A three-day summer school organised by the Dhaka-based Bengal Institute of History and Ideas (BIHI) concluded on Sunday at the University of Dhaka, having examined the intersection of regional autonomy, colonial history and national identity.
The event, titled “The Autonomous Bengal, Colonial Encounters and the Making of Modern Bangladesh”, opened on July 10 at the G. H. Langley Auditorium of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Arts and Social Sciences (CARASS).
The inaugural day comprised three thematic sessions, beginning with an evaluation of Puthi literature as historical evidence led by BIHI Research Director Ahmed Deen Rumi. Rumi argued that while conventional Bangladeshi historiography relies heavily on official archives, inscriptions, and travelogues, it routinely relegates Puthi literature to a purely creative genre. He maintained that the production, texts, and circulation of these manuscripts offer critical, under-explored insights into regional social and cultural history.
Dr Taimur Reza, an assistant professor at Whitman College, conducted the second session, tracing how colonial-era religious and intellectual debates between the Faraizi and Taiyyuni movements extended beyond eastern Bengal to reach Mecca.
The final session of the day, led by BIHI Director of Academic Affairs Mehedi Hasan, introduced participants to dominant global academic frameworks in historiography alongside the foundational methodologies of reading inscriptions and numismatics.
The second day shifted focus toward 20th-century intellectual history and cultural mediums. Mizanur Rahman, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, analysed the political and intellectual contributions of Abul Hashim, Maulana Bhashani, and Maulana Akram Khan between 1905 and 1947, framing their thought within a global context.
Writer and filmmaker Zahin Faruk Amin then examined the reciprocal relationship between historical narratives and film in a session titled “Historiography After Cinema”, exploring how moving images shape public perceptions of historical time.
Subsequent proceedings included an analysis of the 14th-century Persian Sufi text Anis al-Ghuraba, attributed to Nur Qutb Alam, presented by researcher Tahmidal Jami.
The day concluded with participant group presentations that mapped structural gaps in existing research on Bengal and proposed future areas of scholarly inquiry.
A panel discussion opened the final day, moderated by Mehedi Hasan and featuring writer Sahul Ahmed Munna, legal historian Rashed Rahman and Ahmed Deen Rumi. The panellists evaluated the political, constitutional, legal and folkloric dimensions of Bengal’s historical development before opening the floor to a participant question-and-answer session.
Dr Mohammad Azam, Director General of the Bangla Academy, delivered the final lecture, examining the links between language, literature, and the formation of cultural identity during the colonial period.
The event concluded with a certificate distribution ceremony. The seminar drew an audience of writers, academics, students and professionals, anchoring BIHI’s broader institutional mandate to research regional intellectual history, epistemological traditions and conceptual transformations through public lectures, workshops and collaborative scholarship.