What is the connection between Sylhet and London?

[SarthakGanguly]

I know his face. I will catch him and give him a public dhulai

But by then he will be an Indian and you stateless

 

[IamBengali]

Ami Khita Khoitam Gho

 

[Jaanbaz]

London is the best city in the world and us Indians are the biggest minority. Soon London will become part of Akhand Bharat.

London is dirty, overcrowded, polluted and is running wild with Somalians.

 

[Md Akmal]

@ Well as per my experience, the Sylheti's never considered themselve as a Bengali. They considered that their Sylhet has a differnt langauge. Historcially Sylhet was a part of greater Assam. In 1946/47 through a referendum it was annexed to the then East Pakistan. All though the Sylheti's voted for Muslim Leaque and subsequently voted for referendum to join Pakistan but once they came to Pakistan they were frustated as hardly any major refugee settlement were made. There were too many refugees came from Assam mostly they were Sylheti. This was as because many muslim majority areas of greater Sylhet district was not given to Pakistan. Take an example of Karimganj, it was a muslim majority subdivision but finally not attached to East Pakistan.

@ The Sylheti people came close with the English people once the tea plantation started in greater district of Sylhet during the British period. Since then many people migrated to London.

@ I think the greater Sylheti people's blood came from Turkey. Their caste custom, attitude, food habits resembles with Turkish people. So, they considered themselve as a minority in greater Bengal.

@ Once majority refugees came from Assam and they were not well treated so most of them were depressed. Many went back. Infact Pakistan was also not in a position to feed and housed them. Pakistan govt was more interested with the refugees of Biharees who came from Bihar and other areas of India.

@ Under these critical situation, immediately after the Second World War there was a huge labour crisis in Britain. British Govt offerred to supply some labour to the just freed independent countries of Common Wealth . Pakistan govt accepted the offer. Once the option given to Bengal, the Sylheti people at once accepted the offer and went to England. At that time non of the other people of Bengal were interested to go to London as they were busy in celebrating the newly got independent Pakistan. ( Nara-e-Tekbir Allah Hu Akbar, Larke Lange Pakistan, Pakistan Zinda Bad).

@ Slowly and gradually, these migrated Sylheti people took their relatives to London and today in three constituencies of Britain became the deciding factor. As I have already said since the people of Sylhet does not considered themselve as Bengali so they did not get married to other Bengali women so their number increased rapidly and remained intact as Sylheti.

@ Beginning in the 17th century, the East India Company brought over thousands of South Asian scholars, lascars, and other workers (who were mostly Bengali and/or Muslim) to England, most of whom settled down and took local European wives, due to a lack of Asian women in the British Isles at the time.[6] Due to the majority of early Asian immigrants being lascars, the earliest Asian communities were found in port towns. Naval cooks also came, many of them from the Sylhet Division of what is now Bangladesh. One of the most famous 18th-century Bengali immigrants to Britain was Sake Dean Mahomed, a captain of the East India Company. In 1810, he founded London's first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House. He is also claimed as the person who introduced shampoo and therapeutic massage to Britain.[7]

 

[khair_ctg]

If you think all 'dialects' of Bengali spoken in East Bengal are mutually intelligible then this is an unsubstantiated opinion and you're in the minority. I'd ask you to read the entries for Sylheti and Chittagonian in Ethnologue and Wikipedia. While there are vocabualries similar in form and meaning, like 'khafor' (kapor) as you said, there are words like 'tenga' (tok), 'arua' (stupid) , 'gua' (betel nut), and everyday phrases like 'uba be' (hey wait) at the other end of the spectrum that are not at all intelligible to a person from Comilla, Chittagong or Dhaka. Moreover majority of the modern day Sylhetis esp in public wouldn't use a large number of Sylheti words due to an irrational inferiority complex about their own language and would rather use equivalent words from Bengali even though with pronunciation characteristic of Sylheti. These loan words from Bengali have largely replaced their own vocabulary proudly used by their grandparents decades ago and till this day used by their kith and kin in the village who didn't get overwhelmed by 'modern' education.

yes i know about those words Sylheti words. but a lot of words also exist in Chatgaia, Comilla and Noakhali (i am just most familiar with these) that wouldn't be understood by people outside it. so lack of mutual intelligibility is not around Sylheti only. and the words you pointed out are the reasons why, in these different dialects. then there are words too across BD dialects that differ somewhat the same way from Calcutta Bengali.

 

[MusaRahman]

Greater Sylheti people in the UK:

Bangla channel in the UK Channel S

 

[MusaRahman]

Like to change the topic. Favourite great Sylheti baul for me as follows: 1) Shah Abdul Karim 2) Radha Romon Dutta 3)Hason Raja 4) Arkum Shah.

 

[xyxmt]

NO. I see Star Plus (India), Star Plus (UK) and Star Plus (HD). UK channel shows all Bangladeshi ads dubbed in Hindi.

so Bangladeshi people speak urdu now

 

[IamBengali]

so Bangladeshi people speak urdu now

NO.

Some Bangladeshi products have market in UK. Indians love Bangladeshi products. So UK Star Plus channel shows Bangla ads in Hindi.

 

[MusaRahman]

NO.

Some Bangladeshi products have market in UK. Indians love Bangladeshi products. So UK Star Plus channel shows Bangla ads in Hindi.

You are absolutely right

 

[RAMPAGE]

They are there to pursue the holy cause of bringing Sharia to the UK.

They already have Sharia in UK.

 

[alaungphaya]

Both have too many bangladeshis.

 

[livingdead]

London is dirty, overcrowded, polluted and is running wild with Somalians.

somaians are such tiny in numbers... they standout because of their unique style of dress and facial features so one might think too many of them.