[8][9] Around the 8th century, the Bengali language branched off from Magadhi Prakrit, a derivative of Sanskrit that was prevalent in the eastern region of the Indian Subcontinent at that time.

After the Renaissance, the rigidity of the caste system ceased to a great extent, so much so that the first celebrated intercaste marriage took place as early as in 1925.

For several decades after partition, these two social subgroups possessed marked difference in their accents and their rivalry was manifested in many spheres of life, most notably in the support for the football clubs of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan respectively.

[citation needed] 20,000-year-old stone weapons including small axes, potteries and charcoal remains have been unearthed from Chandthakurer Danga in Haatpara mouza, 8 km northeast of Sagardighi in Murshidabad.

[27] Microliths dating to 10000 BC has been excavated from Birbhanpur, situated in Paschim Bardhaman district on the Damodar River valley near Durgapur.

[28] In the ancient times, some of the Bengali Hindus were seafaring people as evident from Vijay Singha's naval conquest of Lanka,[29] the tales of merchants like Chand Sadagar and Dhanapati Saudagor whose ships sailed to far off places for trade and establishment of colonies in South East Asia.

The Buddhist Pala rulers unified Bengal into a single political entity and expanded it into an empire, conquering a major portion of North India.

The Pala were followed by the Senas who made far reaching changes in the social structure of Bengali Hindus, introducing 36 new castes and orthodox institutions like Kulinism.

a Nawab, the severe taxation and frequent Maratha raids made the life miserable for the ordinary Bengali Hindus.

[36] A section of the Bengali Hindu nobility helped the British East India Company in overthrowing the Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah regime.

[37] The British began to face stiff resistance in conquering the semi-independent Bengali Hindu kingdoms outside the pale of Muslim occupied Bengal.

In the 19th century, the elite class of Bengali Hindu people underwent radical social reforms and rapid modernisation; the phenomenon came to be known as the Bengal Renaissance.

The Bengalis, however, opposed to the Partition tooth and nail, embarked on a political movement of Swadeshi, boycott and revolutionary nationalism.

During the Quit India Movement, the revolutionaries liberated the Tamluk and Contai subdivision of Midnapore district from British rule and established the Tamralipta National Government.

The Government of India Act 1919 introduced in the 144 member Bengal Legislative Assembly, 46 seats for the Muslims, 59 for the institutions, Europeans & others and left the rest 39 as General,[N 1] where the Bengali Hindus were to scramble for a representation.

The situation worsened with the Communal Award of 1932, where in the 250 member Bengal Legislative Assembly a disproportionate 119 seats were reserved for the Muslims, 17 for Europeans, Anglo-Indians & Indian Christians, 34 for the institutions, and the rest 80 were left as General.

Direct Action Day and the Noakhali genocide prompted the Bengali Hindu leadership to vote for the Partition of Bengal to create a Hindu-majority province.

[48] In late April 1947, the Amrita Bazar Patrika published the results of an opinion poll, in which 98% of the Bengali Hindus favoured the creation of a separate homeland.

[60] The Bengali refugees who had settled in Bihar after the partition of India are denied land owning rights, caste certificates and welfare schemes.

[70][71] But distinct Hindu population also exist among indigenous tribes like Garo, Khasi, Jaintia, Santhal, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Tripuri, Munda, Oraon, Dhanuk etc.

[75] The Barak Valley comprising the present districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi is contiguous to Sylhet (Bengal plains), where the Bengali Hindus, according to historian J.B. Bhattacharjee, had settled well before the colonial period, influencing the culture of Dimasa Kacharis.

[82] The fourth patches numbering around 347,555 have just arrived after Bangladesh liberation war of 1971 as refugees and most of them being Bengali speaking Hindus have decided to stay back in Assam permanently afterwards.

[88] In January 2019, the Leftist organisation Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) claimed that there are around 2 million Hindu Bangladeshis in Assam who would become Indian citizens if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is passed.

[citation needed] Following the war, the Indian government reorganised the North East region to try to improve control of the international borders – three new states came into existence on 21 January 1972: Meghalaya, Manipur, and Tripura.

[98][99] There is also a significant number of Bengali Hindus residing in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, estimated approximately 100,000 comprising 26%–28% of the population.

Bengali cuisine is mainly influenced by the diet habits similar to the Hindus and includes a very large variety of sweets and dishes.

[105] Bengali Hindu society used to be caste-oriented throughout centuries and the professional status of men depended exclusively on the hierarchical caste divisions.

[106] In traditional Bengali Hindu society, nearly every occupation is carried on by a ranked hierarchy of specialised caste groups such as weaving, pottery, carpentry and blacksmithing.

In the post-liberalisation phase of India, modern art acquired a new dimension as young artists like Devajyoti Ray, Sudip Roy and Paresh Maity started gaining international recognition.

Traditional business establishment commence their fiscal year on this day, with the worship of Lakshmi and Ganesha and inauguration of the halkhata (ledger).