A report on West Bengal, Assam and Bengalis

The ancient political divisions of the Ganges delta.
Coin of the King Shashanka, who created the first separate political entity in Bengal, called the Gauda Kingdom
Map of Eastern Bengal and Assam during 1907–1909
Parts of the Charyapada, a collection of ancient Buddhist hymns which mention the Bengalis, in display at the Rajshahi College Library.
The Pala Empire was an imperial power during the Late Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Bengal.
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.
Depiction of Gangaridai on a map by 11th-century polymath Ptolemy.
Firoz Minar at Gauḍa was built during the Bengal Sultanate.
Showing a historical incident at Kanaklata Udyan, Tezpur
Atiśa is recognised as one of the greatest figures of classical Buddhism, having inspired Buddhist thought from Tibet to Sumatra.
An 1880 map of Bengal
Ghazi Pir is thought to have lived in the Sundarbans some time between the 12th to 13th century.
Subhas Chandra Bose, he was a leading freedom fighter of India
15th-century Portuguese painting of "Bengalis".
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.
Blooming of Kopou Orchid marks the beginning of the festive season of Bihu in Assam.
The Bengali artillery at the Battle of Plassey in 1757.
Many areas remain flooded during the heavy rains brought by a monsoon.
A painting by Shaikh Muhammad Amir of Karraya displaying a syce of Bengal holding two carriage horses.
Districts of West Bengal
People gathered at Kamakhya Temple for the Ambubachi Mela
A Bengali woman in Dhaka clad in fine Bengali muslin, 18th century.
A hut in a village in the Hooghly district
Kamakhya Temple
W.C. Bonnerjee, co-founder and first president of Indian National Congress.
The Grand Hotel in Kolkata. Tourism, especially from Bangladesh, is an important part of West Bengal's economy.
Basistha Temple in Guwahati.
Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, the co-founder and inaugural president of the Awami League.
Freshly sown saplings of rice in a paddy; in the background are stacks of jute sticks.
7th–8th century specimen of Assamese (Kamarupi) literature
Dean Mahomed is credited for introducing shampoo to the Europeans.
Satyajit Ray, a pioneer in Bengali cinema along with Ravi Sankar.
Brahmaputra valley region of Assam
Large numbers of Bengalis have settled and established themselves in Banglatown.
Panchchura Temple in Bishnupur, one of the older examples of the terracotta arts of India.
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
I'tisam-ud-Din was the first educated Bengali and South Asian to have travelled to Europe.
Jamdani Sari of Bangladesh is very popular in West Bengal.
Regional dialects form one of the determiners to the social stratification of Bengalis.
Salt Lake Stadium / Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata
Bodoland district map
Bengali schoolboys in the port city of Chittagong.
Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata
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Eid prayers in Dhaka.
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport is a hub for flights to and from Bangladesh, East Asia, Nepal, Bhutan and north-east India.
The image represent's Dimaraji proposed state map
Durga Puja in Kolkata.
Durgapur Expressway
Barak Valley
Harvesting preparation in Bangladesh.
An SBSTC bus in Karunamoyee
Per capita income of Assam since 1950
A sculpture of the Nawab of Bengal's Royal Peacock Barge in Murshidabad.
Kolkata Metro, India's first metro rail system
A paddy field in Assam
Traditional way of weaving Jamdani.
University of Calcutta, the oldest public university of India.
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
A Bengali man sporting a simple black sherwani.
The front entrance to the academic block of NUJS, Kolkata.
Assamese women busy planting paddy seedlings in their agricultural field in Pahukata village in the Nagaon district of Assam
Artistes from Purulia district of West Bengal performs Chhau dance
Prajna Bhavan, housing the School of Mathematical Sciences and School of RKMVU.
A group of 'Husori' for the occasion of Assamese Bohag Bihu in their traditional attire.
Satyajit Ray, eminent film director who has made Bengali films popular all over the world
Dakhinpat Satra of Majuli
Gitanjali intro featuring its author Rabindranath Tagore
The application of mehndi onto one's hand hosts a ceremony of itself during Bengali wedding seasons.
Girl in traditional Mekhela chador dress with a Dhol wrapped with Gamosa
A Bengali groom partaking in a supplication during his wedding.
A decorative Assamese Jaapi laid over a Gamosa
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A Bihu dancer blowing a pepa (horn)
Qazi Azizul Haque is recognised for his contributions to the development of modern fingerprint biometrics, a discovery of worldwide importance.
A beautifully adorned Jaapi
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
Mising girls dancing during Ali Ai Ligang (Spring Festival)
A sculpture honoring Fazlur Khan at the Willis Tower
Actors of Abinaswar Gosthi performs the play "Surjya Mandirot Surjyasta" directed by Dipok Borah
A lathi khela event taking place in Tangail.
Assamese Thali
A Nouka Baich competition taking place in the monsoon season.
An ethnic preparation of Ghost chili chicken curry of Assam
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.
Lakshminath Bezbaroa, one of the foremost figures of Assamese literature.
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.
Imaginary portrait of Srimanta Sankardeva by Bishnu Prasad Rabha
School girls in the classroom, Lakhiganj High School, Assam
Cotton University, Guwahati
Academic complex of IIT Guwahati
National Institute of Technology, Silchar
Jorhat Engineering College of Assam Science and Technology University
Sattriya Dance
Bodo dance Bagurumba
Jhumair dance in Tea garden
Nagara
Bhupen Hazarika
Assamese youth performing Bihu Dance
Statue of Bishnu Prasad Rabha, Jyoti Prasad Agarwala and Phani Sarma at District Library, Guwahati.
Lil Bahadur Chettri
Citra Bhagavata illustration
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
Assam Kahor (Bell metal) Kahi

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 state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur to the east; Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and Bangladesh to the south; and West Bengal to the west via the Siliguri Corridor, a 22 km wide strip of land that connects the state to the rest of India.

