Taslima Nasreen dropped the atom bomb on the politics of Bengal, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan by observing that the Bengali culture is foundationally and fundamentally Hindu. There cannot be any category like a Bengal Muslim unless as an oxymoron. To this Javed Akhtar added, also in a tone of appreciation that while Dr Nasreen was right, it would also be in place to appreciate the Ganga Yamuna Tehzeeb, or the Hindu Muslim syncretic culture of the country.

The Ganga Yamuna syncretism is the culture of the ruling elite, where Hindus were absorbed among the ruling class in Mughal India. The mixing was in the realm of the highbrow. In Bengal, syncretism was just the opposite, it happened among the lowest echelons of the society, in the peasant societies and those among the simpler communities of the boatsmen. The difference arises because of the different circumstances of Islam meeting Hinduism.

In the north, Islam met Hindus as conquerors would meet the conquered. Whereas, throughout the Sultanate period, Hindus were shut out from any public display of religion and culture , the Mughals opened up the doors for Hinduism to flourish, themselves being deeply interested in the various aspects of the faith. Ganga Yamuna mix was a result of this acceptance, accommodation and even respect.

In Bengal, it was not so much Islam but pre–Islamic Arabic beliefs that came with merchants, saints and medicine men. Bengali syncretism has deities and tithis, rituals and rites that closely resemble those in pagan Arabia. Goddesses like Mannat, Uzza and Ahlat became our Kali, Saraswati and Lakshmi. In the deeper villages, even today while worshipping Monosha, Asan Bibi, Bon Bibi and Loknath Baba, there is little understanding of the lines of difference between Islam and Hindu. When Islam finally barged in with the raised sword in the form of Ikhtiyar bin Bakhtiyar Khiljee, many converted willy nilly because there was already a familiarity with Arab customs especially its ritual foods, like dodhikarma, kodma, shinni and a few others.

The Ganga Yamuna Tehzeeb was cultivated in the courts of rulers, in order to attain richness that diversity and assimilation invariably brings on, musicians, poets and above all theologians were patronized and promoted to create a cultural high ground that would match the moral legitimacy of the Mughals not only across the subcontinent but also as far as the courts of Persia and Turkey. Hence the mix of cultures, the one in the courts and the other among the folk, are two different entities not to be confused.

The spirit of syncretism in the north percolated down from the courts to the folk through the popular Bhakti movements. The legend of Baiju Bawra is a case in the point. In Bengal, the mixed culture osmosed upwards especially in the Hussain Shahi dynasty which promoted the Bengali language. Unfortunately, the conquest of Bengal by Akbar suddenly encouraged a Hindu elite to consolidate themselves and there upon, from then till Raja Rammohun Roy there was progressive cleansing of the syncretic binds into neater segregations. The Muslim was a despised category, to be cast away from any participation in history or involvement in memory. The Muslim endeared in the Bengali memory only as an Abdul Majhi or a Gofur Mian and the jokes of the kutti. Politics of Islam in eastern Bengal was the agony of Bengali Muslims to be reckoned as rightful partakers in the evolution of Bengal’s destiny. In the north, the Hindus razed syncretism out as the insignia of an erstwhile ruling class. The BJP still calls the liberal Indians as “muslims” because of the mix up in the chronology of recall of the ruling class, Mughals, or British or post Independent India.

When Dr Nasreen rues about the Hindu foundation of the Bengali culture, she does not retrieve the roots of the Bengali culture in its historical whole but selectively picks on the spirit of the reclamation of Hinduism of a Bengali ruling class, which under Akbar had almost become fully Hindu. When Mr Akhtar ruminates about the Tehzeeb, he recalls the culture of a ruling elite made defunct by the British rule. They are talking about different things, distinct forces and while they are true in a sense, they are both false in another.

Note: cultural analysis is not child’s play.