eastern Bengal, people lived mostly in small hunt-
ing and gathering communities and adhered to
local tribal religions. In the western region, small
states rose and fell, the most important being the
Pala dynasty (ca. 750–1159), which subscribed to
Buddhism, and the Sena dynasty (ca. 1095–1223),
which followed Brahmanic Hinduism. The first
Muslims in Bengal were Afghanis, Persians, and
Turks who came into the area as conquerors dur-
ing the reign of the delhi sUltanate (1206–87).
Local Muslim states arose subsequently in the
western part of Bengal, but full-fledged Islamiza-
tion did not begin until the mUghal dynasty won
control of the region during the reign of akbar (r.
1556–1605).
conversion of the Bengali populations to Islam
did not occur by the sword, as has been alleged.
Historian Richard Eaton argues that Mughal elites
in Bengal (the ashraf) did not promote Islam as a
state religion; they maintained a social and cultural
distance from the native population. Widespread
conversion in Bengal began only in the 17th cen-
tury as a result of several factors: 1) the gradual
eastward shift of the Ganges River, which opened
up forest lands to the outside world and to intense
agricultural development, 2) the influx of pioneer
holy men who built mosques and shrines that
formed the nuclei of hundreds of new agricultural
communities and spread Islamic influence to the
indigenous peoples, and 3) economic prosperity
under Muslim rule brought about by the region’s
integration into the world economy through
the export of textiles. These socioeconomic and
cultural factors not only resulted in religious
conversion in a region where the Hindu religion
had also only recently been introduced, but they
also gave Bengali Islam a distinctive stamp. Hindu
gods and scriptures were not rejected but adapted
to Islamic understandings of God, the prophets,
and their holy books. At the same time, Islamic
doctrines and practices were recast into Hindu
forms. The divine name allah, for example, was
used interchangeably in Bengali Islamic literature
with the Sanskrit terms for Hindu gods, such as
Great Person (Pradhanpurusha), the One With-
out Color (Niranjan), and God (Ishvar). The
prophets, particularly Muhammad, were called
avatars, a Sanskrit designation for the Hindu god
Vishnu’s different manifestations. Bengal Muslims
were also familiar with the popular Hindu epics
the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Amalgama-
tions of Islamic with Hindu beliefs and practices
cut across communal boundaries and produced a
distinctive Bengali religious literature as well as
devotional movements such as that of Satya Pir,
who was venerated as a Sufi saint by Muslims and
as a god by Hindus. Sufi orders and the venera-
tion of Muslim saints at their shrines continue to
play an important role in the popular religion of
Bengal today.
While Mughal officials struggled to solidify
their control of Bengal by forming an Urdu-speak-
ing elite oriented westward to the imperial courts
in Delhi, Agra, and Lahore, and as more and more
Bengalis became Muslims, Europeans appeared
on the scene to compete for access to the region’s
economic wealth. The Portuguese appeared first
in 1517, followed by the Dutch in 1602, the Brit-
ish in 1650, the French in 1690, and the Danes in- It was the British, however, who prevailed,
ruling Bengal first through the agency of the
English East India Company (1757–1857) then
directly through the British Crown in the era of
the Raj (1857–1947).
Foreign colonial presence gave rise to two
important kinds of movements in Bengal: reli-
gious revival movements among both Hindus and
Muslims and anticolonial nationalist movements.
The two major religious revival movements among
Muslims were the Faraizi movement, which advo-
cated strict adherence to the Five pillars of Islam,
and the Tariqa-i Muhammadiyya (Muhammadan
Movement) inspired by sayyid ahmad barelWi (d.
1831), which sought to establish a community
governed by the sharia. Both of these 19th cen-
tury movements were reacting to the decline of
Muslim influence, which they hoped to reverse
by purifying Islam of what they perceived to be
Bangladesh 87 J