 The Thakurbari Temple of the Matua Mahasangha | |
| Founder | |
|---|---|
| Harichand Thakur | |
| Religions | |
| Hinduism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Namasudras |
The Matuaism (Script error: The function "langx" does not exist.[1]) is a Hindu reform movement that originated around 1860 AD in modern-day Bangladesh. Today, it has a considerable number of adherents both in Bangladesh and in West Bengal, India.
The Matua movement originated among the Namasudras, an avarna (outcaste) community of Bengali Hindus, founded by the followers of Harichand Thakur. The teachings of Harichand, also known as Matuaism, emphasise the importance of education for the upliftment of the population, while also providing a formula for ending social conflict.[2]
History[edit | edit source]
The Matua Mahasangha ("Matua Federation") was formed by adherents of Harichand's philosophy before 1915 to organize devotees. In the early 1930s, Pramatha Ranjan Thakur, great-grandson of Harichand Thakur, rejuvenated the organization. He started an ashram in the Labanchora neighborhood of Khulna, Bangladesh.[3] After the partition of India in 1947, large numbers of Matua migrants settled in West Bengal, India,[4] Pramatha Ranjan Thakur among them. He founded the town of Thakurnagar, which became the new headquarters of the Matua Mahasangha.[5]
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ā "In Bengal, battle for Matua vote heats up". Hindustan Times. 23 March 2021. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
- ā Mukherjee, Sipra (3 April 2018). "In Opposition and Allegiance to Hinduism: Exploring the Bengali Matua Hagiography of Harichand Thakur". South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 41 (2): 435ā451. doi:10.1080/00856401.2018.1445400. ISSN 0085-6401.
- ā Bandyopadhyay 1995, pp. 183ā184
- ā Mukherjee 2020, p. 71
- ā Lorea 2020, pp. 11ā12
References[edit | edit source]
- Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (17 November 1990). "Community Formation and Communal Conflict-Namasudra-Muslim Riot in Jessore-Khulna". Economic & Political Weekly. 25 (46): 2563ā2568. JSTOR 4396995.
- Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (1995). "The Matua Sect and the Namasudras". In Ray, Rajat Kanta (ed.). Mind Body and Society: Life and Mentality in Colonial Bengal. Oxford University Press. ISBN 019-563757-7.
- Lorea, Carola Erika (28 February 2020). "Religion, Caste, and Displacement: The Matua Community". In Ludden, David (ed.). Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Asian History. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.428. ISBN 978-0-19-027772-7.
- Mandal, Mahitosh (2022). "Dalit Resistance during the Bengal Renaissance: Five Anti-Caste Thinkers from Colonial Bengal, India". Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion. 3 (1): 11ā30. doi:10.26812/caste.v3i1.367.
- Mukherjee, Aditi (2020). "Re-thinking protracted displacements: insights from a namasudra refugee camp-site in suburban Calcutta". Contemporary South Asia. 28 (1): 58ā73. doi:10.1080/09584935.2019.1666089.
- Walker, Dennis (Winter 1999). "Matua Untouchable Writers In West Bengal: Between Islam And India's Changing Upper Caste-Led System". Islamic Studies. 38 (4): 563ā602. JSTOR 20837062.
External links[edit | edit source]
- Matua at Banglapedia
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