Experiencing the Other: Hindus and Muslims of post-colonial Bengal

Background and Rationale: The history of post-colonial 'secular'1India has been fraught with the communal undertones of migration and displacement especially in the context of the formation of Bangladesh (Jahan, 2013). At the core of it lies Hindu-Muslim segregational politics (Ray, 1977; Kabeer, 1997; Chatterjee, 1999; Singh, 2005). One experiences and lives her/his/their own religion through the various channels of ritualism, ideology, religious philosophy, and socialization. It is also true, that one experiences and develops opinions towards other religions as well2,especially in places like Bengal where populations of different faiths stay in very close vicinities as a result of a tumultuous history of colonization and migration (Kabeer, 1997; Chatterji 1999). The current political scenario and the insidious social nervousness3calls for a thorough understanding of the personal dimension of inter religious relationships and how it gets influenced by private encounters and political discourse. With this as the background and rationale, it would be important to see how the Hindu migrants who came from Bangladesh to India during 1947 and 19714formed their opinions and outlook towards the people of Islamic faith through their personal experience and political heuristics. Literature Review and Research Gap:The partition of India was flawed in ways more than one and has been studied by many scholars of different disciplines (Chatterji, 1999, Butalia, 1998; Sarkar, 2015; Mookherjee, 2011, Aiyar, 2008). One of the most prominent themes in academic work on the late colonialand post-colonial Indian history is the communal complications between the Hindus and Muslims. There is an extensive body of literature on the critiques of the Hindu cultural orientation of Indian nationalism5and on the subalternization of Muslims (Newbigin, 2011; Barua, 2017). As pointed out and sharply critiqued by Haimanti Roy, most of the work on the Indian partition show Hindus and Muslims in an antagonistic light (2009). There is very little academic research6on the inter-personal and private relations of Hindus and Muslims7, especially in context of the Bengal-Bangladesh (previously known as East-Pakistan) partition. Most of the literature on partition, especially in terms of Hindu-Muslim relations, in the context of Bengal is epistemologically macro-social and etic in nature. The lack of understanding of inter-religious co-existence and inter-personal experience in post partition Bengal is a glaring research gap.