The Political History of Muslim Bengal: An Unfinished Battle of Faith

BOOK REVIEW

​Mahmudur Rahman provides a detailed account of the political evolution of Muslim Bengal, emphasizing the ongoing struggle to preserve its heritage and identity.

The mystery of how Bengali Muslims, in this remote part of South East Asia, far away from Muslim mainland in the Arab Middle East, came to be the ‘second largest ethnic population of the Islamic faith in the world’ is brought sharply into focus by Mahmudur Rahman in the book under review. Rahman answers the question quoting T. W. Arnold, ‘it is in Bengal, however, that Muhammedan Missionaries in India have achieved their greatest success as far as numbers are concerned’ (p. 13).

Even though written for a general readership, the book is meticulously researched and thoroughly engaging. It is a history of a people who, despite being the overwhelming majority in the country, were in mortal danger of losing their history, heritage and identity. Rahman – an engineer by training – is better known as an author and newspaper editor.

​An uncompromising upholder of human rights and freedom of expression, he firmly believes that it is the duty of a journalist to be politically engaged in turbulent times. He paid a heavy price for his stances and suffered imprisonment and torture under the present government of Bangladesh. While languishing in prison he ‘decided to embark on this paean of my nation’s heritage as my swansong’ (p. xvii). The author sees this as ‘an unfinished battle of faith’ – the second part of the title of the book.
The full review is published in the Muslim World Book Review

---