Dhakaiyas (original) (raw)

The Old Dhakaites (Bengali: পুরান ঢাকাইয়া, romanized: Puran Dhakaiya) are an Indo-Aryan ethnocultural group viewed as the original inhabitants of Dhaka. They are sometimes referred to as simply Dhakaiya. Their history dates back to the Mughal period with the migration of Bengali cultivators and merchants to the city. The cultivators came to be known as Kutti and they speak Dhakaiya Kutti, a dialect of Bengali and the merchants came to be known as Khoshbas and speak Dhakaiya Urdu. There are sizeable populations in other parts of Bangladesh. The Dhakaiyas maintain a distinct identity in addition to their Bengali identity, due to cultural, linguistic, geographical and historical reasons. They have been described as a wealthy but very closed-off community; evidently being a minority in their