পুরান ঢাকাইয়া | |
|---|---|
 A Dhakaiya Muslim lady in a muslin sari reclining with a hookah. | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Old Dhaka (Bangladesh) | |
| Languages | |
| Bengali (Dhakaiya Kutti dialect), Urdu (Dhakaiya Urdu dialect) | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Urdu-speaking people |
The Old Dhakaites (Bengali: পুরান ঢাকাইয়া, romanized: Puran Dhakaiya) are an Indo-Aryan cultural group viewed as the original inhabitants of Dhaka.[1][2] They are sometimes referred to as simply Dhakaites or Dhakaiya. Their history dates back to the Mughal period with the migration of Bengali cultivators and North Indian merchants to the city. The Bengali cultivators came to be known as Kutti and they speak Dhakaiya Kutti, a dialect of Bengali and the North Indian merchants came to be known as Khoshbas and they speak Dhakaiya Urdu, a dialect of Urdu. There are sizeable populations in other parts of Bangladesh. They have been described as a wealthy but very closed-off community; evidently being a minority in their own hometown.[3][4] It is said that some people living in Greater Dhaka are even unaware of the existence of an Urdu-speaking non-Bihari minority community although their presence dates back centuries.[2]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
banikwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Redclift, Victoria. "The socio-spatial contours of community". Statelessness and Citizenship: Camps and the Creation of Political Space. pp. 66–70.
- ^ Gilbert, Paul Robert (September 2015). "Re-branding Bangladesh: The Other Asian Tiger". Money mines: an ethnography of frontiers, capital and extractive industries in London and Bangladesh (Thesis). University of Sussex.
- ^ Huda, Sarah Elma (16 March 2019). "Between two languages: Examining my identity as a Bangladeshi". The Daily Star (Bangladesh).