The People

Anthropology
• It is said that the origin of human beings is in Africa;
• Some of them moved into the Northern part of the Middle East and then
dispersed across the world from areas in the Northern part of the Middle
East;
• In this dispersal the people who went to Southeast Asia and Australia, more
than 50,000 years ago, are surmised to have traversed the country that is
now Bangladesh. Some of them may have remained behind but as yet we
have no evidence of that;
• Among the people who walked into the valleys and floodplains of Southeast
Asia some developed languages which are known as Austric languages;
• Austric is a large hypothetical grouping of languages primarily spoken in
Southeast Asia and Pacific. It includes the Austronesian language family of
Taiwan, Pacific Islands, and Madagascar, as well as the Austroasiatic
language family of mainland Southeast Asia, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. A
genetic relationship between these language families is seen as plausible by
some scholars, but remains unproven.
 Anthropology
• From the evidence of a few words in Bangla, some artifacts, and some
agricultural crops we may surmise that these people speaking Austronesian
languages came from the east in the area of Bangladesh several thousand
years ago;
• Certain very early finds of Bronze tools and rice seeds in northeast Thailand
suggests that these people may have also introduced rice cultivation into our
area;
• At the same time or somewhat after some other people, whom we now
classify as early Mongoloid also entered Bangladesh and spread mainly into
the uplands and hilly areas;
• Though some of the early groups who made a significant impact came from
the east, the main peopling of this land was by those who came from the
Southern and Western parts of the South Asian subcontinent, and they are
known as Dravidians;
 Anthropology
• Initially, Bangladesh has a physically diverse people, probably speaking
different languages, which may have all belonged to the Dravidian
family of languages;
• It is said that in ancient time people in Bangladesh spoke a language
related to Telegu, which is Dravidian language;
• Physical features of the majority of the present day people shows an
affinity with those of eastern India who have a more definite Dravidian
background;
• Dravidian people are mostly Caucasoid people, which means in hair
form and other physical features they resemble the people of the
Middle East more than they resemble the people of East Asia.
However, they are generally darker than the different peoples to the
east and west of South Asia;
 Anthropology
• The latest arrivals were a people well known as the Aryans;
• They spoke a language of the Indo-European family of languages and
they are said to have originated from the Northern parts of the Middle
East and the Eastern parts of Europe;
• They came in to South Asia around 1200 B.C. and flourished in the area
now known as Haryana ‘Land of the Aryans’;
• Over the centuries they mixed with the Dravidians and settled in the
relatively drier parts of the Ganges Valley;
• The mixed population of Aryo-Dravidians moved in to the Bengal Basin
some time after 600 B.C.;
• They in turn mixed with the Austric and Mongoloid peoples already in
Bangladesh and produced the physical types which are so common
nowadays;
 Anthropology
• The cultivation of wet-rice, where fields have to be levelled and dyked
and the swampland varieties of rice cultivated in watery conditions,
enabled the immigrants to adapt to the wet monsoon conditions of
Bangladesh and at the same time to obtain sufficient food to feed large
families. They also exploited the abundant fish stocks of the land;
• These resources encouraged rapid growth of population and parts of the
country became quite thickly populated;
• For the past one thousand years Bangladesh has been known as one of
the densely populated parts in the world;
• The commercial opportunities of this area also attracted many
immigrants such as the Arab merchants, the Turks and Pathans;
• These people also added their individual varieties in the physical features
of Bengali people;
 Anthropology

“The Bengali ancestry includes the Austric-

speakers, the Mongoloids, the Dravidians and
Aryans, the Turk and the Pathan”
 Anthropology
• Within the polity of Bangladesh there are also small groups of
people who retain their distinctiveness and have not merged
into the mainstream Bangla-speaking group ( the Tribals);
• Most of these groups are mainly of Mongoloid origin and
they speak languages of the Tibeto-Burman family of
Languages. The major tribes are Polia, Garo, Hajong, Tripra,
Chakma, Lushai, Mru, Tanchanga, Marma, Rakhine, and other
smaller groups;
• Some other group belong to Austric Mone-Khmer group, such
as Khasia, or to the Dravidian group, such as the Saontal and
Oraon;
Present Population Structure of Bangladesh

• Bangladesh is largely ethnically homogeneous, and its name

derives from the Bengali ethno-linguistic group which
comprises 98% of the population. The Chittagong Hill Tracts,
Sylhet, Mymensingh and North Bengal divisions are home to
diverse indigenous peoples. There are many dialects of
Bengali spoken throughout the region. The dialect spoken by
those in Chittagong and Sylhet are particularly distinctive. The
population is estimated at 167 million (2019). About 90% of
Bangladeshis are Muslims, followed by Hindus (9%), Buddhists
(0.6%) and Christians (0.3%) and others (0.1%);
• Bangladesh is the 8th largest populated country in the world;
• Population Density: 1,291 persons per square kilometer, and
ranked 12th in the world;
Present Population Structure of Bangladesh

Age group Male (%) Female (%) Total (%)

0-14 35.1 31.8 33.4

15-64 58.3 63.7 61.0
65+ 6.6 4.5 5.6

• Median age of the People in Bangladesh is 26 years;

• Population Growth rate 1.0% per annum;
• Life expectancy at birth is 72.49 years;
 Population – Blessing or Curse
• Forestland and trees are being destroyed by Human
– Bangladesh has only 9% of forestland of the total area
whereas a country must have 25% of forestland;
– People destroying forest to increase the area of cultivable
land and to make furniture, paper etc.
• Food, Health & Sanitation Problem
– About 9% of Bangladesh live in Extreme poverty level with
less than $1.90 per day
– Population is growing but food production is limited
– There are an estimated 3.05 physicians per 10,000 population
and 1.07 nurses per 10,000 population
 Population – Blessing or Curse
• Education Problem
– About 30% people are not literate
• Environment Pollution
– Imbalance in the Environment
• Unemployment Problem
– Only 60% of the overall population is employed
 Population – Blessing or Curse
• Boosted Economic Development
– Agriculture (About 14% contribution in GDP)
– Manpower (About 60% of the overall population consists of
working class people)
– Garments Industry
• 2nd largest producer of garments;
• 2nd largest exporter of western fashion brands;
• 80.7% of total export from Bangladesh comes from garments
industry which is about 12.36% of the overall GDP
– Migration (about $13.53 billion in 2017)
• Cultural Development
 Culture
• Bangladesh has a rich cultural heritage.
– Literary culture: There are numerous literary masterpieces
produced in this region. The earliest literary text in Bengal is
the 8th century charyapada. Bengali literature reached its full
expression in the 19th century with its greatest icons being
poet Rabindranath tagore, Michael Madhushudan Dutt, Kazi
Nazrul Islam.
– Musical Culture: The traditional music of this region is mainly
lyrics based (bani prodhan) with minimum use of instruments.
“Baul” song is the main form of folk song of the country along
with other types such as Gombhira, Bhatiali, Bhawaiya.
 Culture
• Culinary Tradition: The culinary tradition of Bangladesh has
close relations with that of North east India and Middle
eastern cuisine. The main food is rice and fish, meat,
vegetables.
• Architectural culture: Bangladesh has numerous historical
monuments, forts, mosques, temples that bear testimony
to the rich history and heritage of the region and its
previous occupants.
• i.e Lalbagh fort, Ahsan Monjil, Bhawal Razbari, Sat gombuj
mosque, Jagannath temple, Kantojiu temple,
mohasthangor, moynamoti etc.