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Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology Volume 8 Number 1 January 2011 Special Issue: Religious Studies in South Asia: The Dhaka Initiative With Joseph T. O’Connell as the Guest Editor Note from the Editor 4 Introduction to Religious Studies Joseph T. O’Connell 5 in South Asia: The Dhaka Initiative Sociological Approach to Research K.A.M. Saaduddin 19 on Religion: Bangladesh Perspectives Historical Overview of Religious Kazi Nurul Islam 26 Pluralism in Bengal Aryan Religious Traditions in Bengal Paresh Chandra Mandal 34 from Gupta through Sena Periods: An Introductory Note Buddhism in Bengal: A Brief Survey Niru Kumar Chakma 37 Reflections on Islamisation in Bengal Abdul Momin Chowdhury 45 Chaitanya Vaishnava Devotion (bhakti) Joseph T. O’Connell 51 and Ethics as Socially Integrative in Sultanate Bengal Between Puritan Islamic and Syncretistic Iftekhar Iqbal 64 Muslim Traditions in Bengal: An Ecological Perspective on the Faraizi Movement Historical Sketch of the Christian Md. Shaikh Farid 72 Tradition in Bengal Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology. Volume 8, Number 1. January 2011. 2 Christian Mission and Evangelization Dr. Father Tapan De Rozario 77 in Bangladesh Bahai Religious Faith and Tradition Muhammad Jahangir Alam 87 in Bangladesh Religious Aspects of Adibasi Life Eva Sadia Saad 93 in Bangladesh Proposed Bibliography on Religion Fazlul Alam 98 in the Bengal Region Appendix 102 ISSN 1819-8465 The Official e-Journal of Bangladesh Sociological Society Committed to the advancement of sociological research and publication. Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology. Volume 8, Number 1. January 2011. 3 Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology (Biannual e-Journal of the Bangladesh Sociological Society) Editor Nazrul Islam Independent University, Bangladesh Associate Editor Managing Editor Book Review Editor S. Aminul Islam M. Imdadul Haque A.I.Mahbub Uddin Ahmed University of Dhaka University of Dhaka University of Dhaka Web Master: Faridul Islam, University of Dhaka Emails: [email protected] [email protected] Published on the Internet URL: http://www.bangladeshsociology.org Published by Bangladesh Sociological Society From School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) Phone: 88-02-840-1645, Ext. 247. Email: [email protected] Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology. Volume 8, Number 1. January 2011. 4 Note from the Editor The study of religion occupies a central place in the sociological literature. All major thinkers, sociologists inclusive, have grappled with the idea of religion and its place in social life. Our first issue also looked at Max Weber and his contributions to religion. We had since planned to take out a special issue on religion, which suddenly became a reality when Professor Joseph T. O’Connell suggested the publication of the papers presented at a workshop on religion at the newly established Department of World Religions and Culture in the University of Dhaka. The workshop, and subsequently the papers published in this issue, served a double purpose. Firstly, it fulfilled our desire to deal with religion as a special topic of discussion in an academic setting. Professor O’Connell makes the importance of such a discussion abundantly clear when he argues that in spite of so much religion around us, religion has not been dealt with in the academia in a major way in Bangladesh, indeed, in the whole of South Asia. It is a curious phenomenon, and very few of us realize this, that religion, or the critical study of religion, is almost a “taboo topic” in South Asian academic circles. Few ventures to deal with religion beyond the day to day practices; experts on religion are to be found typically among those who profess it. Critical appreciation in public is dampened by the fear of backlash. As a result, very little serious discussion exits in the literature on religion, even the universities lack courses on religion. Secondly, Bangladesh has been a seat of major religions all through history, largely coexisting peacefully. Often, one majority religion has been replaced by another, in a succession. So that Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, the three major religions of the Sub-continent, have had their heydays in the lives of the people and the country. From rulers to the downtrodden all have been affected by one religion or the other while religion, in turn, has left its mark on the society and culture. The history of religion in Bangladesh, therefore, is probably as fascinating as the religions themselves. This feature alone makes a serious study of religion in Bangladesh a worthwhile project. I am therefore, thrilled by the opportunity to present these studies, albeit in an introductory fashion, in a special issue of the BEJS. I