Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Hum.), Vol. 58(1), 2013, pp.

1-25

IDENTITY AND COMPOSITE CULTURE : THE BENGAL CASE

Sushil Chaudhury*

The main thrust of the paper is to examine the evolution of a composite culture
in Bengal, and to explain its nature and character, especially from the sixteenth
to the eighteenth century which is the period when it evolved and flourished in
the region. This exercise is significant even today as the legacy from the past is
still vibrant in many parts of the country, Bangladesh or West Bengal. For
instance, there was a news report in The Statesman of January 10, 2006 that at a
place in rural Bengal, called Maynagar in Tamluk, about 90 kilometers west of
Kolkata, a pirs dargah is looked after by a Hindu trustee and a fair organized
by the authorities of a Radhagobinda temple include a Muslim as part of
centuries-old tradition.1 Such instances abound in many parts of Bengal even
now and there is little doubt that this tradition comes down from several
centuries earlier.
While talking about the evolution of a composite culture, it is pertinent to see
how it was intertwined with the question of identity of Bengali Muslims. The
Islamic revitalizing and purificatory movements in Bengal in the nineteenth
century laid bare the roots of cleavage and dualism between Bengali Muslims
cultural position, caught between the opposite pulls of Bengal localism and
Islamic extra-territoriality. The said new movements, combined with the
changed social and political circumstances of Bengal under the British
domination, sharpened the focus, as never before, on the Islamic identity of
the Bengali believers, with the result that a massive and organized assault on the
syncretistic tradition and on the cultural values and norms, necessary to sustain
it, followed to which we shall turn later.
*

Former Professor, Department of Islamic History and Culture, Calcutta University,

Kolkata and Fellow, Royal Historical Society, England.

The Statesman, 11 January 2006 (Calcutta edition).

Sushil Chaudhury

But a question that crops up is how do we define culture? How do we

distinguish it from religion? In fact it is very difficult to distinguish the two as
they more often than not mingle together making it impossible to separate the
one from the other. It is not just a theory but I learnt it from my personal
experience. About five decades back I was travelling in the then Santal
Parganas (now Jharkand), when I saw a group of Santals, who were Christians,
sacrificing cocks at the altar of their popular/tribal god. When I asked them how
could they do this when they are Christians, they answered back, aamra kestan
hote pari, ta bole to nijer dhamma (dharma) bhulte parina (we may be
Christians but how can we be oblivious of our religion?). This is rather quite
instructive. Here religion is nothing but a way of life as much as culture is,
and the two mingle at some point one cannot be separated from the other
completely. It is in this perspective that I shall interpret religion and culture in
the course of this discourse.
In his recent book, Identity and Violence, Amartya Sen defines identity as:
When interpersonal relations are seen in singular inter-group terms as amity or
dialogue among civilizations or religious ethnicities, paying no attention to
other group to which the same persons also belong (involving economic, social,
political or other cultural connections), then much of importance in human life
is altogether lost and individuals are put into little boxes. He holds that the
divisions of human sapiens into religious or civilizational groups are artificial.
These divisions are chimeras created by ruling elites or traders of death. They
mess up our identities and dehumanize us. He means by identity loyalty to
various social, cultural, political, literary or similar groups formed on the basis
of what he calls choice and reason.
In this respect the question of the identity and culture of the Bengali Muslims,
especially in the pre-modern time, becomes more pertinent. Islam spread in
Bengal on a massive scale between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries.
But what was exceptional, however, was that among Indias interior provinces,
it was only in Bengal that a majority of the indigenous population was
converted to Islam. How and why did this happen needs to be explained from a
historical perspective. The conventional theories regarding Islamization in India
in general that Islam was a Religion of the Sword which stresses the role of
military power in the diffusion of Islam in India; that it was a religion of
patronage which emphasizes that the conversion was due to the lure of

Identity and Composite Culture

rewards from the Muslim rulers in various forms; that it was religion of social
liberation which postulates that Islam with its liberating message of social
equality attracted the low caste and downtrodden Hindus who got converted to
Islam en mass are hardly tenable.
In fact, the rise of Islamic communities in Bengal was not corollary to, or
simply a function of the expansion of, the Turkish arms. It was actually brought
about by the twin processes of agrarian growth and colonization in the eastern
region of Bengal following the riverine movement in the delta. The emergence
of Islam as a mass religion in East Bengal occurred in the context of other
historical forces, among them the most important being the shift of the epicentre
of agrarian civilization from the western delta to the eastern hinterland. In fact,
a decisive moment was reached in the late sixteenth century when the river
Ganges linked up with the Padma, as a consequence of which the Ganges's
main discharge flowed directly into the heart of the eastern delta which now
became very fertile and thus large forests grew in the lower regions of the
eastern delta. . And thus, many of the poor peasants from other parts flocked to
these areas which were being afforested and cultivated by a motley crowd of
Islamic preachers like pirs, gazis, sufis, etc. - termed cultural mediators in
recent parlance. In the process they were ultimately, and almost unwittingly,
converted to Islam. But this vast mass had their deep roots in Bengal
countryside and was imbued with their traditional culture. As a result, unlike in
other places, Bengal absorbed so much local culture and became so profoundly
identified with Bengals long-term process of agrarian expansion that in its
formative years the cultivating class never seemed to have regarded Islam as
alien.
In fact, one of the important factors that led to religious and cultural syncretism
was that the Muslim conquerors had to live with the vanquished Hindus, and the
former were actually surrounded by the latter. As a result, a state of perpetual
hostility between the two was not possible. Centuries of contact between the
two communities were bound to result in a mutual understanding, and a process
of give and take. Moreover, many of the new converts to Islam could not break
away from their Hindu past, and followed their old ways of life and culture
side-by-side with the Islamic tenets most of which were alien to them. Thus the
two communities, Hindus and Muslims, living together and having daily
intercourses among themselves, evolved a popular religion and culture in

Sushil Chaudhury

several parts of India, especially in Bengal where the Muslim population was
more numerous than in other parts. Hence after the first shock of Muslim
conquest was over, the two communities tried to find the ways and means to
live side-by-side in harmony as friendly neighbours. This has been aptly put by
Tarachand:2
The effort to seek a new life led to the development of a new culture which was
neither exclusively Hindu nor purely Muslim. It was indeed a Hindu-Muslim
culture. Not only did Hindu religion, Hindu art, Hindu literature and Hindu
science absorb Muslim elements, but the very spirit of Hindu culture and the
very stuff of Hindu mind were also altered, and the Muslim reciprocated by
responding to the change in every department of life.

Religious Syncretism
Though I said that it is almost impossible to distinguish between religion and
culture, yet for the sake of convenience I shall try to analyze syncretism during
the period under review in two aspects first, syncretism in religion and
secondly, in culture. It so happened in Bengal that the Islamic tenets were not
fully absorbed by the new converts as they were still immersed in their old
habits, beliefs, practices and ceremonies. In a way their conversion to Islam was
not complete as they continued to practise their old ways of daily life, especially
in the villages. Thus we find that in Bengal the fundamental concept of Islam
was changed due to the Hindu influence. Here Prophet Muhammad was
sometimes characterized as an avatar an incarnation that was endowed with
supernatural power. In fact, the Muslim theory of creation then prevalent in
Bengal was an adaptation of the Hindu theory. A contemporary Muslim poet
wrote, almost echoing the Sunya Purana:3
God emerged out of nothing; out of Divine emanation came into being the sun,
the moon, heaven and hell. It was followed by the creation of earth, air, water
and fire. At last Adam was created and sent to earth.

