Bengal

Introduction Elephant-human conflict is of great concern today. There is commotion in the area when elephants kill people and the law-and-order situation gets out of hand. An elephant caused havoc in West Midnapore forest division of southern West Bengal killing five people in three months and the Forest Department of the Government of West Bengal declared it a rogue elephant. Instead of straightaway killing it, a different approach was adopted this time of relocating it to northern West Bengal. Its movement was monitored by fitting it with a VHF radio-collar. Elephant habitat in southern West Bengal (Fig. 1) is part of the central Indian elephant range. The habitat exhibits a high degree of fragmentation leading to elephant-human conflict with loss of agricultural crops, house damage and loss of human lives every year. On an average 26 people are killed, 1760 houses demolished and 2150-hectare area of crop losses occur every year due to 80-100 elephants (Forest Department, Govt. of...

Durga Puja is more than the periodically observed navratra in the subcontinent, or a joyous autumn harvest festival. Spiritually, it runs so much deeper than that: it marks the battle of Devi Durga with the king of asuras, Lord Mahishasura. The great austerities of the latter had earned him from Brahma Himself the boon that he could be overpowered by no male, and it had filled the buffalo-king ('mahish' in Sanskrit means 'buffalo') with the kind of arrogance that is possible only at the realm of the asuras.

Bengal in the first half of the eighteenth century was a prosperous and flourishing province, noted for its wealth and manufactures. It was this affluence which induced the contemporaries to describe Bengal in such terms as 'Paradise of Nations', 'the Paradise of India', or 'the realm of Paradise'. It was the same lure of wealth which also brought to the shores of Bengal a host of foreign merchants from far and wide, including a great many Europeans of diverse nationalities. Their travel accounts and descriptions were no less copious in glorifying the land which had 'a hundred open gates to enter...and not one to come away again'.

The wealth of this nation was created of course by the bounteous soil of the region which produced a wide variety of agricultural commodities like rice, wheat and other grains, sugarcane, cotton, opium, indigo, oils of different kinds and vegetables. Other economic products found in abundance were lacca, wax, long pepper, salt and saltpetre. But more than anything else Bengal was then the general storehouse of a wide variety of cotton and silk products not only for Hindustan of the Empire of the Great Mughal, but also for the Kingdom and for Europe itself. The goods so manufactured were not only known for their exquisite fineness and delicacy of workmanship but were also relatively cheap. Bengal's industrial economy during the pre-colonial period compared thus very favourably with that of any nation on earth.

In this chapter, an attempt will be made to study the state of the major indigenous industries during the colonial period. An attempt will also be made to explain the causes of their ultimate collapse. In this connection, the role of the state which could stimulate or inhibit industrial development would be looked into to ascertain the real motive of British rule. Did they create an appropriate climate for promoting and encouraging indigenous industrial enterprises? Was the destruction due to natural causes or was it deliberate? The economic policies of the colonial state in relation to industries need, therefore, also to be looked into to ascertain the total effect of such policies on the domestic manufacturing industries.

Who would have thought that a common sea snail would one day be worth its weight in human lives? Found in abundance in shallow tide pools in the Indo-Pacific region, the ‘Cypraea’ type of sea snail, or the ‘cowrie’ (kaudi), was the engine that drove the slave trade in Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta) and in Bengal.

The killing of George Floyd had sparked a furore worldwide about identifying the long and tangled history of slavery and the symbols it has left behind. Kolkata, as well Bengal, and India too, have their scars, obscure though they may be.

