The Kirtan of Resistance and a Divided Bengal: A Study of the Matuya Community

This research paper aims at examining ways in which Hari Chand Thakur (1811-1877), steered the low-caste Namasudras in the late nineteenth-century towards a distinctive social identity. It will also focus on how Hari Chand brought almost the whole Namasudra community under one Matua sect with the help of his simple namgans of Lord Hari – which, infused with social messages, bequeathed the caste subaltern a voice of dissent through devotional membership. But one hardly finds mention of Hari Chand’s kirtan and its attendant social regenerative agenda in studies of this form of cultural performance. Through my intervention in this field, I shall discuss the politics behind underplaying the contribution of Hari Chand Thakur’s cultural initiatives in popular and political discourse on social reformation in late nineteenth/ early twentieth century Bengal. To substantiate the argument this article takes the theoretical framework of John Rawl’s A Theory of Justice. Since then many political philosophers and theorists have increasingly been concerned with the issue of ethnocultural diversity within the ambit of secular state(s). That whether justice can happen at all when state’s decision is binding over that of an individual or sects. Some have argued that liberalism has neglected the importance of culture and ethnicity in politics of secularism. The difference-blind model of unitary citizenship that had been favoured by liberals was challenged by the emergence, both in theory and practice, of the recognition of minority sects’ rights and of a model of differentiated or plural citizenship that the Left government of West Bengal tended to espouse. On the other hand the govt of Bangladesh went more into religion based citizenship than just a fair Republic. The fact that this community departed from Faridpur, and other places in Bangladesh is a testament of the intolerance even after their philanthropy for the lower-caste Hindus of that country. Slowly and steadily the matuya community had to shift to the safety of West Bengal in order to survive. Kent Greenawalt measures such establishment of religion as an adverse affect on the standing of citizens, giving a lesser standing to people who do not embrace the officially supported religion(s) and makes these individuals feel like “outsiders”.