Muslim Women of West Bengal: An Enquiry into their Minority Status

Abstract

Sociological and social anthropological research studies on the Muslim society in India with particular reference to the women of West Bengal are negligible causing immense loophole in our insight and understanding the Muslim society from empirical point of view. Because of this fact, we hardly know about their society, economy, social structure, social organization, culture, social problems, social change and developmental processes, gender studies of the Muslim society. The present paper is a modest attempt to examine the socio-economic situation of the largest religious minority population compared to other religious minorities of the state generally, and the status of Muslim women of West Bengal in particular. An attempt has also been made to highlight the socio-economic backwardness prevailed among this group of people from historico-religious perspective and to find out the factors contributing as a bottleneck in their development and social change.