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The varied land is home to a varied mix of people of Proto-Australian, Negroids, Armenoids, Sumerians, Mongoloids and the Indo-Aryan origins. The different racial strains have inextricably intertwined and you will not find any pure racial population here.
The majority of the people are Hindus. They had strong caste affiliations and during the older times, the lower castes were not allowed to even cast their shadow on the higher caste Brahmins. The other scourge of Bengal was child marriages and seclusion of child widows, which was banned by the British. The writers of Bengal like Bankim Chandra and Prem Chand have written about these social issues in their famous short stories and novels. The rise and popularity of communism is the outcome of inequality ingrained in the social fabric.
Bangla is the main language of communication and the people are proud of their rich local literature. The freedom movement also added colors to the vernacular literature. The language is very soft to listen to and probably the second best after Kashmiri in softness. The lilting tunes and songs of the fishermen have been translated to most of the Indian languages. The average Bengali is considered to be a timid person when alone but a group of Bengalis, a force not to be ignored.
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