Prof. M. Athar Ali Memorial Lecture organized by Aligarh Historians Society

ALIGARH April 17: Jawhar Sircar, Secretary for Culture, Government of India, while delivering Prof. M. Athar Ali Memorial Lecture organized by Aligarh Historians Society, said that Richard M. Eaton came up with one of the most plausible theories in 1993/1994 explaining the mass conversion to Islam in Bengal in his acclaimed work “The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier”. But Eaton's work hardly touched upon western Bengal, much of which would constitute the later Indian State of West Bengal. It was not adequately prepared to address the question as to why this part of Bengal remained less affected by the same factors that accounted for an Islamic majority mainly in the Eastern two thirds of the province.

Sircar tried to build an interesting meta-narrative of the formation of the Hindu identity in medieval western Bengal and to modify a few existing ones, for this specific region. While largely accepting the celebrated Eaton thesis, he raised significant questions about its relevance for the western part of Bengal, where peasantization was led not by charismatic pirs and where it led to the formation of new agricultural castes, within the Hindu fold.

Sircar said the larger impact of the phenomena on religion and demography has been analysed on the time frame of nearly three centuries, while the emergence of the Hindu agricultural castes in the western Bengal has been highlighted, in the context of a more inclusive late-medieval Hinduism in the western Rarh belt. Sircar’s work identifies the overwhelming importance of three phenomena for the western region – the impact of the Chaitanya’s Vaishnava movement, the social significance of the Mangal Kavyas of medieval Bengal in facilitating the acceptance of the local popular deities into a more inclusive Hinduism, and the widespread but late ‘peasantization’ of the Rarh region, by various marginal, antyaja castes. The period chosen for the study spans over early 16th to the mid 18th Century, though some of the processes continue into the post-medieval or early­ modern period, as well.

Welcoming Mr. Sircar, Prof. Shireen Mosvi, Secretary, Aligarh Historians’ Society spoke about the background in which Aligarh Historians Society took birth and carried forward its publications on people’s history of India series. She also expressed gratitude towards Jawhar Sircar for coming over to Aligarh Muslim University to deliver the Lecture despite his preoccupation.

Eminent historian, Padma Vibhushan and Professor Emeritus Irfan Habib familiarized the audience with the monumental work of Sircar. Prof. Habib said that although Prof. Athar Ali was not a Marxist he wrote history on the basis of scientific historical methodology and his works have brought laurels to the Aligarh Muslim University.

Prof. Iqtedar Alam Khan and Dr. Ishrat Alam Joint Secretary, Aligarh Historian Society and Member Secretary, Indian Council for Historical Research were also present.