Bengali Brahmins
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bengali Brahmins are those Brahmins who traditionally reside in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, currently comprising the Indian state of West Bengal, and Bangladesh. When the British left India in 1947, carving out a separate nation (see partition) of East Pakistan (which became Bangladesh in 1971), a number of families moved to be within the borders of the newly defined secular Indian Republic, and continued to migrate for several decades thereafter.
Historically, they have been the standard bearers of Madhyadeshiya (the historic-cultural region of the upper Ganga-Yamuna doab) Indo-Aryan culture in Bengal. Bengali Brahmins are generally well-educated, and a number of prominent figures of India belong to this community.
[edit] Pre-1947
- Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486 - 1534), ascetic, founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism
- Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833), Hindu reformer and founder of Brahmo Samaj
- Debendranath Tagore (1817-1905) A leading proponent of Brahmo Samaj
- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820 - 1891) Polymath
- Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838-1894), author and one of the founders of Indian nationalism
- Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), poet, philosopher and nationalist
- Jatindra Nath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin) (1879-1915), revolutionary leader
- Gadadhar Chattopadhyay (Ramakrishna Paramahansa) (1836-1886), Revered Religious leader, led Hindu revival
- Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee
- Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay (1876-1938) popular and sometimes controversial novelist
- Shyama Prasad Mukherjee
- Rakhal Das Banerjee (1885-1930) archaeologist, Mohenjo‑daro excavations
- Manabendra Nath Roy (1887-1954), a founder of Indian Communism
[edit] Post-1947
- Buddhadeb Bhattacharya Chief Minister of West Bengal since 2000.
- Sourav Ganguly, captain of Indian cricket team
