MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: THE NARRATIVES OF SECULARISM AND ISLAM IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

This paper challenges the popular perception that Bangladesh has become the latest battleground between secularism and Islam and problematizes the simplified understanding and the binarization of religion and secularism in Bangladesh. It argues that extant discussions on the one hand overlooks the historical background of the interactions of religion and while on the other hand, it ignores the extant multiplicity of both Islamic practices and the understanding of secularism. The author calls for a nuanced understanding of the complex historical and contemporaneous developments regarding relationships between religion and politics.

Keywords:

• secularism
• Islam
• Bangladesh

Notes

1 For example, Matt Vasilogambros, ‘The Bloody Fight Over Bangladesh's Secularism’. The Atlantic, April 26, 2016; www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/bangladesh-secularism/479820/; Azim Zahir, ‘Bangladesh Killings Bring Tensions Between Islam and Secularism to the Fore’. Asian Currents, May 7, 2016, http://asaa.asn.au/bangladesh-killings-bring-tensions-between-islam-and-secularism-to-the-fore/; Anis Ahmed, ‘Bangladesh's Creeping Islamism’. New York Times, February 3, 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/opinion/bangladeshs-creeping-islamism.html.

2 Vikram Sood, ‘Bangladesh: A Battle for its Secular Soul’. Mid-day, April 18, 2013, www.mid-day.com/articles/bangladesh-a-battle-for-its-secular-soul/209439.

3 Imtiaz Ahmad, ‘Introduction’, in Imtiaz Ahmad & Helmut Reifeld (Eds.), Lived Islam in South Asia: Adaptation, Accommodation and Conflict. New Delhi: Social Science Press, 2004, p. xii.

4 Olivier Roy, Secularism Confronts Islam. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.

5 Hamid Dabashi, Being a Muslim in the World. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013, p. 14.

6 Talal Asad, Genealogies of Religion; Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.

7 T. Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.

8 William E. Connolly, Why I Am Not a Secularist. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999, p. 39.

9 Saba Mahmud, ‘Secularism, Hermeneutics, and Empire: The Politics of Islamic Reformation’. Public Culture Vol. 18. Issue 2 (2006): 323 (323–347).

10 Jurgan Habermas, ‘Religion in the Public Sphere’. European Journal of Philosophy Vol. 14. Issue 1 (2006): 16 (1–25).

11 Peter L. Berger, ‘Some Second Thoughts on Substantive versus Functional Definitions of Religion’. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Vol. 13. Issue 2 (June, 1974): 132 (125–133).

12 Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

13 Sayema Khatun, ‘Examining the Discourses of Political Islam in Bangladesh’. Anthropology Journal Vol. 10 (2010): 69–82.

14 Salahuddin Ahmed, Bangladesh: Past and Present. Dhaka: APH Publishing, 2004; Anisuzzaman, ‘Towards a Redefinition of Identity: East Bengal, 1947–1971’, in Anisuzzaman (Ed.), Creativity, Reality and Identity. Dhaka: International Center for Bengal Studies, 1993, and Identity, Religion and Recent History. Calcutta: Naya Udyong, 1995; B. K. Jahangir, Nationalism, Fundamentalism and Democracy in Bangladesh. Dhaka: International Center for Bengal Studies, 2002.

15 Ahmed S. Huque and Muhammad Yeahia Akhter, ‘The Ubiquity of Islam: Religion and Society in Bangladesh’. Pacific Affairs Vol. 60 (1987): 200–225; and Mohammad Rashiduzzaman, ‘Bangladesh: Muslim Identity, Secularism and the Politics of Nationalism’, in Rolin G. Mainuddin (Ed.), Religion and Politics in the Developing World: Explosive Interactions. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002.

16 Asim Roy, The Islamic Syncretistic Tradition in Bengal. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984; Rafiuddin Ahmed, The Bengal Muslims 1871–1906: A Quest for Identity. New Delhi: OUP. 2nd edn. 1996; Sufia M. Uddin, Constructing Bangladesh: Religion, Ethnicity, and Language in an Islamic Nation. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006, Banu, Islam in Bangladesh.

17 Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier (1204–1760). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993 (pb 1996), p. 305.

18 Eaton, The Rise of Islam, p. 315.

19 Rafiuddin Ahmed, ‘Introduction: The Emergence of Bengal Muslims’, in Rafiuddin Ahmed (Ed.), Understanding the Bengal Muslims: Interpretative Essays. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 4–5.