It is out of the mutual religious practices of the Hindus and Muslims, there
developed some sort of a new religious sect called Kartabhaja Dharma, in
eighteenth century Bengal.4 Its founder Aule Chand (died 1769) preached his
Dharma in Nadia district and had as his disciples both Hindus and Muslims. In
2
3
4

Tarachand, Influence of Islam on Indian Culture, Allahabad 1936, p. 137.

Quoted in Khodkar Mahbubul Karim, The Provinces of Bihar and Bengal under Shah
Jahan, Dacca 1974, p. 208.
Md. Shah Noorur Rahman, Hindu-Muslim Relations in Mughal Bengal, Calcutta 2001,
p. 49.

Identity and Composite Culture

this cult there was no distinction between high and low, or Hindus and
Muslims. Significantly, no outward sign of adherence to the sect was necessary.
A Hindu could retain his sacred thread and a Muslim need not shave on
becoming a member of the sect.5 However it should be noted that two streams
flowed side-by-side. One was the orthodox religion both Hindu and Muslim;
the other was popular religion which was more a way of life than strictly a socalled religion.
The Sufis also contributed to the rise of new popular religious sects and the
fostering of amity and unity between the two communities. As Enamul Haq
writes:6
In the lowly Khanaqahs of the Sufis and the humble Astanahs of dervishes,
both the Hindus and Muslims used to meet together and exchange their views.
Liberal views and fraternizing influence of the Sufis were daily drawing the
people of two different religion closer and closer, and ultimately during the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the two communities were greatly united
together by the inalienable bond of the mutual toleration and fraternity.

The Bauls and Sahajias are the off-shoots of Sufism in Bengal, and they played
an important role in Hindu-Muslim harmony. The Bauls and Sahajias were a
kind of religious sects which combined the principles of Hinduism and Islam.
One of the famous Bauls in Bengal was Lalon Fakir who used to say that he
was neither a Hindu nor a Muslim, and the only religion he believed in was
humanism. In one of his songs, he preached that:7
Bhakter dware bandha aachen Sain
Hindu ki Jaban bole tar kacche jatir bichar nai.
Ek Chande hoi jagat aalo
Ek bije shob janma holo.
[God is ever present at the door of the devotee and He does not make any
distinction of caste or creed, or a Hindu and a Muslim. As the world is lighted by
the same moon, so also every living being is born out of the same Divine Spirit.]

The Pir cult in Bengal is another manifestation of the religious syncretism. The
Pir worship was a form of joint worship of the Hindus and Muslims. The large
settlement of foreign Muslims side-by-side with the Hindus and the newly
converts (neo-phytes) enabled Islam to strike its roots deep into society. In this
5
6
7

Tarachand, Influence of Islam, pp. 219-20.

Enamul Haq, A history of Sufism in Bengal, Dacca 1975, p. 288.
S. M. Lutfar Rahman, Lalan Shah: Jiban O Gan, (in Bengali Lalan Shah: His Life and
Songs), Dhaka 1983, p. 113.

Sushil Chaudhury

process the worship of local deities (gods and goddesses) contributed quite a
bit. Garcin de Tassy observed in 1831 that the Pirs (Saints) were the
substitutes for the Musalmans, in the place of the numerous gods of the
Hindus. As amongst the saints venerated by the Musalmans, there were some
personages who professed the faith of the Vedas, so several of the Musalman
saints of India are venerated by the Hindus.8

That the Hindus in Medieval Bengal were devoted to the Pirs and regarded
them as their own gods is absolutely clear from the such literary works like
Ghazi Vijay and Satyapir Vijay of Faizullah (Muslim poet of 16th Century),
Ray-mangal, Shasti-mangal, Sitala- mangal and Kamala-mangal (17th Century)
of Krishna Das and Dharma-mangal of Ruparam. These sources clearly
indicate that a large number of Hindus had a great veneration for the Pirs. Their
tombs were visited by Hindus and Muslims alike.9 Thus a Muslim poet writes:10
Hindur devata hoila Musalmaner Pir
Dui kule loi puja hoiya jahir.
[The Pirs of the Muslims became the gods of the Hindus. They manifested
themselves and were worshipped by both the communities.]

In fact Hindu popular literature and ballads like the various Mangal Kavyas,
Purba Banga Gitika, Maymansingh Gitika, etc. had spaces earmarked for the
Pirs and the places associated with them. In their compositions, some of the
Muslim poets of the period first showed regard for the great personalities of
Islam, and then to the Hindu deities. Thus we find poet Faizullah (19th century)
wrote in his Satya Pir Panchali:11
Selam karib aage Pir Niranjan
Muhammad Mustafa bondo aar Patanjan.
Sher Ali Fatema bondo ekida koriya
Hassan Hossain poida hailo jahar lagiya.
********************
Sati Thakurani bondo aar jata Sati
Daibaki Rohini bondo Sachi Thakurani.
Jar garbhe Gorachand janmilo aapani
Gailo Faizullah kari satya pade mon.
8
9
10
11

Quoted in Jagadish Narayan Sarkar, Hindu-Muslim Relation in Medieval Bengal, Delhi

1985, p. 67.
Ahmad Sharif, Bangali O Bangla Sahitya, Dhaka 1983, p. 829.
Abdul Qadir and Rezaul Karim, ed., Kavya Malancha, Calcutta 1945, p. 30.
Quoted in Ahmad Sharif, Bangali O Bangla Sahitya, p. 824.

Identity and Composite Culture

[I shall first of all salute Pir Niranjan and then sing in praise of Muhammad Mustafa
and Panjatan. After concentration I worship Sher Ali and Fatima for whom Hassan
and Hossain were born. I worship the goddess Sati and other chaste women. I
worship Daibaki, Rohini and mother Sachi who gave birth to Gorachand (Sri
Chaitanya). Dedicated to truth, I, poet Faizullah, sing this.]

