Constructing Bangladesh
Religion, Ethnicity, and Language in an Islamic Nation
Sufia M. Uddin
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 12/2006
Pages: 248
Subject: Religion, Political Science, History
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78E+12
eBook ISBN: 9780807877333
DESCRIPTION
During the precolonial era, Bengali, the dominant regional language, infused the richly diverse traditions of the region, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and, eventually, the Islamic religion and literature brought by Urdu-speaking Muslim conquerors from North India. Islam was not simply imported into the region by the ruling elite, Uddin explains, but was incorporated into local tradition over hundreds of years of interactions between Bengalis and non-Bengali Muslims. Constantly contested and negotiated, the Bengali vision of Islamic orthodoxy and community was reflected in both language and politics, which ultimately produced a specifically Bengali-Muslim culture. Uddin argues that this process in Bangladesh is representative of what happens elsewhere in the Muslim world and is therefore an instructive example of the complex and fluid relations between local heritage and the greater Islamic global community, or umma.