Bengali Americans ( bn, মার্কিন বাঙ্গালী) are
Americans
Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Ame ...
of Bengali ethnic,
cultural and
linguistic
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
heritage and
identity
Identity may refer to:
* Identity document
* Identity (philosophy)
* Identity (social science)
* Identity (mathematics)
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film
* ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...
. They trace their ancestry to the historic ethnolinguistic region of
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) 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, predom ...
in
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...
(now divided between
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
). Bengali Americans are also a subgroup of
Bangladeshi Americans
Bangladeshi Americans ( bn, বাংলাদেশী মার্কিনী, Bangladeshī Markinī) are Americans of Bangladeshi descent. The majority of Bangladeshi Americans are Bengalis and form the largest group of Bengali Americans. Ban ...
and
Indian Americans
Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...
. Bengalis are also classified under Bangladeshi Americans. Significant immigration of Bengalis to the United States started after 1965.
Bengali Americans may refer to:
*
Bangladeshi Americans
Bangladeshi Americans ( bn, বাংলাদেশী মার্কিনী, Bangladeshī Markinī) are Americans of Bangladeshi descent. The majority of Bangladeshi Americans are Bengalis and form the largest group of Bengali Americans. Ban ...
, Americans of
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
i descent of
Bengali Muslims
Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the sec ...
. Bengali Muslims are usually classified as Bangladeshi Americans and
American Muslims.
* Bengali
Indian Americans
Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...
, Americans of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n and
Bengali Hindu
Bengali Hindus ( bn, বাঙ্গালী হিন্দু/বাঙালি হিন্দু, translit=Bāṅgālī Hindu/Bāṅāli Hindu) are an ethnoreligious population who make up the majority in the Indian states of West Ben ...
descent whose ancestral origins are in
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
or erstwhile
East Bengal
ur,
, common_name = East Bengal
, status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan
, p1 = Bengal Presidency
, flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg
, s1 = East ...
,
Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...
,
Purnia
Purnia ()(also romanized as Purnea) is a city that serves as the administrative headquarters of both Purnia district and Purnia division in the Indian state of Bihar.
Total geographical area of Purnia Urban Agglomeration is which is nex ...
,
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
,
Goalpara
Goalpara, Pron: ) is the district headquarters of Goalpara district, Assam, India. It is situated to the west of Guwahati.
Etymology
The name Goalpara is said to have originated from the word "Gwaltippika" meaning Guwali village, or The villa ...
region,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
, the
Barak Valley
The Barak Valley is located in the southern region of the Indian state of Assam. The region is named after the Barak river. The Barak valley consists of three administrative districts of Assam - namely Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi. The ...
,
Tripura
Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the ea ...
,
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...
,
Meghalaya
Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of Assam: (a) the United Khasi Hills and J ...
,
Rakhine state
Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region to the east, the Bay of Ben ...
and other parts of India who are known as
Probashi Bengalis.
Bengali Hindu
Bengali Hindus ( bn, বাঙ্গালী হিন্দু/বাঙালি হিন্দু, translit=Bāṅgālī Hindu/Bāṅāli Hindu) are an ethnoreligious population who make up the majority in the Indian states of West Ben ...
Americans also come from
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
,
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
,
Australia,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
,
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
,
Caribbean and other parts of the world.
Culture
Many Bengali Americans participate in an annual conference, the
North American Bengali Conference
The North American Bengali Conference (NABC) is an annual Bengali culture conference held in the United States and Canada, typically around the weekend of July 4. It was established in 1981 by the Cultural Association of Bengal in New York, and is ...
, in order to celebrate their culture and discuss issues the community faces. They often form regional organizations to network and plan events.
