Constructing Bangladesh: Religion, Ethnicity, and Language in an Islamic Nation * By SUFIA M. UDDIN

Abstract

Sufia Uddin's monograph is an addition to the growing literature on the socio-cultural roots of politics, especially nation formation in Bangladesh. It traces this history back to the origins of Islam in this part of the Subcontinent. The story begins with the Turkish conquest of the region and underlines the well-known fact that the conquerors and the Muslim upper classes of Bengal, the Ashraf, had little interest in the conversion of the local population–a fact that, incidentally, is not part of the popular common sense perception. Conversion occurred largely through association with the pīr who came from Muslim lands, especially Arabia, and pioneered settlement in uninhabited territories, especially to the east. The graves of these holy men, often Sufi in their mystical orientation, became centres of Islamic communities and practices peculiar to them, but not exclusively so. The mazhars attract significant numbers of Hindu devotees. Ms. Uddin traces this early history of Islamization in considerable detail.