Titumir’s life, legacy deserve more attention

Despite Titumir's importance in the region's history, serious research on him remains limited on both sides of Bengal, speakers said at a discussion yesterday.

They were speaking at the fifth episode of The Daily Star Itihas Adda, titled "Titumirer Bidroho O Boishommohin Samajer Shopno", held at The Daily Star Centre.

Researcher Prof Md Mizanur Rahman said Titumir was born only 25 years after the Battle of Plassey, at a time when the subcontinent was trembling on the hot pan of rebellion.

He said religious politics had long created divisions among Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian communities, and that rulers took advantage of these divides.

Born into such a context, Titumir had to endure many hardships, he added.

Prof Mizanur said although Titumir played a key role in mobilising peasants against oppression, very little work has been done on him across Bengal, even though his name remains strong in public memory.

Sahidul Hasan, associate professor of Dhaka University's history department, said how Titumir is remembered has depended on who wrote about him. Early accounts praised him as a devout and disciplined Muslim while also portraying him negatively, reflecting the writer's position within the power structure of that time.

He said satirical village songs after the uprising mocked Titumir, his followers' beards, and the bamboo fort, while colonial reports labelled him a dacoit or fanatic. Later writers interpreted him through the lens of their own time, creating very different portrayals.

Sahidul added that accounts of Titumir's final battle mention Fakirs and Bauls taking part, showing the movement drew support from various groups.

Al Amin Sorol, author of the novel "Titumir: Jan Othoba Jomin", said he was inspired to write fiction about Titumir because of a gap in Bangla literature. "Although research-based books exist, Titumir is almost absent in novels, plays, or stories," he said.

"What is available either presents him only as a religious reformer or solely as an anti-British rebel. The chance to connect these strands had remained unexplored, and that is where I began."

Sorol said discourse on Titumir had become more important in the post-July uprising context and amid a global shift toward right-wing politics.

He noted that while Titumir was personally religious, he worked with landless people and the poor.

Filmmaker Amirul Momenin Manik, who is making a film on Titumir, shared his experience of searching for earlier screen works on the subject.

He said the site of the bamboo fort now has a two-storey bamboo structure displaying items associated with Titumir, jointly preserved by Hindu and Muslim members of the local panchayat.

Manik said these experiences strengthened his sense of Titumir as a figure remembered for his courage and for the ways local communities continue to honour his legacy.