Abstract
Bengali identity is both secular and deeply influenced by religion. The various markers of Bengali identity, like language, culture, ethnicity and religion, sit easily together unless manipulated by political elites to create majorities in support of their specific views. Conflict arises when opposing markers are emphasised by elites in competition. Nationalists thus formulate and reformulate concepts of state, nation and identity to gain political power, legitimacy and economic advantage. This chapter explores the articulation of Bengali identity in East Bengal in the 1940s and 1950s, particularly after the emergence of Pakistan.
The author is a professor of South Asian History and Politics, and has held positions at Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, University of North London, BRAC University, and East West University, Dhaka. She has been a fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and at Homerton College, Cambridge, and a Visiting Fellow at Columbia University, New York as well as Directeur des Études at EHESS, Paris.
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Notes
- 1.
For a discussion of the theme of primordial and instrumentalist identity, see Clifford Geertz, Old Societies and New States: The Quest for Modernity in Asia and Africa, New York: Free Press, 1963, pp. 105–157; Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London: Verso, 1991, pp. 5–7; Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger eds. The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983; Terence Ranger, ‘The Invention of Tradition Revisited: the Case of Colonial Africa’, in Terence Ranger and Olufemi Vaughan, eds, Legitimacy and the State in Twentieth Century Africa, Houndsville: MacMillan, 1993, pp. 62–111; Paul R. Brass, Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison (New Delhi: Sage, 1991), p. 15.
- 2.
Abul Mansur Ahmad, ‘Cultural Identity of East Pakistan’, Concept of Pakistan, vol. IV, August 1967, p. 11. Abul Mansur Ahmad believed that the cultural expressions of East Bengal were distinct from those of West Bengal. East Bengal had a rich heritage of punthi literature and music. Among the musicians were Nazrul Islam, Alauddin, Abbasuddin and Khusro. Its folk heritage included bhatiali and murshidi songs. The musical heritage of Pak-Bharat is an integral aspect of Muslim civilisation and the heritage of Arab-Persian and Turkish traditions. East Bengal shares this heritage. Abul Mansur Ahmad did not see Tagore as a representative of this tradition. See Abul Mansur Ahmad, Bangladeser kalchar (Culture of Bangladesh, Dhaka, 3rd edition, 1985), pp. 37–48.
- 3.
Jyoti Sen Gupta gives detailed accounts of reprisals in areas of peasant disturbances where Hindus were particularly singled out for punishment, History of Freedom Movement in Bangladesh, 1943–1973—Some Involvement (Calcutta, 1974), pp. 26–36; for a discussion of the role of communists, see Talukder Maniruzzaman, Radical Politics and the Emergence of Bangladesh (Dhaka, reprint 1975), p. 6; on Hindu grievances, see Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, Debates (hereafter, CAP Debates) 6 March, 1949; 26 March, 1952.
- 4.
Speech of Suhrawardy at the Constituent Assembly, CAP Debates, 6 March 1948.
- 5.
The Report of the East Bengal Language Committee, 1949–50 (Government of East Pakistan, Dhaka, 1958), pp. 6–11, 15, 22, 26; speech of Muhammad Habibullah Bahar at the Constituent Assembly, CAP Debates, 27 March 1951, pp. 471–472; Constitution of Pakistan—Basic Principles as adopted in the Grand National Convention, Dhaka, 21 January, 1953, Umar Dalil, p. 139.
- 6.
Pakistan Student Rally—Aims, Objects and Programme: Draft Constitution, Umar Dalil, p. 66; S. Murshid, ‘Editorial’, New Values, vol. 1 no. 1, September 1949; ‘Letter to the Editor’, The Pakistan Observer (hereafter Pak. Obs.), 1 March, 1951. A. G. Stock records the literary and intellectual stirrings in East Pakistan which found focus in New Values ; see her Memoirs of Dacca University, p. 52.
- 7.
S. Murshid, ‘Editorial’, New Values, vol. 2, no. 1, 1950, p. 50
- 8.
Humayun Kabir, ‘Islam and Science’, New Values, vol. I, no. 1 (September 1949), p. 19.
- 9.
For the views of Syed Ahmed Khan, see A. H. Albiruni, Makers of Pakistan and Modern Muslim India (Lahore, 1950), pp. 36–60; A Aziz, Muslim Self-Statement in India and Pakistan, p. 4.
- 10.
Kazi Abdul Wadud, ‘The Foundations of State in Islam’, New Values, vol. I, no. 1 (September 1949), pp. 1–6.
- 11.
See ‘Editorial: Bangla Academy’, Pakistan Observer, 5 December, 1955. For a history of the Sahitya Patrika, see Muhammad Muniruzzaman, ‘Sahitya patrika panchis bachhar’, Sahitya Patrika. Panchis bachhar purti samkhya, 25th yr., no. 2, Barsha 1389 B.S (1982), pp. 173–208.
- 12.
The group included Kamal Hossain (barrister), Rehman Sobhan (economist), Muzaffar Ahmed Chowdhury (political scientist) and Anisur Rahman (economist), among others, all teachers at the University of Dhaka, and closely associated with Bangabandhu.
- 13.
The more militant section was a faction of the Student League led by Abdur Rab, who burnt the Pakistani flag and provocatively hoisted that of independent Bangladesh even before the military operation at midnight on 25 March 1971: see Hasanuzzaman, Antarjatakik prekshapate bangladesher chhatra andolan (Dhaka, 1984), p. 26.
- 14.
In the 1950s, women members of the All-Pakistan Women’s Association pressured the government to improve women’s rights. The Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961, was thus passed. In the 1980s, Bichitra and the programme called ‘Ain o adalaut’, on Bangladesh Television, discussed the social oppression of women. Similarly, the journal Ekal, later known as Edesh ekal, has explored the condition of women; see issues from 1986 to 1991.
- 15.
Zia’s speech of 1978 is cited by Abul Fazl Huq, ‘The Problem of National Identity in Bangladesh’, The Journal of Social Studies, no. 24, April 1984, p. 58. Also see G. Hossain, General ZiaurRahman and the BNP: Political Transformation of a Military Regime (Dhaka: UPL, 1988, p. 119.
- 16.
‘Memoir of Abul Kasem’, Ekuser sankalan, 1980: Smriticharan (A collection of memoirs) (Dhaka, 1980), p. 2 (hereafter Smriticharan).
- 17.
The book was written by Quazi Mutahar Hussain and Abul Mansur Ahmad. See ‘Memoirs of Gaziul Huq’, Smriticharan, p. 99; ‘Memoirs of A. Kasem’, Smriticharan, pp. 1–2.
- 18.
Pakistan Observer, 6 April 1951.
- 19.
‘Memoirs of Hasan Hafizur Rahman’, Smriticharan, p.48.
- 20.
‘Memoirs of Gaziul Huq’, Smriticharan, pp. 98–100.
- 21.
Letter to the editor, Pakistan Observer, 1 March 1951.
- 22.
Pakistan Observer, October–November 1950.
- 23.
Government of East Pakistan, One Year of Popular Government in East Pakistan (Dhaka, 6 September 1957), p. 15.
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Murshid, T.M. (2022). Bengali Identity, Secularism and the Language Movement. In: Khondker, H., Muurlink, O., Bin Ali, A. (eds) The Emergence of Bangladesh. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5521-0_6
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