The identity crisis of Bengali Muslims in Indian subcontinent (1000 CE -2000 CE): A critical approach to Bengali ethnicity
List of Authors
  • Akram Uddin , Mst. Rownok Jahan

Keyword
  • Muslim Identity, Islam, language, Bengali Civilization

Abstract
  • This article explores the various discourses on forming Muslim Bengali identity from the Eleven century to the twenty century. It becomes hardened and used in multiple politically mobilizable forms in Bengal politics. This study engages numerous articulations of the Muslim Bengali identity to show the changing representations of what qualifies as Muslim Bengali and who played role as major key figures of Muslim Bengali Nations from 1200 CE to 1999 CE. It also critically engages with new knowledge production. For instance, the different forms of non-fictional Bengali literature, and the views of the English-educated Urdu speaking and Sanskrit elites of Bengal. These writers wrote about the collaborative of forces acting upon the formation of a Muslim Bengali identity. While literature played an essential role in developing an initial awareness among Muslims, Bengali identity preparations' developments and processes diverse in different sites, thereby producing new shades on Muslim Bengali identity. This study uses qualitative and quantitative methods to see the identity crisis among Bengal Muslims. This article shows the historical traces that play vital role for identity crisis among Bengali Muslims.

Reference
  • 1. Abdul Mannan Talib, Bangladeshe Islam [Islam in Bangladesh], (Dhaka: Islamic Foundation Bangladesh, 2002), p. 33.

    2. Anthony D. Smith, Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986).

    3. C. A. Bayly, "The Pre-History of 'Communalism'? Religious Conflict in India, 1700- 1860," Modern Asian Studies, 19:2 (1985), 202.

    4. David N. Lorenzen, "Introduction: The Historical Vicissi- tudes of Bhakti Religion," in Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action, D. Lorenzen, ed. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 2-13.

    5. Eaton, R. M., & Eaton, R. M. (1993). The rise of Islam and the Bengal frontier, 1204-1760 (Vol. 17). University of California Press. p-41

    6. Eaton, R. M., & Eaton, R. M. (1993). The rise of Islam and the Bengal frontier, 1204-1760 (Vol. 17). Univ of California Press.p-

    7. Eaton, R. M., & Eaton, R. M. (1993). The rise of Islam and the Bengal frontier, 1204-1760 (Vol. 17). University of California Press. p-

    8. Eaton, R. M., & Eaton, R. M. (1993). The rise of Islam and the Bengal frontier, 1204-1760 (Vol. 17). University of California Press.p-50

    9. Eaton, R. M., & Eaton, R. M. (1993). The rise of Islam and the Bengal frontier, 1204-1760 (Vol. 17). University of California Press.p-50

    10. Golam Hossain Salim: History of Bengal (Bengali translation of Riaz-us-Salatin), translated by Akbaruddin, Absar Prakashan, February 2008, page 24).

    11. Gyanendra Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990

    12. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, inba al-ghumr bi-anba al-umr

    13. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 2nd ed. (London: Verso, 1991).

    14. India Today Web Desk New Delhi May 20, 2016UPDATED: May 24, and 2016 13:26 Ist, “History of Bengal: From Stone Age to Trinamool Congress,” India Today, accessed December 16, 2021, https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/history-of-bengal-324618-2016-05-20.

    15. Mohammad Hanna, History of Bengalis (from ancient times to 1974), Asonno publication, 36, Banglabazar Dhaka-1100, first extended edition February 2014, p. 28).

    16. Nicolas Haque, reporter, Aljazeera,

    17. Pandey, Construction of Communalism,

    18. Salil Tripathi, The Colonel Who Would Not Repent: The Bangladesh War and Its Unquiet Legacy (Yale University Press, 2016).

    19. Sandria Freitag, Collective Action and Community: Public Arenas and the Emergence of Communalism in North India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989

    20. Shamsud-Din Ahmaed, ed. And trans,Inscriptions,4:38

    21. Van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, 12-24; John D. Rogers, "Post-Orientalism and the Interpretation of Premodern and Modem Political Identities: The Case of Sri Lanka," Journal of Asian Studies, 53:1 (1994), 10-23;