The decade leading up to partition and independence in 1947 was a tumultuous era. It witnessed the unseating of a two-century-long foreign rule over the subcontinent, an event whose aftermath set reverberations that continue to be felt across its length and breadth today. The advent and growth of nationalism as a response to British colonialism saw multiple theorizations of a desired future “nation” free from colonial rule. One that gained increasing credence among sections and in specific regions over time was the Two Nation theory which professed that Hindus and Muslims of the subcontinent belong to different nations on account of their religious differences. The reality of partition has legitimized the practice of looking at nationalism in pre-independent India from the vantage point of religious binaries and particularly viewing Muslim nationalism as communal. Theorizing a Bengali Nation: Abul Hashim and the United Bengal Movement, 1937 – 1947 (published by Routledge in 2024) by Sucharita Sen marks a significant departure from this existing binary as it puts forward a case of Muslim nationalism that was accommodative rather than exclusive, which in this case was the United Bengal Movement of 1947 as theorized by Abul Hashim, erstwhile general secretary of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML).
The encounter with colonialism facilitated the entry of the Western intellectual tradition of modernity into the subcontinent like other parts of the colonized world which according to the author signifies the origin of nationhood in India when she says that “India’s beginning as a nation must be seen within the prism of modernity and its political and cultural implications” (p.4). The introductory section provides a foundational backdrop to the main theme of the book by delineating processes linked to modernity and colonialism such as the construction of communal identities and the evolution of the Hindu-Muslim dichotomy, both of which would go on to play a defining role in the road leading to independence and the reconstitution of socio-political relations in the subcontinent. This is followed by a brief outline of the chapters in the book.
The first chapter titled Exploring Alternative Nations and Nationalisms: The League’s Story in Bengal provides a detailed account of the evolution of the Muslim League in Bengal through its provincial wing, the Bengal Provincial Muslim League (BPML) during the late 1930s and 1940s and the circumstances that led to the election of Abul Hashim as the general secretary of the party in 1943. This is preceded by a brief background into the mass-based political culture of Bengal that was introduced by AK Fazlul Huq and his Krishak Praja Party in Bengal during his premiership from 1937 to 1941, which was later adopted and further advanced by the BPML under the leadership of Abul Hashim. This helps in providing a better context on how the BPML was “sowing the seeds for a kind of secular politics to emerge in the Bengal province that would set itself apart from the kind of nationalism that stemmed out of the Muslim League at the national level based mainly on its strong demand for a political state” (p.22).
The second chapter titled Negotiating between Religion and Culture: Theorizing the Rationale Behind the United Bengal Proposal stresses the need to analyse the United Bengal proposal within the frameworks of both the populist and essentialist style of politics that was practised in Bengal during the late colonial period as well as the literal interpretation of the Lahore Resolution of 1940 which argued for multiple Muslim states so that the scheme to keep Bengal united appears as an eventual manifestation of such processes rather than a sudden digression. It also illustrates the growth of Hashim’s political and philosophical outlook during this time which finds reflection in the role he played in transforming the BPML from an elite enterprise into an organization that truly strived to represent the will of the people based on the principles of cooperation and accommodation. This becomes imperative to understand the basis of the United Bengal movement, of which Hashim was one of the chief architects.
The third chapter titled A Sovereign Independent Bengal: Bridging the Religious Gap through ‘Aesthetic Nationalism’ describes how amid an atmosphere of grave mistrust brought about by developments in the immediate period preceding independence, Hashim’s philosophical iteration on the nation found common cause with Sarat Bose of the Bengal Congress, especially with regard to their mutual recognition that India was a confederation of nations in place of a singular one. Bose had an equal role to play in the advent of essentialist politics in Bengal, evident from his eagerness to form a coalition with AK Fazlul Huq in 1941 based on his belief in the common identity of the people of Bengal, which however could not transpire owing to his arrest by the British. Considering the proposed Huq-Bose coalition as a political precursor to the United Bengal movement, the author argues that Bose’s reentry into politics and collaboration with Hashim provided the opportunity for them to “free Bengal from the grips of communal and prejudicial politics” (p.83).
In the fourth chapter titled The Formation of a Bengali Nation: Debating Ethnic and Civic Nationalisms in the 20th Century, the author situates the theoretical underpinning of the United Bengal proposal found primarily in the works of Abul Hashim within the wider debates surrounding nationalism and its types, particularly the “split” frameworks of civic and ethnic nationalisms to argue that the idea of an independent United Bengal did not neatly fit into such mutually exclusive categories but represented a kind of nationalism that would be expressed “through a cultural or aesthetic movement in the province that is able to transcend beyond the limits of ethnic nationalism and makes a greater claim for self-representation by drawing on a combination of ethnic and civic principles” (p. 102). Taking inspiration from the idea of an “aesthetic self” present in Bengal as developed by Ranabir Samaddar (Samaddar, 2011, p. 64), she goes on to elucidate on aesthetic identity as a sense of consciousness that is the outcome of a unique cultural experience of the people of a region, resulting in the creation of a collective “self” which encompasses multiple markers of identity such as language, religion, cuisine and traditions among others.
The fifth and final chapter titled Reception of the United Bengal Proposal – Failure and Discontent, provides an analysis of the impact and viability of the United Bengal scheme in the context of the larger discourse of Muslim nationalism as well as the tide of communalism that had gripped the subcontinent during the time the plan was proposed. The formation and development of Muslim identity and its eventual articulation in the form of the demand for a nation-state, the ambiguity of the Lahore Resolution as well as the variance of ambitions in the political space saw the birth of a multitude of ideas concerning the political future of Muslims in the subcontinent and the United Bengal movement was one of them. The United Bengal proposal was a provincial expression of the right to self-determination whose success was highly contingent on the will and approval of the national parties, which in this case included both the All-India Muslim League and the Congress. The author highlights that the scheme faced significant impediments and criticism not only from the central high command but also within both the provincial chapters of the abovementioned national parties. While the United Bengal proposal did stand out as an alternative solution for unity in a communally charged environment, it could not hold ground in an atmosphere that had become hostage to antagonism and the pursuit of parochial interests.
Sucharita Sen’s work stands out in several ways. It dispels the conventional rhetoric on the communal nature of Muslim nationalism by showcasing a strand of it that envisioned a future nation which was going to be “rooted in universal ideas of civic citizenship and multi-culturalism but gained through a reformed understanding of religion and religious politics” (p. 90). Among other things, the book draws attention to a spirit of collaboration that was intrinsic and unique to the political culture of Bengal, evident from the cooperation among parties like the Krishak Praja Party, the Bengal Congress and the Bengal Provincial Muslim League. The reception and eventual failure of the proposal not only show the prevalent asymmetry in agency but also a divergence of aspirations between central and provincial politics. Lastly, it sheds light on the life of Abul Hashim and his philosophical take on both religion and politics which was conveyed through the United Bengal proposal as it embodied his belief in the fundamental “equality of man” derived from his interpretation of Islam as well as in the multinational character of British India (p. 127). The book therefore emerges as a significant contribution to the existing body of literature and scholarship about Abul Hashim and his thoughts, on nationalism in colonial India and Bengal, the political history of Bengal in the late colonial period as well on the variegated nature of Muslim nationalism in the subcontinent.
Reference:
Ranabir Samaddar. 2011. Eternal Bengal. Scienza and Politica. 23 (45).
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Krishnayan Das has done his MA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. His research interests include South Asian Studies in general and nationalism studies, identity as a source of conflict in South Asia, modern South Asian history and Bengali Muslim discourses in particular.