East Pakistan Renaissance Society

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The East Pakistan Renaissance Society was a political organisation formed to articulate and promote culturally and intellectually the idea for a

Indian Muslims and specifically for the Muslims of Bengal.[1] The organisation's founders and leaders included Abul Kalam Shamsuddin, the society president, Habibullah Bahar Chowdhury and Mujibur Rahman Khan.[1][2][3][4]

History

The "

British India to be constituted as separate, independent states – it did not specify a single state.[1]

Foundation

At a meeting held on 30 August 1942, at the offices of

Indian Muslims.[4] In September 1944, Mujibur Rahman Khan along with economist M Sadeq, published a booklet, Eastern Pakistan: Its Population, Delimitation and Economics which contained a description of the government, economy, population, geographic boundary and security of a future state of East Pakistan.[4]

The society held its first council at the

Abu Jafar Shamsuddin, Abul Hussain, Golam Kuddus, Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Gopal Halder.[4]

Philosophical differences

The Muslim League and most other advocates of Pakistan had demanded a single state of Pakistan consisting of the British Indian provinces of

Urdu language to be the only official language and lingua franca of Muslims.[1] However, the East Pakistan Renaissance Society not only argued that Muslims were a separate nation from Hindus, it also advocated that the Bengali Muslims were distinct from the Muslims of other parts of India, on an ethnic, cultural and geographical basis.[1][3] Unlike religion, the society argued that ethnicity and cultural differences cannot cross geographic boundaries.[1][3] The society and its supporters in the Bengal Muslim League asserted that Bengali Muslims should constitute an independent state, as an "Eastern Pakistan" rather than part of a single state of Pakistan.[1][7] The society asserted the importance of the Bengali culture and language, which many advocates of Pakistan criticised as being "Hinduised" and "Sanskritised."[1][8]

Aftermath

The society dissolved after the partition of India in 1947, which also partitioned Bengal to create the Muslim-majority East Bengal (also known as East Pakistan), which became part of Pakistan; Hindu-majority West Bengal and Assam became part of India. Several of the society's leaders were leading activists in the Bengali language movement (1953–1956), which was a mass struggle in East Pakistan for the recognition of the Bengali language as the second official language of Pakistan, along with Urdu.[1][3]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-312-21606-1
    .
  2. ISBN 978-984-05-1688-9
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-81-261-1390-3
    .
  4. ^ a b c d e Ahmed, Wakil. "East Pakistan Renaissance Society". Banglapedia. Bangladesh Asiatic Society. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  5. ISBN 978-0-19-924680-9
    .
  6. ISBN 978-1-4437-2667-2
    .
  7. ISBN 978-984-05-1688-9
    .
  8. S2CID 145152852
    .
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