Humans (which evolved 5 million years ago) to this region are relative newcomers. It is during the late Stone Age (Mesolithic); we find traces of inhabitants who lived close to the river, especially on ridges overlooking rivers. This period was marked by microliths and possible houses built on stilts. Bengalis in this period may have had a complicated social organization, and the cult of Monosha (Snake goddess) may have developed at this time; plus the prevailing archaic matriarchal culture furthermore gave birth to the concept of “Kali” the Cosmic Female Power. Her radiant blackness protected the dark-skinned Bengalis, as she was viewed as all-powerful, as mysterious as night, fierce, and sensual.

The Neolithic period in Bengal was probably around 1300–1200 B.C. Rice cultivation having originated in south-east Asia in about 7000 BC; was adopted as the first agricultural grain (Paddy rice charcoal radio carbon dates it to 1380–855 B.C.). Iron probably did not arrive until about 700 B.C. that marked the beginning of proto-history which continued until the historic period which begins around 350 B.C.

The first reference of the ‘Vangga’ tribes of the eastern region of Bengal (Bangladesh) is found in Aitareya Aranyaka (c. 800–500 BC) as un-Aryan tribes. The Buddhist text Arya-majushri-mulakalpa-grantha of the same period says that the language spoken in: Gaur (parts of West Bengal and Bangladesh), Dandabhukti (southern West Bengal), Karna Subarna (part of West Bengal), Varendra (northern Bangladesh), Rarh (southern areas of West Bengal), Summha Desa (south-western West Bengal), Vanga (central Bangladesh), Vangala (southern Bangladesh), Harikela (north-eastern Bangladesh), Chandradwipa (southern Bangladesh), Subarnabithi (central Bangladesh), Navyabakashika (central and southern Bangladesh), Lukhnauti (North Bengal and Bihar) and Samatata (Eastern Bangladesh) was “ASURA” (brutal). This shows that the Aryan way of life had not been adopted in this region yet.

The Indian Hindus preachers brought the Aryan influence to Bengal during the later part of the proto-historic period, and local religious traditions started becoming discernible. However, the complete Aryanization — that is Buddhism & the Aryan caste system and Vedic religious ceremony probably had to wait till the age of the Guptas. Much of the ‘Vedic’ tradition all over Bengal including some of the ceremonial structure and most of the ‘Vedic’ pantheon largely traces its origins to non-‘Aryan’ Bengali cultures. Many local deities were adopted unto the Vedic pantheon; for instance Monosha in this period was drawn into the Vedic religion (later called: Hinduism) and adopted as an Aryan goddess and made to be the daughter (out of wedlock) of the Arian god: Shiva – but with a difference. The legend goes as: Monosha requested Shiva to include her in the Hindu pantheon. Shiva responded to it by saying, if the merchant king Chand of Anga (South Bengal) agrees to worship you, you will be included amongst the goddesses. Chand grudgingly agreed to worship her with his left hand. To this day, Monosha is the only Hindu goddess worshipped with the left hand!

History commences by definition in the historic period which begins around the 4^th century A.D., with the Gupta period. Stone inscription from 321 A.D. refers to Somotot (East Bengal) and Pushkaran (West Bengal) as two independent states. A site dated to 450 BC has been excavated in Narsingdi, (2002). It may lead to the discovery of a part of the Brahmaputra civilization. This site is older than the Pundrabardhan site which has been dated to 370 BC and some other ancient Bengal sites. According to the archaeologists Buddhism was practiced here. This is interesting given the fact that western dating puts Buddha 563 to 483 B.C. So Buddhism had penetrated Bengal within a few decades of Buddha’s death. During this period direct foreign sea-trade started through Chinese intermediaries, remnants of the Chinese culture are still seen in Bangladesh in the form of Chinese fishing nets with cantilevers, ocean going boat: sampans and the use of the pumice stone to sharpen knife. 

