The term nano–history (anu itihas) pertains to historical narratives focusing on smaller entities or localities, such as districts, sub-divisions, towns, and villages, rather than nations or larger regions. In undivided Bengal, from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, a noteworthy trend emerged, where chronicles of sub-regions were crafted, predominantly in Bengali. The genre started with Kalikamal Sarbabhauma’s Setihas Bagurar Brittanta (1861). This was followed by Shyamdhan Mukherjee’s Murshidabader Itihas (1864). The other noted works of nano–history were Murshidabad Kahini by Nikhilnath Ray (1897), Nadia Kahini by Kumudnath Mullick (1909), Srihatter Itibritta by Achyutacharan Chaudhuri (1911), Jasohar Khulnar Itihas by Satishchandra Mitra (1914), and Hughly Jelar Itihas by Sudhirkumar Mitra (1948). The production of such local histories formed part of a larger project to preserve and glorify the indigenous heritage of the land by the Bengali gentry. It is remarkable to find out that most of the local chroniclers were not institutional academicians but so-called amateurs or laypersons. They comprised junior-level government employees, lawyers, school teachers, minor zamindars and small-time businessmen.

It should be mentioned that this growing popular interest in history was matched by the rising tide of patriotism in broader society. These tendencies reached a crescendo during the Swadeshi movement (1905–11). By the 1870s, many Bengalis, educated in the western model, felt nostalgic about the disappearing heritage of the country. They also appreciated the need to issue a fitting rejoinder to the arrogant British rulers. So they turned towards the rural areas, supposedly unaffected by western modernisation, to collect the literary and material remains of the hoary past. Mohammed Shahidullah once remarked, “Materials for constructing historical narratives are strewn all over the country in the shape of religious relics, public works of past ages like water bodies, folk memories and legends.”

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The pre-colonial Bengalis had an indigenous sense of history, which is reflected in texts like Kulajis and Mangal Kabyas. However, institutional study of the past heritage started with the foundation of the Asiatic Society (1784), which popularised western methodology amongst Indian literati. The foundation of Fort William College in 1800 also advanced the cause of history writing in Bengali. The authorities of the college commissioned historical literature from authors like Ramram Basu, Rajiblochan Mukherjee, and Mritunjoy Bidyalankar. However, these pioneering works in Bengali historiography largely depended on traditional memories, lore, and social legends.

The idea to produce a patriotic history of the Bengalis received a boost from Bankimchandra Chatterjee. His goals were to debunk the distorted portrayals by prejudiced European scholars and to instil a sense of glory amongst his countrymen. He considered it to be an essential duty of the Bengalis to write their own history in their regional language. In the early 1880s, Bankimchandra wrote a series of popular articles on the history of Bengal in Bengali periodicals such as Bangadarshan. At the turn of the century, Rabindranath Tagore himself, while commenting on the role of the historical periodical Aitihasik Chitra, emphasised the proper tapping of indigenous sources to construct the authentic history of the people here.

Thus, Jatiprathistha (revival of the nation) became a concern for the Bengali gentlefolk, both in the historians’ circle and in the wider social arena by the end of the 19th century. The expression desh became especially relevant in this context. Broadly standing for motherland, it could mean either one’s native locality, a larger province like Bengal, or the Indian nation as a whole. This quest for a national history soon became organised and institutionalised, and academic bodies cropped up. Such organised efforts included the publication of journals and periodicals where articles on history and antiquity were published. Interestingly, in 1873, out of 36 journals and magazines published in Bengal, 19 were from rural centres like Rangpur, Murshidabad, Bikrampur, etc. Among such organisations, the Bangiya Sahitya Parishat deserves a special mention. The scholars attached to the Parishat collected many rare manuscripts, inscriptions, and pieces of sculpture. The Barendra Research Society was formed with broadly similar objectives in 1910. The main brains of this society were Akshay Kumar Maitreya, Sasadhar Ray, the Secretary of the Rajshahi Bangiya Sahitya Parishat, and Sarat Kumar Ray, the Zamindar of Dighapatia. They were inspired by the presence of a large number of archaeological remains in and around Rajshahi. So they decided not to hand over these findings to the Kolkata-based Indian Museum or the Bangiya Sahitya Parishat but rather establish a centre at Rajshahi itself. This would be placed far from Kolkata and would mainly concentrate on the glory of the ancient Barendrabhumi. There were similar societies of lesser renown. In the late 19th century, the importance of archaeology and anthropology in constructing the history of Bengal was increasingly appreciated. Before this, the authors were often forced to depend on dubious legends and family traditions. But scholars like N.K. Bhattasali, Ramaprasad Chanda, Akshay Kumar Maitreya, and Rakhaldas Banerjee did much to discover, decipher, and interpret a large number of archaeological artefacts, including many inscriptions.

Soon, an interesting debate started between choreographers who relied upon traditional literary sources like Kulajis, Ghatak karikas, and Mangal Kabyas and academicians who gave precedence to archaeological proofs like copper plate inscriptions. The first group included Lalmohan Vidyanidhi, Nagendranath Basu, who wrote Banger Jatiya Itihasa (1898), Satyacharan Shastri, and Durgachandra Sanyal. Dinesh Chandra Sen, in his Brihat Banga (1935), drew widely on these sources. His friend Daksinaranjan Mitra Majumdar, like the Brothers Grimm of Germany, collected numerous folk lores and fairy tales orally transmitted among the grandparents of the rural households in the famous Thakurmar Jhuli (Grandmothers’ Bag of Tales, 1907). His predecessor collector was Rev. Lalbehari Dey. However, their critics, including RC Majumdar, lost no time in highlighting the glaring factual errors embedded in texts such as the Kulajis. Archaeology, along with numismatics and epigraphy, became prominent in the 19th century, not only in India but in other colonised and European-dominated countries as well, owing to a complex combination of factors.

