East Bengal Research Articles

Pyu urns, Indian calendars, and Myanmar culture

Abstract The article addresses the important question of the calendar used in dating the Payagyi Pyu urns from Sri Ksetra (mod. Pyay) in Myanmar. It shows that, of the four calendars used in Myanmar at the time, two—the Ajjagona and Buddhist eras—can be ruled out. This leaves the Saka and Myanmar eras as the only possible options. However, although the Saka era was used for dating Indian records up to East Bengal, it was only used twice for dating an inscription in central Myanmar and, in addition, the early dates on the Payagyi urns seem to preclude its use in Myanmar that early on. The article concludes therefore that, for dating the Pyu urns, most likely the Pyu–Myanmar calendar of 638 CE was used.

Thin barbed wire fences of religions, where football binds millions: exploring the ultras phenomenon in the Kolkata maidan

ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore the ultras phenomenon in the Kolkata maidan as a mediatized spectacle in the context of sports fandom in 21st-century India. In contrast to the typical portrayal of football ultras as violent groups of conservatives in the global paradigm, this paper examines the Kolkata ultras as a distinct community formed by specific fan groups of two prominent football clubs—Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. Exploring the complex configurations of sports fandom and ultras activities, this paper considers the Kolkata football ultras as a pastiche of their European counterparts. Through their gallery activities, including the display of tifos, the Kolkata ultras attempt to narrativize the settlers-migrant conflict between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal in a neoliberal economy. While turning the identarian discourse on a visual level, the paper also analyses how the display foregrounds a change in the politics of sports fandom in India through their anti-NRC-CAA tifos in recent times.

The Levy System in East Bengal and its Impact on the Peasantry (1949-1967)

The peasants of Bengal have been living through exploitation since ancient times. The intensity of exploitation of farmers increased manifold from the ancient period to the colonial period. The main reason for this was that on the one hand, the land tax or rent paid to the state during the pre-British period was increased many times and on the other hand, apart from rent, many kinds of abwabs were levied on the peasants. During the British era, the farmers thought that this exploitation and deprivation would end if the country became independent. But after the departure of the British in 1947, in the independent state of Pakistan, the farmers of East Bengal were subjected to exploitation and oppression as in the colonial period. During the Pakistan period, like the British period, the taxes and abwabs paid to the state were increased. Moreover, the levy system, a unique type of agricultural land tax that was assessed based on the total production of the farmer's total land, was introduced by the Muslim League government. As a result, the level of exploitation and oppression of the farmers of East Bengal increased manifold during the Pakistan period. Based on primary and secondary sources, this paper attempts to provide a comprehensive understanding of the introduction of the levy system and investigate its impact on the farmers. The paper will also shed light on the reactions of politicians and peasants to this newly introduced levy system in East Bengal during the Pakistan period. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Hum.), Vol. 69(1), 2024, pp. 107-121

Bangladesh-India Land Boundary Agreements, 1974-2015: Context, Correlations and Territoriality

Bangladesh and India share 4096.7 km. land boundary, which was drawn between India and the eastern part of Pakistan (East Bengal) by the Radcliffe Award during the partition of 1947. This boundary became the Bangladesh-India boundary after the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. Therefore, the Pakistan-India land boundary disputes over the un-demarcated boundary, adverse possessions and enclaves transformed into Bangladesh-India ones. These land boundary disputes witnessed one summit-level agreement between Pakistan and India and three summit-level agreements between Bangladesh and India. However, the land boundary disputes were eventually resolved under the land swap deal of 2015. This striking background led to the question as to why these issues were hung up for 68 years, what contexts led to several summit-level agreements on the same issues, and what were the correlations among the agreements. Against this background, this article attempts to shed light on how India, being the big neighbour, dominated the entire trajectory of the land boundary disputes and how it changed its agreed positions from one agreement to another. However, the main objective of this article is to see whether India’s territoriality towards its border with Bangladesh was gradually transformed into the pattern of a zero-sum game during the period from 1974 to 2015, and what was the corresponding territoriality of Bangladesh. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Hum.), Vol. 69(1), 2024, pp. 89-106