The trade increased in the 1st century BC when the Romans took over Egypt and the Arab ships ‘came calling’ to Bangladeshi ports. Because of all this trade, the period from the 2nd century BC to the 7th century AD found the rise of international cross-influence and a pan-South Asian culture. Overall, even though Bengal was never as rich as the western and southern parts of the subcontinent, trade seems to have been an important component of the economy in addition to farming, which, of course, had been the mainstay since the prehistoric period.

After the fall of the Guptas, by 7^th century, the regional characteristics started dominating, in religion, arts and language. Different small kingdoms arose, and, the institutions of the Buddhist viharas started in this period, though the increasing influence of Brahmanism in Bengal excluded state support for Buddhism even though it was a popular religion.

Following this period, much of Bangladesh was ruled by the Pala kings for about 400 years (8^th – 11^th century AD). However, during this period, trade seems to have further reduced and the region became mainly agricultural. The feudal structure became more ornate along with increased bureaucracy. Even though the Pala and the later Chandra states was Mahajani Buddhist till the early 11^th century, the society in all of Bengal followed the Brahminical class division; and was relatively tolerant to each other.

The Sena and Barman kings (12^th -13^th  century A.D.) who came from Karnataka (South India) replaced the Pala dynasty and established a strict Hindu regime much more characteristic of their home regions than Bengal of that period, religious tolerance reduced and the caste system became very rigid and the influence of Buddhism was forcibly curtailed. The documents of this period reflect that the lower castes are not even mentioned in the royal edicts. The trading class no longer seems socially respectable; bureaucracy seems to have reached new heights and feudal lords becomes very powerful.

However, the exact form of the caste system present in Ancient Bengal was quite distinct from that prevalent elsewhere. Moreover, Bengali Hindus have been non-vegetarians since long. Bengal by this time had a self-sufficient village agrarian economy, almost no long distance trade, a feudal system and a distinct regional identity, its own language, script, artistic and cultural styles. The Vedic rituals were weak and emphasis was rather on the very physical feelings and aesthetics. This ushered in a very humanistic religious trait – the return of property rights of women, coupled with the rise of the cult of feminine power: ‘Shakti’.

The slow corruption of the Sena era and its religious rigidity had made it inflexible, slow, poor, and too dependant on fatalism and astrology; to the extent that the horse-riding swift-moving Turks were almost seen as the inevitable future brought about by Kalki, the last incarnation of Vishnu.

Muslim Sufi saints came to Bengal before the political conquest. By then the non-Aryan elements in the predominantly Hindu Bengal had somehow identified themselves with the Buddhists; and when Hindu-Buddhist rivalry became very much visible in the society, ‘Islam of the Sufi-saints’ came as a relieving force, in which many found an easy opening to salvation and success.

Mainstream Islam entered in full force with the Turkish conquest when Bakhtiar Khilji, a Turk, conquered Bengal in 1204. During the first 300 years or so of Muslim rule, Bengal was ruled by the Turks and then came successively the Afghans and the Mughals.

Islam also came to Bengal by sea with the Arab traders; who came with their religion and culture, but with a purpose different from that of the Turks. The influence of the Arabs in some parts of Bengal, particularly in the coastal region of Chittagong probably did not affect the society as deeply as was done by the later Mughals. The Arabs came to trade in the trading season, and left when the season was over.

But for the Turkish conquerors the situation was different, they came with the avowed intention of establishing political power. They conquered, established a kingdom and a government and took other steps to strengthen their position. Ever since their establishment there was a continuous flow of Muslims into Bengal. Islam changed the socio-religious pattern of Bengal; politically, it sowed the seeds of Muslim rule, but socially it planted a Muslim society, opening the gate of Bengal to numerous immigrants from the then Muslim world, which affected the existing society enormously. 

The Muslims took more than 200 years to bring the whole of Bengal under their control. In 1338 Bengal witnessed the beginning of an independent Sultanate under Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah. From this time onward, for two hundred years, Bengal remained independent. This was a period of overall development of the country both politically and culturally. But the most important development of this period was that the country for the first time received a name, i.e. ‘Bangalah’. Before this there was no geo-political unity of Bengal, no common name for the whole country. Bengal was known by the names of its different units, Gauda, Rar, Vanga etc.

