| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article focuses on patterns of the peopling of East Bengal from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries and analyses the dynamics of this process in terms of the migrants' religious, social and political values. In this process, a number of boundaries were crossed, which South Asian Area Studies experts are still struggling to understand. Exploring this phenomenon of changing frontiers from a comparative historical perspective, the westward expansion of America during almost the same phase is analysed, showing similarities between the two phenomena, but also distinct dissimilarities. In Bengal, unlike America, there was no major violence involved and the migrations into Bengal were not at the cost of the native inhabitants, as largely happened in America. Arguing that, in grappling with the present Bangladesh-India relations, such historical knowledge is necessary, the article calls for greater interactions between intellectuals from both sides, which may be called Track III dialogue.
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