Just like the history of Rome does not mean only the history of Romans, history of Bengal is not only the history of Bengalis. In the end of the fifteenth century, the geographical region of Bengal was one of the most prosperous lands in the whole Orient and in some matters – in the world. With the Indo-Gangatic plains in the West, Himalayas in the East, Bay of Bengal in the South and mountain-forest in the East connecting it to Far East in its furthest reach, Bengal featured in all geo-strategic calculations of empires and empire-builders. Endowed with a climate and fertile land, Bengal reached a level of overall prosperity, which endured all vicissitudes of empires, conquests and trade. This unique piece of land with its feminine landscape, forever washed in water of sky and of river, its tropical green counterpoised against vast plains find its parallel in some areas of Malabar in distant South. To be intimate with the history of Bengal, one first needs to be intimate with the history of its landscape. In attempting to write the intimate history of Bengal, the only imagery that comes to my mind is a road in between boundless plains of green and an overcast sky which puts a shade, as the shade of the lashes of a Bengali maiden

It is not my intention nor it is in my capacity to write like a historical scholar. I will write, fuelled by my own urge, crippled by lack of scholarship and remaining apologetic due to my lack of concern for chronology and interpretation. It will be more like a landscape rather than a movie where the roll unwinds sequentially on the gyre of time whereas a piece of picture is seen or absorbed instantly, as if all the imageries are hitting us at the same time but not to the same intensity. I have pegged my rope of narration on a book by a Bengali Mr. Nirad C Chaudhri, to be specific to one of its chapters – Vanishing Landmarks. Few historians live the day of which they write and this explains why all journalists are not historians. Reportage of Events, to my best possible assessment is a process of emphasizing whereas a historian’s job is to leave all possible options of emphasis open and open-ended. A journalist is a comma in the historical narrative, reminding of time whereas a historian is an un-numbered asterisk, which may or may not find its footnote. A great historical work informs us less than making us feel of our connection with what is being told. Without this poetic quality, history would have been un-readable. We read history with an intention of not getting the best history but for the wisdom of not searching for any best history at all. An intimate history of Bengal, more like an essay is based on this presumption and I hasten to add – all presumptions are suspended judgment.

We will open the veil of our Memory five hundred years back, gaining entry into the heartland of Bengal and will find a wonderful scene. Islam, by then has penetrated into Central India, made its empire but delayed its religious interaction but to the highest and lowest of populace, Bengal featured largely and justifiably in the strategic picture and Hinduism finding new ideas and forces quite unknown to itself. The land of Bengal was feeding the empire and the ruling classes,  its artisans and weavers were rewarded richly for their craftsmanship and by the same rich manner they were squeezed by taxation. The civil society was not very different from what it was some two hundred years ago except perhaps, some farmers from a carpet of green will suddenly observe a troop of Afghan warriors riding on the horseback, looking into this humid and green landscape, quite in contrast to the rugged and merciless mountains of Afghanistan, left a decade ago in search of fame, power and fortune.  Some three thousand kilometer West from the heartland of languid and sleepy Bengal, in the mountain passes of Northwest, History was performing its regular and seminal process of osmotic migration. The Politics of Central Asia that will soon push Babar into India through the same passes was unknown to Bengal. Hinduism was in one of its historical phase of continuous Reformation as the ideas of Islam were vigorous and vigorously hailed by sword, intolerance and international prestige. The ancient Hindu suddenly woke up in his small and pretty village portico and heard the rustle of History, which almost blew him. Traditionally, the caste-based system of Hinduism reacted to this new threat with xenophobia and went into a closed shell. The Empire of Delhi was distant whereas the local landlord was near, in presence as well as in his action. Unlike Buddhism, this new idea of Islam and its idea of a Pan-Islamic state beyond boundaries confused Bengal for its was something that they feared most – of losing one’s place of stay, of being rooted out of the vastu, of not being a nomad, wandering for imaginary homelands. Babar was the first Indian who suffered from double homesickness as recent NRIs do. Fortune and its hunt bound him to India, but his heart always yearned for his homeland in Badshakan and Fargana, beyond the mountains. Interaction of Bengal with the first and the most virile element of Islam was an interaction of mindscape and landscape opposites – a nomadic culture recently endowed with a world-winning idea and a rooted tradition that never felt any requirement of either winning the world or producing a world winning idea. The true impact of this phenomenon is still visible in Greater Bengal and about its true significance, five hundred years is too less a time span to justify comment.

            As Mughals consolidated in Central and Western India, Bengal never formed anything similar to that of a Maratha or Rajput Confederation, but always changed hands, whether in the domain of empires or whether in the domain of Ideas.  Moreover, the faintest idea of a Hindu Nation never touched Bengal as it could have given Mughal power center at Delhi a deadly northwest and eastern pincer movement. Even at the highest days of Maratha and Rajput rebellion, Bengal continued feeding the Empire just like Gujarat supplied it with overseas trade and cotton goods. This fateful nature of Bengal during that period is one of the unexplained phenomenon of Indian History and cannot be given a consistent explanation without taking a different perspective in understanding human situation and that we will shortly attempt.

