wrongful practices and Hindu influences. They
also were opposed to British rule. Even though
they were short-lived, in the long run these move-
ments helped set the foundations for the Muslim
nationalist movement of the 20th century, which
had broad appeal across all strata of Bengali soci-
ety. Bengalis were active in the all-india mUslim
leagUe, a political party formed to give Indian
Muslims a greater voice in their own affairs. Its
first meeting was convened in 1906 in Dhaka, the
capital of Bengal. However, Urdu speakers from
northern India and the Punjab dominated the
Muslim League, thus marginalizing the Bengalis.
After India was partitioned in 1947, Bengal
was reconstituted as the East Bengal Province of
Pakistan, under the governance of West Pakistan,
which was located more than 1,000 miles away,
across northern India. The secularist aWami leagUe
political party was created to give voice to East Ben-
gal’s grievances against West Pakistan. In the fol-
lowing years, the league gained widespread support
among Bengali Hindus as well as Muslims, advo-
cating a more democratic government and more
power at the local level. After the league scored an
overwhelming victory in the 1970 national elec-
tions, East Pakistan (the official name of East Ben-
gal since 1955) declared independence from West
Pakistan, which caused the central government
to invade the country to end the Bengali revolt.
Hundreds of thousands were killed as a result, but
Indian troops joined with the Bengalis to defeat the
Pakistani forces. East Pakistan was then renamed
Bangladesh, and the Awami League led the country
with its socialist development policies until it was
removed by a military coup in 1975. Since 1978,
the country’s political life has been dominated by
the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), founded
by General Ziaur Rahman, who served as president
from 1976 to 1981. Today the Awami League is the
main opposition party in the country. Despite the
growing influence of the Islamist party, the Jamaat-i
islami, Bangladesh still considers itself to be a mod-
erate, democratic country. One reflection of this is
in roles women have played in public life there,
including Khaleda Zia (Ziaur Rahman’s widow),
Bangladesh’s prime minister from 1991 to 1996;
and Sheikh Hasina (Mujibur Rahman’s daughter),
head of the Awami League and prime minister from
1996 to 2001, and from 2009 to the present.
See also colonialism; hindUism and islam.Further reading: Craig Baxter, Bangladesh: From a
Nation to a State (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press,
1997); Richard M. Eaton, “Who Are the Bengal Mus-
lims? Conversion and Islamization in Bengal.” In
Understanding the Bengal Muslims: Interpretative Essays,
edited by Rafiuddin Ahmed, 25–51 (Oxford and Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 2001); Asim Roy, The Islamic
Syncretistic Tradition in Bengal (Princeton, N.J.: Prince-
ton University Press, 1983); Tony K. Stewart, “Satya Pir:
Muslim Holy Man and Hindu God.” In Religions of India
in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr., 578–597
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995).Banna, Hassan al- (1906–1949) Egyptian
founder and intellectual leader of the Society of
Muslim Brothers
Born in Mahmudiyya, egypt, al-Banna was greatly
influenced by his father, an al-azhar graduate who
served as the village imam and religious instructor.
Al-Banna exhibited a propensity toward religious
activism at an early age, joining several organiza-
tions that fought against British colonial influ-
ence and “un-Islamic” trends in Egypt. Following
primary school, he completed teacher training at
Damanhur and then Dar al-Ulum in cairo, after
which (in 1927) he accepted a teaching position
in Ismailiyya, a city in the Suez Canal Zone with a
heavy British presence. His passionate interest in
religious and social affairs quickly drew the atten-
tion of a group of disaffected locals who appealed
to him to become their leader, and the result, in
1928, was the founding of the Society of Muslim
Brothers, also known as the mUslim brotherhood.
In 1932, al-Banna transferred to Cairo, where he
established a branch of the society and began to
expand its purpose and structure, positioning it toK 88 Banna, Hassan al-