A vast majority (98 percent) of the people of Bangladesh
are Bengalis and they speak the Bengali
language. Minorities include Biharis numbering 250,000
and other tribes numbering about a million, with the
Chakma being most numerous in number. About 83 percent
of Bangladeshis are profess Islam as their religion.
The next major religion is Hinduism
(16 precent). Other major religions include Buddhism
and Christianity.
A member of the Indo-European family of languages, Bangla
(sometimes called Bengali)
is the official language of Bangladesh.
Bangladeshis closely identify themselves with their
national language. Bangla has a rich cultural heritage
in literature, music, and poetry, and at least two Bengali
poets are well known in the West: Rabindranath
Tagore, a Hindu and a Nobel laureate; and
Kazi Nazrul Islam, a Muslim known as the "voice
of Bengali nationalism and independence." Bangla
has been enriched by several regional dialects. The
dialects of Sylhet,
Chittagong and Noakhali
have been strongly marked by Arab-Persian influences.
English, whose cultural influence seemed to have crested
by the late 1980s, remained nonetheless an important
language in Bangladesh.
Biharis, a group
that included Urdu-speaking non-Bengali Muslim refugees
from Bihar and other parts of northern India, numbered
about 1 million in 1971 but had decreased to around
600,000 by the late 1980s. They once dominated the
upper levels of Bengali
society. Many also held jobs on the railroads and
in heavy industry. As such they stood to lose from
Bangladesh independence and sided with Pakistan during
the 1971 war. Hundreds of thousands of Biharis were
repatriated to Pakistan
after the war.
Bangladesh's
tribal population consists of about 1 million people,
just under 1 percent of the total population. They
live primarily in the Chittagong Hills and in the
regions of Mymensingh, Sylhet,
and Rajshahi. The majority of the tribal population
(778,425) live in rural settings, where many practice
shifting cultivation. Most tribal people are of SinoTibetan
descent and has distinctive Mongoloid features. They
differ in their social organization, marriage customs,
birth and death rites, food, and other social customs
from the people of the rest of the country. They speak
Tibeto-Burman languages. In the mid-1980s, the percentage
distribution of tribal population by religion was
Hindu 24, Buddhist
44, Christian 13, and others 19.
The
four largest tribes are the Chakmas, Marmas (or Maghs),
Tipperas (or Tipras), and Mros (or Moorangs). The
tribes tend to intermingle and could be distinguished
from one another more by differences in their dialect,
dress, and customs than by tribal cohesion. Only the
Chakmas and Marmas display formal tribal organization,
although all groups containe distinct clans. By far
the largest tribe, the Chakmas are of mixed origin
but reflect more Bengali influence than any other
tribe. Unlike the other tribes, the Chakmas and Marmas
generally live in the highland valleys. Most Chakmas
are Buddhists, but some practiced Hinduism
or animism.
Bangladesh
is one of the world's ten most populated countries
and has one of the highest population densities (about
2,100 people per sq mi/810 people per sq km). The
great majority of Bangladesh's population is Bengali,
although Biharis and several tribal groups constitute
significant minority communities. About 88% of the
population is Sunni Muslim and over 10% is Hindu.
Bengali is the nation's official language, and English
is used in urban centers. Bangladesh has a predominantly
rural population, with over 60% of the workforce engaged
in agriculture. There are several universities, including
ones at Chittagong,
Dhaka, Mymensingh,
and Rajshahi.
