A Brief History of Bengal for Diaspora Bangladeshis

By Prof. S. M. Deen

A Brief History of Bengal for Diaspora Bangladeshis from the Ancient Time to Creation of Bangladesh in 1971.

The book is a combination of a set of historical research, personal recollections of some of the events, particularly from the Pakistani Period.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781326023775

Book preview

A Brief History of Bengal for Diaspora Bangladeshis

A Brief History of Bengal

for Diaspora Bangladeshis

From the Ancient Time to Creation of Bangladesh in 1971

Prof S. M. Deen

Emeritus Professor of Computer Science

University of Keele, England

Email: [e-mail]

Personal website: www.smdeen.me

The book website: www.scienceunderislam.com

Blogsite: www.scienceunderislam.blogspot.com

INTERNET LULU EDITION, 2014

ISBN  978-1-326-02377-5

© Copyright S.M. Deen, 2014.

All Rights Reserved

The Cover: A mother teaching her children. – an Idyllic village scene in Bangladesh, woven on silk. Apart from many toys, the house has also a myna bird in a cage (common in Bangladesh), and is surrounded by flowers, shrubs and trees including coconut and banana plants, with birds flying in the sky and a wavy river full of water-lilies (the national flower in Bangladesh) on the side of the house.

About the Author

Prof Sayyed Misbah Deen, BSc (Hons), MSc (Dhaka), PhD (London), DIC, FBCS, CEng.

Born in Bangladesh in 1938, he got his PhD in 1965 from Imperial College (London) in Particle Physics, in which he had carried out research for a number of years. His seminal physics paper of 1970 was being referenced by Particle-Physics researcher even in 2013, an unexpected 43 years after it was written. He then changed topic and joined the University of Aberdeen as a lecturer in Computer Science in 1973, moving later to the University of Keele as a Professor of Computer Science, retiring there in 2005 as Emeritus Professor. He is a leading authority in distributed data/knowledge bases, and is still actively involved in many major international events and research collaborations. He has published over 100 substantial research papers, and has also written many books in Computer Science, some of which have been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Italian and Spanish.

His book Science Under Islam is his first work on a religious topic, propelled by his interest in science, his concern at the current Muslim weakness in science, and his desire to see Muslims flourish in science (and technology), as they once did in the past  [websites: www.smdeen.me and lulu.com].

History is another topic of his keen interest which is reflected in the present book: A Brief History of Bengal for Diaspora Bangladeshis. This book is written with the objective of providing an easy and quick access for the diaspora Bangladeshis to the history of their original home country, by making an Internet version of the book downloadable free from www.smdeen.me, with an option of a printed copy at a low price from the publisher www.lulu.com.  In due course the printed version should also be available from Amazon and others.

A Brief History of Bengal

for Diaspora Bangladeshis

From the Ancient Time to Creation of Bangladesh in 1971

Prof S. M. Deen

Emeritus Professor of Computer Science

University of Keele, England

Email: [e-mail]

Personal website: www.smdeen.me

The book website: www.scienceunderislam.com

Blogsite: www.scienceunderislam.blogspot.com

Dedication

To all my grandchildren, Yara, Saamir, Amara and Amelia, and their cousins and friends interested in Bangladesh, and to all diaspora Bangladeshis, present and future.

A Brief History of Bengal for Diaspora Bangladeshis

From the Ancient Time to Creation of Bangladesh in 1971

PREFACE

I was attempting to write my memoir for my children, when I was told that in our family graveyard in Jawar (Bangladesh), they had unearthed long ago the foundation along with two stone inscriptions (in Arabic) of an ancient mosque, which explains why that area is called Masjid Bari.  According to the stone inscriptions, the mosque was built in Hijri 941 (1534 CE) by the regional administrator of the last independent sultan of Bengal. Since at that time the whole of the present Bangladesh area had perhaps had only 100 or so mosques, it is most curious that a remote village like Jawar should have one, and indeed be a regional headquarter of the Bengal sultanate. In fact this mosque could be the second ancient mosque in the whole of the greater Mymensingh area, after the Atia Mosque near Tangail built in 1516 CE.  I knew in my childhood that we had an old mosque at the Masjid Bari which was destroyed, but not anything more, nor any of the ancient history of Jawar, which I found from a Japanese publication on Jawar, where they undertook an agricultural project in the 1970s [see the section on Jawar in my Memoir].  However, this episode re-kindled my interest in the history of India and Bengal.