Jute Trade in Colonial Goalpara of Assam

Jute is a significant fibre found in India, particularly grown in the provinces of Bengal and Assam. The increasing demand for jute fibre in international markets encouraged the peasants of Bengal to grow jute for commercial purposes. Therefore, Bengal became a centre for globally recognised jute production and supplied to European nations. The discussion of jute trade in India would be lacking without referring to the Goalpara district of Assam, which shares a close flank with Bengal, where a plethora of jute had been grown. The damp alluvial soil of the Goalpara district became favourable for growing extensive jute. The affordable and cheap price of high-quality jute attracted many traders from Bengal and Central India. Besides, the Goalpara district had access to waterways in every nook and cranny, and the district’s administrative centre had inland transportation connections to Bengal. The jute trade was extensively carried out in the Goalpara district, and all the jute fibre was transported to Bengal and then to European countries. The demand for jute in the international markets caused a huge number of peasants to migrate to Goalpara district from East Bengal to cultivate jute.

East Bengal-Mohun Bagan football fans and Indian politics: parochialism and nationalism in simultaneity?

ABSTRACT The footballing rivalry between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan in Kolkata, India, explicates important facets of the politics of nation-building and identity formation through sport. The sporting nationalism of the colonial era gave way to narrow parochialism in post-independent India where the cultural differences of Bangals (original Hindu residents of East Bengal in colonial India and Hindu migrants from East Bengal/East Pakistan in postcolonial India) and Ghotis (original residents of western parts of Bengal in colonial India and of West Bengal in postcolonial India) emerged as the key linchpin of expressing allegiance to their respective club football teams particularly in the aftermath of immigration of refugees which took place as a result of the partition of 1947 and the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war. However, the legislations pertaining to Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and National Register of Citizens (NRC) have propelled fans of these clubs to forego their sub-cultural differences and act in unison to express their grievances against the new regulations of the Indian state. The anti-NRC protest by the fans hinges on the link between football and the debates pertaining to the idea of citizenship in contemporary Indian politics. The displaying of Tifos by the fans that exhibited significant social messages bears semblance with the Ultras of European football.

ঢাকা মেডিকেল কলেজ হাসপাতালের μমবর্ধমান উন্নয়ন ও বিকাশ (১৯৪৬-১৯৭১)

Dhaka Medical College Hospital started its Journey in a part of East Bengal and Assam Province Secretariat building built in 1904. The hospital was established on July 16, 1946 through a government order. Initially the hospital was not equipped with all the medical facilities and modern equipment. Within about one and a half year, all the internal departments of the hospital started functioning. However, it was not until the late forties and mid-fifties that the hospital started all kinds of initiatives related to the medical system. Modern treatment started in this hospital in the fifties but not all the complex diseases were treated. Similarly, various departments were under the process of modernization. Through this article, the history of the establishment of western medical system in East Bengal and Present Bangladesh will be known. Basically, the doctors of this hospital and the students who passed from Dhaka Medical College Started providing the first advanced Western medical services. Primary sources have been relied upon in writing the essay. Because no researcher has previously studied on this topic. In this case, data has been collected from the documents preserved from Bangladesh National Archives, especially ‘A’ Proceedings, ‘B’ Proceedings, Government Reports and Minutes, Assembly Proceedings, Gazetteers, Gazettes and old Newspapers.

হাকীম হাবীবুর রহমান-এর জীবনী এবং উর্দু সাহিত্যে তাঁর অনবদ্য অবদান

Hakim Habibur Rahman (1881-1947), a distinguished Urdu literary journalist of the Bengali literary society, renowned politician and famous Unani physician who had been honoured with the title of ‘Shefaul Mulk’ given by the British government and ‘Magician of Bangla’ given by Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, is one of the best intellectuals of Bengal in the first half of the 20th century. This short-lived personality was born in Chotakatra, Dhaka. After that, He studied in Dhaka, Kanpur, Lucknow, Delhi, Agra and gained expertise in Unani medicine and returned to Dhaka. He contributed in various fields in his varied career. He had outstanding contributions to the Muslim Renaissance movement of Bangladesh and Sir Salimullah's political and educational movement. He was one of the founders of Dhaka University (1921) and Dhaka Museum (now know as National Museum of Bangladesh). He played a significant role in spreading Urdu language and literature in Dhaka. He is called the pioneer of Urdu journalism in East Bengal and Asam. During that period, he established a big library by collecting Urdu, Persian and Arabic books written on Bengal and through this effort he tried to preserve the Bengali old history and tradition. In short, as a bearer of Muslim nationalism and a great teacher and physician, Hakim Habibur Rahman was a successful poet and essayist, translator, literary compiler, dramatist, biographer, historian, politician, organiser and a journalist.

