Rebuffing Bengali dominance: postcolonial India and Bangladesh

A vast literature analyzes how Bengali identities developed in colonial India. This article steps away from both celebratory approaches and a focus on the colonial period. Instead, it explores how non-Bengalis increasingly challenged Bengali superiority in more recent times. As the colonial incarnat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCritical Asian studies Vol. 55; no. 1; pp. 105 - 135
Main Author van Schendel, Willem
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2023
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Bangladesh
Bengal
Bengaliness
Hostility
Identity politics
India
indigeneity
Insurgency
language
Myanmar
script
India
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Summary:A vast literature analyzes how Bengali identities developed in colonial India. This article steps away from both celebratory approaches and a focus on the colonial period. Instead, it explores how non-Bengalis increasingly challenged Bengali superiority in more recent times. As the colonial incarnation of a genteel Bengaliness lost its bearings and split into competing territorial manifestations in East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) and India, it encountered rising hostility and developed both assertive and timid configurations. This article offers an exploratory overview of how various groups of non-Bengalis have been rebuffing Bengali dominance by means of cultural distancing, graphic resistance, the ideology of indigeneity, insurgency, and the legal and military force of postcolonial states.
ISSN:1467-2715
1472-6033
DOI:10.1080/14672715.2022.2150870