Basak (surname)

Basak (Bosak) is a Hindu Bengali surname [1] in the Bengal region, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. In West Bengal and Assam this surname is written as basak while in some districts of Bihar as basak or bosak. The name is also spelt Bysack or Basacks by different families. In Bengali and Assam they usually belong to caste Kshatriya and Vaishya, Tantubais, Karmakars, Bania (Bonia). In Bihar they are mainly concentrated in Katihar, Purnea and Kishanganj districts where they belong to the Chaupal caste who migrated from Sutanuti. Chaupal is considered as Scheduled Caste under Government of Bihar and West Bengal and Bania (bonia) caste is considered as scheduled caste under Government of Assam. The Basaks are the original inhabitants (along with the Seths) of Sutanuti where Job Charnock later founded the city of Calcutta. Basak from Kishanganj bihar is also from Nadia district of West Bengal.

The Patna High Court case type L.P.APPEAL(LPA), Case No.794, Year 2016 has recorded is that "CHAUPAL" is the caste under which various sub-castes like "Pan", "Swasi","Tanti", "Tantwa" exist and the expert body, statutory in nature, constituted by the state Government, has found so and that is why a recommendation was made for exclusion of "Tanti" and Tantwa from the list of EBC and include them in the list of Patna High Court LPA No. 794 of 2016 dated 23.08.2017 Scheduled caste. Basaks/bosak have many categories. In Bengali region they are Tantubais, Karmakars, Bania (Bonia), Baishyas and chaupal.Approximately 2,69,330 people bear this surname.

Geographical distribution

As of 2014, 58.5% of all known Basaks were residents of India and 30.1% were residents of Bangladesh. In India, the frequency of the name was higher than national average in:

• West Bengal (1: 717)
• Tripura (1: 1,334)

Notables

• Subimal Basak
• Gour Das Bysack
• Netai Chand Bysack
• Arun Kumar Basak
• Jharna Basak
• Soumen Basak
• Birendra Basak
• Sovaram Basak
• Krishnalal Bysack
• Rahul Kumar Basak (Bibiganj)

See also

• Sutanuti
• Basak plant
• 25 baisakh
• Kalbaishakhi

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