would consider this as the first of many future attempts to bring religion to the forefront of academic discussion, including as courses taught in the universities. The University of Dhaka, as has been noted, in many of the following papers, has made a great contribution by opening up a Department of World Religions and Culture. It is hoped that this attempt will generate further interest in the academia of South Asia, and particularly of Bangladesh, towards the critical study of religion. Sociologists, for obvious reasons, should, and, dare I say, must, play a leading role in such endeavors. Page | 5 Introduction to Religious Studies in South Asia: The Dhaka Initiative Joseph T. O’Connell* 1 Abstract: This special issue of the Bangladesh e-journal of Sociology is ‘special’ in that it is comprised not of sociological research articles as such but of presentations made in seminars on religion in Bengal sponsored by a pioneering initiative in comparative academic study of religion, the Department of World Religions and Culture in the University of Dhaka. The new department has served as focal point and catalyst for intensified interest in religious phenomena in relationship to diverse aspects of culture, society and politics by scholars in other departments of the university, not least Sociology, History and Philosophy. This introductory essay addresses the striking disparity between the obvious prominence of religious aspects in human life, individual and collective, in South Asian countries and the virtual exclusion of comparative academic study of religion (i.e., world religions) from most South Asian universities. Several reasons are identified, but the main focus here is on the severe tension between secularist and communalist / fundamentalist mentalities and interests that are salient throughout the region. The emergence and distinctive character of the new Department of World Religions and Culture and its related Centre for Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue are here viewed as reflecting the relatively balanced manageable tension between secularist and Islamist advocates in a largely non-ideological and generally tolerant Muslim-majority Bangladeshi population. Background This issue of the Bangladesh e-journal of Sociology is special in a special way. It is not a collection of sociological papers as such, though there are several that either discuss sociological study of religion directly or address social aspects of topics in the history of religion in Bengal. Rather it is a sampling of essays emerging from a pioneering academic venture in Bangladesh, namely the University of Dhaka’s Department of World Religions and Culture, the only such department in Bangladesh and almost unique in all of South Asia. At the outset, let me thank the university’s Department of Sociology and its distinguished Professor A.K.M. Saaduddin for the crucial support they have been extending to this academic venture and also acknowledge the Bangladesh Sociological Society and its Bangladesh e-journal of Sociology, its Editor-in-Chief, Professor Nazrul Islam, and his editorial team for making their journal available to inform readers about this significant Bangladeshi initiative, now but one decade old. With such collaboration by *Professor Emeritus, Study of Religion, University of Toronto Visiting Professor, World Religions and Culture, University of Dhaka e-mail: [email protected] Page | 6 scholars from within the university and beyond and thanks to the heroic dedication of department’s founding chairman, Professor Kazi Nurul Islam, the University of Dhaka has the potential to produce the kind of inter-disciplinary research and to stimulate the kind of creative thinking and teaching about religion that could make it a leader in this crucial but neglected field throughout South Asia. The articles that follow in this issue arise from a series of weekly seminars sponsored by that new Department of World Religions and Culture in which scholars from several disciplines plus experts from beyond the university participated along with the host department’s own staff. The objective of those seminars and of this special issue of the Bangladesh e-journal of Sociology is to create momentum for study and research on religion in Bangladesh and throughout the South Asia region. This can best be done by engaging scholars in appropriate disciplines, including sociology, to apply those disciplines plus their own insights and experience to study and research on aspects of religion, individual and social. Those introductory seminars, like the essays herein, concentrated primarily on religion in the Bengal region for two basic reasons. One is the ready access scholars in the Bengal have to relevant sources, historical and contemporary, and their capacity to utilize them effectively
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