Cultural Syncretism
Though I shall be concentrating on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the
syncretism in Bengali culture can actually be traced to a much earlier period, at
least from the time of the Sultans. In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries, state-sponsored mosques built in native style proliferated in deltaic
Bengal. It was during this period that the Muslim court lent vigorous support to
Bengali language and literature. The Chinese traveller Ma Huan observed in the
early fifteenth century that Bengali was the language in universal use12. In
fact, the court started patronizing Bengali literary works in a big way in the late
fifteenth century. It was under the patronage of Sultan Ruknuddin Barbak (r.
1459-74) that Maladhar Basu wrote Sri Krishna Vijaya. Again Manasa Vijaya
by Bipradas, Padma-Purana by Vijay Gupta and Krishna-mangala by Jasoraj
Khan were composed during the time of Alauddin Husain Shah (r. 1493-1519)
and Nasiruddin Nasarat Shah (r. 1519-32). It was during this period that Bijoy
Pandit and Kabindra Parameswara translated portions of the Mahabharata from
Sanskrit.13
It is evident from the observation of Sebastian Manrique who visited Bengal in
1629 that Bengal had already evolved a syncretic culture by the time the
Mughals had established their authority there. He stated that some of the
Muslim kings had been in the habit of sending for water from Ganga Sagar (a
holy place where the river Ganges flows into the sea). During the ceremonies
connected with their installations, these kings would wash themselves, like the
previous Hindu sovereigns of Bengal, in that holy water.14 Thus the Bengal
Sultans, especially of the restored Iliyas Shahi dynasty and its successors,
evolved a stable, mainly secular, modus vivendi with Bengali society and
culture in which the state systematically patronized the culture of the subject
12
13
14

Rockhill, Notes on the Relations, p.437, quoted in Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of
Islam and the Bengal Frontier, OUP, Delhi 1994, p. 66.
Nihar Ranjan Ray, Medieval Bengali Culture, Visa Bharati Quarterly, Vol. 11, No.2,
1945, p. 54; Md. Enamul Haq, Muslim Bengali Literature, Karachi 1957, pp. 38-39.
Sebastian Manrique, Travels of 1629-1643, Trans. E. Luard and H. Hosten, (Oxford:
Hakluyt Society, 1927), Vol. 1, p. 77.

Sushil Chaudhury

population.15 They yielded so much in their public architecture to the Bengali

conceptions of form and medium that prompted Percy Brown to comment, the
country, originally possessed by the invaders, now possessed them.16
Again it should be noted that with the coming in of the Mughals, there were
fundamental changes not only in the regions economic structures and its sociopolitical system but also in the cultural complexion, both at the court and in the
countryside. As for example, Mughal officials in Bengal preferred ayurvedic
medical therapy to the yunani medical system inherited by classical Islamic
civilization. Thus we find that subadar Islam Khan, himself an Indian Muslim,
asked for an Indian physician when he was in his death-bed.17 Again, when half
of the body of the governor of Bihar was paralyzed because of an illness,
Emperor Jahangir sent two Indian physicians for his treatment.18 Similarly when
Mirza Nathan, the erstwhile Mughal general in Bengal, fell ill, his advisers sent
for a kabiraj who successfully treated him by consulting the appropriate
astrological signs and by administering a poisonous brew dissolved in lemon
juice and ginger.19 Such reliance on ayurvedic treatment, even at the cost of
neglecting the yunani system, brings to bold relief how thoroughly Indian
values had penetrated into Mughal culture, thus underlining the cultural
syncretism in Mughal Bengal by the early seventeenth century.
Further, the legends of pioneering Pirs, (who were mainly responsible for
clearing the jungles and making the land useful for cultivation), which abound
in the Bengali literature of the seventeenth century, underscore the process of
cultural syncretism that had become a feature of Mughal Bengal. Krishram
Dass epic poem, Ray-mangala, written in 1686, is an illustration in point. The
story here concerns the conflict between a tiger god named Dakshin Ray
(sovereign deity of the Sunderban forests) and a Muslim called Bade Gazi Khan
who represented a personified memory of the penetration of these same forests
by Muslim pioneers. The encounter between the two, though initially hostile,
was ultimately resolved in a compromise Dakshin Ray would continue to
exercise absolute authority over the whole of the Sunderbans (Lower Bengal)
but people would have to show respect to Bade Gazi Khan by worshipping his
15
16
17
18
19

Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam, pp. 69-70.

Percy Brown, Indian Architecture: Muslim Period, 5th edition, Bombay 1968, p. 38.
Mirza Nathan, Baharistan-i- Ghaibi, Trans. M. I. Borah, Vol. 1, Gauhati 1936, p. 256.
Ibid., p. 262.
Ibid., pp. 323-24.

Identity and Composite Culture

graveyard, marked by a symbol of Dakhin Rays head.20 Mukundarams

Chandi-mangala can be regarded as a grand epic dramatizing the process of
civilization-building in Bengal and particularly the push of agrarian civilization
into formerly forested lands. Here Muslim pioneers were unambiguously
associated with the clearing of forests. One Zafar Mian was said to be the leader
of the Muslim work force numbering twenty two thousand. It was also said that
these labourers chanted the name of the pir, quite possibly that of Zafar Mian
himself.21 Though this poem cannot be taken as an eyewitness historical
narrative, but it can be asserted nonetheless that the poet drew his theme from
the culture of his own time which means that he was quite familiar with the
theme of thousands of Muslims clearing the forests under the leadership of
charismatic pirs.
Sheikh Jalauddin Tabrizis, Sekhsubhodaya, like Mukundaram and Krishnaram
Dass poems, belongs to mangal-kavya genre, a genre that typically glorified a
particular deity and promised the deitys followers bounties in return for their
devotion. However, the hero of the Sheikhs work was not a traditional Bengali
deity but the Sheikh himself.22 But Sekhsubhodaya can be seen as revealing the
folk process at work. Its story seeks to make sense of the gradual cultural shift
from a Bengali Hindu world to a Bengali Muslim world. In part this was
achieved by presenting the new in the guise of the familiar. Sheikh Tabrizi
established an alien cult within a Hindu conceptual framework. The Sheikh
gave the king grace which is nothing but prasad, the food that a Hindu deity
gives to a devotee. His consecration of the mosque followed a ritual consistent
with the consecration of a Hindu temple, and his patron deity, Allah, although
not identified with a Hindu deity, was given the generic name, prasadapurusha
(Great Person).23 Thus it can be said that in the midst of dramatic socioeconomic changes occurring in Mughal Bengal, Islam creatively evolved into
an ideology of world-construction an ideology of forest-clearing and
agrarian expansion. On the one hand, Islamic institutions proved sufficiently
flexible to accommodate the non-Brahmonized religious culture already present
20
21
22
23

Asutosh Bhattacharya, The Tiger Cult and Its Literature in Lower Bengal, in Man in
India, Vol. 27, No.1, March 1947, pp. 49-50.
Mukundaram, Kavikankan Chandi, eds., Srikumar Bandyopadhay and Biswapati
Chaudhuri, Calcutta 1974; Richard M.Eaton, The Rise of Islam, pp. 213-14.
Sukumar Sen, ed. and trans, Sekhsubhoday of Halayuda Misra, Calcutta 1963.
Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam, pp. 215-18.