In 1576 during Akbar’s reign the Mughals took over this kingdom and established Dhaka as its capital. After the death of Aurangzeb, when Mughal power declined, Bengal like other provinces of the empire was ruled by the Nawabs more or less independently. This position continued up to the battle of Palashi in 1757.

The establishment of Muslim rule was not an end in itself, for Muslim power had to be sustained in a country where a large number of non-Muslims had been living from time immemorial. These indigenous people were diametrically opposed to the incomers in every aspect of religious, social and cultural life; they were opposed not only in their fundamental beliefs but also in their day to day life from birth to death.

The view that Islam propagated itself in Bengal through the sword cannot be maintained; aside from other evidence, the very distribution of the Muslim population does not support it. During several hundred years of Muslim rule, it is not expected that all rulers were free from religious bias or the desire to win converts even by coercion, but there is a consensus that its extent was very limited. The theory of political patronage also cannot explain the mass conversion to Islam that took place in Bengal because a large number of Hindus occupied state services including the office of ministers.

If the spread of Islam had been due to the might of the Muslim Sultans, one would expect the largest proportion of Muslims in those areas which were the centres of Muslim political power. This, however, is not the case. The percentage of Muslims is low around Murshidabad (West Bengal) the principal seat of Muslim political power, where the Muslim rulers, from the beginning till the end, built up institutions (Mosques, Madrasahs {Schools} and Khanqahs {evening schools}) to disseminate Islamic learning and culture among the locals. The reasons for conversion among the few Bengalis may be either mundane, i.e. for gaining royal favour, job opportunities and economic gains, or genuine love for the faith and desire to be free from oppression from people belonging to higher castes. What’s for certain; their models in Muslim society were certainly not the kings, nobles, and Ulemas, but the Sufis whose unostentatious life must have set an example.

Despite all the institutional efforts Islam were slow to take hold in western Bengal; rather became dominant in the eastern part where the effort was minimal, and that too happened much later under the Mughals. Unlike early Sultans of Bengal, Mughal officials did not patronise Islam as a state religion. The Mughals maintained a strictly non-interventionist position in religious matters, despite pressure from local mullahs and Sufis. One consequence of this hands-off policy was that Mughal officials refused to promote the conversion of Bengalis to Islam. The paradox is that although Muslim regimes had ruled over Bengal since the early 13^th century, a noticeable community of Muslim peasants did not emerge there until the late 16^th century, and that too under a regime, that did nothing to encourage conversion.

What made this possible was that in the Mughal period, Bengal’s agrarian and political frontiers coalesced into one. This was achieved by land grants by the state aiming at the agricultural development of forested hinterland, most of whose recipients were petty mullahs, pilgrims returned from Mecca, charismatic Pirs, etc. These men oversaw, or undertook to oversee, the clearing of forests and construction of mosques or shrines, which in turn became the nuclei for the diffusion of Islamic religion and ideals along the frontier. Many of the place names with abad (for example, Jalalabad) meaning “settled” or “cultivated” bear testimony to their settlement and cultivation during this period. Above all, the local communities that fell under the economic and religious influence of these institutions do not appear to have perceived Islam as alien because it absorbed much local culture and became profoundly identified with the delta’s long-term process of agrarian expansion.

The advent of Islam in Bengal gave the Brahmanical ascendancy a rude shock. The importance of the superior castes in both political and social life was greatly reduced. It was not only Islam but several other forces, such as the Monosa, Chandi and Dharma cults, that were opposed to the Brahmanical system and were more amenable to the proselytizing influence of Islam. Hindus and Muslims lived in entirely separate communities. For Hindus, there could be no intermarriage with Muslims or even inter-dining for fear of “Yavana-dosa”. No Muslim may possibly enter their houses or use their vessels for eating purposes. If a Muslim is fed out of their vessels, they either break the vessels or give them away to the Muslims. It is against this ‘grave’ background that one must see the greatness of the achievements of the Pirs and, at the same time, the almost insurmountable barriers to a genuine rapprochement.

