Offered by

Prof. M. Emdadul Haq

Dept of Political Science & Sociology
North South University
Highlights: Highlights:
Prelude: Who we are?
Elements of Ethnicity
Bengali ethnicity:
(i) Wave of migrations
(ii) Territorial ethnicity
Ethnicity in Bangladesh:
(i) Bengali Language
(ii) Bengali Muslim
Ethnic minorities
Elements of Ethnicity Elements of Ethnicity
Common heritage: real or presumed
Often based on customs, language, religion, or other
factors.
Group distinctiveness: Specific attributes & societal
institutions that make one group of people carefully
different from others.
Specific kinds of inter-group interactions
Commonality in values, practices & norms
Cultural continuity over time
Racial & blood (DNA) connection assigned at birth.
Bengali Ethnicity Bengali Ethnicity
Mixed features:
Combination of a variety of races
Confluence of various communities with
Dravidian dominance.
Blending in physical appearance.
Speaks mixed language.
Mixed skin color.
Mixed religious identity &
Mixed cultural background.
evvj xRvwZZ ksKi
f vl vq ksKi
eYksKi
DcbvwmK ksKi
Wave of Migrations Wave of Migrations
Bengal has been a hub of ethnic migration from time
immemorial.
Human settlement in Bengal dates back 4,000 years
of history.
Melting pot of ethnic diversity.
Pre-Dravidians: Tibeto-Burman, Austro-Asiatic,
Proto-Austroloid & Proto-Mongoloid population.
Dravidians, Aryans & Mongolians came later.
Aryans were the latest group coming from northern
part of ME/Central Asia during ancient period.
Mongoloid Mongoloid
People with Mongoloid
origin speak language
of the Tibeto-Burmese
population.
Wave of Migrations Wave of Migrations
Aryanization process continued in Bengal from
3
rd
century BC to 5
th
century AD.
Aryo-Dravidians eventually mixed with Austric
& Mongoloid peoples who already had existed
here & acquired current physical shape.
Austric Mone-Khemer group from the
neighboring southeast had also connections
with Bengali people.
Territorial Ethnicity Territorial Ethnicity
Ethnic identity of the Bengali people is closely
linked to the land itself.
Bangla derived from the settlement of the
Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang in 1000BC.
The name of the clan later spread among the
human settlements in Anga, Banga/Vanga,
Gauda, Pundra & Rarha.
Vanga appears in Kautilyas Arthashashra in
the 3
rd
century BC.
Pandit Pandit Kalidasa Kalidasa
Kalidasaputs the
region amidst the
streams of
the Ganges.
Territorial Ethnicity Territorial Ethnicity
Pillar inscription during the period of Chndra
Gupta II also marked the name.
Banga referred in Sanskrit literature under the
Hindu dynasties.
Marco Polo used the name Bengal in his travel
diary in the 13
th
century.
Bangla is first introduced at the beginning of
the Muslim rule.
Territorial Ethnicity Territorial Ethnicity
In Ain-e-Akbari, Abul Fazle combined the
identity of ancient tribe Bang with the als of
watery land; countrys name being land of
als/ails.
The Portuguese called the region Bengala.
In Persian it was called Bangalah.
The political identity of former East Pakistan
came to be known as Bangla Desh on 4
th
March 1971.
People largely had evolved from the
combination of Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, &
Mongoloid.
Ethnicity in Bangladesh Ethnicity in Bangladesh
A major wave migration by Islamic Sufi-saints
& business people took place during the
medieval period.
Richard M. Eaton: The Rise of Islam in Bengal
Frontier;
T.N. Madan in his article Two faces of Bengali
Ethnicity: Bengali Muslim or Muslim Bengali
discussed about this issue.
Madan raised question about the ethnic
identity of the Bangladeshi people whether
they are Bengali Muslim or Muslim Bengali?
Ethnicity in Bangladesh Ethnicity in Bangladesh
Since the 8
th
century AD Arab, Afghan, Persian & the
Turkish started settling around Gaur & Sonargaon.
Religious conversion of the lower caste Hindus by
the Sufis.
Muslim rule for about 650 years from Bakhtyar
Khiljis invasion until the English colonization in
1757.
Muslim rulers attracted their co-religionists from
other countries & appointed Syeds, Moghals &
Afghans as their officers of State, & granted rent-
free lands to men of learning & piety.
