The Zamindar class be it Brahmin-bania Hindu or Subbasi Muslim, sold their country to the Brits.These Subbasi Ashraf elites were not Bengalis - they were Urdu speakers who migrated to Bengal during the late Mughal era and British Era from North India. Urdu-speaking elites were called Subbasi/শোভাষী
After the permanent settlement act of 1793 left the distribution of land extremely lopsided. Hindu Brahmins were given way more land by the British compared to Muslims and nobles who were formerly tax collectors for the Mughals were promoted to full-fledged Zamindars.
It doesn't help that the largest of the Zamindars who were Muslim, were not culturally or linguistically Bengali to began with. They were remnants of Mughal nobles who moved to Dhaka during the late Mughal period and/or the early British period. They mostly spoke Urdu and lived in urban areas like Dhaka or Kolkata. Prominent families of them include Suhrawardy family and Dhaka Nawab family.
Exactly, permanent settlement act is an example of this. The Zamindar class be it Brahmin-bania Hindu or Subbasi Muslim, sold their country to the Brits. They treated their own people like dogs to collect money for the white man.
The Brahmin-bania and the Subbasi Ashraf became the ruling class, who as I said earlier betrayed their own people so that they could keep exploiting the ordinary people of Bengal be it Hindu or Muslim.
The Subbasi Muslim Zamindars were less in number(as a part of the divide and rule policy of course) - but they weren't any better in terms of treatment of the Bengali peasants.
One of the aftermath of this divide and rule was such that Bengali Muslim "Altafs" assumed the last position of the Brahmanist caste system - such that Brahmins considered them as untouchable. Simultaneously they were also oppressed by the Subbasi Ashraf elites. These Subbasi Ashraf elites were not even Bengalis - they were Urdu speakers who migrated to Bengal during the late Mughal era and British Era from North India. They considered Bengali altafs uncivilized and unrefined and "not pure Muslims". Primarily due to this Brahmanist casteist structure - combined with the apathy and distasteful nature of Subbasi elites towards Altaf Muslims - Bengali Muslims were extremely downtrodden economically during the Raj, even when a Hindu bourgeois was able to develop.
The Ashraf demonized Hindus, often using the Bengali Altafs justifiable frustration against the Brahmins - but yet, they too were complicit in their woes. They always opposed various peasant movements that occurred against the Permanent Settlement - peasant movements where both Hindus and Muslims took up arms against the Zamindars, they also opposed any and all movements by the peasants against the British(such as Titumirs movement). In terms of protecting the permanent settlement and British interests, the Subbasi Ashrafs and Brahmins were united. Mir Mosharoff Hussein has an excellent literary work regarding this.
I also recommend reading:
বাঙ্গালি মুসলমানের মণ - আহমদ ছফা
The thoughts and consciousness of Bengali Muslims during the colonial era - Amalendu Dey
Posted Jul 6, 2025, 7:41 PM UTC