Sometime in the eighteenth century, a poet from Chittagong named Karamullah prepared a Bengali version of the Mṛgābatī. His poem was an original treatment of the Sufi classic, inspired by Qutban Shuravardi’s well-known Hindavi tale (1503) (Behl 2012). In this paper, I will consider how Karamullah reworked this story, in light of recent studies, which […]
Papers
Casteist Demons and Working-Class Prophets: Subaltern Islam in Bengal, c. 1872-1928
This paper investigates the relationship between caste and Islam in colonial Bengal to explore the possibilities of a radical subaltern Islam. Scholarship, mostly drawing on North India, has emphasised the contradiction between the traditions of Islamic egalitarianism and the existence of a hierarchical system of social stratification among Muslims. This article, however, shows that caste-based […]
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The ‘Trial’ of Abul Hussain and the Shaping of the Bengali Muslim Identity in the Early 20th Century
Early 20th century witnessed impactful enthusiasm by the young Bengali Muslim intellectuals. Establishment of the University of Dhaka in 1921 certainly played a crucial role in this. An Anti-veil League was established in 1923 by its progressive students which stood for the cause of women’s emancipation. In less than three years, a unique organization Muslim […]
Smritir Pata, or the Pages of Memory: Autobiography, Gender, Zamindari, and Sharafat in Muslim Bengal in the 1910s and 1920s
Rassundari Devi’s Amar Jiban (1868) is widely acknowledged as the first Bangla autobiography. Syeda Monowara Khatun’s Smritir Pata (1962), an early autobiography by a Muslim woman, is virtually unknown. This marginality makes sense in light of the majoritarian Hindu Bangla literary canon and the primacy of north India in predominant understandings of South Asian Islam. […]
Elusive existence of literature in Sylheti Nagari script in the histories of Bengali literature
Sylheti Nagari is a name of a particular script and sometimes a generic name given to works of literature from the Sylhet district. Not many historians of literature, and native and foreign researchers, have given much importance to it. Despite the existence of many texts carefully digitized in many educational or cultural institutions, the last […]
ISLAMIC LAW IN THE VERNACULAR: A CASE STUDY OF A SUFI HAGIOGRAPHY FROM EARLY MODERN BENGAL
Islamic law lived unexpected vernacular lives in early modern Bengal. In these fluid geographies far away from philosophers and intellectuals of the Mughal imperial court, non-eminent people with limited understanding of sharia made law their own by developing a regional vernacular of legal and literary practice. My paper argues that popular performative vernacular texts emerging […]
