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BARUA BUDDHIST COMMUNITY
The Barua Buddhist (Barua, Baruah) ethnic community is Mongoloid chagtai and is closely related with Chakmas, Chagtai Mugal and Mugh tribes. All this tribes are follower of Theravada Buddhist Religion. Now they are inhabited highly concentrated in Chittagong district and Southern part of Bangladesh, In India - Kolkata, Siliguri, Malbazar, Nagrakata, Binaguri, Banerhat, Moinaguri, Durgapur etc in West Bengal, Jamshedpur, Rachi in Jharkhond, Laknow in UP, Shillong in Meghalaya, Guwahati, Tinsukia, Digboy, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Bongaigon etc in Assam, the Sadar Subdivision of West Tripura District (also known Agartala) the Udaipur Subdivision of the South Tripura District and Delhi. In India Baruas are adapted with local Indian culture and maintain their old traditional religion equally. All of them are socially and religiously linked with Buddhist temple, although they are scattered in different places in towns, villages with different religious group. Nothing can be denied; the influence of Hinduism is injected deeply to Baruas social life with passing of time and the value of Buddhism is loosing among in new generation, especially in India.

‘Barua’ means:
The surname Barua is derived from two words, ‘bara’ meaning ‘renowned’; and ‘ua’ meaning ‘ruler’. In ancient times, the most highly ranked military ruler of Chattagram under the king of Arakan was a man called ‘Barua’. Presently Barua tribes speak chittagangi Bengali (Mixed language of Bengali, Arakanian and Urdu) in Bangladesh, Bengali in West Bengal, Assamese in Assam, and Hindi in Northern belt of India. Now among new generation, most of them are interested in English and Hindi languages.

Nevertheless without mention ‘Assamese Barua’, the origin of ‘Bengali Barua’ is incomplete.

In Assamese ‘‘‘Barua’’’: which is also written as Baruah, Barooah, Baroova, Borooah, Baroowa; is a common Assamese surname. The surname Barua is synonymous to the surname Arora or Ahuja in a way that, like Arora or Ahuja which happens to be a Punjabi surname and anyone would assosiate these surnames with someone who is a Punjabi, similarly; the surname Barua is always associated with someone who is an Assamese as this surname belongs to people who hail from Assam and predominantly associated with the Assamese community. In Assam, originally the title was conferred for most of class of officers in the Ahom kingdom of medieval Assam. The Ahom appointed officers with various title and the title Baruah means a " Leader of 3000 men".

The Baruas / Baruahs / Barooahs of Assam are Hindus by faith and have been a key contributors to the growth of Assamese community. Barua/hs or Barooahs especially of Upper - Assam and also to an extent in Lower and Middle/Central-Assam are generally Brahmins (or even may be Kayastha ) representing General Caste people having or carrying specific Gotras i.e., proper Brahmin Identity Surnames. Even Barua and others with middle title or surname such as, Ram, Prasad, Ranjan, Krishnakant, Govind, Chandra - Barooah / Baruah / Barua mostly belong to these upper caste. Other Barooahs / Baruahs / Baruas carrying similar or even the same middle - titles would obviously be Hindus however may be non-Brahmins; and thus may be Ahoms - (descendants of Ahom Community) or Kalitas as generally referred in Assam, who worship saints of Assamese community such as; Shankar Dev rather engaging themselves in idol worship.

Migrated Baruas in India:
Most of Baruas are migrated from their ethnic place to India and other countries during British Colonial period and east Pakistan.

Economic Condition of Baruas:
Economic conditions of Baruas in village (Bangladesh) are moderately lower middle class and depend on agriculture. Most of the Barua youths are migrating toward City or foreign country in search of job. Few of Baruas have well established in Chittagong town. Government of Bangladesh has list bother on minorities for their economic, health and social development. Many of dropout minor students are joining in garment manufacture industry with fist of wages. Their futures are ruining in their early age. Likely in recent decade some improvements have seen in political arena, where few ministers, belonging to Barua community elected as Local Minister and doing betterment for Barua community.

In India, most of the Baruas are lower middle class except West Bengal. As an occupation, in India most of the Baruas are engage in retail business, motor mechanic and some of them are serving government job in group C and Group D post. After migration from East Pakistan or British India, unfortunately from Barua community does not have produced even single IAS Officer, MP or head of any PSUs/Banks/Corporate from any other states of India, except one or two from West Bengal. It is unfortunate and Government of India is silent in this regards. Therefore, it is indicating that the social and economic positions of Baruas are vulnerable stage. Government of India and State Governments from North East India has list bother with this unique Buddhist Barua tribe.

Mug Barua:
Government of West Bengal has been recognized and accepted as special ethic group belongs to Schedule Tribe of Mug in the listed Indian constitution. Unfortunately, just by the name ‘Barua’ not yet separately listed in the constitution.

The Mogh Barua Buddhists of Assam have demanded tribal status for the community on the lines of the Mogh tribal in West Bengal. The eighth biennial conference of the Federation of Mogh Barua Buddhist Welfare Association of Assam, said the community should be re-enlisted as “Mogh” Barua tribe in the Tribe Schedule list of Assam as in Tripura and West Bengal as per the Schedule Tribe Order (1950) Part I rules and other provisions under the Constitution. Unfortunately in other states, Baruas are in muted mood in this subject and some of them are opposing to secure the benefit given by Indian constitutions. According to them, Baruas are from higher clan and does not deserve for listing in ethnic tribe.

