Muslim Modernism and Trans-regional Consciousness in Bengal, 1911–1925

Abstract

Histories of Marxism in South Asia often focus on the great men of colonial Indian politics, such as M. N. Roy, who imagined political futures away from nation or identity, or narrowly on activists like Muzaffar Ahmad, the founder of the Communist Party of India, without consideration of the regional-historical and intellectual contexts out of which such activism and imaginations sprang. Using the Bengali Muslim context of the early twentieth century, this article examines how Muslim activists imagined their identity outside of and beyond normative frameworks such as nation or religious community. This article specifically analyses Samyabadi, a left-oriented journal published in Calcutta from 1922 to 1925, in the larger context of communist developments in Bengal and throughout India. The findings offer exciting support for new research approaches to regional and religious identity in late colonial South Asia.

Red Maulanas: Revisiting Islam and the Left in twentieth‐century South Asia

“…Islam's entanglement with socialist politics in South Asia meant the production of a rich body of vernacular knowledge and traditions. Ideas of "taraqqi" (progress) "azadi" (freedom), "zulm" (tyranny), "samyavad" (socialism), "sarmaya parasti" (worship of capital), and "wahadat insan" (unity of humanity) were creatively and differently translated, acquiring new histories and meanings (Bose, 2011;Hartung, 2016;Saikia, 2016Saikia, , 2017Tareen, 2017). Maulana Bhashani, for instance, offered a dynamic interpretation of "sarbahara" (have-nots) that wove together sacred and secular notions of time and history to imbue peasants and workers with a new powerful identity.…”

“…Relegated to footnotes and regarded as a minor history, the fragmentary treatment of Islamic Socialism in the historiography of modern South Asia reflects its political fortunes. Neilesh Bose, historian of Bengal notes that “the intellectual history of the relationship between Islam and Communism has yet to be systematically pursued” (Bose, 2011). This paper reviews the scholarship on Muslim engagement with Left politics in 20th‐century South Asia to lay the groundwork for Islamic Socialism as a new field of study 3…”

Re-imagining the Ambivalent: The Political Trajectory of Lungi from Pre-Colonial East Bangla to Post-Independent Bangladesh

“…However as mentioned earlier, the educated Muslim Bangalee identity was powerfully distinct from its Hindu predecessors from its formative stage; this distinction became even more pronounced in the early 20 th century as the Muslim communities started to develop their own cultural capital. Bose (2011) identifies "changing views on Islam, anti-colonial critique and Bengali culture" (p. 233) as the main ideological forces that shaped the Bangalee Muslim society in Kolkata. The emphasis on the Bangalee culture meant a desire to return and reclaim the lives of rural people, who, it was imagined, were less dependent on the colonial "state, on institutions and other instruments of material modernity for their survival" (Bose, 2011, p. 238) compared to the urbanite educated class.…”

“…The emphasis on the Bangalee culture meant a desire to return and reclaim the lives of rural people, who, it was imagined, were less dependent on the colonial "state, on institutions and other instruments of material modernity for their survival" (Bose, 2011, p. 238) compared to the urbanite educated class. Much of this reimagination took place by creating a niche cultural capital through the publication of literary journals such as Samyabadi (Egalitarian), edited by poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and Muzaffar Ahmed, the founder of the Communist Party of India (Bose, 2011). Within this context of blending an intellectually sensible Muslim consciousness with its Bangalee root, the decision what to wear to represent the mind and body of an educated Muslim man was not an easy one, neither it was a-political.…”