Girish Chandra Sen was the first person to translate the Qur’an into Bengali language in 1886. He was not an upstart but a scholar who read extensively on Islam for some years before embarking on the translation of Qur’an in Bengali. He was a Brahmo missionary and did so at the behest of Keshab Chandra Sen. The latter also asked other three Brahmo scholars to study and understand Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity respectively. The very idea was to converge all major religions of the then India.
At that time, Bengali Muslim scholars could not even imagine such thing. To them Bengali language was of no consequence before Arabic. But, now when we see that many Bengali Muslim scholars have translated Qur’an in Bengali, the obvious mindset of their predecessors is nowhere to find.
Many Bangladeshi Islamic scholars are not happy with Girish Chandra Sen. While talking to the Principal of a renowned Madrassa of Bangladesh; I could smell his annoyance with Girish Chandra Sen. The Principal even said “tore beta ke bolechhilo Qran onubad korte?” To him, it was unbecoming of a Hindu (Brahmo) to do such thing.
Do you think in same line?