A Study On Compounds Of Bodo And Assamese Languages

Linguistically, the Bodo belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is a major language of the Bodo group under the Assam Burmese group of language. The speakers of Bodo language scattered all over the Assam, North Bengal and East Bengal in some part of Nepal, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. This language is linguistically connected with Bodo, Garo, Rabha, Dimasa, Kokborok, Tiwa, Deuri etc. On the other hand, Assamese is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Assam. It is an official language of Assam. The Assamese language is belonging to the Indo-European group of the Indo-Aryan family of language. This paper attempts to analyze the compound reduplication of Bodo and Assamese languages. Compound is a word formation process. In Bodo and Assamese languages compound reduplication is very productive process of word formation.

An Ignored Chapter in the History of Language Movement: The Cultural Activities and Mass Movement that Strengthened the Movement in 1952 from Chattogram, Bangladesh

This paper focuses on the great Language Movement in the port city, Chattogram in the then East Pakistan. The city’s residents enthusiastically participated in the Language Movement, which was the most courageous manifestation of Bengali nationalism. However, it is quite unfortunate that the movement activities of the Chattogram people are not mentioned much in books, research papers, or the news. By disregarding all democratic standards, Pakistan’s ruling elites attempted to make Urdu the official language. This movement attracted participants of all genders and expanded throughout East Pakistan. The political, cultural, and social context of East Bengal was significantly impacted by the unified and resilient Chattogram language movement. People from all around Bengal were involved in this, and people in Bangladesh have a right to know the true history that contributed to the rise of Bengali nationalism. This article has made numerous attempts to present the movement’s true features whish were truly an ignored chapter in the history of Bangladesh.

FEMALE MIGRATION AND PARTITION OF BENGAL: REVISITING THE MEMORIES

The Partition of Bengal in 1947, a pivotal event in South Asian history, led to the division of Bengal into West Bengal (India) and East Bengal (Pakistan, later Bangladesh). This partition triggered one of the largest mass migrations in human history, displacing millions of people and resulting in widespread communal violence. While much of the existing literature focuses on political and communal aspects, this study emphasizes the gendered experiences of migration, particularly the challenges faced by women. Through a multidisciplinary approach incorporating historical analysis, personal narratives, and socio-cultural studies, this research explores the profound impact of partition on female migrants. Women were often targeted during communal violence, facing abduction, sexual assault, and forced conversions. Despite these adversities, many exhibited remarkable resilience, playing crucial roles in rebuilding their families and communities. This study also examines the long-term effects of migration on women's identities and the transmission of partition memories across generations. By revisiting these experiences, the research highlights the need to acknowledge and integrate women's voices into the historical narrative of the Partition of Bengal, providing a more comprehensive understanding of this transformative period. This paper delves into the impact of the partition on female migration, exploring the memories and experiences of women who endured this tumultuous period. Through a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating historical analysis, personal narratives, and socio-cultural studies, this research aims to illuminate the often-overlooked aspects of female migration during the Partition of Bengal.

The Journey of the Dalit Refugees in Bengal: A Comparative Study of Allen Ginsberg and Jatin Bala’s Poetry

Dalit literature seeks to present the struggles and experiences of the oppressed. Bengali Dalit literature has become a powerful tool for social and political action. It provides counter-narratives that talk about their experiences and realities. Bangla Dalit literature depicts the lives of refugees with sensitivity and empathy, emphasizing the struggles and resilience of those displaced from their homes and communities due to political, social and economic factors. The term “refugee” refers to a person who has been forced to flee their country of origin. A large part of the population had to leave their homes and migrate from East Bengal to West Bengal as part of the Partition of Bengal, mainly due to the communal tension. However, most of the refugees who migrated to West Bengal during the Bangladesh Liberation Movement in 1971 were mainly Dalits or other marginalized communities who faced discrimination and oppression in their homeland. Jatin Bala, one of the eminent Dalit writers and one of the refugees, himself reflected the pain and suffering of these Bengali Dalit refugees, on the other hand, Allen Ginsberg, the famous American writer Ginsburg, who visited Bangladesh amid the conflict, he also paints a sad picture of the loss of these Bengali refuges in his long poem “September On Jossor Road”. This study aims to carry out a comparative study of the representations of the two authors about these refugees.