10

Sushil Chaudhury

in Bengal. On the other, the religious and cultural traditions already present in
Mughal Bengal made accomodations with the amalgam of rites, rituals, and
beliefs that were associated with the village mosques and shrines then
proliferating in their midst. As Richard M. Eaton rightly observes: In the
process, Islamic and Bengali worldviews and cosmologies fused in dynamic
and creative ways.24
There were also several Muslim poets in Mughal Bengal with Vaishnava
inclinations, the most notable among them being Daulat Qazi and Alaol in the
seventeenth century. Their works are significant indications of the religious and
cultural syncretism in Mughal Bengal. In his poem Sati Mayna along with the
adoration of Allah and Rasul, Daulat Qazi referred to Dwarka of Sri Krishna,
stories of the Puranas, Hindu dresses and kirtan. It also bears the clear impress
of Vaishnava lyrics. Alaol adopted a pure Vaishnava theme for his lyrics. He
writes on Radhas secret meeting with Krishna. Another Sufi Pir and Vaishnava
poet, Syed Murtaza, says in his prayer allegorically:25
Par karo par karo more naiya Kanai
Kanai more par karare! (Dhun).
Ghater ghatial Kanai panther chaukidar
Nayali jauban dimu kheyar pai par.
[Carry me across, carry me across, oh boatman Kanai, oh Kanai do thou ferry me
across. Oh Kanai, thou art the custodian of the ferry ghat and the watchman of the
path (of life). I offer my fresh youth as the ferry fare]

The poems of Muslim-Vaishnava poets clearly bring out the cultural dimension
of the syncretism in Mughal Bengal. The poet Lal Mamud, though born in a
Muslim family, was a dedicated devotee of Krishna. He says of himself:26
Janma niya Musalmane banchita hobo Sricharane
Aami mone bhabina ekbar.
(Ebar) Lal Mamude hare Krishna naam korecche shar.
[Though born Muslim, I do not ever think that I shall be deprived of the sacred feet
of Krishna. Now Lal Mamud has indeed accepted the name of Hare Krishna as his
be-all and end-all.]

24
25
26

Ibid., p. 267.
Quoted in Y. M. Bhattacharya, Banglar Vaishnavabhavapanna Musalman Kabir
padamanjusha, Calcutta 1984, pp. 317.
Ibid. p. 250.

Identity and Composite Culture

11

In another composition he says:27

Hindu kimba hok Musalman
Tomar pakshe sobai saman.
Aapan santan jatir ki bichar!
Bhakta sokal jatir shrestha Chandal ki Chamar.
Keha tomai bole Kali, keha bole Banamali
Keha Khoda Allah boli tomai dake saratsar.
[Whether a Hindu or a Muslim, it is all the same to you. Who bothers about the
caste of ones own son? A bhakta (devotee) is the best of all castes whether he is a
Chandal (low caste) or a Chamar (cobbler). Some call you Kali, some Banamali (lit.
gardener, here Krishna) and others call you Khoda Allah; this is the secret (essence)
of all secrets.]

The same sentiment reflecting the religious and cultural syncretism that was
achieved in Mughal Bengal is to be found also in the various ballads of the
Purba Banga Gitika and Maimansingh Gitika. In one of the ballads, it has been
emphasized that:28
Hendu (Hindu) aar Musalman eki pinder dari
Keha bole Allah Rosul keha bole Hari.
Bismilla aar Cchiribistu ekkei goan
Dofak kori diye parava Ram Rahiman.
[The Hindus and Muslims are ropes of the same bundle; someone says Allah Rasul,
someone says Hari; Bismillah and Sri Vishnu are the same; when they are made
different, they are called Ram and Rahim]

In fact, in the corpus of medieval Bengali literature celebrating indigenous

deities such as manasa, chandi, satyapir, dharma, dakshin ray, etc., one can
see local cosmologies expanding in order to accommodate new superhuman
beings introduced by foreign Muslims.29 As we have seen in the Manasamangala, the conflict between Dakshin Ray or the tiger god and Bade Gazi
Khan was resolved not by one defeating the other but by the elevation of Bade
Gazi Khan to a revered saint and by peaceful co-existence of the two. The two,
however, were not fused into a single religious personage but remained
mutually distinct. The inclusion of Muslim alongside local divinities is also to
27
28
29

Ibid.
Quoted in Md. Shah Noorur Rahman, Hindu-Muslim Relations, p. 81.
M. R. Tarafdar, Husain Shahi Bengal, pp. 17-18, 164-66, 233-35; P. K. Maity, Historical
Studies in the Cult of the Goddess Manasa, Calcutta 1966; Asutosh Bhattacharya, The
Tiger Cult, pp. 49-56; Also see especially, Asim Roy, The Islamic Syncretistic
Tradition in Bengal, Princeton 1983.

12

Sushil Chaudhury

be found in the rich tradition of folk ballads of Bengal.30 The invocation

(bandana) in the ballad, Nazim Dacoit, a ballad of Chittagong district dating
from the seventeenth or early eighteenth century, includes both indigenous and
exogenous religio-cultural ideas. We see here the tenacity of the Bengali
emphasis on divine power as manifested in female agency - Mother Earth,
Sita, Radha, etc. And it is significant that this emphasis is extended to include
prominent females of Islamic history: special reverence is shown to Amina, the
Prophets mother and Fatima, his daughter. Thus it shows that themes wholly
foreign to Bengal had also infiltrated into the religious and cultural universe of
rural Bengal.
In some parts of Bengal, especially in the lower regions, this sort of inclusion
crept in easily. The fishermen in the Sunderbans performed their pujas to the
forest goddess Bana Bibi before putting their nets into the water as a ritual to
protect them from harm. A small thatched bamboo hut was raised for this
purpose, and a clay image of Bana Bibi seated on a tiger was placed in the hut.
Flanking her on her right was an image of Dakshin Ray, depicted as a strong
and stout man standing with a sword and behind him stood a bearded Muslim
fakir known as Ajmal and behind Dakhsin Ray lay the severed head and body of
a young boy. The trio a tiger deity, a soldier and a superhuman agent
identified with Islam - have remained constant over the centuries, distinct from
one another but yet included within a single cosmology.31
As a matter of fact we find identification of a similar type in the Bengal
literature dating from the sixteenth century. Haji Muhammed,32 a sixteenth
century poet, identified Allah with Gosai (Master), while another poet,
Saiyid Murtaza,33 identified the Prophets daughter, Fatima, with Jagat-janani
(mother of the world), and Saiyid Sultan34 identified God of Adam, Abraham

30
31
32
33
34

As for example, Nazim Dacoit, a ballad of Chittagong District dating from seventeenth
or eighteenth century. See, D. C. Sen, The Folk Literature of Bengal, Calcutta 1920.
H. L. Sarkar, Note on the Worship of the Deity Bon Bibi in the Sunderbans, Journal of
the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. 22, No. 2, (1956), pp. 211-12; Asim Roy, Islamic
Syncretistic Traditions, pp. 46, 53, 222, 239.
Haji Muhammed, Nur Jamal, in Asim Roy, The Islamic Syncretistic Traditions, pp. 158,
162, 170-72.
Sayid Murtaza, Yoga-Kalandar, cited in Asim Roy, The Islamic Syncretistic Traditions,
pp. 175-77.
Saiyid Sultan, Nabi Banksha, cited in Asim Roy, The Islamic Syncretistic Traditions, pp.
155, 163, 171.

Identity and Composite Culture

13

and Moses with Prabhu (Lord) or more frequently with Niranjan (without
qualities). Similarly, Ali Raja35, the eighteenth century poet, identified Allah
with Niranjan, Iswar (God), Jagat Iswar (God of the universe). Even when the
forest pioneers were planting the institutional foundations of Islamic rituals,
Bengali poets deepened the semantic meaning of these rituals by identifying the
lore and even the superhuman agencies of an originally foreign creed with those
of the local culture.36 Another instance of cultural syncretism is to be found in
the 18th century poet Bharatchandra. In his Annadamangal, he wrote:37
Hindu Musalman adi jibjantu jato
Ishwar sabar ek nahi dui mat.
Puraner mat cchara Korane ki aacche
Bhabi dekho aage Hindu-Musalman pashe.
[There are no two opinions about the fact God is the same for the Hindus, Muslims
and all human beings and animals alike. What is there in Koran except what is in
the Puranas? Oh, all Hindus and Muslims, you all ponder over this!]

