Religion steers Bengal politics in Bangladesh, India — again

Religious and ethnic divisions are growing deeper in Bengal, a region divided between India and Bangladesh, as politicians on both sides of the border seek to capitalize on religious sentiment.

In Bangladesh, the February parliamentary elections marked a major moment for Islamist politics, with Jamaat-e-Islami winning nearly one third of the votes nationwide — its strongest showing yet.

In India's West Bengal, Hindu nationalist BJP surged from about 10% vote share in 2016 to nearly 46% this year. Under the state's "first past the post" electoral system, this was enough for the BJP to secure 207 out of 294 seats in the state assembly last month.

Bangladeshi anthropologist Rezwana Karim Snigdha warns of an "ill-motivated" shift in rhetorics in Bengal.

The region once boasted a "shared identity" which "allowed people to be both Bengali and Hindu, or Bengali and Muslim," she told DW. "But on both sides of the border, political narratives are increasingly framing identity in religious terms, sidelining language, culture and heritage."

New politics along old fault lines

Bengal, broadly the land of Bengali-speaking people, has been divided several times over the centuries, most notably in 1905 when British rulers under Viceroy Lord Curzon split the Bengal Presidency along religious lines.

At the time, Bengal was the center of anti-colonial resistance, and the partition aimed to break this unity by setting the Hindu-majority west against the Muslim-majority east. London hoped to undermine the growing nationalist movement before it could seriously challenge British rule.

Muslim Bengalis in the east, centred around Dhaka, largely welcomed the 1905 partition as it created a region where they would form a majority. In contrast, many Hindu elites opposed the move, seeing it as a threat to their political influence, economic interests and cultural identity.

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Indian historian and postcolonial theorist Dipesh Chakrabarty argues that the "divide and rule" strategy introduced by the British over a century ago still shapes the region today.

"The Hindu elites failed to grasp the moment," he told DW. "Accepting the partition might have reassured Muslims that they were not being dominated."

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Strong opposition forced the British to reverse the 1905 partition in 1911, but the underlying divisions persisted. They resurfaced in 1947, when Bengal was split again — this time permanently — between Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority then East Pakistan.

Identity politics reshaping Bengal's shared past

Bangladesh was originally part of Pakistan when it was created in 1947. Within a few years, Bengali Muslims began protesting to have Bengali recognized as a state language. Over time, economic and political marginalization strengthened Bengali nationalism, eventually leading to a war of independence in 1971, which established Bangladesh as a Muslim-majority independent country.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh, made secularism one of the core principles of the country's constitution. However, after his assassination in 1975, the constitution was changed to include the phrase "Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim" (in the name of Allah) and Islam was recognized as the state religion.

Gradually, political elites boosted religious narratives over secular ones.

Anthropologist Snigdha describes this shift as "nothing but a political tool" used to "keep people divided and controlled."

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Bangladesh saw a Gen Z-led popular uprising in 2024 that ended the 15-year rule of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League. The uprising was fanned by anger over democratic backsliding, corruption, restrictions on free speech, and curbs on press freedom.

Similar criticisms have also been levelled against Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) rule in West Bengal. Unlike in Bangladesh, however, the party was removed from power through elections.

Indian Bengali writer and analyst Abhra Ghosh argues the BJP's landslide victory reflected voter discontent more than ideological support for Hindutva — an assertive Hindu nationalist identity.

"This was less a vote for Hindutva," he said, "and more a rejection of the TMC at any cost."

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At the same time, Ghosh believes the BJP's effort to promote Hindutva could gradually take root in West Bengal if the party remains in power.

"There are early signs of this shift already," he said.

The BJP under Narendra Modi holds power on the national level in India. The nationalist party now also governs the states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura — all of them  bordering Bangladesh and home to significant Bengali-speaking populations.

Ghosh noted that BJP leaders have largely avoided rhetoric that openly promotes hatred or hurts religious sentiments since their victory in West Bengal last month.

Appeasement politics backfires

Bangladesh, under Hasina, made partial concessions to religious and nationalist forces — expanding madrassas, removing secular content from textbooks under Islamist pressure, and building hundreds of mosques, although the government justified the mosque construction as an effort to counter radicals such as Jamaat-e-Islami.

"There is still a search for a form of secular identity that is compatible with Islam, not opposed to it," Chakrabarty told DW.

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Across the border, critics have accused TMC's Mamata Banerjee of pursuing similar tactics, including support for projects such as the Digha Jagannath Temple, a major pilgrimage spot, to appeal to Hindu voters, while maintaining a secular stance to retain support among Muslim communities.

"These appeasement policies have strengthened hardline politics rather than fostering harmony," said Chakrabarty.

Ideals held by Bengal legends under pressure

Snigdha argues this balancing secularism "without hurting religious sentiments" is deeply rooted in Bengali culture, but attempts to reshape it for political gain have "backfired."

She noted that legendary Bengali thinkers and poets like Lalon, Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam championed unity across religions. Their ideas, however "are now under pressure" as politics grow more divisive, Snigdha added.

"When someone identifies as Bengali rather than Hindu or Muslim, it cuts across borders and challenges the political narratives built on those divisions," she told DW.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic