Bengali Americans

Bengali Americans (Bengali: মার্কিন বাঙ্গালী) are Americans of Bengali ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage and identity. They trace their ancestry to the historic ethno-linguistic region of Bengal in South Asia (now divided between India and Bangladesh). Bengali American usually refers to Bengali Hindus, Bengali Buddhists, Bengali Jains, and Bengali Christians. Bengali American are also a subgroup of Indian Americans. Bengali speaking Muslims are usually classified under Bangladeshi Americans, or American Muslim.

United States has the largest population of Bengali Hindus outside of Asia and second-largest population of Bengali people outside of Asia after the United Kingdom. The highest concentration of Bengali Americans is in New York City Metropolitan Area, with California, New Jersey, Texas, Michigan, Virginia, and Florida being other states with high concentration of Bengali Americans in that particular order.^[2] Almost half of the Bengali Hindus in the US are in California. California as a subnational division has the largest concentration of Bengali Hindus outside of Asia. New York City has the largest metropolitan Bengali population outside of India, Bangladesh, and England.^[3] Significant immigration of Bengalis to the United States started after 1965.

Bengali Americans may refer to-

• Bangladeshi Americans, Americans of Bangladeshi descent of Bengali Hindu ancestry, and Bengali speaking Muslims. Bengali speaking Muslims are usually classified as Bangladeshi Americans and American Muslims.
• Bengali Indian Americans, Americans of Indian and Bengali Hindu descent whose ancestral origins are in West Bengal, Bangladesh or erstwhile East Bengal, Jharkhand, Purnia, Odisha, Goalpara region, Assam, the Barak Valley, Tripura, Nepal, Meghalaya, Rakhine state, and other parts of India who are known as Probashi Bengalis. Bengali Hindu Americans also come from Southeast Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Caribbean, and other parts of the world.

Notable people

Sears Tower (now Willis Tower), was designed by Fazlur Rahman Khan. It was the tallest building in the world for over two decades.

• Arianna Afsar – former Miss California; placed in the Top 10 of the 2011 Miss America pageant
• Saif Ahmad – World Series of Poker winner
• Maqsudul Alam – scientist and professor
• Jalal Alamgir (d. 2011) – political scientist and professor
• Kali S. Banerjee – statistician and professor^[4]
• Rais Bhuiyan – shooting survivor and activist
• Subir Chowdhury – author and management consultant
• Mir Masoom Ali – George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Statistics, Ball State University
• Hansen Clarke – United States Congress in 2010, from Michigan's House of Representatives
• Hasan M. Elahi – interdisciplinary media artist
• Fazle Hussain – professor of mechanical engineering, physics, and earth science at the University of Houston
• Abul Hussam – inventor of the Sono arsenic filter
• Abdus Suttar Khan – chemist and jet fuels inventor
• Fazlur Rahman Khan – pioneer of modern structural engineering
• Salman Khan – founder of Khan Academy, a nonprofit educational organisation
• Jawed Karim – co-founder of YouTube; designed key parts of PayPal
• Mohammad Ataul Karim – electrical engineer^[5]
• Sumaya Kazi – founder of Sumazi, was recognised by BusinessWeek as one of America's Best Young Entrepreneurs.
• Dipa Ma – yoga teacher
• Sezan Mahmud – award-winning novelist^[6]
• Shomi Patwary – designer and music video director
• Iqbal Quadir – founder of Grameenphone, Bangladesh's largest mobile phone company; heads the Legatum Center at MIT
• Kamal Quadir – entrepreneur; founded two of Bangladesh's key technology companies, CellBazaar and bKash
• Anika Rahman – CEO of Ms. Foundation for Women
• Badal Roy – tabla player, percussionist, and recording artist
• Reihan Salam – conservative American political commentator; blogger at The American Scene; associate editor of The Atlantic Monthly
• Shikhee – singer; auteur of industrial band Android Lust
• Asif Azam Siddiqi – space historian; assistant professor of history at Fordham University
• M. Osman Siddique – former US ambassador
• Palbasha Siddique – singer
• Narasingha Sil – professor of history at Western Oregon University
• Supreme Understanding – author, publisher, activist and outspoken member of the Nation of Gods and Earths
• Monica Yunus – Bangladeshi-Russian-American operatic soprano

References