The reasons for poets to employ this mode of literary transmission are rather
obvious. The rural masses of deltaic Bengal, mostly Muslims, were familiar
with the Hindu epics. A sixteenth century poet wrote that Muslims as well as
Hindus in every home would read the Mahabharata. Another poet observed
that the Muslims moved to tears on hearing of Ramas loss of Sita in the
Ramayana.38 In fact the masses in Bengal were fully conversant with the
Mangal-kavya literature that extolled the grace, power and exploits of
specifically folk deities like Manasa and Chandi. Hence it is natural that
romantic tales from the Islamic tradition drew on this rich indigenous
substratum of the popular religious culture. This is reflected in an eighteenth
century Bengali version of the popular Iranian story of Joseph and Zulaikha
where the imagery employed clearly reminds Radhas passionate love for
Krishna, the central theme of the Bengali Vaishnava devotional movement.39

35
36
37
38
39

Ali Raja, Jnana sagara, cited in Asim Roy, The Islamic Syncretistic Traditions, pp.
185-86.
Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam, p. 276.
Bharatchandra, Annada Mangal in Bharatchandra Granthabli, ed. Bajendranath
Bandyopadhyay and Sajani Kanta Das, 3rd edn. Calcutta 1369 B.S., p. 307.
Asim Roy, The Social Factors in the Making of Bengali Islam, South Asia, 3 (August
1973), p. 29.
Qazi Abdul Mannan, The Emergence and Development of Dobhashi Literature in
Bengal up to 1855, Dacca 1966, p. 99, cited in Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam. pp.
277-78.

14

Sushil Chaudhury

Similarly the authors of the Bengali Muslim literature (popularly known as

Muslim Bangla Sahitya) consciously presented Islamic ideas in terms readily
familiar to a rural population of nominal Muslims who were quite aware of the
Bengali folk and Hindu religio-cultural traditions and ideas. A case in instance,
like many others, is the composition by poet Saiyid Sultan who spares no details
in endowing Eve with the attributes of a Bengali beauty. Here she (Eve) uses
sandal powder, wraps her hair with flowers, wears black eye paste and a pearl
necklace is draped around her neck. Adam was struck by the beauty of the red
spot (sindur) on her forehead.40 But in doing so the Bengali Muslim authors
were faced with a dilemma. Though they knew that Arabic was the appropriate
language for the transmission of Islamic ideas but they could not do so because
their audience was not familiar with the language. Reflecting this, Abdul Nabi,
a poet of the seventeenth century wrote:41
I am afraid in my heart lest God should be annoyed with me for having
rendered Islamic scriptures in Bengali. But I put aside my fear and firmly
resolve to write for the good of common people.

A similar concern was voiced by Saiyid Sultan who lamented that nobody has
transmitted the Islamic ideas in local vernacular and so nobody has understood
any of the discourses of his own religion. So he resolved to disseminate these
ideas in Bengali.42 But the rural masses do not appear to have been troubled by
such tensions or even to have noticed them.
It is also interesting to note that the gender division of labour and female
seclusion, long entrenched in Islamic hinterlands, had still not appeared among
the Muslims in the countryside as this was contrary to socio-cultural traditions
of Bengal. A ballad, Dewana Madina, composed by Mansur Baiyeoti around
1700 and set in southern Sylhet, dwells on a Muslim peasant womans lament
for her deceased husband where she stated with tears in her eyes:43
Oh Allah, what is this that you have written in my forehead? In the good
month of November, we both used to reap the autumnal paddy in a hurry lest it
should be spoilt by flood or hailstorm. My dear husband used to bring home the
40
41
42
43

Saiyid Sultan, Nabi Banksha, Vol. 1, p. 115, cited in Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of
Islam, p. 278.
Abdul Nabi, Vijay-Hamza, quoted in Muhammed Enamul Huq, Muslim Bangla Sahitya,
2nd edn., Dacca 1965, pp. 214-15; emphasis added.
Ahmed Sharif, Saiyid Sultan: Tar Granthabali o tar Jug, Dhaka 1972, p. 203.
D. C. Sen,, trans. and ed., Eastern Bengal Ballads, Vol. 1, pt. 1, pp. 307-08, quoted in
Eaton, The Rise of Islam, pp. 299-300.

Identity and Composite Culture

15

paddy and I spread them in the sun. Then we both sat down to husk the rice. ...
In December when our fields will be covered with green crops, my duty was to
keep watch over them with care. I used to fill his hooka with water and prepare
the tobacco with this in hand I lay waiting, looking towards the path,
expecting him! When my dear husband made the fields soft and muddy with
water for transplanting of the new rice-plants, I used to cook rice and await his
return home. When he busied himself in the fields for this purpose, I handed
the green plants over to him for replanting . . .. We reaped the shali crops
together in great haste and with great care. How happy we were when after the
days work we retired to rest in our home.

Perhaps one of the most significant aspects of cultural syncretism is to be

discerned in the history of the cult of Satya Pir. The early literature composed
in praise of Satya Pir depicts a folk society that freely assimilated a variety of
beliefs and practices that were in the air in medieval Bengals socio-religious
and cultural environment. Several compositions devoted to the cult identify
Satya Pir in various ways. Thus in Satya Pir, composed by Sankacharya, Satya
Pir is said to be the son of one of the daughters of Sultan Alauddin Husain Shah
and hence a Muslim while in Krishnahari Dass composition, which begins with
invocations of Allah and the stories of the Prophet, as born of the goddess
Chandbibi. But some other texts identify Satya Pir with the divinity of Satya
Narain who represents a form of Brahmanic God, Vishnu.44
Generally scholars interpret Satya Pir cult in terms of a synthesis of Islam and
Hinduism. The famous folklorist D. C. Sen wrote: When two communities
mixed so closely, and was so greatly influenced by one another, the result was
that a common god was called into existence, worshipped by the Hindus and
Muslims alike.45 That the two communities in Mughal Bengal followed each
others socio-cultural and religious traditions is apparent also from the
observations of the contemporary European travellers. Thus we see Pyrard de
Laval wrote in 1607: Mahometans as well as Gentiles deem the water [of the
Ganges] to be blessed and to wash away all offences, just as we regard
confession.46 In this context Richard M. Eatons observation seems to be quite
appropriate:47

44
45
46
47

D. C. Sen, The Folk Literature of Bengal, reprint, Delhi 1985, pp. 99-102.
D. C. Sen, History of Bengali Language and Literature, Calcutta 1954, p. 677.
Pyrard de Laval, The Voyages of , ed. and Trans. By Albert Gray, reprint, New York,
n.d., Vol. 2, p. 336.
Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam, p. 281.

16

Sushil Chaudhury
Instead of visualizing two separate and self-contained social groups, Hindus
and Muslims, participating in rites in which each steeped its natural
communal boundaries, one may see instead a single undifferentiated mass of
Bengali villagers who, in their ongoing struggle with lifes usual tribulations,
unsystematically picked and chose from an array of reputed instruments a
holy man here, a holy river there in order to tap super human power.

