Quader says: "The adviser spoke of the role of so-called bhadrolok (gentleman) in Bengali renaissance." And here I come in, both for Quader and Chowdhury. When did Bangali renaissance take place? Let us look at the mise-en-scène of the nineteenth-twentieth century Bengal.

The bhadroloks were important role-players, by any judgment I suppose, in bringing "a glorious dawn" in the politics and literature of the nineteenth and twentieth century Bengal. June 23 is a significant day to remember in terms of historical perspective, if not emotional (with due respect to Faruque Hasan, writer of The Battle of Palashi published on June 24).

Bengal lost its freedom at Palashi -- the lost battle is often regarded as the "tragedy of Palashi." But the tragedy was not perceived as tragedy by all the Bangali historians and writers of the nineteenth and twentieth century.

At the beginning of the British Raj, many Bangali Hindu leaders and intellectuals welcomed the British as allies in the struggle against Muslim domination. That is probably why Bangali Hindu writers, some of whom were considered torch bearers of "renaissance," misrepresented the last Muslim ruler of Bengal.

In the literature of the period, the last Muslim ruler of Bengal, Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula, was portrayed as a villain. In his epic poem, "Palashir Juddha" (The Battle of Palashi), the Hindu Bangali poet Nabin Chandra Sen portrayed Siraj-ud-Daula as a vicious, cowardly, debauched young man torn by fear and lust, who spent most of his time in a harem of dancing girls.

Joya Chatterji finds that Sen's characterization of Siraj-ud-Daula "was responsible, perhaps more than any other work, for immortalizing the image of Siraj-ud-Daula as a debauched lecher, filled with fear and doubt on the eve of the famous battle, but unable to stir himself out of his drunken lethargy to face Robert Clive's challenge." Sen's poem is a clear example of how history can be slanted for political reasons.

Much later, in 1932 B.C., Chatterjee, in his Betrayal of Britain and Bengal, described Palashi as the moment when Bengal was liberated from the tyranny of the Muslims, ushering "in a new age of 'the out-flowering (sic) of the Bengali Hindu genius and culture' (in Chatterji 1994: 183)."

Thus both Bangali Hindu historians and literary writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth century played a crucial role in the creation and popularization of communal stereotypes by "depicting 'Muslim rule' as 'tyrannical,' and Muslim rulers as cruel, violent, fanatical and sexually unlicensed (in Chatterji 1994: 160)."

Prominent Bangali historian, Sir Jadunath Sarkar, went even further. He altogether denied Muslims a place in the history of modern Bengal. The Muslims brought Bengal nothing but barbarism and tyranny during "their period (1200-1757)." Sarkar narrated the battle of Palashi and its aftermath as: "a glorious dawn, the like of which the history of the world has not seen elsewhere. On 23rd June, 1757, the middle age of India ended, and her modern age began […]. In the space of less than one generation, in the twenty years from Plassey [old spelling] to Warren Hastings ... the land began to recover from the blight of medieval theocratic rule […]. The dry bones of a stationary oriental society began to stir, at first faintly, under the wand of a heaven-sent magician [Robert Clive] (in Chatterji 1994: 183-184)."

Generally, distortion and misrepresentation of the Muslim rule were common among the Bangali Hindu bhadrolok, even among those who were exposed to English/European education and later played, and claimed, the role of torch-bearers of the Bangali Renaissance.

With these prejudices firmly in place, the bhadroloks believed Muslims had no place in modern culture, and took credit for the creation of modern Bengal. Chatterji puts forward this viewpoint of the Bangali Hindu bhadrolok: "They [Hindus] had made Bengal what it was -- albeit with the help of 'light' 'borrowed' from the British -- the center of India's civilization. By rights, therefore, Bengal belongs to them. The Renaissance, from this viewpoint, became a symbol not only of a culture which was bhadralok (also spelled bhadrolok), but also of a Hindu Bengal from which Muslims were excluded (in Chatterji 1994: 187)."

The exclusions and misrepresentations of the Muslims continued to play a significant role, right up to Indian independence and the partition of Bengal in 1947. The line between "them" and "us," between Hindus and Muslims, was drawn more clearly and more visibly day-by-day by politicians in power and, of course, by the bhadroloks.

The writings of the "Hindu Renaissance" of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, while reflecting the violence and promoting communalism among Hindus and Muslims, focused on the search for a glorious national/Hindu past, with emphasis not only on Hindu communal unity but also on asserting Hindu superiority, e.g. Rabindranath Tagore's novel Gora (1910). Gora, the central character, is Tagore's radical Hindu nationalist. Chatterji explains that Gora's "impassioned defence of orthodoxy and traditional values reflected the spirit of militant Hindu nationalism: it also mirrored the mood of bhadralok Bengal (In Chatterji 1994: 158)."

The new histories of the later nineteenth and earlier twentieth century were aimed primarily at implanting a spirit of national pride among middle-class Hindu Bangalis. In 1926, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay (1876-1938), author of Pather Dabi, set out in his essay, Bartaman Hindu-Mussalman Samasya (the Hindu-Muslim Problem of the Present Time), the case for Hindu cultural superiority.

Bangali Hindu nationalism, not Bangali nationalism, was clearly promoted in Bangla literature. And this Hindu nationalism ultimately led to the politics of communalism. The result was the ostracizing of the Muslim population of Bengal.

The literature and politics of this period created a distinct, and inferior, social space for Muslims. And this is what the bhadroloks of "Bangali renaissance" did. Yes sir, this is it.

Saleque Khan is a former coordinator of Student Affairs, New York University.