The Bengali gentry had, by the 1870s, the responsibility of producing a reliable historical narrative that would place their region on a firm footing among the family of nations and counter the high-browed attitude of the colonial masters effectively. Such zest was not unique to Bengal in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Historians in other regions of India, like Rajasthan and various Afro-Asian countries, who were trying to construct a credible past for their emerging nations were similarly inspired and were prepared to use a variety of formal and informal sources. Possibly, the concept of Brihat Banga (Greater Bengal), popularised by scholars like Dinesh Chandra Sen, was inspired by Greater Germany or pan-Germandom.

Another literary school closely associated with romantic amateur historiography and facilitating the popularity of heritage studies was historical literature. Bengali poets, dramatists, and novelists drew freely on newly discovered historical sources. They were largely influenced by the works of Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) and his European disciples. The contributions of Michael Madhusudan Dutta, Bankimchandra, Nabin Chandra Sen, and Abanindranath Tagore are too well documented to be discussed in detail here. History was made popular among the common people by stage performances as well. Bengali theatre had taken off by the early 19th century. Here, the roles of Jyotirindranath Tagore, Girishchandra Ghosh, Dwijendralal Ray, and Kshirod Prasad Vidya Vinod should be noted. Jatra, or folk theatre, too played its part in inspiring the common people.

In order to fully appreciate the local lay chroniclers’ desire to unearth the lost history and culture of their tract, we should spare a thought about their efforts to protect the newly discovered archaeological artefacts. In eastern Bengal, before 1947, there were two prominent institutional museums: the Dhaka Museum and the Barenda Research Society Museum. In 1905, Dhaka became the capital of the new provinces of East Bengal and Assam. Then the need was felt to have a museum there. But nothing could be done until 1911, when the Bengal Partition was annulled and Dhaka lost its capital status. To appease the sentiments of the Muslim residents, the governor, Lord Carmichael, actively encouraged the establishment of the Dhaka Museum. It was inaugurated in 1913. However, the museum was dogged by financial difficulties during British rule and in the East Pakistan era. Only after the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 did the museum receive full government patronage. Barendra Research Society received government recognition in 1914 and had its own building in 1919. There were some private museums in pre-1947 East Bengal, owned by individuals like the famous homoeopath Mahesh Bhattacharya and the zamindar Kalidas Dutta, the pioneer antiquarian on the Sunderbans.

As in eastern Bengal, in western Bengal too, the effort to collect and preserve local archaeological remains is clearly visible. Here, we would focus mainly on museums in the countryside rather than in Kolkata. In Tamluk, or ancient Tampralipta, Umacharan Adhikari excelled in the arts of both writing history and collecting archaeological evidence. He was ably followed by Gourdas Basak.  In Murshidabad, Nawab Ferazun Jah (reigned 1838–81) converted parts of his famous Hazarduari palace (Palace with a Thousand Doors) into a museum by displaying his ancestral regalia and personal possessions there. His example was followed by residents of Murshidabad, like Rai Bahadur Surendranarayan Sinha. Based on his collections, the state government later started the Murshidabad District Museum.

The European missionaries of Serampore should also be given due credit for increasing the appeal of museums among Bengalis. Carey and his Christian colleagues, in order to spread education along western missionary lines, collected a large number of old manuscripts, statues, coins, mineral, coral, and rock specimens. These formed the basis of the museum founded in 1822 at Serampore College. These novel ventures certainly impressed the Bengalis and opened up new vistas for them. The French in Chandannagar also took such steps, and in 1951, the French Administrative Centre was converted into a museum. Harihar Seth, a major patriot there, devoted his entire collection of rare specimens to this museum. Thus, the Chandannagar museum has a unique Indo-French blend. The organisation in West Bengal that took up the cause of the preservation of historical objects most sincerely was the Bangiya Sahitya Parishat. The museum section took off after this body had its own building in 1908. However, the activities of the Parishat were not confined to Kolkata, and it patronised similar efforts in the districts. One such example is Jogeshchandra Purakriti Bhavan of Bishnupur in Bankura. Bishnupur is extremely rich in archaeological treasure. Gurusadai Dutta, I.C.S., founder of the Bratachari movement, felt the need to preserve the local and rural cultural specimens of Bengal. With this view, he established a Bratachari village in North 24-Parganas and a Bratachari museum there in 1940. There were some lesser-known but equally devoted nationalists: Kantha Sen and Haripada Dawn of Purulia. Their efforts led to the foundation of Haripada Sahitya Mandir, the first library-museum in Purulia. Between 1912 and 1956, Purulia (Manbhum) was not a part of Bengal but of Bihar. So the Bengalis there had to wage a dual struggle to secure the freedom of the country and preserve their own cultural identity in the face of Hindi dominance. Guided by this spirit, these nationalists founded a centre where the historical heritage of the area would be preserved.

Hence, dedicated choreographers made concerted efforts, particularly beyond formal academia, to preserve the historical heritage of the region.

The writer is assistant professor, Vidyasagar College for Women, Kolkata