| |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| c. ~1 million | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 West Bengal, India (Malda, Murshidabad, Birbhum, Medinipur) | |
| Languages | |
| Khotta Bhasha (native) Bengali (mostly spoken as an L2) | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Muslim | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bihari Muslims, Pashtun's, Bengali Muslims |
The Khotta are a Sunni Muslim community that resides and lives in the Indian state of West Bengal.
The Khotta Muslim community trace their origins to some of the Pathan Muslim families who came and settled during the reign of Nawab Alivardi Khan from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. [1] Some of the Khotta community trace their origins particularly to the districts of Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur in the Bihar state. The common surnames among them are mainly Khan, Pathan, Mir, Mirza etc. Besides these titles Sheikh, Mallick etc. are also present. Their presence in Bengal dates back several decades and they are mentioned in 20th-century writer Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Srikanta novel.
They mainly inhabit in Kaliachak I & II, Harishandrapur, Ratua and Manikchak blocks in the district of Malda and Farakka, Samserganj, Raghunathganj and Suti blocks in the district of Murshidabad. They are also found scattered in parts of Birbhum, Medinipur and Hooghly. [2]
The people of Khotta Muslim community usually live in groups in a neighborhood or village. There a few families together form 'Samaj' or 'Dash'. The head of the society is called 'Sardar'. Besides these, there are two positions in the society called 'Maral' and 'Chharidar'. The society or people of Dash are responsible for performing all the ceremonies related to birth, marriage and death. In addition, these people of Samaj also handle family and land disputes locally.
The Khotta Muslim people are endogamous people in general but in recent times marriages happen outside their clans also. They have their own Lok sangeet, funeral rites, marriages etc. having traits and features peculiar to their community only. They have special food habits such as kadoka gillabhat, gurbhatta, chinaka gillabhat, palo etc. [2]
The Khotta Muslim people speak Khotta Bhasha in their homes. The language, which is sort of a dialect, is an admixture of Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. But they all are bilingual and speak & learn Bengali, as Khotta Bhasha has no written form. At present the language has only an intra community conversational status. Their medium of education is now Bengali. [2] [3]
The total population of Khotta Muslim people is about 10 lakhs in the State of West Bengal. The traditional occupation of the community is cultivation. But they have to fall back on the job of small farmers, land labourers, migrant labourers etc. for their livelihood. [2]
Bhojpuri is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bhojpur-Purvanchal region of India and the Terai region of Nepal. It is chiefly spoken in western Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and northwestern Jharkhand. It is an eastern Indo Aryan language and as of 2000 is spoken by about 5% of India's population. Bhojpuri is a descendant of Magadhi Prakrit and is closely related to Maithili, Magahi, Bangla, Odia, Assamese, etc. languages.
The Bengali language movement was a political movement in former East Bengal advocating the recognition of the Bengali language as an official language of the then-Dominion of Pakistan to allow its use in government affairs, the continuation of its use as a medium of education, its use in media, currency and stamps, and to maintain its writing in the Bengali script.
The Patua are an artisan community found in the state of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha in India and parts of Bangladesh. Some Patuas are Hindus, while others are Muslims. Hindu Patuas are active in the Kalighat and Kumartuli regions of Calcutta, along with some other parts of West Bengal, where they are reduced in number. It is believed that most Patuas are actually converts from Hinduism to Islam. Today, they practice customs that are both Hindu and Islamic in nature. They may have also been Buddhist at various points in time. Today, however, the majority of them are impoverished Muslims who rely on patronage from mainly Hindus, but also increasingly from tourists who buy their painted scrolls, as Frank J. Korom has described and analysed in his book Village of Painters: Narrative Scrolls from West Bengal.
The Bangali may refer to a Scheduled Caste found in northern India. They are distinct from the Bengali ethnic group of West Bengal. The Bangali are one of the many nomadic groupings found in India, and have customs similar to other nomadic communities such as the Kanjar.
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Bengalis, also rendered as Bangalee or the Bengali people, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the Bengal region of South Asia. The current population is divided between the independent country Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura, Barak Valley, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jharkhand and part of Meghalaya and Manipur. Most of them speak Bengali, a language from the Indo-Aryan language family.
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The Rabha people, are a Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group predominantly inhabiting the Northeast Indian states of Assam and Meghalaya and, some parts of West Bengal. They primarily inhabit the plains of Lower Assam and the Dooars, while some are found in the Garo Hills. Most of the Rabhas of Dooars refer to themselves as Rabha, but some of them often declare themselves as Kocha.
The Ghosi are a Muslim community found mainly in North India.
The Bhatiara are a Pashtun community found in North India.
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The Pathans of Bihar in India are descendants of various Pashtun settlers in Bihar. The Pathan population of Bihar belong to eleven sub-groups, the main ones being the Suri, Sherwani, Yousafzai,Ahmed,Durrani, Bangash, Afridi, Khattak, Bettani, Lodhi, Tanoli, Orakzai and Ghori. These Pashtun people are known as Pathan in the Hindustani language. Another common name for the community is Khan, which also a common surname. Rajputs who have become Muslims also use Khan as a surname and this may create confusion which further convulate their numbers.
The Pathans are an Urdu-speaking community of Pashtun descent in the Uttar Pradesh state in India who form one of the largest Muslim communities in the state. They are also known as Khans which is a commonly used surname amongst them; although not all those who use the surname are Pathans, for example the Khanzada community of eastern Uttar Pradesh are also commonly known as Khan. The phrase Pathan Khanzada is used to describe Muslim Rajput groups, found mainly in Gorakhpur, who have been absorbed into the Pathan community. There are communities of partial Pashtun ancestry in the Rohilkhand region and in parts of the Doab and Awadh regions, such as the agrarian Rohilla community.
Shershabadia, is a Bengali Muslim community found in the state of West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand in India. They belong to Shaikh community and also form a significant part of the Shaikhs of West Bengal and Bihar. Common surnames used by the community include Shekh, Sekh, Haque, Islam, Mondal. Most of them are Sunni Muslims who associate with the Ahl-i Hadith movement.
The Mirshikar are a Muslim community, found in North India who were traditionally hunters and trappers of birds and small animals. This title was used for the high position of "chief huntsman" and served in the courts of Persian and Mughal rulers and taught them to hunt.
The Abdal are a Muslim community found in North India. They are a sub-group within the Arabic old shekh community.
The Nashya Shaikh or Nashya Sekh is a Muslim community found in northern parts of the state of West Bengal in India. They are culturally and linguistically similar to both people of northern Bangladesh and Goalpara of Assam. A small number of the community are also found in the neighboring state of Bihar, where they are known as the Bengali Shaikh. The group is descended from a set of tribals which were collectively referred to as Koches, who converted to Islam as they were unable to find a favourable position in Hindu society and came to known as the Rajbanshi Muslims. They are homogeneous with the Koch people and are bi-linguistic speaking both Bengali language and Surjapuri language.
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Khotta Bhasha is the language of the Khotta people, a small group of people who inhabit in the state of West Bengal. Khotta speakers are of entirely Muslim origin & reside in West Bengal.
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