Some Hindu practices which are still prevalent among the Bengali Muslims, is not a simple case of Hindu influence, but the practical fondness for their old way of life. As Bengali Muslims did not start with orthodox Islam, but began by accepting a few basic features, and only in the course of time, particularly during the last two centuries, they have become more orthodox. Bengali Islam retained certain characteristic features of Hindu society; some of these are: consulting astrologers, even though astrology is a Vedic science, almost all the politicians and businessmen consult astrologers, just as any Hindu would. A large number of them wear stones/gems in their rings to bring good luck or ward off evil spirit — a carry-over of Hindu practices. Bengali Muslims contentedly retained the Hindu practices of some social ceremonies connected with births (Mukhey Bhat), deaths (Cholissa), and marriages (Gaye Holud).

For many years the Muslim immigrants in Bengal were almost all Sunnis, and Shias were few and far between. With the supremacy of the Mughals there came Iranians, mostly belonging to the Shia community of royal blood and high culture. Many of them made Bangladesh their home and settled in this rich province. Furthermore the increase of oceanic communications between Bengal and the Persian Gulf countries in the 17^th century tempted cultured Shias, Persian scholars, physicians, philosophers and traders to come and settle in Eastern Bengal.

So it is found that there were many elements in Bengali Muslim society, the Turks, the Afghans, the Mughals, the Arabs, the Persians, the local converts etc. In their social life the Muslim settlers were also influenced by some Hindu practices; for example, the Ashraf and Atraf difference among Muslims was not much different from the caste distinction of the Hindus. The settlers, who formed the upper class of the society, called themselves the ‘Ashraf’ and the converts (vernacular Muslims) the ‘Atrafs’.

As the region remained isolated from the political and religious centres of Muslim India, the vernacular Muslims could retain many of their original customs and food habits; and did not ‘design’ themselves to be as “religious” as the “chachcha Mussalmans” (real Muslims) of India! The Jolas (weavers), Mukeris (livestock holders), Pitharis (cake-sellers), Kabaris (fish-mongers), Tirakars (bow-maker), Kagajis (paper-maker), Darjis (tailors), Rangrezs (dyers), Goalas (milk-men) etc retained their old vocations in which they were engaged before accepting Islam, and were regretfully relegated to the lower Atraf class. Fortunately this distinction is no more in modern Bangladesh except in some small pockets of Chittagong — decidedly an Arab-settlers influence. People of small means of the ‘mundas’, ‘roshis’, ‘das’s’, ‘muchis’, bunos’ and ‘dalits’ categories spread all over the country, remains a hangover from our Hindu past.

Road to Bangladesh: There were two major achievements of Muslim rule in the region. First, prior to Muslim rule in this area, Bengal was an ever-shifting mosaic of principalities. The natural limits of Bengal were not clearly perceived till its political unification by the rulers in the 14th century. The political unification of Bengal was thus a gift of the Muslim rulers.

Secondly, the political unity fashioned by the Muslim rulers also promoted linguistic homogeneity. Unlike their predecessors, the Muslim rulers were ardent patrons of Bengali language and literature. Prior to Muslim rule, the Bengali vernacular was despised for its impurities and vulgarities by Hindu elites who were the beneficiaries and champions of Sanskrit education. The spread of Islam challenged the spiritual leadership of upper caste Hindus. The intense competition between Islam and resurgent Hinduism in the form of Vaisnavism for capturing the imagination of unlettered masses resulted in an outpouring of their stirring messages in the vernacular.

