Different Nationalisms: Bengal, 1905–1947

411 Pages·2016·1.624 MB·English

by  Semanti Ghosh

Title Pages
Different Nationalisms: Bengal, 1905-1947
Semanti Ghosh
Print publication date: 2016
Print ISBN-13: 9780199468232
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: December 2016
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468232.001.0001
Title Pages
Semanti Ghosh
(p.i) Different Nationalisms (p.ii)
(p.iii) Different Nationalisms
(p.iv)
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Title Pages
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Dedication
Different Nationalisms: Bengal, 1905-1947
Semanti Ghosh
Print publication date: 2016
Print ISBN-13: 9780199468232
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: December 2016
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468232.001.0001
Dedication
Semanti Ghosh
(p.v)
To My Parents
(p.vi)
Page 1 of 1
Abbreviations
Different Nationalisms: Bengal, 1905-1947
Semanti Ghosh
Print publication date: 2016
Print ISBN-13: 9780199468232
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: December 2016
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468232.001.0001
(p.ix) Abbreviations
Semanti Ghosh
AICC
All India Congress Committee
AIML
All India Muslim League
BLAP
Bengal Legislative Assembly Proceedings
BLCP
Bengal Legislative Council Proceedings
BPCC
Bengal Provincial Congress Committee
BPML
Bengal Provincial Muslim League
CPI
Communist Party of India
IOL
India Office Library
IOR
India Office Records
KPP
Krishak Praja Party
NAI
National Archives of India
WBSA
West Bengal State Archives
(p.x)
Page 1 of 2
Acknowledgements
Different Nationalisms: Bengal, 1905-1947
Semanti Ghosh
Print publication date: 2016
Print ISBN-13: 9780199468232
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: December 2016
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468232.001.0001
(p.xi) Acknowledgements
Semanti Ghosh
This book first took shape as a doctoral thesis presented to Tufts University
(Medford, Massachusetts, USA) in 1999. Evidently, it has been a long journey. I
have incurred so many debts of gratitude during this journey that to thank
everyone adequately seems to be a challenging task.
The greatest debt, of course, has been to Sugata Bose, my supervisor at Tufts
University during 1995–9. He has been supporting the project since it was
launched. His scholarly insight has guided me in shaping the arguments of this
book in a vital way. Also, while writing the book, he provided me with help and
encouragement of the kind that went beyond the usual call of duty. Ayesha Jalal
has been another pillar of support during all these years. Her appreciation of my
work will remain a source of inspiration to me.
The research that has gone into this book was funded by a dissertation grant
(1996–7) awarded by the South Asia Programme, Social Science Research
Council (SSRC), New York. I am grateful to SSRC and the Ford Foundation for
offering me the support to conduct research in (p.xii) Bangladesh and West
Bengal, India. I was also fortunate to receive a generously funded write-up
fellowship from Tufts University in 1998–9. I had the opportunity of presenting
parts of the thesis at the SSRC conference in Bangladesh in 1996, and at a
number of conferences organized by the Center for South Asian and Indian
Ocean Studies at Tufts University between 1997 and 1999.
Working in the archives and libraries in search of source materials was not
always a fun experience. I remember with deep gratitude the patient assistance
provided by the librarians and staff at the following institutions: in London, UK,
at the India Office Library (now part of the Oriental and India Office Collections
Page 1 of 4
Acknowledgements
at the British Library); in New Delhi, at the National Archives of India; in
Kolkata, at the West Bengal State Archives, the National Library, and the
Bangiya Sahitya Parishat Library; in Bangladesh, at the Bangladesh National
Archives, Bangla Academy, and Dhaka University Library in Dhaka, the Barendra
Museum in Rajshahi, the Chittagong University Library and Museum in
Chittagong, and the Mymensingh Public Library in Mymensingh. I was
particularly fortunate in receiving short-term affiliations from the Asiatic Society
of Bangladesh and Bangla Academy in Dhaka. During my stay in Bangladesh, I
benefited greatly from the long discussion sessions with insightful scholars and
writers such as the late Salahuddin Ahmed, Anisuzzaman, Mustafa Nurul Islam,
Abul Momen, Jamil Chaudhuri, Mofidul Haque, and Shamsuzzaman Khan. My
research assistants, Hasan and Apu in Dhaka, and Mohua in Kolkata, were
staunchly by my side during the frantic times spent in the archives and libraries.