20 Rafiuddin Ahmed, The Bengal Muslims 1871–1906, A Quest for Identity. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1981, p. 40.

21 For extensive discussion of these organizations, see Dhurjati Prasad De, Bengal Muslims in Search of Social Identity 1905–47. Dhaka: University Press Limited, 1998.

22 The Language Movement called for the Bengali language to be recognized as an official language of Pakistan, and to be used in the fields of governance, education and commerce.

23 Ahmed Kamal, State Against the Nation: The Decline of the Muslim League in Pre-independence Bangladesh, 1947–54. Dhaka: University Press Limited, 2009.

24 Tazeen M. Murshid, The Sacred and the Secular, Bengali Muslim Discourses, 1871–1977. Calcutta: Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 299.

25 Murshid, The Sacred and the Secular, p. 288.

26 Murshid, The Sacred and the Secular, p. 286.

27 For example, Salahuddin Ahmed, Bangladesh: Past and Present. Dhaka: APH Publishing, 2004; Anisuzzaman. Identity, Religion and Recent History. Calcutta: Naya Udyong, 1995; B. K. Jahangir, Nationalism, Fundamentalism and Democracy in Bangladesh. Dhaka: International Center for Bengal Studies, 2002; Sayed Badrul Ahsan, ‘Bangladesh: In 1971, the Goal was Secular Democracy’. New Age, December 16, 2005; Zeeshan Khan, ‘Secularism, thy Name is Bangladesh’. Dhaka Tribune, June 27, 2014. For a discussion on the elite conceptualization of identity between 1947 and 1971, see Ferhana Hashem, ‘Elite Conceptions of Muslim Identity from the Partition of Bengal to the Creation of Bangladesh, 1947–1971’. National Identities Vol. 12 (2010): 61–79.

28 Achin Vanaik, The Furies of Indian Communalism: Religion, Modernity and Secularization. London: Verso, 1997, p. 38.

29 ‘Country to be run as per Madinah Charter: PM’, The Daily Star, March 8, 2015.

30 Since 2015, several statements have been made by the PM and other government officials of their disapproval of bloggers’ criticism of religion. Interestingly, the same bloggers were embraced by the government. For the warnings and criticisms see, ‘IGP Suggests Bangladesh Bloggers to not ‘Cross the Line’, not Write Blogs that may Hurt Religious Sensitivities’. bdnews24, August 9, 2015, http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2015/08/09/igp-suggests-bangladesh-bloggers-to-not-cross-the-line-not-write-blogs-that-may-hurt-religious-sensitivities; ‘Home Minister Kamal Warns against Writing Anything that Hurts Religious Sentiment’. bdnews24, August 11, 2015, http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2015/08/11/home-minister-kamal-warns-against-writing-anything-that-hurts-religious-sentiment; and Daily Star, ‘Bangladesh PM Says Govt won't Allow Anybody to Hurt Religious Sentiments’. Daily Star, September 4, 2015, www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/hurting-religious-sentiments-wont-be-tolerated-pm-137617.

31 ‘Lady Justice Statue in Bangladesh is Removed after Islamist Objections’. The Guardian, May 26, 2017, www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/26/lady-justice-statue-bangladesh-removed-islamist-objections.

32 Hamid Dabashi, Being a Muslim in the World. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013, p. 14.

33 While there are pirs who have appeared only in the last century, there are mazars which have existed for centuries. The widespread appeal of pirs and mazars extends beyond the Muslim community. In Table 1 I have cited four shrines: the shrines of Bayazid Bostami located in Chittagong; Shah Jalal in Sylhet; Khan Jahan Ali located in Khulna; and Maijbhandari of Chittagong. By no means is this list exhaustive, but it is indicative of a tradition in Bengal and, later, Bangladesh which is still vibrant and appealing to a large mass of people.

34 Hans Harder, Sufism and Saint Veneration in Contemporary Bangladesh: The Maijbhandaris of Chittagong. London: Routledge, 2011; see also Sarwar Alam, ‘Sufism Without Boundaries: Pluralism, Coexistence, and Interfaith Dialogue in Bangladesh’. Comparative Islamic Studies Vol. 9. Issue 1 (2013): 67–90.

35 Seven militant organizations were proscribed between 2003 and May 2017. They are: Shahadat-e-al Hikma on 9 February 2003, Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) on 23 February 2005, Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) on 17 October 2005, Hizb ut-Tahrir on 22 October 2009, Ansarullah Bangla Team on 25 May 2015, and Ansar al Islam on 1 March 2017.