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তখন ১৯২৫ সাল। উপনিবেশের সূর্য মধ্য গগনে। শাসন-শোষণের সুচারু ব্যবস্থাপনা আর তথাকথিত ‘হোয়াইট ম্যানস বার্ডেন’-এর নামে অশ্বেতাঙ্গদের ওপরে শ্বেতাঙ্গদের শাসনের বৈধতার প্রচারণার জোয়ারে কঙ্গো তখন নিস্তেজ, প্রতিরোধহীন। এমনি এক বন্ধ্যা সময়ে স্বাধীন কঙ্গো রাষ্ট্রের প্রতিষ্ঠাতা প্যাট্রিস লুমুম্বার জন্ম দেশের উত্তরাঞ্চলীয় প্রদেশ কাসাইয়ের সানকুরা অঞ্চলের ওনালুয়া গ্রামে। উপনিবেশের আশাহীন বাস্তবতায় জন্ম নেওয়া লুমুম্বাকে শিক্ষক বানানোর স্বপ্ন দেখেন কৃষক পিতা। কিশোর লুমুম্বাকে পাঠানো হয় একটি মিশনারি স্কুলে। নামে স্কুল, আসলে কালো মানুষদের কায়িক শ্রম প্রশিক্ষণকেন্দ্র। তবে লুমুম্বার পড়ার দারুণ আগ্রহ দেখে শিক্ষকেরা মাঝেমধ্যে বই ধার দিতেন স্কুলে বসে সন্ধ্যার আগে পর্যন্ত পড়ার জন্য। রাতে পড়ার জন্য বই বাড়ি নেওয়ার প্রশ্ন আসে না; কারণ সন্ধ্যা হলে বাড়িতে আলো জ্বালানোর সামর্থ্য লুমুম্বাদের ছিল না।

This chapter offers an overview of the botanical lore in Śūnyapurāṇ, a heterogeneous Bengali text attributed to Rāmāi Paṇḍit. The work celebrates the god Dharmarāj through a lengthy cosmogonic narrative and short ritual tracts, eulogies and an array of legends drawing from Sanskrit Purāṇas and Bengali folklore. Here I analyse the place of flowers and rice in the worship of Dharmarāj. Three sections will be discussed: the plucking and offering of flowers (puṣpatolān); the birth of paddy (dhānyer janma), which includes the popular tale of the farming (kr̥ṣak) Śiva, and the auspicious song of the husking pedal (ḍheṅkīmaṅgalā).

This article on the history of neighbourhoods (para) of colonial Calcutta considers the processes through which this peculiar spatial unit emerged in the colonial city, where community identities were fostered as well as contested. Seen as a place, a secured, stable location which helped in forming the community in an alien atmosphere, the para was a liminal space, neither a purely affective unit nor an administrative category, and neither a purely public or private domain. Borrowing liberally from each register to generate a unique spatial experience, paras were at the same time deeply exclusionary and also starkly patriarchal zones. The article brings forth these various strands in the history of the neighbourhood to enrich the understanding of colonial urbanism, Bengali society and culture.

Bangladesh is a new name for an old land whose history is little known to the wider world. A country chiefly famous in the West for media images of poverty, underdevelopment, and natural disasters, Bangladesh did not exist as an independent state until 1971. Willem van Schendel's history reveals the country's vibrant, colourful past and its diverse culture as it navigates the extraordinary twists and turns that have created modern Bangladesh. The story begins with the early geological history of the delta which has decisively shaped Bangladesh society. The narrative then moves chronologically through the era of colonial rule, the partition of Bengal, the war with Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh as an independent state. In so doing, it reveals the forces that have made Bangladesh what it is today. This is an eloquent introduction to a fascinating country and its resilient and inventive people.

    Through the past to the present: a leading scholar traces Bengal's history to explain modern Bangladesh
    Includes aids for students such as a chronology, biographies of key political figures, a glossary and maps
    Features over 110 images that bring Bangladesh to life

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

As a Muslim-majority region, Bengal is conspicuous by its absence from histories of the institutionalisation of Islamic medicine in South Asia. Bengal's invisibility in these histories is partly a result of exclusive scholarly pre-occupations with Unani Tibb and, to a much lesser extent, Tibb ul Nabi. ‘Islamic medicine’ in Bengal was institutionalised under other names and drew upon other traditions. This article explores the institutionalisation of three such traditions of ‘Islamic Medicine’ and argues that the form they took drew directly upon the distinctive history of Islam in Bengal.

Christianity is one of the major and also the latest religions in Bangladesh. This monotheistic religion is based on the lifestyle, moral ideals, speech, and humanistic attitude of Jesus Christ. Their main religious belief is that Jesus is the son of God and the savior of mankind. The presence of Christianity is not very new and Christianization is going on for over 400 years in this area the Christian community is one of the largest increasing religious communities in Bangladesh. The Christian community of Bangladesh is divided into two main branches- Catholic and Protestant. However, Christianity is practiced here under the patronization of several missionaries. Although there are some differences in structures and activities their mission is almost the same. This paper analyzes the historical background and present situation of Christians focusing on some issues like conversion, socio-political impact, and cultural encounters, along with the development that took place over the years in a Muslim-majority country like Bangladesh.