Outside the libraries, the endless critical engagements with Maitreesh Ghatak
were helpful in shaping my arguments. I fondly remember how the time spent
with Chitralekha Zutshi, Prachi Deshpande, and Neeti Nair, three young
historians-in-the-making at Tufts in the late 1990s, stimulated new ideas and
helped to make old ones clearer. My thanks to Modhumita Roy, who teaches
English Literature at Tufts yet possesses an enviable grip on Bengali culture and
literature, for taking an interest in this work. I am grateful to David Ludden for
his generous comments when I ‘defended’ my dissertation in 1999.
No words of gratitude can be enough for the wonderfully generous Nahas Khalil,
Rupa Sayef, and Saif-ud-daula who opened their home to me in Dhaka and made
me a part of their extended family ever since. During the last stage of my
doctoral research, Sumita and Somnath Basu offered a sort of lavish hospitality
which one can never repay.
(p.xiii) While processing the book more than a decade after the PhD chapter, I
have received invaluable help from Swapan Majumdar, Indrajit Chaudhury,
Rushati Sen, Biswajit Ray, Jayanta Sengupta, Kumar Rana, and Arun
Bandyopadhyay in Kolkata, Pias Majid and Arun Basu in Dhaka, and Mou
Banerjee in Cambridge, USA. Indrajit Chaudhury, in particular, has been
absolutely tireless in lending me books from his own collection. Saktidas Ray,
who is in charge of the Anandabazar Patrika library and archives, has been a
great support. The late Asoke Sen read through parts of an early draft and gave
me precious advice. His wish to see this book in print had to remain unfulfilled,
but various parts of this book indeed bear marks of his engagement. I am
grateful to Sekhar Bandyopadhyay for writing a very encouraging review of my
previous book comprising Bengali articles (2012) based on this research. My
special thanks to Rudrangshu Mukherjee, a caring friend who never refuses to
be a mentor when I need one. Dipesh Chakrabarty and Rochona Majumdar have
provided support in many more ways than they would give themselves credit for.
I am especially indebted to Anirban Bandyopadhyay who has taken a great deal
Page 2 of 4
Acknowledgements
of time off his own work to help me out on numerous instances. Madhuparna
Banerjee proofread an earlier version of the manuscript and helped me improve
the text.
My sincere gratitude goes to the editorial team of Oxford University Press, New
Delhi, for their endless patience and care for this project. The book has
benefited substantially from the generous yet critical comments made by two
anonymous reviewers.
This book would simply not have been possible without the support of Anirban
Chattopadhyay, the editor of Anandabazar Patrika and the head of its Editorial
Department, where I have been working for the past one and a half decades. It is
he who gave me his encouragement unsparingly and provided me with the space
to pursue my dream.
Friends have always been a very important part of my life as well as this book,
which has seen its making through various phases in Boston, Chicago, London,
Dhaka, and Kolkata. Shreemantee Chaudhury, Sreeroopa Sarkar, Abanti Ghosh,
Bidisha Ghosh Biswas, Bidisha Mukherjee, Ranjini Lahiri, Paromita Ghosh
Majumdar, Rajashi Mukhopadhyay, Niaz Majumdar, Damayanti Datta, Tuli
Banerjee, Aveek Majumdar, Pratik Chakrabarti, Indrajit Ray, Bhaswati
Chatterjee, Srobona Bose Dutta, Madhumita Nag, Amitava Gupta, Siladitya Sen,
Rangan Chakravarty, Paromita Chakrabarti, Sunandan Chakraborty, Sreemoti
Mukherjee-Roy, Ananda Roy, Tisa Biswas, Sahana Ghosh, and Swachchashila
Basu all had unflagging faith in me. The support (p.xiv) and affection of my
sister, Sravanti Bhowmik, brother-in-law, Someswar Bhowmik, and the family of
my sister-in-law, Ditipriya Sarkar, have always provided me with cherished
shelter. Srotaswini, my niece, never failed to be a source of joy and pride.
Disha Manaswini and Dariya Tarangini have now spent almost all of their lives
hearing about this book being in the making. While both of them patiently
shared their mother with this book, I cannot imagine writing it without having
them as my most adorable distraction on a daily basis. Tridibesh Bandyopadhyay
knows how much I owe him. His unshakeable support and quiet nudging made
this book possible.
Since when I was a little girl, my parents, Sankha Ghosh and Pratima Ghosh,
have been teaching me the value of respecting difference in every sphere of life.
My interest in the social and cultural history of pre-partition Bengal was also
aroused by their own lively interest in the subject. Their faith in me has been an
abiding source of strength throughout. I dedicate this book to them.
