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About the Project
Archives of Minority Pasts: Mapping Religion and Politics in Modern Bengal
Project Grant
This project will digitize books and periodicals associated with Bengali Muslim intellectuals including M. Abdur Rahman, Abdul Jabbar, Abdul Bari and Abdul Aziz Al Amman from the collection of Emdadul Haq Noor, a noted publisher and editor. The collection documents cultural and religious writing from political minorities of British Bengal and post-colonial West Bengal (India). With MEAP funding, the project team will digitize back-issues of Neda-e-Islam, a monthly religious magazine affiliated with the Furfura Sharif Sufi reform movement, manuscripts and print materials belonging to Acharya Mahananda Haldar, the preeminent Matua theologian and historian, and all available back-issues of the Bangla local news-weekly, Birbhum-Barta (circa 1905-1984).
These materials capture the diverse thinking and experiences of Dalit and Adivasi-tribal groups in the historical Bengal region.
Project Leads
- Rajarshi Ghose, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
- Abhijit Bhattacharya, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
- Tapan Paul, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
Host Institution
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
More Information
About Birbhum-bartta
Founded in January 1903, the Birbhum-bartta was a weekly newspaper published from Suri town of Birbhum district in colonial Bengal (British India). It was printed at its own Barta Press in Suri and was edited, published and printed by Debendra Nath Chakrabarty. Later on, while Debendra Nath continued to be the editor, D.D. Saha and then Panchanan Dass took over the dual role of publisher-printer. Debendra Nath passed away in 1943. The newspaper was then edited successively by Lilapada Bandyopadhyay (Chakrabarty), Milan Kumar Bandyopadhyay, Surjya Chakrabarty, Jyotirmoy Ray, and finally Surjya Chakrabarty again. In 1971-72, for the last few issues of the newspaper, Surjya Chakrabarty was credited as both editor and publisher-printer.
From the beginning, the Birbhum-bartta weekly newspaper supported the anti-colonial movements against the British Raj. Interestingly, the commercial advertisements that the newspaper printed in the early issues were also marked by a distinct anti-colonial Swadeshi orientation. In the post-1947 period, the newspaper by and large supported the Indian National Congress political party and was also vocal in its support for Bangladesh during the latter’s war of independence during 1971. Time and again, it expressed its reverence for icons of Indian nationalism such as M.K. Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Swami Vivekananda. As far as the provincial politics of West Bengal (India) was concerned, the newspaper was opposed to the pro-China Communist Party of India (Marxist). It carried news items on politics in Birbhum mostly and in India more generally. However, it evinced a keen interest on the respective courses of the two world wars and the Cold War. Apart from political news, it carried reports on economic trends in Birbhum, educational institutions in the vicinity such as Vidyasagar College (Suri) and Visva-Bharati (the university founded in Santiniketan by Rabindranath Tagore), religious festivals and fairs, Hindu religious organizations such as the Suri chapter of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, district hospitals, local issues related to transportation, regional agriculture and irrigation, literary and cultural events, accidents and crimes, etc. It routinely commented on editorials and reports published in other regional magazines and newspapers.