The centrality of non-violence in the Indian freedom struggle has been overwhelmingly accounted for, in the annals of history. “Narratives of the anti-colonial movement have been pre-dominantly framed within the context of the triumph of the influence of M.K. Gandhi’s Indian National Congress (hereinafter INC), in the dialogue with individuals who favoured violence as the primary means of political response to colonialism.”
However, the impact of the Indian revolutionaries in the evolution of the nationalist agitation is anything but insignificant. The goal of complete freedom from imperial rule was accepted by Mahatma Gandhi only in the early 1930s, as a fait accompli, under increasingly intense pressure from large sections of Congress cadres; a goal that was uncompromisingly articulated by revolutionary factions thirty years earlier. The formation and co-ordination of these factions across the length and breadth of the sub-continent as well as beyond its borders, further predates the widespread mass mobilisation envisaged by the INC.
However, it is also a fact that revolutionary activities slowed down in the late 1930s and did not feature as prominently in the final stages of the Indian national movement. This decline has been commonly equated with the failure of the revolutionaries’ means for achieving national liberation. It is in this context that the author seeks to revaluate the contribution of the revolutionaries in the struggle for independence, with a critical rather than commemorative approach.
The author shall begin by discussing the manifesto of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (hereinafter HSRA) and highlight the primary attributes of revolutionary ideology at its peak. He will then progress to tracing the differences in the ideological bases of the two major strands of the Indian revolutionary movement: the early Bengal revolutionaries’ vis-à-vis the North Indian faction.  He will then proceed to analyse the impact of revolutionary discourse and activities on the mainstream national movement and its role in mobilising mass support for independence. This analysis will form the basis of the author’s explanation for the abrupt decline in revolutionary activities in the late 1930s and 1940s. Additionally, the author shall substantiate the assertion that the decline of revolutionary operations did not imply the simultaneous decline of revolutionary ideology; it was rather adapted and incorporated into the mainstream national movement as a necessary consequence of the INC’s growing need to integrate diverse groups and interests in the freedom struggle.

There is fundamentally more to Baul spirituality and scripture than merely the music and lyrics that one comes by, and conceivably nobody can ‘delve deep’ into the music form without having some basic understanding and concepts about its tottyo. This book
is an attempt to understand and explain the intricacies of the Baul scriptures. The esoteric couplets, sentences and arguments that usually have moral or historical over tone, the pointed reminders, the signature lines, and the over all thrust of arguments within a very short periphery of time, the alankar (embellishments), all mesh in and combine to create a completed aura of ethereal munificence. Baul music with exceptions follows different traditions and Guru’s in every district of Bangladesh, and sometimes each has its own unique Guru Shishya parampara (student/teachers discourses), leading on to birth of newer, progressive and more challenging schools of thoughts.

While Fakir Lalon Shah is the most celebrated of sages of Bangladesh, the schools of Baul thought encapsulates perhaps several hundred more sages and men of great wisdom, whose writings and philosophies continue to inspire and whose graves
more often than not, take on the shape of shrines, usually devoid of any religious or sectarian symbolism. Being an oral tradition Baul music ironically is also one of our near extinct heritages as most of the works have either disappeared or have been claimed by
unscrupulous people over time. Studies on authorship of many Baul songs (including those of Lalon) and their relevance to original scores and or manuscripts remains a very complicated process and is mired by many unfortunate controversies. To top it off, it is believed that while there were over 300 different types of Baul melodies or tunes; today we are left with scarcely 35. While researching the Bauliana album, I could identify only 20 authentic tunes.

The essays ‘Bauliana: Worshipping the Great God in Man’ in 2003 were written through a feeling of guilt and remorse. While I did receive praise for my work for the musical album of 1996, troubling me intently was a feeling of not been able to share the many
words of wisdom that were imparted to me by the Baul’s over the years to a wider audience, teachings I was sure would benefit a lot of later day enthusiasts. I had made scores of notes at the time, as also consigned most of the teachings to memory but there was always a deep apprehension, that unless my writings were passed on hand to
hand; all the hard work that went into it, will fail my original intention i.e. opening newer dimensions into reading on Baul music, lyrics, philosophy and way of life.

