RU | EN
Submenu

Demchenko M. Mahanama-sampradaya Community in Bangladesh: Hindu Enclave in Monoreligious Society

M. Demchenko
Moscow State Linguistic University
Moscow, Russia
ORCID: 0000-0001-6483-0765
E-mail: blessed.self@gmail.com

 

 Download  |  Go to Issue #1. 2025

 

ABSTRACT. The Mahanama-Sampradaya gained public attention on April 21, 1971, when its spiritual center, Sri Angan in Bangladesh, was attacked by the Pakistani Army, resulting in the murder of eight of its religious leaders. This massacre was triggered by the fact that, since the early 20th century, the sampradaya had served as a stable enclave of Hinduism, particularly in the form of the Bengali Vaishnava tradition, within a predominantly monoreligious society. The community’s main proponent, Jagadbandhusundar (1871–1921), actively opposed Christian missionary efforts to convert the Adivasis of Bengal and Odisha, and even led efforts to reconvert some Adivasis from Islam to the Vaishnava faith. Despite being a relatively small group, the Mahanami community in Bangladesh strives to preserve its identity by venerating Jagadbandhu and maintaining cultural and familial ties with other members of the sampradaya in West Bengal and Odisha. Early representatives of the Mahanama-Sampradaya, such as Sripad Mahendra and Dr. Mahanambrata Brahmachari, engaged with notable foreign figures in culture and religion, including Thomas Merton, known for his work in interfaith dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism. Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, though indirectly, also encountered the legacy of Jagadbandhusundar. Despite these intellectual connections with the English-speaking world, the Mahanama-Sampradaya remains largely unknown and linguistically isolated outside the Bengali-speaking communities of India, Bangladesh, and, more recently, the USA. This article represents the first attempt to study the community in the Russian language. Its aim is to explore the mechanisms through which the Mahanami community coexists with the Muslim majority in Bangladesh, focusing on both historical and ethnographic perspectives.

 

KEYWORDS: Bangladesh, Jagadbandhu, Adivasi, Hinduism, Islam, Bengal

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2025-1(27)-20-35
UDC 294.553

 

REFERENCES

  • Benkin R. A Quiet Case of Ethnic Cleansing: The Murder of bangladesh’s Hindus. Dakka: Akshaya Prakashan, 2012, 310 p. (In English).
  • Bhattacharya A. Haripurush Sri Jagadbandhu. Calcutta: S. n., 2000, 696 p. (In Bengali).
  • Datta K. L. Prabhu Jagadbandhu. Calcutta: Mahanam Angan, 1999, 245 p. (In Bengali).
  • Dimock E. The Place of the Hidden Moon. Erotic Mysticism in the Vaishnava-Sahajiya Cult of West Bengal. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989, 332 p. (In English).
  • Khan A. S. Muktiyud’dhē pharidapura [Faridpur in the Liberation War]. Dhaka: Sahitya Bikash, 2013, 340 p. (In Bengali).
  • McDaniel J. The Madness of the Saints: Extatic Religion in Bengal. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989, 343 p. (In English).
  • Merton Th. La nuit privé d’étoiles. Paris: Albin Michel, 1951, 392 p. (In French).
  • Sardella F. The Legacy of Vaiṣṇavism in Colonial Bengal. New York: Routledge, 2020, 279 p. (In English).
  • Scheuer J. Thomas Merton, un veilleur à l’écoute de l’Orient. Namur: Lessius, 2015, 100 p. (In French).
  • Vrindavana dasa Thakur. Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata. Mayapur: Sri Chaitanya Matha, 1993, 760 p. (In English).