In fact, what Dusan Zbavitel wrote of the ballads of Mymensingh district,

Maimansingh Gitika, - that they were neither products of Hindu or Muslim
culture, but of a single Bengali folk culture may be justly said of the medieval
Bengali folk culture and religion.48
That the composite culture and religious harmony between the two
communities, especially among the masses in the rural areas, was a salient
feature of pre-modern Bengal, and actually reached a high watermark in the
eighteenth century is very much evident from literary sources, despite the
discordant notes on this aspect from several historians. It was S. C. Hill who
first propounded the thesis that in the mid-eighteenth century there was a
vertical division in Bengali society on communal lines - between the Hindus
and Muslims. He asserted that the majority Hindus, oppressed by the Muslim
rulers, were eager to get rid of the Muslim nawab and welcome the British as
their saviours.49 As if taking the cue from him, Brijen K. Gupta upholds the
theory of schism in Bengali society in the mid-eighteenth century.50 It is strange
that the thesis of a communal divide has held ground for so long despite the fact
that most of the high officers and zaminders during Alivardis time and for
that matter during Sirajuddaullahs time too - were Hindus.51
Had there really been any serious rift in the society in the mid-eighteenth
century Bengal and anything contrary to the religious and cultural syncretism
that evolved and flourished in medieval Bengal, it would have definitely been
reflected in the contemporary vernacular literature. But this sort of evidence is
conspicuous by their absence in the sources. On the contrary the fact that
48
49
50
51

Dusan Zbavitel, Bengali Folk Ballads from Mymensingh and the Problem of their
Authenticity, Calcutta 1963, p. 133, cited in Eaton, Rise of Islam, p. 281.
S. C. Hill, Bengal in 1756-1757, Vol. 1, London, 1905, p. xxiii; Three Frenchmen in
Bengal, London 1905, p. 120
Brijen K. Gupta, Sirajuddaullah and the East India Company, 1756-57, Leiden, 1962, p.
41. Some such hints, though rather very subtle, is to be found even in Chris Bayly,
Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire, Cambridge 1987.
Sushil Chaudhury, The Prelude to Empire Plassey Revolution of 1757, New Delhi
2000, pp. 64-65.

Identity and Composite Culture

17

emerges from a critical study of the vernacular literature of the period is that
Bengali Hindus and Muslims, particularly in the lower stratum of the society,
who lived together for centuries in peace and harmony, and who evolved and
nourished a composite culture, maintained the same ethos even in the mideighteenth century. Actually the process of assimilation and fusion of the two
religion and culture, i.e. the religious and cultural syncretism which started
much earlier, not only continued but reached the high watermark in the mideighteenth century. This is exemplified by numerous evidence to be found in
Bengali literature. In Kshemanandas Manasa-mangala, written in the latter
part of the seventeenth century, a passage tells us that in the steel chamber
prepared for Lakshminder, the hero, a Hindu, a copy of the Quran was kept
along with charms to avert the wrath of Manasa, the goddess of snakes.52 Again
in a poem called Behula Sundar, written about the same period, we find the
Brahmins consulting the Quran and advising a Hindu merchant to recite the
name of Allah so that he may be blessed with a son. The same poem tells us that
the Brahmins consulted the Koran for an auspicious day for the heros journey
abroad. The hero, the son of an orthodox Hindu merchant, obeyed the
injunctions as if they were laid in the Vedas and started on his journey praying
to Allah for his safety.53
In fact cultural syncretism reached its culmination around the mid-eighteenth
century. This is evident from the fact that even Prince Azim-us-Shan, Mughal
emperor Aurngzebs grandson and the subadar of Bengal in the late
seventeenth and early eighteenth century took part in Holi festival in Dhaka.
Nawab Sahamat Jung (Nawazish Muhammed Khan), along with Saulat Jung
who came from Patna, celebrated Holi for seven days in the garden of the
formers palace, Motijheel, in Murshidabad.54 Nawab Sirajuddaula too hurried
to Murshidabad after the treaty of Alinagar in February 1757 to participate in
the Holi festival in his palace.55 It is significant that by this time Holi did not
remain exclusively a Hindu festival, it became an essential part of the composite
culture that evolved in Bengal in the earlier centuries. In the villages
predominated by the Shia Muslims, especially in Bengal and Bihar, the Tazia
52
53
54
55

D. C. Sen, History of Bengali Language and Literature, pp. 288, 793.

Ibid., pp. 319, 793.
Karam Ali, Muzaffarnamah, in J. N. Sarkar, trans. and ed., Bengal Nawabs, Calcutta
1952, p. 49.
Karam Ali, Muzaffarnamah, in J. N. Sarkar, trans. and ed., Bengal Nawabs, p. 72.

18

Sushil Chaudhury

processions were conducted with special splendour, outward show and grief. In
the early nineteenth century Buchanan found that of the 1400 Tazia processions
of Patna and Bihar Sharif area, as many as 600 were conducted by the Hindus.56
There is evidence that even as late as the early nineteenth century, Muslim
villagers in Bengal joined their fellow Hindus not only in the Durga Puja
celebrations, but also worshipped Krishna and Sitala (the goddess of small pox).
Even in the twentieth century, some Muslims in Rajshahi district (now in
Bangladesh) specialized in composing songs on the occasion of the immersion
of Manasa (goddess of sankes), while other Muslims wrote syncretic hymns in
honour of Siva-Parvati (Durga) and elsewhere sang hymns to Lakshmi, the
goddess of wealth.57
Indeed it was common in the eighteenth century for Muslims to offer puja at
Hindu temples and for Hindus to offer sinni at Muhammedan shrines.58 It was
during this period that the worship of the Satya Pir, by both Hindus and
Muslims, became a common feature and an integral part of Bengali life,
especially in the rural areas.59 The poet Bharatchandras poem, Satyapirer
Katha bears ample testimony to this phenomenon.60 It is said in Shamser Gazir
Punthi, written about the middle of the eighteenth century, that a Hindu goddess
appeared twice before the Gazi in his dream, and in obedience to her behest, he
worshipped her the next morning, with the help of Brahmins and according to
prescribed rites.
It is also to be noted that in social and religious matters, the opinion and
testimony of the Muslims were sought by the Hindus. A Bengali document,
dated 1732, which marked the victory of the sahajiya cult over the orthodox
Vaishnava cult, had a few Muhammedan signatories as witnesses.61 All this
only signifies that in day to day life the two communities had lived side by side
for centuries in harmony and mutual attachment which led to religious and
cultural syncretism in the Mughal period. In an interesting essay, Edward C.

56
57
58
59
60
61

Quoted in Jagadish Narayan Sarkar, Mughal Cultural Heritage in History of

Bangladesh, 1704-1971, Vol. III, Social and Cultural History.
D. C. Sen, History of Bengal Language and Literature, pp, 368, 793, 796-98.
Ibid., p. 793.
Ibid., pp. 396-97.
Bharat Chandra, Satyapirer Katha, in Bharat Chandra Rachanabali, Calcutta 1963.
S. R. Mitra, Types of Early Bengali Prose, pp. 135-38; Sahitya Parishad Patrika,
Calcutta, B.S. 1308, pp. 8-10.