In addition the Muslim rule in Bengal contributed to economic polarization and cultural dichotomy. Most of the Muslim rulers either acted as agents of Delhi or tried to use Bengal as a stepping stone for attaining political authority in Delhi. Economic exploitation intensified during this period owing to transfer of resources to north India. The main victims of this exploitative system were locally converted Muslims and low caste Hindus. The sole aim of the Muslim rulers was to mobilize as much resources as possible. The size of the immigrant Muslim ruling elite was small and different factions of this elitist group did not trust each other. Consequently, Muslim rule in Bengal became, in effect, a coalition of immigrant Muslims and upper caste Hindus

At the folk level, however, there was less confrontation and more interaction between Hinduism and Islam. The actual practices of local Muslim converts were an anathema to both Hindu and Muslim religious leaders. The orthodox Hindus, despite their political reconciliation with Muslim rulers, despised the local Muslims as untouchables (Mlechhas). The Muslim religious leaders were equally scornful of the customs and practices of vernacular Muslims (Atrafs). Hated by immigrant religious leaders for their ways of life and by the local aristocracy for their adherence to an alien faith, local converts faced a dichotomy of faith and habitat which found expression in an emotional conflict between religion and language. This dichotomy can be traced in Bengali literature as early as the 14^th century. “Those who are born in Bengal but hate Bengali language”, asserted the poet Abdul Hakim “had doubtful parentage. Those who are not satisfied with their mother tongue should migrate to other lands”.

But the greatest discontinuity both in the field of economy and religious tolerance in the history of Bengal occurred when a mercantile company of England, East India Company became the virtual ruler of Bengal. Territorial rule by a trading company resulted in the commercialization of power which was highly destructive. As the historian R.C. Dutt notes, “the people of Bengal had been used to tyranny, but had never lived under an oppression so far reaching in its effects, extending to every village market and every manufacturer’s loom. They had been used to arbitrary acts from men in power, but had never suffered from a system which touched their trades, their occupations, their lives so closely. The springs of their industry were stopped, the sources of their wealth dried up”. The plunder of Bengal directly contributed to the industrial revolution in England. The capital amassed in Bengal was invested in the nascent British industries. Lack of capital and fall of demand, on the other hand, resulted in deindustrialization in the Bangladesh region. The muslin industry virtually disappeared in the wake of the British rule.

The British rule in Bengal promoted simultaneously the forces of unity and division in the society. The city-based Hindu middle classes became the fiery champions of all-India based nationalism. At the same time, the British rule brought to surface the rivalry between the Hindus and Muslims which lay dormant during the 500 years of Muslim rule. Communalism was introduced by the British; it did not exist in the Bengali communities in the way they thought it must have existed. Bengalis simply swallowed the European racism and disastrously evaluated each other from their point of view.

The Muslim middle class did not remain confined to traditional aristocracy which consisted primarily of immigrants from other Muslim countries. In the second half of the 19th century Bengal witnessed the emergence of vernacular elite from among locally converted Muslims. This was facilitated by a significant expansion of jute cultivation in the Bangladesh region. The increase in jute exports benefited the surplus farmers (Jotedars) in eastern Bengal where the Muslims were in a majority. The economic affluence of surplus farmers encouraged the expansion of secular education among local Muslims. For example, the number of Muslim students in Bangladesh increased by 74 percent between 1883 and 1913.

As the communal tension, thanks to the British, mounted in the 1930s, the Muslim ashrafs who had close ties with the Muslim leadership in other parts of the sub-continent; pursued a policy of communal confrontation and founded the Muslim League in Dhaka. The Pakistan Resolution of 1940 at Lahore was the outcome of the political confrontation between Hindus and Muslims. The Lahore Resolution demanded that “geographically contiguous units ….be demarcated into regions …., in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority …to constitute Independent States”. 

The vernacular Muslim elites in Bengal believed that the Lahore Resolution was legally a charter for a Muslim dominated independent and sovereign Bengal. The demands of the vernacular Muslim elite for an independent Bengal were opposed by both the Muslim ashraf and the Hindu middle class. Ironically the formal decision for partition of Bengal was taken not by Muslim but by Hindu leaders who fought for an undivided Bengal three decades ago.

