Muslim Sahitya Samaj (1926-1938): The Origin and Evolution of an Intellectual Organization in Dhaka

Abstract

The Muslim Sahitya Samaj is a modern literary organization that began in Dhaka in the 1920s and lasted twelve years. It typically promoted research, published journals, and held scheduled meetings where essays were presented and discussed. Contrary to many other literary organizations in Bengal’s intellectual history, the Sahitya Samaj launched a more powerful vocal movement of buddhir mukti or “Emancipation of Intellect,” meaning rationalism under universal (not specifically Islamic) ideals of 'freedom of thought' and 'liberation of expression.' It was the most unique and striking expression among some twentieth-century Bengali-speaking Muslims before Indo-Pakistani independence. If historians argue that Ram Mohan Roy and Rabindranath Tagore, two stalwarts of the Bengal Renaissance, were inspired by “British Orientalism,” then the radical, rational humanist Bengali-speaking Muslim intellectuals were inspired by British Orientalism through Roy and Tagore. Why did this movement begin in Dhaka? This paper argues that Dhaka city in the 1920s fulfilled some significant infrastructural growth and development crucial for the rise of a classy intellectual group who, through networking, were pioneering the origin and evolution of such a vast organization, Muslim Sahitya Samaj, that launched the emancipation of intellect movement.