I S I M NEWSLETTER 5 / 0 0 Regional Issues 17

South Asia ANNE-HÉLÈNE TROTTIER A Case of Grassroots

Ever since Islam came to Bengal in the 13t h c e n t u r y (and probably earlier, through individual Muslims’ interaction with local bearers of other traditions) it participated, via a merging of Sufi inputs with ver- Syncretic Sufism nacular strands of Vaisnavism (Vishnuism), tantrism and local folk cults, in a very rich blend of religious beliefs and practices in the lower strata of society. The Fakir, as a sub-section of the Bengali Ba- u l with a more or less defined Muslim identity, are at present The Fakir of Bengal the largest group in Bengal perpetuating this form of ‘Islamic syncretistic tradition’, to use Asim Roy’s active/interactive forms of syncretism that tic group, the K a rta- b h a ja- (in central Bengal). herent in Bengali syncretism? Bangladesh is p h r a s e .1 In the complex picture of present-day reli- depend not on the pre-eminence of a tran- The Ba- u l and Fakir remain the largest extant still a frontier land, from an Islamic, cultural, gious politics of East and West Bengal, and in the scendent divinity but on the latter’s merg- group at present, numbering perhaps sever- economic, and developmental point of context of Bangladesh as the second largest Muslim ing with, and thereby enriching, another al hundred thousand persons. view. As long as the spirit of La- l a n is alive, country in the world, these Fakir seem, somewhat pre-existing ordaining of the universe. In The Hindu Ba- u l and the Muslim Fakir share say the Fakir, there is much this countercul- paradoxically, to be both under threat and very this process it is the living saint as a human- the same tenets of an esoteric quest based ture can contribute. ♦ much alive as contributors to local spiritual and cul- and-divine person who is the crucial actor, on the intimate human-divine connection tural vitality at a grassroots level. crystallizing and catalyzing people’s aspira- within every human being, cultivated tions and beliefs in both the other-worldly through a philosophy and practices that In territorial Bengal (i.e. the area comprising and this-worldly dimensions of human life. emphasize the human body as locus and present-day Indian West Bengal and These saints were simultaneously spiritual means for finding the essence of God. The Bangladesh), folk religious syncretism has leaders, warlords and rulers for their con- path is taught in the traditional guru-disci- over the centuries produced a variety of stituencies, who would recognize allegiance ple relationship where the guru is like the cults and sects, amongst which the Ba-- u l only to them. figure of the above-mentioned Sufi saint, in emerged in the late 15t h century as a major Such local forms of Islamic syncretism whom the divine is accomplished, merged group strongly influenced by Caitanya Vais- flourished in rural Bengal, particularly in the with the human. nav devotion and (post?–) Buddhist s a h a j iya- eastern areas, until a new development ap- The Fakir call themselves Ba- u l. The Ba- u li n tantrism. After Caitanya, the next figure of peared on the scene of Bengali Islam a cou- a Hindu setting do not call themselves Fakir historic importance for the Ba-- u l was that of ple of centuries ago. Under British rule, but Vaisnav – it may be that the differentia- Lalan- Shah or Lalan- Fakir (?1774-?1890). there emerged amongst the elites of the In- tion is connected with the influence of the Whereas Caitanya belongs to a sectarian dian subcontinent a sense of religious iden- respective surrounding mainstream reli- Hindu movement that extends far beyond tity – both Hindu and Muslim. In the 19t h gions. At any rate, and significantly, it ap- Bengal and has its focal mythological an- century, the Muslim upper classes of Bengal, pears empirically that there is more syn- chorage outside Bengal (in Vrindavan and who had clung to an idealized and frozen cretism on the Fakir side than on the Ba- u l; Mathura), La- l a n is a product and proponent self-image of ethnic and Islamic purity con- the latter, in West Bengal at least, leaning of purely Bengali syncretism. His hagiogra- nected with their immigrant (Turkic, more towards a strongly Vaisnav type of de- phy and his teachings tell a story of merging Afghan) origins and deliberately discon- votion, while the Fakir of central territorial Hinduism and Islam into a universalistic reli- nected from the ethnic and religious reali- Bengal bring together the different strands. gion transcending the boundaries of any ties of the local populations, woke up to the As one Fakir of K u s h tia- told me: ‘There is single religion. As such, he is par excellence reality of their having somehow taken root Allah in every human being. Caitanya is the the Ba- u l figure that all present-day Ba- u l a n d in the land of Bengal and to the fact that the synthesis of Ra- dha- and Krisna, thereby there Fakir identify with, to a greater extent than people over which they ruled were dread- is Allah in Caitanya.’ with Caitanya. The K u s h t ia- district (now in fully un-Islamic by their Koranic criteria. Bangladesh) where he spent most of his life Vigorous efforts were launched by ortho- Continued syncretism? and where his tomb is located, is in the dox Muslim leaders to eradicate the impure There is still considerable interaction in heartland of territorial Bengal, and very vernacular from Bengali Islam. The conver- northern Bangladesh4 between the hetero- much a central point in the geographical sion to ‘pure’ Islam often went hand in hand dox Fakir and more mainstream imams, distribution of the Ba- u l. with laudable efforts at improving the social Sufis and m o l l a h s (figures of authority in the Before addressing Ba- u l/Fakir syncretism in and economic conditions of the lowest stra- mosque and the m a d r a s a). All-night de- the present religious configuration of the ta. In some places, open persecution hit the bates are held between leading proponents two Bengals, brief reference should be more heterodox groups, calling for total an- of the two approaches. Some orthodox made to the past development of Bengali Is- nihilation of all cults of a Ba- u lt y p e .3 Such re- Muslims are known to have substantial lamic syncretism. formist movements continued into the 20t h affinities with the heterodox tradition.5 I n century, and are still at work today. Fatwas the lower strata of the population, but also The development of Bengali specifically against the Ba- u l and Fakir are increasingly in the educated urban elite, Islamic syncretism documented in the literature. many people can be attracted to a charis- The spread of Islam in Bengal2 was largely matic Ba- u l guru, learn Ba- u l songs, and seek rural, village-based, and the result of the in- The current situation initiation. Thus the syncretic approach with- teraction of immigrant Sufis with local pre- What is the picture now, considering that in the context of an Islamic country still ex- Aryan and Hindu cults and yogic and tantric in Bangladesh the Muslim population has i s t s . N o t e s practices and beliefs. Such interaction con- grown to 90% of the total – the Hindu popu- However, the syncretic tendency, appar- 1 . Roy, A. (1983). The Islamic Syncretistic Tradition in tributed, as early as the 13t h- 1 4t h c e n t u r i e s , lation having dwindled due to emigration ently the ‘natural’ one of the children of the B e n g a l. Princeton: Princeton University Press. both to the development of local forms of and considering that in Indian Bengal, com- Bengali motherland, is not the only factor at 2 . See Roy, A. and also J.N.Sarkar (1972). Islam in what would later be termed ‘heterodox munal hostility is alive as elsewhere in hand: there is the continued reformist aspi- B e n g a l. Calcutta: Ratna Prakashan; Eaton, R. (1994). cults’ and ‘folk Islam’, and to the expansion northern India? More than ever, Ba- u l a n d ration of mainstream Islam. Many Ba- u l a n d The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760. of agriculture over a largely untouched ter- Fakir tradition-bearers invoke the anti-com- Fakir have been subjected to harassment Delhi: Oxford University Press. ritory of jungle, marshes and waterways. munal teachings of La- l a n, whose time was and persecution in recent decades and, at 3 . See S.N. J ha- (1997). Collected articles on Islam thus extended its presence as a reli- precisely that of growing reformist action in another level, there is the appropriation by persecutions in B a r t ika-. Calcutta. gion of the axe and plough, creating settle- Bengal encouraging in both communities a institutions of the vivid folklore surrounding 4 . I owe this information to Syed S a m-ı m, a Dhaka ments and producing something of a ‘civi- sense of religious identity fraught with po- the figure of La- l a n, increasingly taken over film-maker and a knowledgeable source on lizing’ effect. It was, however, far removed tential for conflict. La- l a n was a child and by cultural authorities as part of an official Ba- u l / F a k i r matters. I have witnessed similar from canonical Islam and far more a matter lover of his particular motherland, Bengal, Bangladeshi identity and heritage. The interaction in northwest Bengal. of saint cult. Bengali grassroots syncretism where the ‘little people’ had traditionally shrine of La- l a n at K u s h tia- is no longer in the 5 . Such as Mansur Ali of K u s h tia,- a mainstream was a case of assimilating a new form of di- been mutual integrators of creeds and rites hands of the Fakir wise men; La- l a n ’ s a n- erudite who hints at the heterodox Fakir approach vine force, or grace, into an already multi- rather than opponents on communalistic niversary festival is now officially organized in parts of his Secret Koran book, published form substratum and a case of this addition g r o u n d s . by the local authorities. The food, tradition- perhaps about 30 years ago. – Islam – not being intrinsically or transcen- Of the many syncretistic heterodox ally given free to Fakir and Ba- u l initiates, had dentally powerful, but one of its being rele- groups and movements of the past docu- to be paid for at the 1999 festival, a major Anne-Hélène Trottier was formerly a lecturer at the vant through the charisma of individual mented in 19t h and 20t h-century literature, breach of an age-old rule. The local govern- Medical Anthropology Department of The Bobigny leaders. The latter were the Sufi saints who many seem to have disappeared. Members ment has a construction plan underway for Medical School in Paris, France. She is now in India were living embodiments and mediators of of such groups have gone more or less un- a big cultural complex near the shrine. By thanks to a scholarship from the Indo-Canadian the new divine grace, and who did not claim derground under pressure and persecution, turning La- l a n into a ‘respectable’ part of Shastri Institute and is studying d h r u p a d a n d this to replace the older substratum as a so it is difficult to assess what remains alive. Bangladeshi heritage, will the political and working on her PhD thesis on ‘Woman and Women new religion. The case is thus not one of But La- l a n and Fakir presence is very much a religious powers-that-be succeed in steriliz- in the Fakir tradition’. straight conversion to Islam, but of reality alongside that of another universalis- ing this still lively force of counterculture in- E-mail: [email protected]