The global translinguistics of Bengali Muslims

Abstract

This chapter presents a discussion of premodern Islamic genres in what is now Bangladesh as an example of global translinguistics in an Asian context. It examines religious texts composed to communicate to and instruct Muslim converts in the region in the era immediately prior to and after British colonization. Examining these texts with the sociolinguistic lens of TimeSpace scales (Blommaert, 2010), I show that puthis–a genre of religious narratives written prior to colonization index global ideas in downscaling literacy practices–is characterized by their use of a mixed-language mode called dubashi: a register meshing different relevant languages and forms. In comparison, religious texts written in the 19th century espouse an upscaling practice, seen in their demarcation of Arabic and Persian as separate languages from Bengali and composing themselves in terms of codeswitching practices. My analysis argues that a modern, monolingual disposition emerges in the generally plurilingual context of South Asia. This disposition can be found in processes that paradoxically rely on the “semiotic consubstantiation” (Silverstein, 1998) of a certain manifestation of Global Asias. The analysis also supports the claim that translingual and plurilingual practices have been the historical norm in the region, and a “monolingual disposition” is the aberration, coinciding with the establishment of the colonial society and the modern nation-state (Canagarajah, 2013).