Theorizing the Adivasi’s absence in partition histories: indigenes, refugees, and the settler state in Dandakaranya forest

ABSTRACT This research article examines the contest between indigenous forest-dwelling communities and settler colonial policy in post-Partition central India. According to official estimates, from 1961–71 the population of indigenous communities declined by nearly 50% in Dandakaranya within central India even as overall the population grew by a large margin during the same period. Despite perceptions of India as a post-colony committed to decolonization, this article examines how this state project, one of the earliest acts of governmentality, was deeply implicated in a settler colonial logic of elimination. Following the mass migration of Partition refugees in 1947 across newly demarcated borders, the Indian government earmarked Dandakaranya Forest as the site of a refugee resettlement project for lower-caste Partition refugees from East Bengal (now Bangladesh). Drawing on Lorenzo Veracini’s notion of ‘probationary settlers’ as exogenous others without prior claims to land, refugees are understood within this argument as probationary settlers reliant on the state for their survival. Rather than narrating the biography of the state through its various experts and institutions, this paper foregrounds the perspective of the marginalized on their environment: displaced forest-dwelling indigenous communities and lower-caste (Dalit) refugees.

Mapping Obscura: Locating the Space and Non-Space of Memory and Home through the Photograph

ABSTRACT What does it mean to inhabit? Our many selves find dimensionality through time and in place. This is complicated through the event of mass migration and trauma. One is continuously mapped through a locating of interiority. Within this essay, Nayar traces the birth and evolution of place as interior, and the genesis of her hybrid, constructed photographic process. Through the lens of India’s 1947 Partition, a trajectory of trauma and the ways in which memory functions over time is traced and translated through a family’s resettlement home in New Delhi. Built by her maternal grandfather, a refugee and psychiatrist from East Bengal, this locus in Nayar’s memory sheds light on how one may understand the many intersections of belonging and place. Home is found in habitation, that of desire and the awakening of the Mother. In this way, attachment theory, Winnicott’s transitional object, and the uncanny are touchstones for an internal mapping of psychic space. Through this framework, one understands what it means to embody through time and what is, through the process, left behind.

From Colonial to Postcolonial

Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation-state in 1971, but the origin of Bangla poetry of Bangladesh lies in the partition of India in 1947 when Bangla poetry diverged from its thousand-year-old history to form a separate poetic stream as the Bangla poetry of East Bengal. The creation of Pakistan by partitioning India resulted in the partition of Bengal, where Muslim-dominated East Bengal, today’s Bangladesh, became a part of the newly created state of Pakistan. Although the official march of Pakistan began in 1947, the signs of new Bangla poetry of an emerging nation became visible at the beginning of the 1940s, particularly by Bengali Muslim poets. I call these poets “the poets of transition”, as they not only experienced British colonial rule but also witnessed its end. These poets led Bangla poetry in a new direction in East Bengal in the post-partition period. They gave expression to the complex experience of transition from a colonial to a postcolonial existence. Their poetry bears the mark of colonization on the one hand, and, on the other, reflects the experience of postcolonial reality. In this essay, I argue that this poetry, written in Bangla vernacular, bears the essential characteristics of what is known as “postcolonial poetry”.

