About the book: This book examines the schools of thought of the Bengali Muslins in the first half of the twentieth century. Various dominant and subdued trends existing in the social and political spheres upheld by the contemporary politicians and social thinkers, journalists and litterateurs have been categorized into conservative-orthodox, moderate-liberal and radical-humanist, after a critical analysis of their ideas and beliefs. Putting any individual thinker under a strict category may appear controversial but a loose categorization has been made to identify the particular trend that they represented. Debates on vital social and political issues of the Bengali Muslim community and rise of a nationalist as well as a rationalist voice in the midst of a strong wave of separatism have been focussed in this study. It is interesting to trace the obvious shifts and variations, diversities and contradictions found in their ideas and beliefs in the socio-political matrix of Bengal and in moulding the Bengali Muslim psyche.