- Assam

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

- West Bengal

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

- West Bengal

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

- Assam

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Overall

Bengal

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The Ganges-Brahmaputra delta
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
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A 2015 census of Sundarbans Bengal tigers found 106 in Bangladesh and 76 in West Bengal.
Hindu sculpture, 11th century
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
The Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, India
New Mooring Terminal, Port of Chittagong
Aerial view of Haldia port, Haldia Port
The strategically important city of Chittagong is home to the busiest port on the Bay of Bengal
Bengali Letters
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
18th century painting of a budgerow
A river in Bangladesh
A mustard and date palm farm in West Bengal
A tea garden in Bangladesh
Kanchenjunga from Singalila National Park, West Bengal
Gangaridai in Ptolemy's map, 1st century
The Pala Empire, 9th 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
The Bengal Sultanate, 16th century
Bengal & Bihar in 1776 by James Rennell
Colonial Bengal, 19th century
Colonial Eastern Bengal and Assam, early 20th century
Province of Bengal (1931)
Map of West Bengal
Map of Bangladesh
Map of Tripura
Flag of Bengal Sultanate
Flag of the Bengal Subah (15-18th Century)
Flag of Bengal Presidency, under British rule
Flag of Bangladesh during Bangladesh Liberation War and after
Flag of Bangladesh from 1972 onwards

Bengal ( বাংলা/বঙ্গ, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predominantly covering present-day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.

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.

East Pakistan

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Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which nowadays is split up between India and Bangladesh.

Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which nowadays is split up between India and Bangladesh.

East Pakistan was a key part of SEATO
Suhrawardy (middle) with US President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
Elizabeth II, seen here visiting Chittagong in 1961, was Pakistan's Queen until 1956.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman announcing the Six Points
Surrender of Pakistan
Yahya Khan
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1971
East and West Pakistan
The Kaptai Dam in 1965
President Ayub Khan (left) with Bengali industrialist Abul Kashem Khan (right) in Chittagong
Entrance to the Adamjee Jute Mills, the world's largest jute processing plant, in 1950
The Daily Ittefaq edited by Tofazzal Hossain was the leading Bengali newspaper in Pakistan
The first Bangladeshi flag was hoisted on 23 March 1971 across East Pakistan, as a protest on Republic Day
The Indo-East Pakistan border as shown by the U.S. Army, c. 1960.
Central business district in Dacca, 1960s
Chittagong Port in 1960
Baitul Mukarram Market Area, Dacca, 1967
Pakistani banknotes included Bengali script until 1971
A poster of the East Pakistan Helicopter Service
Third president of Pakistan, Yahya Khan with Richard Nixon in 1970

East Pakistanis were popularly known as "Pakistani Bengalis"; to distinguish this region from India's state West Bengal (which is also known as "Indian Bengal"), East Pakistan was known as "Pakistani Bengal".

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

Durga Puja, the most notable Hindu festival for Bengali Hindus.

Bengali Hindus

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Durga Puja, the most notable Hindu festival for Bengali Hindus.
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
Kali Puja, a major festival of Bengal
Rath Yatra at Dhamrai in Dhaka district, Bangladesh
A traditional Durga idol
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

Bengali Hindus (বাঙ্গালী হিন্দু/বাঙালি হিন্দু) are an 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.

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.

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

Bengali Muslims

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Muslim-majority districts of Bengal highlighted in green on a map of 1909
The Mosque City of Bagerhat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Bengal Sultanate
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.
Pathrail Mosque
Choto Sona Mosque
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
Maritime links of the Bengal Sultanate
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.

Bengali language

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Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia.

Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia.

Present-day distribution of Indo-European languages in Eurasia. Bengali belongs to easternmost spoken Indo-European language family
Indo- Iranian language family, Bengali marked yellow
The descent of proto-Gauda, the ancestor of the modern Bengali language, from the proto-Gauda-Kamarupa line of the proto-Magadhan(Magadhi Prakrit).
Silver coin of Maharaj Gaudeshwar Danujmardandev of Deva dynasty, circa 1417
Silver coin with proto-Bengali script, Harikela Kingdom, circa 9th–13th century
A mural with Bengali letters in Hamtramck-Detroit, United States
An example of handwritten Bengali. Part of a poem written in Bengali (and with its English translation below each Bengali paragraph) by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1926 in Hungary
An 1855 Dobhashi manuscript of Halat-un-Nabi written by Sadeq Ali using the Sylheti Nagri script.
A map of Bengal (and some districts of Assam and Jharkhand) which shows the dialects of the Bengali language. Eastern Bengali Manbhumi dialect Varendri dialect Rarhi dialect Sundarbani dialect Rajbanshi dialect/language* Chittagonian dialect/language* Sylheti dialect/language* (those marked with an asterisk * are sometimes considered dialects or sometimes as separate languages)

Within India, Bengali is the official language of the states of West Bengal, Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam.

The Bengali Language Movement was a popular ethno-linguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh), which was a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis to gain and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as a state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan.