Sylhetis

The Sylheti (sɪˈlɛti) or Sylhetis are an Indo-Aryan ethnocultural group that are associated with the Sylhet region (Sylhet Division of Bangladesh and the Karimganj district of Assam, India). There are strong diasporic communities in Barak Valley of Assam, India, North Tripura, as well as in rest of Bangladesh and northeast India. They speak Sylheti, an Eastern Indo-Aryan language that is considered "a distinct language by many and a dialect of Bengali by some others". Sylheti identity is associated mainly with regional culture and language, while accompanied with an ethnic Bengali identity. In September 1874, the British East India Company made Sylhet district a part of the non-regulation Chief Commissioner's Province of Assam (Northeast Frontier Province) for commercial development. The transfer led to the natives of Sylhet protesting against the British viceroy Lord Northbrook as they viewed themselves as a part of the Bengali people, and distinct from the Assamese. Leaders of both the Hindu and Muslim communities submitted a memorandum to Northbrook on 10 August 1874. Northbrook was eventually able to convince the people of Sylhet by assuring them that education and justice will still be administered under Bengal, and highlighting the economic opportunity for Sylhetis in Assam's tea industry. With the approach of the independence movement towards 1920, Sylhetis began forming organisations such as the Sylhet Peoples' Association and Sylhet-Bengal Reunion League which demanded Sylhet to be reincorporated to Bengal. Sylheti folklore is influenced by Hindu, Sufi, Turco-Persian and native ideas. Chandra Kumar De of Mymensingh is known to be the first researcher of Sylheti folklore. Archives of old works are kept in Kendriya Muslim Sahitya Sangsad in Sylhet (also known as the Sylhet Central Muslim Literary Society) – the oldest literary organisation in Bengal and one of the oldest in the subcontinent. It has been argued that the first Bengali translation of the Mahabharata was written by Sri Sanjay of Sylhet in the 17th century.