This book is a pioneering work written in the field of Islamic Studies, comparative literature, postcolonial literature, cultural history and the history of South Asia, in addition to intercultural research on religion, due to its focus on the role of Karbala in the formation and development of religious and social identity among the Bengal Muslims. The book centers on comprehending Karbala and the incident that happened on Ashura among the Bengals, providing a precise understanding about the circumstances through which faith and culture converged during the colonial era in Bengal. The author has analyzed an extensive range of texts and publications across multiple genres, formats and literary lineages, for surveying the emergence and formation of a viable Muslim identity in Bengal over the late-19th century through the 1940s. What is more, it provides a vivid analysis on the details of reinterpretation of Karbala, as a historical incident, offering relevant narrations about it from Muslim scholars and Bengali literary men to convey what it means to be a Muslim in Bengal. The book begins with an explanation of the tenets of the battle of Karbala, explores what it means to be Muslim, and portrays the nuanced relationship between religion, linguistic identity and literary modernity.This work shows how a sacred matter has the potential to be claimed in different territories, how the martyrdom of Imam Hussein in Karbala became a central theme in the literature of Bengali Muslims, how amid colonial dominance- the Hindu Nationalism movement and the intra-Islamic reformist conflicts- Bengali Muslims revived their own identity and developed their national literature. Furthermore, it depicts how they had to challenge the Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Bengali and English literary traditions to establish an exclusive cultural and religious identity for themselves. Also, this work elaborates on how narrations focused on Karbala were used as means of education to institutionalize ethics and social solidarity.