Renaissance Vivekananda at the Parliament of the World's Religions (1893)

Signature dish of Bengali: Fish And Rice.

Savitri-Satyavan story on Kalighat Painting, 3rd quarter of the 19th century.

Durga Puja, the largest festival of Bengali Hindus

Rath Yatra at Dhamrai in Dhaka district, Bangladesh

The Bengali Hindu diaspora celebrate Durga Puja all over the world.

Ichhai Ghosher Deul at Gourangapur in Paschim Bardhaman, West Bengal. (India)

Dhakeshwari Temple in Dhaka. (Bangladesh)

Baro-chala Buro Shiva temple at Jalshara in Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal. (India)

Devi Manasa with her husband Jaratkaru & son Astik flanked by Nagas, 11th century Pala period statue from Bengal

At the time of the independence of India in 1947, the province of Bengal was partitioned between India and East Pakistan, part of the Muslim-majority state of Pakistan.

In India, they tend to identify themselves as Bengalis while in Bangladesh they tend to identify themselves as Hindus.

The Raj, however, carried out some restructuring, and carved out Bengali Hindu majority districts like Manbhum, Singbhum, Santal Pargana and Purnia awarding them to Bihar and others like Cachar that were awarded to Assam, which effectively made the Bengali Hindus a minority in the united province of Bengal.