Kolkata
30 June 2016
Page 3 of 4
Introduction
Different Nationalisms: Bengal, 1905-1947
Semanti Ghosh
Print publication date: 2016
Print ISBN-13: 9780199468232
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: December 2016
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468232.001.0001
Introduction
Semanti Ghosh
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468232.003.0001
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter lays out the scope of the book, asserting that the period between
the partition of Bengal in 1907 and the Partition of India in 1947 was witness to
a unique experience of imagining ‘nations’ in Bengal. The lynchpin for all these
contesting nationalisms was the notion of ‘difference’. These alternative
imaginings of the nation could hardly be deemed ‘anti-national’ even if the
dominant discourse on the nation-state might wish to label them as such. Even
within communities, the ties between nation and community were variously
conceived by different strands and internal differences within communities
generated multiple articulations of nationalism. The introduction then specifies
one of the main objectives of the book, which is to explore the varied ways in
which ‘difference’ was problematized, to move beyond the unwarrantedly
essentialized form in which it is commonly understood, or, worse still, dismissed
out of the domain of engaged historical scholarship.
Keywords:   nation, nationalism, difference, community, partition of Bengal, Partition of India, internal
differences, historiography
This book is about the scope and possibilities of nationalism in Bengal between
1905 and 1947. The period between the partition of the province in 1905 and the
great Partition dividing the province as well as the country in 1947 was witness
to a unique experience of imagining ‘nations’ in Bengal. I use the term in plural
deliberately. There indeed emerged many contested visions of nationhood and
alternative frameworks for its realization, producing a richly nuanced discourse.
This book explores the process by which an overarching concept of a grand,
unifying nation came to be haunted and challenged by various ‘other’
Page 1 of 24
Introduction
nationalisms, based on ‘other identities’, or ‘other kinds’ of ideological
formulations. The lynchpin for all these contesting nationalisms was the notion
of ‘difference’, which emerges within any perceived nation and counters the
ambitious claims from within any conceivable nation. These alternative
imaginings of the nation could hardly be deemed ‘anti-national’ even if the
dominant discourse on the nation-state might wish to label them as such.
(p.2) Although nationalism has been an over-explored problematic in the
historiography of South Asia in general, and colonial Bengal in particular, the
multiple perspectives on nation were often glossed over. The terms ‘nation’ and
‘nationalism’ have usually been considered in a one-dimensional way. The central
problematic of this book is to question this customary assumption. It intends to
break up this one-dimensional or un-problematized category of nationalism to
unravel its myriad internal imaginaries. When I read about the relationships
between colonialism, anti-colonial nationalism, and the assertions of cultural
difference, I often found myself in deep discomfort as it seemed impossible for
me to overlook the very fundamental dissimilarities in the ways these
relationships had been perceived by the Bengali nationalists. They were
nationalists, no doubt, but their nations appeared so very different from each
other. I wanted to probe deeper into the matter of whether these nations only
appeared so, or if in reality too they denoted different qualifiers. At the same
time, when I read about the competing definitions of identity, and the so-called
oppositional connection between these identities and the claims to nationhood, I
felt somewhat perplexed by not being able to analyse many Bengali politicians
and ideologues who combined their nations with the claims of identity rather
deliberately. This sense of bewilderment has motivated me in pursuing this study
of the contesting and contending voices of Bengali nationalism, both its Hindu
and Muslim variants. In the course of my study, I could appreciate what Sumit
Sarkar indicated a few years ago to be the most valuable legacy of nationalism:
‘self-criticism, debate, internal dissent’.1 Also, the study revealed that there
existed certain patterns amidst the dissenting voices, as well as certain
alternative structures of national politics and ideology. It suggested that the
historiographical neglect of these variations has not, perhaps, helped us to
assess the value of ‘difference’. The point is not that differences have so far been
ignored or overlooked, but that they might have been overemphasized as
difference alone. I have tried to show that it is possible to think and write about
multiple nationalisms in Bengal, some of which, instead of dismissing difference,
often accepted them and sought to forge a space for negotiating with them.
By questioning the singularity of nationalism, my book also aims to address a
few historical assumptions related to this. Some of these questions have already
proved to be particularly vexing in the historiography of South Asia. My study of
Bengali nationalism once again confronts the supreme urgency of these
questions, the first one being the nature of communities. That it is rather
uncharitable to relegate all references (p.3) to community as ‘communal’
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