Bangladeshi people

Bangladeshi people or Bangladeshis are people who are citizens of Bangladesh, which forms an historic part of Asia, containing population of 148 millions. India, in its current boundaries, was formed out of a number of predecessors.

Substantial populations with Indian ancestry, as a result of emigration, exist in many different parts of the world, most notably in United Kingdom, Pakistan, Middle East, Southeast Asia and North America. Population estimates vary from a conservative 7 million to 10 million diaspora.

Anthropologic roots of the people of Bengal

About 98% of the people of present Bangladesh are of mixed race and rest 2% are of tribal stock. There was probably some kind of organized social and political life in Bengal men centuries before any notable event. But we do not possess any detailed information about it. The little that we know from the earliest period is derived almost solely from a study of the Vedic literature.

From the ancient name of Bangladesh its inhabitant became known as ‘Bengal’ or ‘Bangalee’. Vanga and Pundra were its ancient inhabitants. They were different from Dravid and Aryan and like the other ancient inhabitants they were the progenitor of some present races like Kole, Vill, Sakaras, etc.

According to experts some Africans in their move to south-east Asia through Middle East might have remained in Bengal. These early settlers took shelter in flood plains and valleys and developed a language called Austric. Experts describe the ancient inhabitants of Bangladesh as Austro-Asiatic or Austric. They are also called “Nisad”. Maybe Austric people started cultivating for the first time(eg. ‘langal’ is an Austric word)

After them some more people came to Bangladesh who were Mongol-Dravidians speaking but not Mongol or Dravid, and shortly after that the ‘homo-alpaines’ came. Brahmin, Kshtria and other Hindu sects have been created from them. But they were also different from Vedic Aryans.

At the same time, the Mongoloids (closely related to Thai and Burmese) came and settled in the uplands and hilly areas. Besides that, Dravidians came from southern and western parts of south Asia. Dravidians have physical similarity and Middle Eastern people. However, none of the present day experts recognizes the Mongoloids or the Dravidians as a separate race.

Bengal was unknown or little known to the Vedic Aryans during the period represented by the Rik-Samhita. The literary evidence bearing upon the non-Aryan character of the original people of Bengal is supported by the linguistic considerations. According to Sylvain Levi- the primitive people of Bengal and some neighboring provinces spoke a language which was neither Dravidian nor Aryan but belonged to a separate family of speech.

Whatever the ethnic associations of the primitive inhabitants of Bengal may have been, it was not long before the Aryan influence began to spread in the land. At the time of the later Samhitas and Brahmanas, they were gradually exposed to the province. Aryans came from northern parts of the Middle East and Eastern parts of Europe around 1200 BC. Aryo-Dravidians moved to Bengal around 600 BC. Later Arabs, Turks, Mughal, French, Dutch etc. came to Bengal and mixed with the people of Bengal.

Bengal is a hybrid nation as far as cultural and physical features are concerned. Thus, we may therefore legitimately draw the inference that the primitive people of Bengal were different in race and culture from present people.

See also

• List of Bangladeshi people
• Anti Middle Eastern sentiment