Reclaiming Karbala: Nation, Islam and Literature of the Bengal Muslims (1860s-1940s)

Analyzing an extensive range of texts and publications across multiple genres, formats and literary lineages, Reclaiming Karbala studies the emergence and formation of a viable Muslim identity in Bengal over the late-nineteenth century and into the 1940s. Beginning with an explanation of the tenets of Karbala, this multi-layered study explores what it means to be Muslim, as well as the nuanced relationship between religion, linguistic identity and modernity that marks both Bengaliness and Muslimness in the region.This book is an intervention into the literature on regional Islam in Bengal offering a complex perspective on the polemic on religion, region, and language in the formation of a jatiya Bengali Muslim identity.