Religions
Bengali Americans are mostly adherents of either
Islam or
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
. This is manifested in the yearly celebration of
Eid ul-Fitr,
Durga Puja
Durga Puja ( bn, দুর্গা পূজা), also known as Durgotsava or Sharodotsava, is an annual Hindu festival originating in the Indian subcontinent which reveres and pays homage to the Hindu goddess Durga and is also celebrated ...
and other religious celebrations. Several secular holidays are also enjoyed by the whole community, such as the Bengali new year,
Pohela Boishakh
Pohela Boishakh ( bn, পহেলা বৈশাখ) is the first day of the Bengali calendar which is also the official calendar of Bangladesh. This festival is celebrated on 14 April in Bangladesh and 15 April in the Indian states of W ...
.
There are also at least two
Bengali Buddhist
Bengali Buddhists ( bn, বাঙালি বৌদ্ধ) are a religious subgroup of the Bengalis who adhere to or practice the religion of Buddhism. Bengali Buddhist people mainly live in Bangladesh and Indian states West Bengal and Tripura.
...
temples in the United States, near Washington, DC and New York City.
Notable people
![Sears Tower ss](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Sears_Tower_ss.jpg)
*
Raj Chandra Bose
Raj Chandra Bose (19 June 1901 – 31 October 1987) was an Indian American mathematician and statistician best known for his work in design theory, finite geometry and the theory of error-correcting codes in which the class of BCH codes is pa ...
- Indian American Mathematician
*
Moni Lal Bhoumik - Indian American physicist and a bestselling author.
*
Arianna Afsar
Arianna Ayesha "Ari" Afsar (born October 22, 1991) is an American singer, composer, beauty queen and activist best known for her starring role in Hamilton, as the songwriter of the musical ''Jeannette'', and as a top contestant on American Idol. ...
– former Miss California; placed in the Top 10 of the 2011 Miss America pageant
*
Saif Ahmad
Saifuddin "Saif" Ahmad is a Bangladeshi-American restaurateur and World Series of Poker champion. Ahmad is the owner of several Tony Roma's restaurants in Los Angeles, California, and won the 2007 World Series of Poker bracelet in the $2,000 ...
–
World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker p ...
winner
*
Maqsudul Alam – scientist and professor
*
Jalal Alamgir
Jalal Alamgir (17 January 1971 – 3 December 2011), was a Bangladeshi-American academic and an associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and the son of Awami League Member of Parliament Muhiuddin Khan A ...
(d. 2011) – political scientist and professor
*
Mir Masoom Ali
Mir Masoom Ali (born February 1, 1937) is a Bangladeshi American statistician, Distinguished Professor, educator, researcher and author. He migrated to the United States in 1969 and became a naturalized citizen in 1981. Ali founded the graduate a ...
– George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Statistics, Ball State University
*
Kali S. Banerjee – statistician and professor
*
Rais Bhuiyan – shooting survivor and activist
*
Amar Bose
Amar Gopal Bose (November 2, 1929 – July 12, 2013) was an American entrepreneur and academic. An electrical engineer and sound engineer, he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for over 45 years. He was also the found ...
- founder of
Bose Corporation
Bose Corporation () is an American manufacturing company that predominantly sells audio equipment. The company was established by Amar Bose in 1964 and is based in Framingham, Massachusetts. It is best known for its home audio systems and spea ...
*
Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty - scientist
*
Purnendu Chatterjee
Purnendu Chatterjee is an Indian entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of The Chatterjee Group (TCG) and also serves as a member of the Governing Board of the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad.
Education
Chatterjee graduate ...
- industrialist
*
Subir Chowdhury – author and management consultant
*
Hansen Clarke
Hansen Clarke (born March 2, 1957) is an American politician and former U.S. Congressman. A Democrat, he was the U.S. representative for from 2011 to 2013. Prior to his election to Congress, he had been a member of the Michigan House of Represe ...
– United States Congress in 2010, from Michigan's House of Representatives
*
Tarak Nath Das
Taraknath Das (or Tarak Nath Das; 15 June 1884 – 22 December 1958) was an Indian revolutionary and internationalist scholar. He was a pioneering immigrant in the west coast of North America and discussed his plans with Tolstoy, while organi ...