Do you know!! Baruas were migrated from Madhya Pradesh, India to Chittagong, Bangladesh around 5000 years ago...
According to historians the Tibeto-Burman consists of 3 tribes - the Pyu, the Kanyan and the Thet (Chakma). The Chakma tribes are living in their historical land in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Kanyan tribe is known as the Rakhine (Arakanese) group who still live in the South-Eastern part of Chittagong. The plain Buddhists of Bangladesh known as the Burua-Buddhist are the ancient peoples of Bangladesh who have lived here for five thousand years according to Arakanese chronology. They insist that they came from the Aryavarta or the country of the Aryans which is practically identical to the country later known as the Majjhimadesh or Madhyadesh in Pali literature.

Prehistoric Barua Language and Culture:
During pre and post Arakan period in Bangladesh, Baruas had their language, culture, traditional costume etc. and it was destroyed during Hindu and Muslim ruling period. Now only Baruas have Buddhist culture & religion and it is link with Buddhist temple.

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Notable Baruas
Some Buddhist Barua of regional, national and international fame are:

Benimadhab Barua

 * He was born on 31 December 1888 in Chittagong. Among the schools and college he attended were the Chittagong Collegiate School, Chittagong College, Scottish Church College and Presidency College, Krishnath College from where he passed BA (Hons) in Pāli in 1911. In 1913 he earned an MA degree in Pāli from University of Calcutta. Thereafter he also studied law at Calcutta City College and Calcutta Law College, affiliated with the same university.

Career

Benimadhab joined Mahāmuni Anglo-Pāli Institution as headmaster in 1912. From 1913-14 he worked as a lecturer in the Pāli department of the University of Calcutta. He went to England on a government scholarship in 1914. He earned an MA in Greek and Modern European Philosophy from the University of London. In 1917 he was awarded a D.Litt. by the University of London. Remember that he was the FIRST ASIAN to do so. After returning to India in 1918, Benimadhab rejoined Calcutta University and was promoted to professorship. He improvised the syllabus of the MA course in Pali, apart from his work in the departments of Ancient Indian History and Culture (1919–48) and Sanskrit (1927–48) in the same university.

Later life

He was a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, member of Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, the Mahābodhi Society of India, Calcutta and of the executive committee of Iran Society. He edited Indian Culture, Buddhist India, Jagajjyoti and Vishvavani. In recognition of his contribution to Buddhist studies, he was awarded the title of ‘Tripitakāchārya’ in 1944 by the pundits of Sri Lanka. The Asiatic Society awarded him the Bimalacharan Laha Gold Medal. He died on 23 March 1948 in Calcutta.

Dibyendu Barua
Achievements:


 * ) Second Indian to become a Grandmaster
 * ) In 1982 beat the world number two GM Viktor Korchnoi in London
 * ) Won the National Chess Championship 3 times

Dibyendu Barua is an Indian Chess Player, and famous for being the Second Grandmaster from India, only to follow the legendry Vishwanathan Anand. Although he showed a lot of promising capabilities in the initial phase of his career, Barua somehow couldn't impress much with his performance afterwards.

Early Life & Introduction to Chess

He was born on the 27th of October 1966 at Calcutta (now Kolkata). He fell in love with the game of Chess at quite an early age, and began playing the game seriously. Barua created a stir when at a tender age of 12 years he participated in the National Chess Championship in the year 1978. Soon he became famous as a Chess prodigy.

National Chess

He won his maiden National Championship in the year 1983. After this, Dibyendu won the National Chess Championship title 3 times in his career. The last National Championship title he won in the year 2000. In the tournament, he beat 4 Grand Masters to win the crown.

International Chess

Barua shocked the whole Chess World when he defeated the then World Number 2, Grand Master Viktor Korchnoi in London in the year 1982, when he was just 16 years old. After this shocking victory, he became an International Master. But, after this honor his pace got a bit slow on the international front. The main reason was that Dibyendu was not equipped with latest resources, books, computers and professional coaches which were easily available to his overseas opponents. That's why it took him a very long period of about 9 years to earn the title of Grand Master. He was declared a Grand Master in the year 1991. Even after getting the title, Barua still had to face the lack of funds which were needed at every step in improving his performance according to international standards.

Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy

Apart from being a brilliant Chess Player, Barua always wanted to offer his help and expertise in producing a new line of talented youngsters who might beam on the Chess Platform of the world. To fulfill his dream, he began the Dibyedu Barua Chess Academy in Kolkata in September 2005 entirely on his own resources at a rented apartment. Initially, he had only 22 students which have now grown into over 200 trainees. An efficient panel of Coaches including Dibyendu himself, his wife Saheli Dhar Barua, Bipin Shenoy, Niladri Biswas, Paritosh Bhattacharya, Tamal Chakraborty and a group of eminent Visiting Coaches such as Neeraj Kumar Misra (International Master), Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (International Master) and Abhijit Kunte (Grand Master) offer their valuable guidance and tips at the Academy to make sure the trainee Chess Players are able to make it the best at the International Chess Events.

Awards & Honors

To commemorate his outstanding performance in the game of Chess and his consistent services to the nation as an International Chess Player, Dibyendu Barua was honored with the prestigious Arjuna Award by the Government of India in the year 1983.