I have read the history of India and Bengal many times in the past, and also forgot quickly, muddling up what I read. Therefore this time I have decided to produce short notes, mainly as an aide-mémoire for myself, as a way of remembering important historical events. My original intention was to stop at the beginning of the Mughal occupation of Bengal, but then I opted for a more comprehensive coverage right up to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, thinking that my children (and grandchildren) and perhaps even other people of Bengali origin settled in foreign lands might find it useful, despite its much shortcomings, as stated next.  It is a sketchy history, perhaps as a set of personal glimpses, as I focussed mainly on things that really interested me personally.  In some sense it is a compilation of my notes, to which I have also added my personal recollections of some events and experiences with comments, particularly of the Pakistani period, convincing myself that this could perhaps give these notes some authenticity. The document is meant to be short and is not intended for printed publication, but hopefully to be made available over the Internet, perhaps in a book form.

Acknowledgements

I am most indebted to my two friends, Dr Bilayet Hossain (Oklahoma, USA) and Mr M. Soukat Ali (London, England) for reading through the manuscript, and for their valuable comments, suggestions, and contributions (I did not know many details until they told me). It is Bilayet, a friend of over 55 years, who once excitedly telephoned me: You are from Jawar? I did not know, I read about your ancient mosque in a major history work. I was excitedly stunned, and also deflated that I was not breaking news on Jawar – it’s already known. It is also Bilayet who told me about the Japanese project on Jawar.  My immediate Amazon search yielded only one copy, a used poor-quality faded print in the USA, at an inflated price, which I immediately grabbed. My thanks to these two friends again. Thanks are also due to Dr Thomas Neligwa, Tom Cooper, Stephen de Cruz and Ash Leake for technical assistance, with particular thanks to Ash Leake and also my wife Rudaina on their help in the cover design. Finally I must thank my son Alvin for creating and maintain all my websites, and for producing this Internet book and its printed version on www.Lulu.com

Explanation of some terms used in the text

Bari

It is a Bengali word which defies a direct translation into English, perhaps it is closer to the word home. Bari means a physical area that includes one’s home, and it could also be the area where a group of families with a common ancestor lives. It can also be the address, the location or the area where someone lives in or comes from. Thus Sayyed Bari means the physical area where the Sayyed families live, within which there will be a bari for each of these Sayyed families. Thus the bari of a family will have its houses, while the Sayyed Bari will be the collection of all these baris. The home village, home city, home district of a person are also his/her baris at those different levels.  Thus if you meet a Bengali person and ask where his/her Bari is, the reply depending on the context, could be his/her country (or an area within the country), district, city, village etc.  Masjid Bari mentioned in the Preface would generally mean an area where a well-known mosque is situated, along with some peoples’ baris in that area. If the mosque was not prominent, the area would not be called Masjid Bari. However, Masjid Bari is not a very commonly-used term.

East/West Bengal

The term East Bengal and West Bengal had different meanings at different historical times and contexts. I have also used the term Eastern and Western Bengal, as well as North and South Bengal – their meanings should be clear from the contexts. I have employed the lower case or uppercase such as in east Bengal or East Bengal depending on whether I meant an eastern area or an area called East Bengal, hopefully consistently.

India vs Indian subcontinent

These days India is the Republic of India, while the Indian subcontinent implies the British India, which included the present day Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Republic of India. South Asia is the Indian subcontinent plus Sri Lanka [but what about Burma (now Myanmar)? Is it not part of South Asia? Does not seem to be].  However, in my writing below I have used both the terms India and the Indian subcontinent to mean the same entity, except after 1947 when India would in general mean the Republic, but it should be clear from the context. Note further that when we talk about the ancient India, we must remember that its borders have changed over the ages, and included much of Afghanistan during the Mughal period. 

Proper name Spelling