- anti-British Bengali Indian revolutionary and internationalist scholar
*
Hasan M. Elahi
Hasan M. Elahi (born 1972) is a Bangladeshi-born American interdisciplinary media artist whose work has an emphasis on technology and media and their social implications. His research interests include issues of surveillance, sousveillance, simu ...
– interdisciplinary media artist
*
Rajat Gupta
Rajat Kumar Gupta (; born ) is an Indian-American businessman and convicted felon who, as CEO, was the first foreign-born managing director of management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company from 1994 to 2003. In 2012, he was convicted for insider ...
, former CEO of
McKinsey and Company
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...
*
M. Zahid Hasan, the Eugene Higgins endowed chair professor at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
and scientist at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, known for ground-breaking discoveries in the quantum world
*
Fazle Hussain – professor of mechanical engineering,
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
, and
earth science at the
University of Houston
The University of Houston (UH) is a public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the university in Texas with over 47,000 students. Its campus, which is primarily in s ...
*
Abul Hussam
Abul Hussam is the inventor of the Sono arsenic filter. He is a chemistry professor at George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, Virginia, and a member of advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology.
Life and career
Huss ...
– inventor of the
Sono arsenic filter
The Sono arsenic filter was invented in 2006 by Abul Hussam, who is a chemistry professor at George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, Virginia. It was developed to deal with the problem of arsenic contamination of groundwater. The filter is now i ...
*
Norah Jones
Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has won several awards for her music and as of 2012, has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. ''Billboard'' named her the ...
- singer and actress
*
Mindy Kaling
Vera Mindy Chokalingam (born June 24, 1979),Additional archive on June 25, 2015. known professionally as Mindy Kaling (), is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter and producer. She first gained recognition starring as Kelly Kapoor in the N ...
- actress
*
Jawed Karim
Jawed Karim (বাংলাঃ জাওয়াদ করিম) (born October 28, 1979) is an American software engineer and Internet entrepreneur of Bangladeshi and German descent. He is a co-founder of YouTube and the first person to up ...
– co-founder of YouTube; designed key parts of
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
*
Mohammad Ataul Karim
Mohammad Ataul Karim (born 4 May 1953) is a Bangladeshi American scientist and higher education administrator, with expertise in electro-optical systems, optical computing, and pattern recognition. Karim is ranked amongst the top 50 researcher ...
– electrical engineer
*
Sumaya Kazi
Sumaya Kazi (Bengali: সুমাইয়া কাজী, born July 17, 1982) is an American entrepreneur. At the age of 23, Kazi founded her first company The CulturalConnect. She later founded and was the CEO of San Francisco-based technol ...
– founder of
Sumazi
Sumazi is a social media and social intelligence platform for enterprises, brands, and celebrities. Its technology performs social data analysis across social networking services including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, to identify key people i ...
, was recognised by
BusinessWeek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
as one of America's Best Young Entrepreneurs
*
Abdus Suttar Khan – chemist and jet fuels inventor
*
Fazlur Rahman Khan
Fazlur Rahman Khan ( bn, ফজলুর রহমান খান, ''Fozlur Rôhman Khan''; 3 April 1929 – 27 March 1982) was a Bangladeshi-American structural engineer and architect, who initiated important structural systems for skyscrape ...
– pioneer of modern structural engineering
*
Salman Khan
Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan (; 27 December 1965) is an Indian actor, film producer, and television personality who works in Hindi films. In a film career spanning over thirty years, Khan has received numerous awards, including two Nation ...
– founder of
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is an American non-profit educational organization created in 2008 by Sal Khan. Its goal is creating a set of online tools that help educate students. The organization produces short lessons in the form of videos. Its website also in ...
, a nonprofit educational organisation
*
Jhumpa Lahiri
Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" LahiriMinzesheimer, Bob ''USA Today'', August 19, 2003. Retrieved on 2008-04-13. (born July 11, 1967) is an American author known for her short stories, novels and essays in English, and, more recently, in Italia ...
