Bangla Qawwali In Bengali Language

Qawwali in Bengali language, better known as Bangla qawwali, is one of the religious musical traditions popular among a small section of Bengali speaking Muslim and Hindu communities in West Bengal. It seems that Bengali Qawwali has not been well discussed and researched in the academic field, as the author of this article did not find any scholarly work on this particular art form. Md. Enamul Haq, in his pioneering work on the history of Sufism in Bengal, namely ‘Bange Sufi Probhab’ (1935), pointed out that music (sama) and ecstatic dance (halqah) became prominent in the Sufi Khanqas of Chishtia and Surabardya order in mediaeval Bengal. According to him, the indigenous Bengali people were unfamiliar with this kind of ecstatic music and

However, the higher mystical literature was usually composed either in Arabic or Persian, and many of the mauluds in honor of the Prophet are written in one of these languages”.

However, none of the previous scholars has discussed in detail about the practice of Sama or qawwali in mediaeval Bengal, Haq showed that, Kirtan, a devotional music of the Vaishnavas of Bengal, was highly influenced by music and dance of the Sufis. It is evident that, through the cultural assimilation, the Indo-Persian concept of sama merged into the various genres of Bengali folk music. Thus, it can be said that the present form of Bengali qawwali has been developed in much later period of history.

Qawwali in Bangladesh

I heard the term Bangla qawwali for the first time in a Baul-Fakir ashram (place for spiritual retreat) in Nadia. Arman Fakir, a renowned baul singer, performed a song in praise of Allah, composed by his master late Gani Pagol, a Chishti saint form Bangladesh.

The song is as follows -

“All the lover of the God and the

We use our own melodies that sound more appropriate in Bengali qawwali”

Similar debates can be found among the researchers about Maijbhandari music, the Sufi devotional music of Bangladesh. Hans Harder, in his book “Sufism and Saint Veneration in Bangladesh: The Maijbhandaries of Chitagong” (2007), has discussed about the music of Maijbhandari order, the indigenous Sufi order of Bangladesh. From his discussion, it can be assumed that the Maijbhandari songs certainly have some connection with the Indo-Persian concept of Sama and Qawwali. However, in his opinion:

“Maijbhandari songs do not have the typical alternating singing between a soloist and an echoing group… Qawwālī has more explicit leanings towards North Indian classical rāga music, whereas Maijbhandari songs are decidedly a part of Bengali folk traditions. … In their structure, Maijbhandari songs bear more similarities with the famous Baul song tradition…The main differences consist in the institutional establishments such as dargāh and dāʾira sessions in the case of Maijbhandari songs, which are mostly absent for Bauls, and in a semantic affiliation to the Maijbhandari saints to which the Baul tradition(s) afford(s) no direct parallel.” ( Hans Harder,