Bengali Hindu diaspora

In the modern era, the migration of the Bengali Hindus began during the British colonial era. The Bengali Hindu migrants to Assam were mostly government officials, doctors, lawyers, and teachers by profession. They also settled in parts of the present-day Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand, which were at the time included in the Presidency of Bengal. After the partition of India and subsequent communal violence in East Pakistan and Bangladesh (such as during the 1971 Bangladesh genocide), millions of Bengali Hindu refugees migrated to Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Over the years, professionals have migrated from Kolkata to cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune, as well as overseas.

The Barak Valley comprising the present districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi is contiguous to Sylhet (Bengal plains), where the Bengali Hindus, according to historian J.B. Bhattacharjee, had settled well before the colonial period, influencing the culture of Dimasa Kacaharis.{{cite book |last1=Baruah |first1=Professor of Political Studies Sanjib |last2=Baruah |first2=Sanjib |title=India Against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality |date=29 June 1999 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-3491-6 |page=103 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8k-irMMTnywC&dq=bengalis+in+cachar&pg=PA103 |language=en}} Bhattacharjee describes that the Dimasa kings spoke Bengali and the inscriptions and coins written were in Bengali script. Migrations to Cachar increased after the British annexation of the region. The Bengali Hindus settled in Brahmaputra Valley largely during the colonial period as professionals. After the Partition and especially after the genocide of 1950, Bengali Hindus of Sylhet immigrated to the Barak Valley. Later on during the 1971 Bangladesh genocide, thousands of Bengali Hindus took refuge in Assam. The Bengali Hindu organizations estimate that there are approximately 6.5 million Bengali Hindus in the state.{{cite news |title=12 groups move President - Hindu Bengalis in Assam allege harassment |url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101127/jsp/northeast/story_13225697.jsp |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=27 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071823/https://www.telegraphindia.com/1101127/jsp/northeast/story_13225697.jsp|archive-date=4 March 2016|access-date=15 July 2012}}

However different sources have varied estimation of Bengali Hindu population in Assam.

The non-tribal population of Tripura, the mostly Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims, constitute more than two-thirds of the state's population. The resident and the migrant Bengali population benefitted from the culture and language of the royal house of Tripura thanks to embracement of Hinduism and adoption of Bengali as the state language by the Maharajahs of Tripura much before Indian independence.{{cite book |last1=Dikshit |first1=K. R. |last2=Dikshit |first2=Jutta K. |title=North-East India: Land, People and Economy |date=21 October 2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-94-007-7055-3 |page=352 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iorHBAAAQBAJ&dq=The+Manikya+kings+adopted+Bengali+culture&pg=PA352 |language=en}} After the Partition of India and Tripura's accession to the Dominion of India, thousands of Bengali Hindus from eastern Bengal took refuge in Tripura. The influx of the Bengali Hindus increased during the Bangladesh Liberation War, when of Bengali Hindus were massacred in Bangladesh by the Pakistani occupation army. At present there are around 2.2 million Bengali Hindus in Tripura, making them the largest ethnic group in the state, constituting over 60% of the total population.{{cite news |title=BJP eyes 2.2 m Bengali Hindus in Tripura quest |url=https://www.dailypioneer.com/2017/sunday-edition/bjp-eyes-22-m-bengali-hindus-in-tripura-quest.html |work=The Pioneer |date=14 May 2017}}

The Bengali Hindus started migrating into the United Kingdom from the colonial times. However, the majority of the immigrants settled in the UK in the latter half of the 20th century mostly with white collar jobs. The exact population of the Bengali Hindus are not maintained in the census records.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} It is estimated that in there are more than 30,000 Bengali Hindus in the Greater London area.{{cite web|url=http://www.londonkalibari.org.uk/about_us.php |title=What Are London Kalibari's Aims for the Future? |publisher=London Kalibari |access-date=5 December 2010}}

In Italy, the moderate community of Bengali Hindus celebrate Durga Puja in Bologna and Rome. There are around 150 Bengali Hindu families in Paris.{{cite news |title=Durga Puja festivities kicked off in Paris |last=Nayar |first=Ranvir |url=http://www.rediff.com/us/2001/oct/23fra.htm |newspaper=Rediff.com |date=23 October 2001 |access-date=15 July 2012}} The Bengali Hindus began to migrate to Germany in the 1950s and the 1960s.{{cite web|url=http://www.urmila.de/forschung/bergen/Vortrag/GoelVortragAHKR101007.pdf|title=Indian Religions in Germany|last=Goel|first=Urmila|date=October 2007|access-date=10 September 2014}}

Notable Bengali Hindus in Europe include British Communist leader Rajani Palme Dutt, German politician Anita Bose Pfaff, German football manager Robin Dutt, and the richest hotelier of Sweden Bicky Chakraborty.

