ASIAN STUDIES AT HAWAII, NO. 12 Aspects of B~ngali . History and Society Rachel Van M. Baumer Editor ASIAN STUDIES PROGRAM UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF HAWAII UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII LIBRARY Copyright © 1975 by The University Press of Hawaii All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Aspects of Bengali history and society. (Asian studies at Hawaii; no. 12) "Essays delivered by most of the guest speakers in a seminar on Bengal convened in the spring of 1972 at the University of Hawaii." Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Bengal-Civilization-Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Bengal-History-Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Baumer, Rachel Van M., 1928- ed. II. Series. DS3.A2A82 no. 12 [DS485.B44] 915.4'14'03 73-90491 ISBN 0-8248-0318-3 Dedicated to the memory of our colleagues whose lives and fruitful scholar­ ship were cut off during the independence struggle in Bangladesh. \)j<j 4\31 <j ~\3 ~TbT ~9j$ff<j;ft I - ~D"5' L Contents Introduction vii Hinduism and Islam in Medieval Bengal Edward C. Dimock, Jr. Norms of Family Life and Personal Morality among the Bengali Hindu Elite, 1600-1850 Tapan Raychaudhuri 13 Economic Foundations of the Bengal Renaissance Blair B. Kling 26 The Universal Man and the Yellow Dog: The Orientalist Legacy and the Problem of Brahmo Identity in the Bengal Renaissance David Kopf 43 The Reinterpretation of Dharma in Nineteenth-Century Bengal: Righteous Conduct for Man in the Modern World Rachel Van M. Baumer 82 Bengal and Britain: Culture Contact and the Reinterpretation of Hinduism in the Nineteenth Century John N. Gray 99 The Social and Institutional Bases ofPolitics in Bengal, 1906-1947 J. H. Broomfield 132 Bengal's Pre-1905 Congress Leadership and Hindu Society John R. McLane 147 A Public Policy Profile on Rural Development in Bengal Nicolaas Luykx 178 A Bibliographic Essay on Bengal Studies in the United States David Kopf 200 ~~ W Introduction This volume presents essays delivered by most of the guest speakers in a seminar on Bengal convened in the spring of 1972 at the University of Hawaii. The seminar was organized by several South Asianists at the University ofHawaii out oftheir concern for the independence struggle in Bangladesh and for United States foreign policy toward the emerging nation and its friends. It was their view that the events leading up to and culminating in the war for independence could not be adequately under­ stood unless a knowledge ofsocial and political development over a period of several centuries in Bengal provided a basis for judgment. Their in­ tention in the seminar was twofold: to provide students with a rigorous interdisciplinary study of Bengal that would result in new insights into its contemporary problems, and to provide a group ofBengal specialists with an opportunity to address themselves to certain aspects of history and society that they understand to be influential on current developments in Bengal. The essays in this volume deal with three time units in the history of Bengal-the middle period, the nineteenth century, and the twentieth century. The first essay, by Edward C. Dimock, Jr., describes his efforts to find sources of contemporary Hindu-Muslim antagonism in the medieval literature. Changes in family structure and social and world views in the late middle and early modern periods are the subject of Tapan Raychau­ dhuri's study. These two essays take a brief look at an earlier period in Bengali history and society. The following four essays deal primarily with the nineteenth century, although Blair B. Kling's study covers the transitional period from the middle to the modern history of Bengal, as well. While Kling's contri­ bution deals with practical and material aspects of upper-class Bengali life, the next three essays are concerned with intellectual debate and de­ veloping ideas in the scintillating decades ofthe Bengal renaissance. John N. Gray, a graduate student in the seminar, offers a critique of David Kopf's and my essays and goes on to develop a theory which would extend our work a step further. Readers will notice that these studies deal almost exclusively with the Hindu community in the nineteenth century, an im­ balance which may seem to reflect lack ofdeep involvement on the part of vii viii INTRODUCTION the Muslim community in the social and intellectual ferment of the cen­ tury. This dearth of Western scholarship concerned with the Bengali Muslims is a subject to which I shall return. J. H. Broomfield and John R. McLane both concern themselves with aspects of the independence movement in the twentieth century and the phenomenon of communal politics. Nicolaas Luykx traces the evolve­ ment of public policy on rural development in East Bengal, including the role played by American agencies in development projects. The bibliographic essay by