Communalism in undivided Bengal

The debacle at Plassey did not affect the Bengali speaking Muslim peasants a bit as they were nowhere in the power structure of Nawabi Bengal. The civil service, finance, trade all were exclusive Hindu domain because they were the majority and traditionally they held those services for many centuries. Even commanding posts in the Bengal army were held by Rajput Hindus. Establishment of Muslim monarchy in the 13th century did not change this hierarchy in Bengal. Even up to the end of the 19th century, the leaders of Bengal's Muslims were urdu speaking non-Bengalis of Uttar Pradesh living in Calcutta, Murshidabad etc. Only with the rise of AKM Fazlul Huq the Bengali Muslims for the first time found their own spokesman. Unfortunately, he succumbed to the non-Bengali leaders of the Muslim League and the subsequent history of Bengali Muslims in 23 years of Hindu free East Pakistan is the proof of falsehood of the Pakistani version of history which Taj Hashmi endorsed. Communalism did not originate due to Hindu Bhadralok's attitude towards the Bengali Muslims. The Hindu upper caste and Ashraf non-Bengali Muslims behaved the same way towards the low-caste Bengali speaking Hindu and Muslim peasants. It was the culture of aristocracy in pre-capitalist society of Bengal. Communalism was fostered as a policy by Muslim League leadership to protect the privilege and wealth of Muslim Talukdars by fighting Congress in the political game of acquiring position and power in the central government of independent India. The Brits abetted this policy by enacting Communal Award of 1932 which divided the Bengalis on communal line politically. Communalism was not the struggle of Bengali Muslims to end their class exploitation as Taj Hashmi explains. The communal thinking in Tagore and Sharat Chatterjee highlighted by the Paki intellectuals did not deter the Bengali Muslims to accept and place them in the hall of fame of great Bengalis.

The Swadeshi movement ( 1905-1911 ) was the first armed struggle against the British colonialism organisd by Hindu middle class comparable to Sinn Fein. Taj Hasmi describes it as Hindu rivivalism as Muslim League historiography does.

There were many middle class Bengali Muslim politicians and literati who opposed the 1905 partition, fought for unity and integration of Bengali Muslims and Hindus on cultural and ethnic ground and never succumbed to Muslim League's communal politics. Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam was the brightest among them and for this he was honoured as the National Poet of Bengal in 1929 in Calcutta by the Hindu elite. Taj Hashmi also repeats the Paki story about the great Calcutta killing. But who called the Direct Action Day? And who were in the government then?

Communalism as an ideology of Muslim exclusivity is still very powerful in Bangladesh and Bengali Muslim bourgeois has made it a foundation of their politics. With the bugeoning culture of Islamisation propagated by the ruling political regime and Jihadi ideals permeating the urban and rural poor classes educated in Madrssahs , Bangladesh is destined to remain in the backwater of medievalism. Meanwhile the upper caste Bengali Hindu elite became Maxist and progressed towards creating a modern, egalitarian and secular society in the other part of Bengal. Taj Hashmi fails to clarify why Hindu communalism transformed into Marxism in West Bengal and Muslim communalism is drifting towards revivalism in Bangladesh. I'd request Taj Hashmi to interpret the history of 20th century Bengal in the perspective of a Bengali nationalist and discard the intellectual baggage of Paki ideology.