(After)Word

Research Article| May 01 2023 (After)Word Poulomi Saha Poulomi Saha POULOMI SAHA is Associate Professor of English and Co-Director of the Program in Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley. Their research and teaching interests span postcolonial studies, ethnic American literature, feminist and queer theory, critical theory, and psychoanalytic critique. Her first book, An Empire of Touch: Women’s Political Labor and the Fabrication of East Bengal (Columbia, 2019), was awarded the 2020 Harry Levin Prize for outstanding first book by the American Comparative Literature Association and the Helen Tartar First Book Award. Saha’s scholarship has appeared in differences, qui parle, Signs, Interventions, The Journal of Modern Literature, Postcolonial Literary Inquiry, and the Journal of American Studies, among other places. They are currently at work on Fascination: America’s “Indian” Cults. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Representations (2023) 162 (1): 144–148. https://doi.org/10.1525/rep.2023.162.10.144 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Poulomi Saha; (After)Word. Representations 1 May 2023; 162 (1): 144–148. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/rep.2023.162.10.144 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentRepresentations Search This content is only available via PDF. © 2023 by The Regents of the University of California2023 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

A relatedness-based model of transformational leadership: a case study of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 1960s East Bengal

PurposeRecent academic work on leadership has focused largely on organizational leadership. This study takes a close look at political leadership, especially that given to popular movements, and delineates a new model of transformational leadership.Design/methodology/approachThe current study borrows models from organizational leadership research and applies them to a specific case study to reveal critical concepts underlying transformational leadership. Application of these models to Bangladesh's founding father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, during the two decades of the 1950 and 1960s, shows potential for a new flexible framework for transformational leadership with added significance on leader–follower relatedness, socio-historical context and charisma.FindingsThis study presents clear evidence on the nature of leadership in popular movements and using a specific case study elucidates that movements pick leaders who meet distinct criteria specific to the movement, including a vision that resounds with key follower-groups and prototypicality.Research limitations/implicationsThis study presents a new lens under which political and popular leadership can be studied, focusing away from person, political party or rational choice and voting behavior-based ideas of political leadership.Originality/valueThe findings reveal the importance of seeking new ways to fit leadership theory with burgeoning social phenomenon.

Charisma, populism, and the formation of national identity: Sheikh Mujib and Bengali nationalism

AbstractIdentity formation is a complex process and has been discussed by post‐structuralist discourse theorist Ernesto Laclau. This paper focuses on Laclau's proposed ideas on the means of identity production and populism and studies the popular independence movement for Bangladesh under that rubric. It locates charismatic leadership as a necessary condition for populism and identifies Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the charismat suturing the various chains of equivalence that rose to become the populist movement that resulted in the nation's struggle for independence in 1971. This paper also looks at the transformational leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and acknowledges it as a necessary condition for the patterns of identity creation in East Bengal in the late 1960s.

Probing early Pakistan: East Bengal politicians and their exchanges with Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, 1947–51

This article builds on the correspondence of the prime minister of Pakistan with five political figures from East Bengal who flourished between 1947 and 1951. These were Khwaja Nazimuddin and his brother Shahabuddin, Fazlur Rahman, Nurul Amin and Jogendranath Mandal. Their exchanges with Prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan—at the head of the central government in Karachi—provide a portentous pre-history of the future engagements between the two wings and their states and societies in the lead-up to the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. The fragments of these exchanges presented here are an attempt to provide a glimpse into Bengali politicians’ manifold activities in Pakistan, which revolved around the minority and refugee question, religious orientation of education, non-devaluation and its impact on trade, a range of administrative issues and party politics. Drawing upon their letters in the Liaquat Ali Khan papers, this article deploys these five themes as entry-points into East–West exchanges before and beneath the conventional coordinates of linguistic provincialism (1948–52), economic instigation (1954–66) and democratic desires (1966–71).

Crisis of Belonging and Rehabilitation: Partition of India

In the year 1947, India witnessed partition and huge influx and exodus of people. This paper focuses on the case of Bengal and the problems of rehabilitation of the refugees of East Bengal with particular emphasis on their idea of 'desh' and 'home.' The major question lies in answering the broad question- Where lies the 'home'. The idea of nation is very relative as defined by Benedict Anderson in the book "Imagined community : reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism". The cognitive revolution about nation lead to a dilemma among the diasporic communities of East Bengal in India which resulted in far greater political consequences. The concept of 'desh' imagined by the refugees of East Bengal created an interchange of cityscape, social community, and also the characters of society. The imagination about the right over their "nation" lead them create their own "desh" in a place where ever they lived, be it their homeland, where they stayed mentally or house, where they lived physically. Thus, migration carries with it a whole gamut of emotional dilemma of identity and belonging.