David Kopf is devoted entirely to publi­ cations by Bengal specialists in American universities. Sufficient time was not available to cover the vast literature on Bengal produced by scholars of many countries. In addition it seemed appropriate to this volume to discuss the work of American specialists, most of whom had been trained on United States government grants intended to provide the nation with resources of specialized knowledge of the various areas of the world, including Bengal. Bringing together the work of nine authors in a single volume results in a certain amount ofvariety, most obviouslY.,in style. Scarcely less obvious in this volume are differences of spelling and use of diacritics in foreign words and names. Several years ago the Bengal Studies Group made a serious effort to standardize a system of transliteration for Bengali words; nevertheless, wide variations still exist in the methods ofBengal specialists. The problem with proper names is even greater. Some writers use a trans­ literation ofthe name as spelled in Bengali; others use anglicized spellings, many of which were used by the owners of the names themselves when writing in English. Given the extent of variation in these essays, it seemed best to let each author keep his own system rather than inflict the radical changes that would be necessary in some essays in order to employ a uniform method throughout the volume. The result of this decision is that a single name may appear in several versions ifit appears in more than one contribution. Finally, these essays, while dealing exclusively with Bengal,undoubtedly contain much that is ofinterest to other South Asianists and quite possibly will furnish materials for area specialists of other regions who are inter­ ested in comparative studies. Still it must be pointed out that a collection of essays is often less than what its planners would have hoped to present. Although this volume was never intended to be an introductory or compre­ hensive work on Bengal, it was expected to be more representative of the studies done in the various periods of Bengal's history. Unfortunately, three excellent essays, on society in ancient India, anthropology, and art history, were not submitted for publication. Larger problems have also provided obstacles to the fulfillment ofour objectives. The singular lack of INTRODUCTION IX substantial material on the Bengali Muslim community in this volume reflects the limited amount of research done on that group by Bengal specialists in American universities. A few younger scholars have now begun to work in that area, thus undertaking to correct a major neglect of many years. Other areas of study similarly have not been approached by American scholars, or, in fact, by anyone else. The present work simply offers the views of a number of scholars on elements from their own areas of research influential on the contemporary history of Bengal. If, as a secondary result, research is stimulated in areas about which this publi­ cation is silent, it will have made our effort doubly worthwhile. There is particular pleasure in writing this final paragraph of these introductory remarks, the paragraph traditionally reserved for acknowl­ edgment of help received in the preparation of the volume. This work, like most others, could not have come into existence without a great deal ofhelp from people whose names are not listed in the table ofcontents. Of fundamental help in both the planning and the execution of the seminar were Professors Harry Friedman and Burton Stein. Without the practical and intellectual contributions of these two colleagues at Hawaii, neither the seminar nor the volume would have been possible. The University of Hawaii and its Asian Studies Program joined together in providing all the funding for both the seminar and the publication, a noteworthy under­ taking in this time of academic poverty. The support and recommen­ dations of the Asian Studies Publications Committee, and the excellent clerical assistance of Machiko Tsuruya, have been directly responsible for placing this volume in your hands. RACHEL VAN M. BAUMER Honolulu map by Nlcolaas LuykJl WEST AND EAST BENGAL International Boundary Scale of Miles: •D 50• 100• ASSAM BIHAR Tripura Khasi Hills .::\.. ... ORISSA BURMA / Hinduism and Islam in Medieval Bengal EDWARD C. DIMOCK, JR. University of Chicago The Hindu-Muslim riots in January 1964-those which, some may re­ member, were touched off by the theft ofthe Prophet's hair-are the only ones I have ever seen but they made an indelible impression. The scenario of the riots in Calcutta, if described, should sound familiar, for it would be reminiscent ofmore recent scenes in Bangladesh. After the Gurkhas had quieted the city, I went to Dacca. On a panel in Washington not long ago, I heard the remark that communal riots have been frequent in India, but rare in East Bengal and nonexistent in West Pakistan.