Book notice: Rural Bengali Islamic literature in Sylhet Nagri script

Raziuddin Aquil

Professor Anuradha Chanda, formerly Professor of History and Director of School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, has brought together a fine collection of essays, Script, Identity, Region: A Study in Sylhet Nagri (Kolkata: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies and Dey’s Publishing, 2013).

Besides a crisp Introduction and a short Concluding chapter, the volume contains as many as sixteen contributions (10 in English and six in Bangla), studying a distinctly Islamic literature in a script, called Sylhet Nagri, developed over the past several centuries in the frontier-borderland region of Sylhet-Cachar (now comprising four districts of Bangladesh and three of Assam in India). 

It’s an interesting project, examining rural Bengali Islamic literature circulated, first in manuscripts and from around mid-19th century in prints, in a script different from the usual Perso-Arabic as well as indigenous Hindu or Devnagri scripts, carving a distinct identity of its own; a vernacular practice of Islam in a region important in itself but far from the powers of the metropolitan centres, both political and theological.

Some of the literature is about the basics of Islam and others on how to be a true or good Muslim, as well as both syncretic and modern reformist kinds. I loved some of the examples offered in the book, like this one: muchhalmani kaam kore payibe rehayi, naame na ashibe kaam jaan mumin bhai (following musalmani rituals can lead to your salvation, just chanting the name [of God] is of no use, o righteous brother).

And the one on how beef eating doesn’t make you a Muslim is relevant to our own context also (goru khawa...muchhalmani noy), instead lead your life according to the dictates of the Book (hukum maphik chole kitabate ja koy).