            One of the reasons for this strange and singular behaviour of Bengal compared to its western and northern counterpart was definitely its landscape and geographical situation. But that is not all. Bengal, like all conquered lands could only be conquered as it had long forgotten what it was to be a free land. Freedom is nothing but being eternally vigilant of one’s own and general human situation. The caste-system while being made stricter and rigorous became a rope of strangulation, xenophobia graduated into paralysis of simple curiosity, society concluded that to survive and to remain stable, the best is not to move at all. Bengal, at that period was at a point of a patient, which in its cultural equivalent was in an intensive care unit. This isolation came at a critical moment while the world was knocking at its best and in all ungentlemanly manner at Bengal’s door. The door did open and it was Sree Chaitanya who was the fresh breath of spring over the social fields, dried, shrunken and semi-dead with long spell of being in an hermetically sealed condition. Hindu Society, at that moment was like a mummy, cushioned inside a very hallowed box, very ornate outside but lifeless inside and the only breath of Life it had, ironically was from the dominant Islam, of which it was either scornfully disinterested or mindlessly colluding. Sree Chaitanya, a man from high-caste, educated in traditional system of Logic (Nya) and finally a devotee or a Bhakta of such supreme fervour that later Hinduism had no qualms in acknowledging him as an avatar just as Lord Rama or Krishna was. But as hallowed tribute like this seems mere words while contemplating over the historical role he fulfilled and the creative genius he brought forth in the Life and Times of Bengal.

            This soft, effeminate and fair figure, filled with song, dance and trance captured the landscape of Bengal, literally as well as historically. His movement of Bhakti was more powerful in spread than the fastest cavalry of the time, his travel over the Indian Sub-continent and re-discovery of Virindavan catapulted him into the forefront of Hinduism. In Benares, the timeless city of Hindus, resting on the trident of Shiva, he converted Vedantic Speculators into Bhaktas – in a sense casteless or beyond caste. Multitudes followed him while he danced and sang in the streets, fields, and temples and there came the epigram – Shantipur dubu-dubu, nade bheshe jay  [Shantipur is just floating, Nadia is washed away]. Hinduism, regularly resilient and regularly ingenious in devising a different device, appropriate of the age to survive and to metamorphose. Sree Chaitanya highlighted this while he spoke with brevity, the soul of survival and growth – Hare Nama Sankirtan is the only way of salvation in this age of Kali. There is no other way. Muslims became his disciples, caste borders were washed away, Modern Bengali Literature if not conceived, but of its conception and growth, there was no uncertainty. His speech, songs and dance became a national vogue, even at this age of poor transportation and the only media being direct enactment than reportage. The boundless appetite of Bhakti matched Islam’s idea of universal brotherhood. Hinduism got a tremendous lease of Life from the fertile land of Bengal and from this noble son and in the process; it heralded the course of the next interaction with another virile foreign element after two hundred years or so, which will be told in due course. 

            Sree Chaitanya’s genius brought two far-reaching changes in Bengal’s cultural and political life.  His teachings were universal in scope and he was a Bengali with a Pan-Hindu outlook. Unlike militant religious leaders, he was more like Jesus, cryptic and silent about the ruler’s tyranny. His reformation was from within and the landscape of Bengal worked equally well over a foreigner and may be to a faster degree. Highest religious teacher of the age became the most enduring religious reformer, a tradition in India’s history. His re-interpretation of Hinduism by the creative and organic process of Bhakti suspended any chance of Bengal of being isolated from the thread of tradition, secondly his approach to caste issues prevented the rise of fissures which might have given rise to social turmoil to the extent of a war with an Islamic state wielding power and machinery of the state.  By opening the road of Bhakti for all, he saved the aristocratic element of Bengal from either facing decadence to the extent of extinction or slow and gradual Islamization of whole of Bengal. Most important, he connected this languid and satisfied land with the Indian Sub-continent and reminded it of its relative position in the affairs of the state.  Swami Vivekananda, the Vedantic, took out a leaf from Sree Chaitanya and did the same travel over the sub-continent some two hundred years later, while another virile foreign element was continuing its interaction with India. Bengal was literally put back into the orbit of Civilization by his rope of Bhakti, which accordingly is the highest emotion possible and attainable.

            The creative energy of Sree Chaitanya went to the very core of Bengal. It was the only unifying icon within Hindu elements of Bengal. In parallel, Hinduism continued its pantheism and autonomy of religious practice whereas violently opposing any free ideas in social domain. Sufis, Tantrics, Vaishnavs, Bauls, Sahajiya all flourished and they had interesting interactions filled with remarkable anecdotes. In devotional songs and lyrics, mention is to be made of Ramprasad who sang simple songs for goddess Kali and they are unique not only in the history of religion but of Music. Nowhere except perhaps in Bengal, this tune of Ramprasad could have been created and nowhere else perhaps this man would have been born.

            We are back again to the inexplicable phenomena we raised of why there has been no Confederation like Rajput or Maratha from Bengal and the summary is this: Bengal was isolated and geographically behaved like a delta where the human stream went broader, settled and precipitated unlike North-West which encountered the stream at its most intense and restless form. Secondly, at moments when there arose the idea of a Hindu Nation to be raised after vanquishing the foreigners sitting at the throne of Delhi, Sree Chaitanya has changed the mindscape forever. And finally, this remains more in the realm of proto-history where I feel (spurred by recent findings at Bengal from excavations) that Bengal and the region had already a culture of sufficient age and development and must have had foreign contact through seas as otherwise we will stumble into another paradox as the next historical stage opens in front of us. Leaving Sree Chaitanya but following his historical spirit, we will venture forward and enter into a small village say Palassey, say somewhere in 1757.

In BOOK-II, we will traverse the period and the journey from Occupation, Plunder and East-West Osmosis of Bengal till we hear the clear, confident and enduring tune of its greatest poet and artist-architect of modern Bangla - Tagore.