Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-12T17:38:31.255Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Bengal and north-eastern India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Kenneth W. Jones
Get access

Summary

THE SETTING

The first region under consideration is Bengal and its adjoining territory of Assam in the North-East. Bengal proper is a huge delta built up by the combined river systems of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. Bengal and its environs are ringed by mountains in the North and East, by the bay to the South, the hills of Orissa and Chota Nagpur to the South-West, and Bihar to the West. Divided by numerous rivers and consisting of swampy land with abundant rainfall, Bengal was developed late in the history of South Asia and remained at the edge of Hindu-Buddhist civilization. Eastern Bengal, Assam, and the hill tracts bordering Burma marked the end of one major civilization and the beginning of the South-East Asia cultural sphere.

The incorporation of Bengal into the expanding culture of north India brought with it Sanskrit, Hinduism, and the caste structure. Brahman priests ascended to the foremost position in society, but never with the same degree of dominance as in the central Gangetic Plain or in south India. The Kshatriya (warrior) and Vaishya (merchant) castes were absent. Instead two smaller groups, the Kayasthas, a writer-clerk caste, and the Baidyas, once physicians and later landlords, marked the next levels below the Brahmans. Thus the mass of Bengalis were classed as Sudras or peasants; beneath them were the untouchables. Within this region Buddhism and, to a lesser degree, Jainism provided a longstanding challenge to Hinduism. In the surrounding hill tracts, the high civilization of the valleys and the delta faded away. Many of the tribes within the jungles and highlands had their own languages, deities, social structures, and tribal culture.

In the first decade of the thirteenth century, the Hindu-Buddhist world of Bengal was significantly altered by Islamic conquerors. The establishment of Muslim rule cut ties of political influence and economic support between Hinduism and the state. Over the centuries Islam also changed the socio-religious composition of Bengal through conversion.

Type
Chapter
Information
Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India , pp. 15 - 47
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahmed, Rafiuddin, ‘Islamization in nineteenth century Bengal’ in Krishna, Gopal (ed.), Contributions to South Asian Studies, no. 1 (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1979)Google Scholar
Ahmed, Salahuddin A. F., Social Ideas and Social Change in Bengal, 1818–1835 (Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1965)Google Scholar
Ahmed, Sufia, Muslim Community in Bengal, 1884–1912 (Dacca, Oxford University Press, 1974)Google Scholar
Dixit, Prabha, ‘The political and social dimensions of Vivekananda's ideology’, Indian Economic and Social History Review, 12, no. 3 (July-Sept. 1975).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farquhar, J. N., Modern Religious Movements in India (New York, Macmillan Company, 1919)Google Scholar
Gambhirananda, Swami, History of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission (Calcutta, Advaita Ashrama, 1957).Google Scholar
Khan, Mu‘in-ud-din Ahmad, History of the Fara‘idi Movement in Bengal, 1818–1906 (Karachi, Asiatic Society of Pakistan, 1965).Google Scholar
Killingley, D. H., ‘Vedant and modernity’ in Philips, C. H. and Wainwright, Mary D. (eds.), Indian Society and the Beginnings of Modernization c. 1830–1850 (London, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1976)Google Scholar
Kling, Blair B., The Blue Mutiny: Indigo Disturbances of 1859–1862 (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1966)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kopf, David, Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Dynamics of Indian Modernization, 1773–1835 (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1969)Google Scholar
Kopf, David, The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind (Princeton University Press, 1979)Google Scholar
Lipski, Alexander, ‘Bipanchandra Pal and reform Hinduism’, History of Religion, 11, no. 2 (Nov. 1971)Google Scholar
Lipski, Alexander, ‘Vijay Krsna Goswami: reformer and traditionalist’, Journal of Indian History, 52, no. 1 (1974).Google Scholar
Morearty, John, ‘The two-edged word: the treacherousness of symbolic transformation: Rammohun Roy, Debendranath, Vivekananda and “The Indian Golden Age” in Gunderson, Warren (ed.), Studies on Bengal (East Lansing, Michigan, Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University, 1976)Google Scholar
Nizami, Tauriq Ahmad, Muslim Political Thought and Activity in India During the First Half of the Igth Century (Aligarh, Three Mens Publications, 1969).Google Scholar
Pangborn, Cyrus R., ‘The Ramakrishna Math and Mission: a case study of a revitalization movement’ in Smith, Bardwell L. (ed.), Hinduism, New Essays in the History of Religions (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1982)Google Scholar
Pankratz, James N., ‘Rammohun Roy’ in Baird, Robert D. (ed.), Religion in Modern India (New Delhi, Manohar, 1981).Google Scholar
Ranade, Eknath (comp.), Swami Vivekananda's Rousing Call to the Nation (Calcutta, Centenary Publication, 1963).Google Scholar
Sastri, Sivanatha, History of the Brahmo Samaj (2 vols., Calcutta, R. Chatterjee, 1911), vol. 1.Google Scholar
Schneiderman, Leo, ‘Ramakrishna: personality and social factors in the growth of a religious movement’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 8 (Spring, 1969).Google Scholar
Sengupta, Kalyan Kumar, ‘Agrarian disturbances in 19th century rural Bengal’, Indian Economic and Social History Review, 8, no. 2 (June 1971).Google Scholar
Sinha, Pradip, Nineteenth Century Bengal, Aspects of Social History (Calcutta, Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1965)Google Scholar
Subhan, Abdus, ‘Social and religious reform movements in the nineteenth century among the Muslims — a Bengali reaction to the Wahhabi movement’ in Sen, S. P. (ed.), Social and Religious Reform Movements (Calcutta, Institute of Historical Studies, 1979)Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×