Identity and Composite Culture

19

Dimmock, Jr., observed that a reading of the medieval Bengali literature from
the fifteenth to the eighteenth century gives little indication of any deep-rooted
antagonism between the two communities.62 The mutual tolerance for each
others faith which is an aspect of the composite culture that evolved in Bengal
is typically reflected in a poem, Satyapir, written by Faizullah, where the poet
laid down that what Muslims call Allah is Hari (God) to Hindus.63 This is
nothing but a manifestation of the cultural syncretism that became a significant
feature of Bengali life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Caught between the pulls of Bengal Localism and
Islamic Extra-territoriality
It was in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Bengali Muslims
experienced that the socio-territorial identity plays a crucial role in defining and
redifining the parameters of a community. They also felt the usefulness of
trying to identify a fixed criterion for a definition of the cultural boundaries of
such a community: a Bengali Muslim may have seen himself primarily as a
Muslim the other day, as a Bengali yesterday, and a Bengali Muslim today,
depending on objective conditions but on none of these occasions did his
thoughts and his idea of destiny become separated from his territorial identity.
His entire personality bears marks of this socio-territorial imprint. The songs he
sings, the music he plays, the poems he composes, the literature he produces,
his daily life, marriage rituals, dietary habits, are all clearly linked to the
territory of his birth64. As Amartya Sen asserts: A Bangladeshi Muslim is not
only a Muslim but also a Bengali and a Bangladeshi is typically quite proud of
the Bengali language, literature, and music. As such, attempts to forge closer
links to an Arab or Persian dream could scarcely distance him from his roots.
But the language controversy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
was a hard reality. The pro-Bengali group regarded Bengali both as their mother
tongue and as the national language of Bengal. Among the opponents of this
group was a small Urdu-speaking ashraf (who claimed descent from the
Prophets family) who for a considerable period of time kept arguing that, as
Urdu was spoken by majority of Muslims of the Indian sub-continent and
62
63
64

Edward C. Dimmock, Jr., Hinduism and Islam in Medieval Bengal, in Rachel van M.
Baumer, eds., Aspects of Bengali History and Society, Honolulu 1975, p. 2.
Ahmed Sharif, Madhyajuger Sahitye Samaj O Sanskritr Rup, Dhaka 1977, p. 423.
Rafiuddin Ahmed, Understanding the Bengal Muslims, pp. 3-4.

20

Sushil Chaudhury

Bengali was Hinduised by Sanskrit pundits, it was in the interest of Muslim

solidarity that Bengali Muslims should also speak Urdu and regard it as their
mother tongue. This view was obviously rejected by an overwhelming majority
of the Bengali Muslims, including some members of Urdu-speaking group.
They accepted Bengali as their national language in the limited sense of
territorial nationalism by arguing that there was no contradiction between
territorial identity and Islam. By the turn of the nineteenth century, pro-Bengali
views were being vigorously expressed. In the 1880s and early1900s, the Mihiro-Sudhakar65, gave solemn calls to Bengali Muslims to regard Bengali as their
mother tongue and censure those who looked down upon it. In 1903 the journal
Navanur asked: What else could be the mother tongue of the Bengali Muslims,
except Bengali? It asserted that those who wanted to make Urdu the mother
tongue of the Bengali Muslims were attempting the impossible.
Bengali Muslim intellectuals also joined the movement in great numbers. In
1905 Ekinuddin Ahmad appealed to Bengali Muslims to cultivate Bengali in
order to build up their national life. In 1909 the newspaper Sanjibani wrote
that Bengali was Islamised in Bengal by infusing Arabic and Persian words into
it, and this Bengali was the mother tongue of Bengali Muslims. In 1915,
Khademul Islam Bangabasi condemned the scornful attitude of a section of
Muslims towards Bengali and pointed out that such Muslims only insulted their
Mother and Motherland. Again, in an article in 1916 in the Al Islam, Abdul
Malek Chaudhury ridiculed those Muslims who slept in thatched houses in the
mango groves or bamboo bushes of Sylhet [now in Bangladesh] but dreamt of
Baghdad, Bukhara, Kabul, Kandahar, Iran and Turkey. He argued that
regardless of whether their forefathers came from West Asian countries, or
originated from local Hindus, Bengali alone was their mother tongue.
In fact, pro-Bengali views continued to be repeatedly asserted by many eminent
Muslim writers throughout the first half of the twentieth century.
Maniruzzaman Islamabadi argued that Urdu was neither acceptable to the
Bengali Muslims as their mother tongue, nor was it possible to reject it. Urdu
could be cultivated as an additional language. Syed Emdad Ali advised the
Muslims to regard Bengali as their mother tongue. He regretted the tendency of
some Muslims to treat Urdu as their mother tongue. Abdul Karim Sahitya
65

Mihir-o-Sudhakar, Report on the Indian Newspaper and Periodicals, selected issues,

1880s & 1890s.

Identity and Composite Culture

21

Visharad (1896-1953) asserted that without due regard to the predominant

language of the land, no country could prosper. Another prominent writer,
Kaikobad, wrote that the primary need of the Bengali Muslims was to build up
Muslim national life through the cultivation of Bengali because Bengali was
not only their mother tongue, but also the language of the land of their birth.
As a result of the above literary and intellectual movement, the supporters of
Urdu as the language of the Bengali Muslims gradually realized the futility of
their efforts. Thus Arabic continued to be regarded as the sacred language of the
Koran, alongside Bengali as the mother tongue. But the urge to restore Bengali
to its proper status and to use it as an active language outweighed all other
literary concerns. A sort of a settlement was eventually reached to retain Arabic
and Persian words that had crept into Bengali as spoken by Bengali Muslims.
However, in the process of linguistic change, as disputes expressed in the
literature, the Muslim sense of community was being reinforced, redefined and
extended.
But at the same time, the Bengali Muslim exercised his differences with
others at different times in different ways, which dictated his choices of
symbols. During the Khilafat movement which spread in India as a national
movement in the early twentieth century, following the abolition of the Islamic
Caliphate by Mustafa Kamal of Turkey, the Bengali/Indian Muslims were in a
dilemma. One important group of Bengali Muslims was greatly attached to a
collective Muslim identity with a Pan-Islamic bias, rather than to an Indian or
Bengali identity. Such a basis for explanation of identity often confused the
Bengali Muslims. They hesitated to demonstrate their territorial identity clearly.
Muslim Bengali identity was thus caught between the pulls of collective
Muslim identity with its extra-territorial characteristics, and the geographical or
territorial Bengali identity. However, the advocates of collective Muslim
identity maintained that in the 1920s the Indian nation was in the course of
formation and thus India was then a nation of different races and communities.
But many could not accept unhesitatingly the political formula of a section of
Indians that We are Indians first, and Hindus and Muslims next. They argued
that there was no contradiction in being a Muslim and a Bengali, that Islam was
not incompatible with patriotism. This argument that there is no conflict
between ones religious and territorial identities had been forcefully presented
by following assertion of a Bengali Muslim intellectual, Syed Badraddoja:

22

Sushil Chaudhury

We are Muslims by virtue of the religion we profess, Indians because of

geographical unit to which we belong, Bengalis because of the province that
had given us our birth. Islam is not inconsistent with nationalism or patriotism.
It is not in any way incompatible with the noblest urge for freedom and liberty,
or with other genuine aspirations of human life.