Ethnicity in Bangladesh Ethnicity in Bangladesh
Many parganas & villages still have Persian names,
showing that they once formed part of estates
owned by Muslims.
Their armies were also composed of foreigners who
likewise settled in the country.
East Bengal was a great asylumfor Muslim refugees
from Upper India, especially during the time of the
independent kings (1338 to 1576).
Under the Turks, numerous Muslim families sought
shelter in East Bengal.
Ethnicity in Bangladesh Ethnicity in Bangladesh
In Akbars reign, many religious teachers were
deported to this province.
Largely descendants of Muslims who reached
the subcontinent from ME.
Large number of Muslim migrants were
attracted by the wealth & fertility of the
country.
Those who came remained as permanent
settlers, & it is from them that the present
Muslim population is chiefly descended.
Ethnicity in Bangladesh Ethnicity in Bangladesh
Because of their prolific nature Muslims are
more accommodative than the Hindus, & it is,
therefore, their descendants outnumbered the
indigenous population.
Report on the Census of Bengal 1901
suggests East Bengal had 66.17% Muslim
population.
Present day Bangladesh holds 88.3% Muslims,
10.5% Hindus with small number of Buddhists
& Christians.
Ethnicity in Bangladesh Ethnicity in Bangladesh
About 99% of the people in Bangladesh
speak Bangla & they are Bengali by ethnic
identity.
Urdu-speaking, non-Bengali Muslims of Indian
origin, & various tribal groups, mostly in the
Chittagong Hill Districts comprise the
remainder.
Ethnic Minorities
Three Chittagong hill districts that represent
one tenth of Bangladesh holds one percent of
total population in the country.
They are called under various names: Upajati
(tribal), Adivashi (indigenous), Pahari (hill
people), J ummia (J hum cultivator) etc.
The minor ethnic groups of Bangladesh
nowadays feel that the meaning of tribal or
upajati which is a derogatory term.
They are now officially termed as ethnic
minorities.
Ethnic Minorities
Of the tribes in the Chittagong hill districts,
the Chakma, Marma, and Mro are mostly
Buddhists.
Portions of the Kuki, Khomoi, & Mro
communities practice local religions.
Most of the Mizo are Christians, the Tripura
are Hindus.
Some of the groups are related to the
peoples of Myanmar (Burma), & many follow
Buddhism, although both Hinduism &
Christianity also have a significant following.
Ethnic Minorities
Chittagong hill region became part of the
Muslim rule in 1338 & continued until 1760
when the Mughals lost the region to the East
India Company.
During the partition of British India in 1947,
the region became part of East Pakistan &
later on in 1971 became part of the country.
The state of the insurgency explicitly
emerged after the inception of Bangladesh,
especially since the 23
rd
of J anuary 1974
when Bangladesh was declared a uni-
cultural & uni-lingual nation-state.
Ethnic Minorities
The hill people developed a political platform
Parbattya Chattogram J ana Sanghati Somity to
restore their ethnic rights in 1973 & later it
developed an armed wing so called Shanti Bahini in
1975.
In 1997 the Peace Accord between the Parbattya
Chattogram J ana Sanghati Somity & the Government
brought a conclusion to the insurgency though it has
not been successfully implemented yet.
Ethnic cleansing of the Ruhingas in Myanmar &
Pakistani stranded Biharis in Bangladesh causing
additional concerns.
Summary Summary
People in Bangladesh are homogeneous, but with
heterogeneous origins.
Dominance of Dravidian language & culture.
Sufi religious teachers succeeded in converting many
Bengalis to Islam, even before the arrival of Muslim
armies from the west.
About one third of the mainstream population have
strong ethnic affinity with Turks & Arab Semitics.
One third converted from the Buddhists & upper
caste Hindus, & the rest from the lower caste Hindus.
References: References:
Report on the Census of Bengal, 1901.
Niharanjan Ray, History of the Bengali People
(Hyderabad: Orient Longman Limited, 1994);
T N Madan, Two Faces of Bengali Ethnicity:
Bengali Muslim or Muslim Bengali, The Developing
Economies, Vol.10, Issue 1, 6 March 2007
J awaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India (Bombay:
Asia Publishing House, 1973);
Bangladesh, In Encyclopdia Britannica. Retrieved
October 05, 2009, from Encyclopdia Britannica,
Online