(Scene: A room in heaven. Prophet Muhammad is repeatedly hitting head against wall. Enter Jesus.)
Jesus: Dood, WTF?
Muhammad: (points down to Earth where Muslims kill Americans kill Muslims kill Americans kill Muslims, etc.)
Jesus: Oh. I dig. Mind if I join in?
(Both begin hitting heads against the wall in unison)
One thing I will not miss in a week or so is being asked by my roommate if I want to go to shows with her. I don't much savor sitting and listening to a guy plinking guitar/mandolin/banjo strings any more than she probably savors going to a Karavan or Thenisai Sellappa concert. But if I say that, she just goes, "Well, it's nice to try new things sometimes." But I'm just not a fan of that sort of music. Sorry, man, but what can I say? Hell, if it were free, maybe I'd go, but if I have to pay money just to sit through something I'm not a big fan of..Well..
I need to cut about a page from my Bangladesh literary analysis paper, but I don't want to get rid of it forever, RIP. So, in case you were ever interested in a crash course in Bengal from the Ilyas Shah dynasty to the ultimate overthrow of the Mughals and assumption of power by the British, this is the shiznat for you. It's in the extended entry.
Bengal's Islamic history began with the consolidation of the newly-independent Bengal Sultanate by the Persian Haji Shams-ud-Din Ilyas Shah in 1353. Although there were Islamic rulers in Bengal for about 150 years before, the Bengali areas were, up to this point, merely a region in a wider empire. Shams-ud-Din's rule encompassed what is now both Bangladesh and West Bengal, and among his titles were Shah-i-Bangalah and Sultan-i-Bangalah. Though a foreigner, he left a legacy of popular rule; he threw open the doors of the administration to capable and motivated locals regardless of their religion or origin. The tolerant Ilyas Shah dynasty ruled the Bengal Sultanate for about a hundred and fifty years despite being interrupted at 1411 for about twenty years by turbulence and power-grabs by others.
After the death of the final Ilyas Shah sultan in 1487, the sultanate was ruled in succession by Abyssinians, Arabs and Afghans until it was annexed by the Mughals in 1576. It was during the rule of the Mughals that, in 1698, the East India Company purchased the village that would later become Calcutta.
The Company became increasingly involved in the affairs of the local rulers but was content to simply conduct trade. However, in 1756, when Siraj-ud-Daula came into power, the Company suddenly found itself expelled from Calcutta. The arrival of a naval force from the south headed by Robert Clive was the beginning of the end for the Mughal sultanate in Bengal. The British soldier formed a conspiracy with leaders discontent with the Mughals which led to the disasterous staged Battle of Plassey and deposition of Siraj-ud-Daula.
Still, it took a revolution in the United States to get the British Empire angry enough to sieze true dominion over India. Not that they told anybody what they were doing, of course -- until the mid-1800s, coins were still minted under the name of the Sultan and he was still the titular head of the empire. When the British truly did become the sovereigns of the subcontinent, Bengal was put aside for a time. Madras and Bombay became the major players on the British gameboard. It took the partition of East and West Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905 to bring the Bengali community into national politics. It was at this time that communal problems began vexing the divided province in earnest.
Omigod!!! I didn't realize that the dreamy Faraz Anwar (formerly of Dusk) is now of Mizraab!! Let's hear it for the Pakistan underground scene!