Bengali Hindus began to arrive in Canada in the 1970s.{{cite book |editor-last1=Coward |editor-first1=Harold G. |editor-link1=Harold Coward |editor-last2=Hinnells |editor-first2=John R. |editor-last3=Williams |editor-first3=Raymond Brady |title=The South Asian Religious Diaspora in Britain, Canada, and the United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mXrdXMaaYCkC |access-date=11 September 2014 |year=2000 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-9302-1 |page=153}} In 1991, there were an estimated 2,000 Bengali Hindus living in Canada, mainly from India.{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Buchignani |first1=Norman |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |title=South Asians |publisher=Historica Foundation |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/south-asians |access-date=15 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120708203640/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/south-asians |archive-date=8 July 2012}} However, after the IT boom in the late 1990s, more and more professionals began to settle in Canada. According to the 2006 census, there are 12,130 Bengali Hindus in Canada.{{cite web |url=http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=837928&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=92333&PRID=0&PTYPE=88971,97154&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2006&THEME=80&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= |title=Ethnic Origin (247), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census – 20% Sample Data |publisher=Statistics Canada |access-date=17 October 2010 |archive-date=25 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225043024/http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=837928&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=92333&PRID=0&PTYPE=88971,97154&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2006&THEME=80&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= |url-status=dead }} The Bengali Hindus are mostly concentrated in the cities of Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Halifax.

The earliest Bengali Hindus in the United States were the revolutionaries fighting for Indian independence. They arrived in the first few decades of the twentieth century. Examples include Noni Gopal Bose,{{cite magazine |url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?201416 |title=Rich & Famous in the US | Padma Rao Sundarji |magazine=Outlook India |date=22 May 1996 |access-date=21 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130817090746/http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?201416 |archive-date=17 August 2013 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news | first = Brad | last = Lemley | title = Discover Dialogue: Amar G. Bose | date = 1 October 2004 | url = http://discovermagazine.com/2004/oct/discover-dialogue | work = Discover Magazine | access-date = 1 February 2012}} the father of Bose Corp's Amar Bose. In 1913, the Bengali Hindu Okhoy Kumar Mozumdar became the second Indian-born person to get U.S. citizenship after the Punjabi Sikh Bhagat Singh Thind who was the first one to obtain it after the United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind court case. Later the citizenship was stripped from him for not being White/Caucasian.Indian American#Timeline According to the 2006 census, there were around 33,400 Bengali Hindus of Indian origin in the United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.migrationinformation.org/usfocus/display.cfm?ID=687|title=Indian Immigrants in the United States|last=Terrazas|first=Aaron|date=July 2008|publisher=Migration Policy Institute|access-date=9 June 2013}}

The Bengali Hindu diaspora in Asia is distributed in two major regions, South East Asia and the Middle East. India had developed religious and economic ties with South East Asia since the ancient times. This cultural cross exchange took place through the port of Tamralipta in Bengal. In the modern age, the emigration of Bengali Hindus to South East Asia has taken place since the colonial times. Famous Bengali Hindus from Myanmar include H. N. Goshal and Amar Nath, both of whom were foremost and important leaders of the Communist Party of Burma.

Bengali Hindus settled in present-day Myanmar, Singapore and Malaysia since the beginning of the 20th century. A small community of Bengali Hindus numbering around 1,600 live in Thailand. The annual Durga Puja festival is celebrated in Bangkok.

• States of India by Bengali speakers
• East Bengali refugees
• Hindu diaspora
• Non-resident Indian and person of Indian origin
• Bangladeshi diaspora
• Bengali Hindus in Myanmar

{{Reflist}}

{{Overseas Asians}}

{{Indian diaspora}}

{{Bengali Hindu people}}

Category:Bengali Hindus

Category:Ethnic groups in India

Category:Indian diaspora by ethnic group