The folk-tribal genre of Bengal art – referring to that of today’s Bangladesh and the Indian-state of West Bengal – had a rich and varied tradition of making wooden-dolls and toys. These figurines were mostly of four-to-nine inches in height and were produced in large numbers, up to the middle of the last-century, by the local Sūtradhara-artisans.  Even today, they could be traced being made around various corners of Bardhaman,  Hooghly,  Howrah,  East-and-West Medinipur  and Bankura  in West Bengal; and Dhaka, Faridpur, Maimansingha, Chattagram and Comilla in Bangladesh.
The subjects of these dolls mainly focus on human-figures and deities, like – Bau-putula,  Rājā-Rānī,  Gaura-Nitāi, Śiva, Gaṇeśa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa-Rādhā, Kṛṣṇa-Kālī, Balarāma-Subhadrā-Jagannātha etc. Animals and birds are also depicted, but mostly in the toys made for children. However, exceptions are the famous owl-figures of Natungram in Bardhaman and Sabalpur in Murshidabad – that are highly adored in every other household as the divine-mount of goddess Lakṣmī.

The Jesuit father Nicolas Pimenta's report mentions one of the first Christian missions to Bengal (1598–1604). Based on fresh translations of the chapters in the report describing the Bengal mission, this article examines interreligious relations in contemporary Bengal characterised by the dialectic of coexistence and disjunction. Local kingship or lordship was the keystone in the structure of interreligious coexistence in Bengal. The Christian preachers carried an incompatibilist and exclusivist approach to interreligious relations that was at odds with the inclusivist and com-patibilist approach prevalent among the Bengal lords. The welcome accorded to the preachers by the lords reflected the inclusive approach. The eventual persecution and expulsion of the fathers was due to political exigencies rather than interreligious antagonism.

The social, academic and intellectual construct given to the Baul  movement ofBengal for centuries have been attempts by the elite status quo to box-in the music, lifestyle and philosophy of Fakirs, Sadhus and Sages of our time, thereby limiting them to easily explainable parameters and expected norms, practices of spirituality.

Baul philosophy is however unique in that it challenges these constructs in the epochal tangents setting it apart from other ‘religions’ or beliefs. Our dominant heritage culture, especially those practised by the marginalised majority, the construed ‘subalterns’ has therefore traditionally been in conflict and at odds with the city centers The objective of this essay is to give readers a concise yet coherent understanding to the basis of the Baul creed, its history, philosophy, complex spirituality and lofty ideals. It also aims to present us an opportunity to appreciate why the teachings of Fakir Lalon Shah has become so pertinent in present day Bangladesh which is beset with sectarian strife of an unimaginable magnitude, and perhaps lessons we may inculcate to the way forward..

The kumārī is a powerful, often overlooked symbol of identity for practitioners of Kaula Tantrism. This dissertation argues that she is an important liminal, independent figure weaving together many intersecting, opposing threads of orthodox, Tantric, and indigenous culture and belief. Focusing on Kaula literature and practice, this expansive study traces the origins of the kumārī and her worship throughout history, documenting for the first time several significant developments in the history of Kaula Tantrism.

The book examines the related ideas of melancholy, political conservatism

and native informancy. It takes the figure of a 20th century Indian thinker, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, and considers his oeuvre under the changing optics of a number of different topics- all in an attempt to understand how an Indian intellectual such as Chaudhuri was able to defend passionately the legacy of the British Empire, and even slander the culture and mentality of his fellow Indians. It also extends this to present-day “native informants” such as Fareed Zakaria, Fouad Ajami and Enrique Krause.

This revisionist history of caste politics in twentieth-century Bengal argues that the decline of this form of political mobilization in the region was as much the result of coercion as of consent. It traces this process through the political career of Jogendranath Mandal, the leader of the Dalit movement in eastern India and a figure of prominence in the history of India and Pakistan, over the transition of Partition and Independence. Utilizing Mandal's private papers, this study reveals both the strength and achievements of his movement for Dalit recognition , as well as the major challenges and constraints he encountered. Departing from analyses that have stressed the role of integration, Dwaipayan Sen demonstrates how a wide range of coercions shaped the eventual defeat of Dalit politics in Bengal.

