| |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| c. ~1 million | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 West Bengal,India(Malda,Murshidabad,Birbhum,Medinipur) | |
| Languages | |
| Khotta Bhasha (native) Bengali (mostly spoken as anL2) | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Muslim | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bihari Muslims,Pashtuns,Bengali Muslims |
TheKhotta are aSunni Muslim community that resides and lives in theIndian state ofWest Bengal.
The Khotta Muslim community trace their origins to some of thePathan Muslim families who came and settled during the reign of NawabAlivardi Khan fromBihar andUttar Pradesh.[1] Some of the Khotta community trace their origins particularly to the districts ofDarbhanga andMuzaffarpur in theBihar state. The common surnames among them are mainly Khan, Pathan, Mir, Mirza etc. Besides these titles Sheikh, Mallick etc. are also present. Their presence in Bengal dates back several decades and they are mentioned in 20th-century writerSarat Chandra Chattopadhyay'sSrikanta novel.
They mainly inhabit in Kaliachak I & II, Harishandrapur, Ratua and Manikchak blocks in the district ofMalda and Farakka, Samserganj, Raghunathganj and Suti blocks in the district ofMurshidabad. They are also found scattered in parts ofBirbhum,Medinipur andHooghly.[2]
The people of Khotta Muslim community usually live in groups in a neighborhood or village. There a few families together form 'Samaj' or 'Dash'. The head of the society is called 'Sardar'. Besides these, there are two positions in the society called 'Maral' and 'Chharidar'. The society or people of Dash are responsible for performing all the ceremonies related to birth, marriage and death. In addition, these people of Samaj also handle family and land disputes locally.
The Khotta Muslim people areendogamous people in general but in recent times marriages happen outside their clans also. They have their own Lok sangeet, funeral rites, marriages etc. having traits and features peculiar to their community only. They have special food habits such as kadoka gillabhat, gurbhatta, chinaka gillabhat, palo etc.[2]
The Khotta Muslim people speakKhotta Bhasha in their homes. The language, which is sort of a dialect, is an admixture of Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. But they all are bilingual and speak & learn Bengali, as Khotta Bhasha has no written form. At present the language has only an intra community conversational status. Their medium of education is now Bengali.[2][3]
The total population of Khotta Muslim people is about 10lakhs in the State of West Bengal. The traditional occupation of the community is cultivation. But they have to fall back on the job of small farmers, land labourers, migrant labourers etc. for their livelihood.[2]