The partition of the sub-continent into two independent states in 1947 was a defeat for the British policy. It partially undid the ‘Pax Britannica’ policy which was the greatest achievement of the Raj. The eastern areas of Bengal were constituted into a province of Pakistan and her political boundaries were drawn up most arbitrarily.

Pakistan, which emerged constitutionally as one country in 1947, was in fact “a double country”, the two wings were not only separated from each other by more than 2500 kilometres; they were also culturally, economically and socially different. “The cure, at least as far as the East Bengalis were concerned, proved to be worse than the disease”.

The creation of East Pakistan did not resolve the identity crisis of the majority people in the Bangladesh region. The political leadership in Pakistan was usurped by the ashraf and their fellow-comrades: the Army. The spread of secular education and monetization of the rural economy swelled the ranks of the vernacular elite who were intensely proud of the local cultural heritage. This compounded the dichotomy of language and religion. The Language Movement during 1948-52 which demanded the designation of Bengali as one the state language of Pakistan undermined the authority of the ashraf and reinforced the role of the vernacular elite. In British India, the Bengali Muslims united under the banner of Islam to escape from the exploitation of Bengali Hindus who shared the same mother tongue. In the united Pakistan, the Bengalis of East Pakistan reasserted their cultural and linguistic identity to resist the exploitation of their co-religionists who spoke in a different language — Urdu. Though history repeated itself in Pakistan, the lessons learnt from Hindu-Muslim confrontation were forgotten. Neither in undivided India nor in united Pakistan had the dominant economic classes agreed to sacrifice their short-term interests. Democratic verdicts were brushed aside and economic disparity between the two wings widened under the aegis of military dictatorships in Pakistan.

The disintegration of united Pakistan is not, therefore, in the least surprising and Bangladesh was the product of a bloody revolution. The Pakistan army had to be defeated physically in 1971 with Indian and U.S.S.R. assistance to establish the new state. The Nation collectively promised to itself that they will never again suffer another indignity of subjugation (Aryan, Turkish, Mughal, or British) or plunder (Mughal, Maratha, Portuguese, Dutch, British, or Pakistan). The best sons & daughters of the soil joined the Armed Forces in the struggle for liberation and continued the splendid tradition even after the independence by manning the forces. The birth of Bangladesh resolved the dichotomy between religion and habitat, and between extra-territorial and territorial loyalties by recognizing both the facts as a reality in the life of the new nation.

For the initial years in the emergence of Bangladesh, its relations with the rest of the Muslim world were less than cordial, as most of the Islamic world supported Pakistan during the 1971 struggle for independence of Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,  proclaimed Bangladesh to be both secular and socialist. In 1977 General Ziaur Rahman lessened the stress on secular, socialistic norms of government, and asserted its Islamic identity, but on a muted level. Islam, politics, and Bengali nationalism as pursued presently can hardly be in the direction of secular-democracy as understood in the West, that is, separation of religion, armed forces, and politics. The Armed Forces and religious sentiments are likely to remain part and parcel of the socio-political life in Bangladesh.

The Bay of Bengal regained its pivotal position in long distance trade after few centuries of neglect. The descendents of the ‘Muslin weavers’ became the new industrialist of a modern nation. Trading regained its place as the most important component of the economy in addition to farming. The feudal structure disintegrated and the influence of the bureaucracy became complacent to the newly emerging and socially respectable ‘urban elites’. The Forces have proved their worth both on the international arena as part of the U.N. Force and domestic scene in ‘disaster management’ — be it natural calamity or unbridled corruption in the government. The common people with limited access to self-administration have placed the Armed Forces in an exulted position as the ‘guardian’ of the ‘infant’ democracy. Millions of Bengali workers are now working abroad enriching the national exchequer as the uno numerou foreign exchange earner. Coupled with the rise of the rights of women the new generation of Bangladeshis ushered in a very humanistic social structure which is at the same time modern and traditional.