[Abstract: Some papers have been written on gateway architecture of Bengal.1 Still there is scope for further writing on the same area. Subject matter of those published articles is not wide enough as well as origin and correlation of them are worth improving i.e. some additional points may be included to the findings of those papers. Gateways are used in all civilizations of the world. It was used in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Though at first disliked by the orthodox caliphs, the Muslims also used gateways in their architecture. Round city of Baghdad had several gateways. While discussing about gateways of the sub-continent one has to take into consideration all relevant factors. There were gateways in pre-Islamic India. Many gateways are found in the Imperial Mughal architecture and in other provincial architecture of India. Percy Brown is of opinion that the architecture and decoration of Dakhil Darwaza, Gaur, West Bengal, India is a fusion of indigenous and extraneous elements. Gateways of Sultanate Bengal are: Dakhil or Salami Darwaza, Kotwali Darwaza, Gumti Gate and Lukochuri Gate. There are references of Chand and Nim Gates. All these Islamic gateways of medieval Gaur are at present located in the Indian Territory. Shait Gunbad mosque, Bagerhat, Bangladesh; Bara Sona mosque, Gaur, West Bengal, India; Chota Sona mosque, Gaur, Chapai Nawabganj, Bangladesh and Bagha mosque, Rajshahi, Bangladesh have gateways placed in their enclosure walls. This tradition of gateway architecture continued forward and many gateways were built in the subsequent Mughal period. Some later gateways are: 1. Bara Katra Gate, Dhaka 2. Lalbagh Fort Gate, Dhaka 3. Husaini Dalan Gate, Dhaka 4. Nimtali Gate, Dhaka (Formerly used as the office of the Dhaka Museum, Bangladesh) 5. High Court Gate, Dhaka 6. Dhaka Medical College Gate, Dhaka 7. New Market Gate, Azimpur, Dhaka 8. Asad Gate, Muhammadpur, Dhaka, 9. Bir Shreshtha Shahid Jahangir Gate, Dhaka Cantonment, 10. City Gate, Chittagong, 11. Gateway of the tomb of Hazrat Shah Jalal, Sylhet. Dhaka Gate at Uttara (now extinct) was built in the Post-liberation period.]

Some parts were added by the editor presumably for better understanding of the readers. However, they are sometimes contradictory to my own view and discussions, so that I highlight the parts written by the editor to make my responsibility clear.

Bengali society has experienced religious encounters from time immemorial, resulting in various syncretic tendencies and various reform movements from time to time. Within the Hindu tradition, Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) rose to eminence as the father of socio-religious reform and the Bengali Renaissance in the nineteenth century. For his reform project, he adapted the Advaita Vedanta of Shankar Acharya (788-820). He amalgamated it with Muslim Sufism and modern western influences such as deism, utilitarianism, and the broader scientific outlook. His exposure to Christian missionaries also played an important role in the formation of his reform agenda. The paper maintains that although Roy based his socio-religious reform on Shankar Acharya's Advaita Vedanta, especially as regards the concept of formless one God, he deviated from the classical Vedanta in opposing the tenets of traditional Hindu dharma like idol worship, the belief in the infallibility of Vedas, caste system, and widow burning. His selective focus on Upanishads from amongst the Vedic literature was also novel. In sum, Roy propounded a new version of Vedanta, dubbed as neo-Vedanta by several academics, which proved to be seminal for the subsequent Hindu reform movements.

While India celebrates the 150th anniversary of a failed uprising, another equally historical event that deserves to be commemorated is largely forgotten. Two hundred and fifty years ago, on 23 June 1757, a small army led by Englishman Robert Clive convincingly routed a much larger army commanded by the last independent Nawab of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey. The defeated Nawab, Mirza Mohammad Siraj ud-daulah, was subsequently murdered and India laid open to colonial conquest. The day merits recollection because it marks the 250th anniversary of the beginning of colonial rule in India.