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Bengali people

The Bengali people are the ethnic community from Bengal (divided between India and Bangladesh) on the Indian subcontinent with a history dating back four millennia. They speak Bengali (বাংলা Bangla), a language of the eastern Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী Bangali. They are descended from the Aryans, Austric, Dravidian and the Proto-Australoids, closely related to the Oriya, Assamese, Biharis, and other East Indians, as well as to other Indo-Aryan, Munda, Proto-Australoid, Tibeto-Burman, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian peoples. As a result, Bengalis are a heterogeneous and considerably diverse ethnic group. They are mostly concentrated in Bangladesh and in the state of West Bengal in India. There are also a number of Bengali communities scattered in New Delhi and several other states of India, such as Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharastra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, and the North-East Indian states, as well as in other countries such as Pakistan, the Middle East, United Kingdom and United States.