Basak (surname)


Basak is a Hindu surname 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. In Bihar they are mainly concentrated in Katihar, Purnea and Kishanganj districts where they belong to the Chaupal caste. Chaupal caste is considered a scheduled caste under Government of Bihar and West Bengal and Bania caste is considered as scheduled caste under Government of Assam. The Basaks are the original inhabitants of Sutanuti where Job Charnock later founded the city of Calcutta.
Basak from Kshanganj, Bihar is also from Nadia district of West Bengal.
Basaks/bosak have many categories. In Bengali region they are Tantubais, Karmakars, Bania, Baishyas and chaupal.

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: