Maulana Bhashani and the transition to secular politics in East Bengal

During the decade of the 1950s, East Bengal, then a province of Pakistan, saw the emergence of a mass movement in support of the demand for national self–determination of the Bengali people. This movement was primarily led by the politician–preacher maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, who had emerged as the leader of marginalised Bengali peasants in Assam before the Partition of the subcontinent. Though Bhashani initially positioned himself as a Muslim League leader, he actually openly opposed the orientation of other Muslim League politicians. This article discusses the significance of Bhashani’s politics against the background of his training as a theologian and against the background of his ideology of Rabubiyat. It argues that although Bhashani’s was an Islamic world outlook, he vigorously advocated the need for a separation between state rule and people’s religious faiths. Moreover, Bhashani did not just take a stance in favor of secularism, the evidence collected by historians brings out that he personally led the transition to secular politics in the decades that preceded the formation of Bangladesh in 1971.