- author of ''
The Namesake''
*
Dipa Ma – Vipassana meditation founder in the US
*
Tasmin Mahfuz - American television journalist and news anchor and
Gracie award
The Gracie Awards are awards presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWM) in the United States, to celebrate and honor programming created for women, by women, and about women, as well as individuals who have made exemplary contr ...
recipient for women.
*
Sezan Mahmud – award-winning novelist
*
A.K. Mozumdar
Akhay Kumar Mozumdar (July 15, 1881 – March 9, 1953) was an Indian American spiritual writer and teacher associated with the New Thought Movement in the United States. He became a naturalized American in 1913. However, in 1923, following '' Un ...
- first person of South Asian descent to earn US citizenship, until it was revoked by the Supreme Court in 1924
*
Dhan Gopal Mukerji
Dhan Gopal Mukerji ( bn, ধন গোপাল মুখোপাধ্যায়; ''Dhan Gōpāl Mukhōpādhyāy'') (6 July 1890 – 14 July 1936) was the first successful Indian man of letters in the United States and won a Newbery Med ...
, first South Asian winner of Newbery Medal in 1928
*
Raj Mukherji, Majority Whip of the New Jersey General Assembly
*
Shomi Patwary
Shomi Patwary (born February 20, 1982, in Dhaka, Bangladesh) is a filmmaker, and co-founder of the creative collective Illusive Media.[Iqbal Quadir
Iqbal Z. Quadir ( bn, ইকবাল জেড. কাদীর) is an entrepreneur and promoter of the role of entrepreneurship and innovations in creating prosperity in low-income countries. He has taught at Harvard Kennedy School and at Mas ...]
– founder of Grameenphone, Bangladesh's largest mobile phone company; heads the Legatum Center at
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
*
Kamal Quadir – entrepreneur; founded two of Bangladesh's key technology companies, CellBazaar and bKash
*
Anika Rahman – CEO of
Ms. Foundation for Women
*
Badal Roy – tabla player, percussionist, and recording artist
*
Reihan Salam
Reihan Morshed Salam (; born 29 December 1979) is a conservative American political commentator, columnist and author who since 2019 has been president of the Manhattan Institute. He was previously executive editor of ''National Review'', a column ...
– conservative American political commentator; blogger at ''The American Scene''; associate editor of ''
The Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
''
*
Shikhee – singer; auteur of industrial band
Android Lust
*
Asif Azam Siddiqi
Asif Azam Siddiqi is a Bangladeshi American space historian and a Guggenheim Fellowship winner. He is a professor of history at Fordham University. He specializes in the history of science and technology and modern Russian history. He has writ ...
– space historian; assistant professor of history at
Fordham University
*
M. Osman Siddique
M. Osman Siddique (born 1950) is an American politician, former ambassador, and author. He served as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Fiji and to the Republic of Nauru, to the Kingdom of Tonga and to Tuvalu from 1999 to 2001. He ...
– former US ambassador
*
Palbasha Siddique
Palbasha Siddique ( bn, পলবাশা সিদ্দিক) (born January 3, 1991) is a Bangladeshi born American singer. She is best known for her performance of '' Praan'', a song adapted from the collection of poems ''Gitanjali'' by R ...
– singer
*
Narasingha Sil
Narasingha Prosad "Ram" Sil (born 1937 in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency) is an Indian-born American historian. He was professor of European and English history at Western Oregon University, Monmouth, Oregon
Monmouth () is a city in Polk County ...
– professor of history at
Western Oregon University
Western Oregon University (WOU) is a public university in Monmouth, Oregon. It was originally established in 1856 by Disciples of Christ pioneers as Monmouth University. Subsequent names included Oregon State Normal School, Oregon College of E ...
*
Monica Yunus – Bangladeshi-Russian-American operatic soprano
*
Sohla El-Waylly – American chef, restaurateur, and YouTube personality as part of
Bon Appetit
''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initially developed in t ...
’s staff.
*
Samarendra Nath Roy - Indian American Mathematician
References
{{Authority control