Sadhubhasha and politics of standardization

Bangla and the print culture of Bengali Muslims in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Bengal

Bibliographic Data

ID3018858
AuthorsSuma Chisti (0000-0001-7304-7481, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, corresponding author), Dripta Piplai (0000-0003-4339-9915, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur)
Year2025
Volume32
Issue2
Pages1-15
Publication date2025-07-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Identities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1350-4630 • E-ISSN: 1363-0296
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13504630.2025.2534021
OpenAlexW4412682118
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited12

In nineteenth-century Bengal, the language standardization of Bangla to create Sadhubhasha (chaste Bengali) was central to the emergence of a print-based imagined community. Constructed through a deliberate process of infusing Sanskrit vocabulary and excluding Persian-Arabic elements and regional dialects, Sadhubhasha became the privileged means of literary production and print culture among the local elites or Bhadralok. But the construction of print culture in standardized Bangla perpetuated exclusionary dynamics against marginalized groups, including Bengali-speaking Muslims (also lower caste and other underprivileged people). This paper investigates how, in reaction to the exclusionary currents of standardization, Bengali Muslims developed an alternative vernacular literary community (Sahitya Samaj) in Bangla and (re)appropriated Bangla in their own way. They tried to ensure individuality (Swatontrota) in their linguistic choice by (re)appropriating/modifying Bangla in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While discussing certain structural elements of Bangla used by them, this paper argues that the process of modification/(re)appropriation of Bangla by the Bengali Muslims can be read as dismantling the monolithic idea of the standard Bangla. It also shows that the modification of Bangla by Bengali Muslims was the expression of the community’s ethno-cultural identity, while the linguistic changes themselves served to cement community solidarity

BENGAL · Bengali · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Standardization · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · South Asian Cinema and Culture · South Asian Studies and Conflicts

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