The protagonists of Bengali Muslim identity were not prepared to accept the
unity of Indian Muslims or the Islamic world in the name of religion, though the
cry of Islam in danger was raised. A small group among them supported the
abolition of the Caliphate by Mustafa Kamal, and argued that it was under the
command of the thick-headed mullahs that the modern Muslim dreamt of a
Pan-Islamic state. A prominent Bengali poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, expressed his
indignation against what he considered to be the extra-territorial loyalty of the
hypocritical mullahs towards a decadent Caliphate. He wrote in 1922:
Kamal, even though a Muslim, realized that neither Khilafat [Caliphate] not the
country could be saved by keeping beards, by eating beef, or by observing roza
[fasting]. Otherwise, he would, just like our liungi-clad mullahs, have been
constantly performing namaz turning his face towards the Kaba . Such
religious hypocrisy cannot save them.

Another Bengali intellectual, Kazi Abdul Wadud (1894-1940) argued, as he

explicitly did in his address to a young Muslim audience in Faridpur in 1927,66
that the Bengali Muslim was a human being first by the right of his birth, then a
Bengali by being made of the soil of Bengal, and then a Muslim a Bengali
Muslim last. He asserted that one did not need to be a Muslim first by being
blind to the requirements of the time and ones own country. He even went to
the extent to suggest that it was unnecessary to go to Mecca to prove oneself a
Muslim. One could be a Muslim living in a thatched cottage in a Bengal village
in the midst of ones relatives and neighbours.
Some of the above Bengali intellectuals did not stop there. They formed a group
called Muslim Sahitya Samaj [Muslim Literary Society] in Dhaka in 1926 and
the Sikha group (named after its mouthpiece Sikha). They launched a movement
known as the buddhir mukti andolan (movement for the emancipation of the
intellect). They argued that the observance of the parda system, the prohibition
of the practice of realizing interest on capital, and the objection to the culture of
fine arts were obstacles to the freedom of thought and activities beneficial to
the Muslim society. They believed there was no fixed road to the progress of
66

Wadud, Abhibhashan in Naba Parjay 2, p. 35.

Identity and Composite Culture

23

mankind. The Muslims should, therefore, think afresh rationally. Their view of
Bengali identity was thus associated with more radical modernist approaches
which dogmatic Muslims were not prepared or educated to sallow. Orthodox
Muslims launched a strong offensive against the group through the press and
other platforms. The members of the liberal intellectual group were almost
ostracized. As a result, by 1935 the leading figures of the group had fallen
silent. The Samaj became defunct, and the Sikha had ceased publication. They
were silenced by the emergence of the Muslim League as a powerful factor in
Indian politics and the Praja-League alliance in 1937.
However in 1947, during the partition days, the Bengali Muslim tended to
distinguish himself more from his Bengali Hindu neighbour than any other, and
emphasized the Islamic content of his identity. But this definition was
somewhat modified during the 1969-71 when language became a powerful
political symbol, primarily in response to domination by the Urdu-speaking
Pakistani elite. It would however be too much to suggest that on any of these
occasions, the Bengali Muslim had either ceased to be a Bengali or had rejected
his identification with Islam. Thus it seems, the socio-territorial pull continued
to exert a powerful impact on him. This dual pull is often reflected in his
continued hesitation to define the cultural boundaries of his identity in specific
terms: Am I a Muslim first or a Bengali he continues to ask himself.
As a matter of fact, this dichotomy between a Bengali and a Muslim identity
has been continuing to persist for a long time from the early modern era. The
Muslim masses living in the countryside were so fragmented from their upper
class co-religionists (the ashraf and the orthodox ulema) that the notion a
community hardly existed. In fact this did not develop until the late nineteenth
century. Till then, there was little organized effort, if any, to articulate a sense
of community identity among these disparate groups; nor were any institutional
links forged. The real problem was how to integrate the masses of converts with
their own inherited ideas, traditions and practices within the framework of a
single Muslim community. It was not easy but the religious preachers in
medieval Bengal the gazis, pirs who are now termed cultural mediators67
adopted a policy of compromise and concession in an effort to propagate the
Islamic message. They incorporated some of the local cultural idioms and
symbols to popularize Islamic themes among the Muslims of rural Bengal.
67 Asim Roy, Islamic Syncretistic Tradition, p. xii; chap. 2.

24

Sushil Chaudhury

There was hardly any alternative: while not compromising the identity of Islam
as a religion, what was considered an unchangeable and standardized system of
beliefs and rituals, had to be adjusted to the realities of life in pre-modern
deltaic Bengal.
As a matter of fact, early efforts by medieval Bengali writers to transmit Islamic
religious ideas and cultural symbols suffered from the immediate problem of
finding the appropriate vocabulary and idiom in the local language. Moreover,
many did not approve this and resented the use of local cultural symbols,
including the language, considered un-Islamic in conveying the message of
Allah and His Prophet. But there were quite a few who reacted sharply to such
aspersions. Saiyid Sultan, a mid-sixteenth century poet, lamented that nobody
has transmitted the Islamic ideas in local vernacular and so nobody has
understood any of the discourses of his own religion. Hence he resolved to
disseminate these ideas in Bengali.68 But in doing so, the Bengali Muslim
authors were faced with a dilemma. Though they knew that Arabic was the
appropriate language for the transmission of Islamic ideas, they could not do so
because their audience was not familiar with the language. Reflecting this,
Abdul Nabi, a poet of the seventeenth century wrote: I am afraid in my heart
lest God should be annoyed with me for having rendered Islamic scriptures in
Bengali. But I put aside my fear and firmly resolve to write for the good of the
common people.69 Shah Abdul Hakim, another seventeenth century poet,
wrote: Whatever language a people speak in a country, the Lord understands it.
He understands all languages, whether it is Hinduani [Hindustani or Urdu?] or
the language of Bengal, or any other. He even went to the extent to assert:
Those who, born in Bengal, are averse to Bengali language cast doubt on their
birth. The people who have no liking for the language and the learning of their
country, had better leave it and live abroad.70 Thus local environment and local
culture continued to have a decisive influence on the life of Bengali Muslims,
despite all attempts at conformity. However, these cross-currents in Bengali
Muslim society inevitably produced a dichotomy between the Muslim and the
Bengali contents of their identity and culture.

68
69
70

Saiyid Sultan, Shab-I Miraj, Muslim Bangla Sahitya, (henceforth MBS, ed. M. E. Haq),
p. 161.
Abdul Nabi, Vijay Hamza, Quoted in MBS, pp. 214-15.
Shah Abdul Hakim, Nur Nama, quoted in MBS, pp. 205-06.

Identity and Composite Culture

25

Here one might ask a pertinent question, especially in the present context. Did
the emergence of Bangladesh, ostensibly on the basis of linguistic-cultural
identity, fundamentally transform the orientation and character of the Bengali
Muslims? There is little doubt that it meant, not only theoretically, a greater
emphasis on Bengali cultural identity but perhaps it also signified a
fundamental break with the earlier trend. The scholars can probably throw more
definitive light on this aspect than I can with my limited knowledge about the
present scenario.