11 Facts About Titumir

Titumir is famed for having built a large bamboo fort to resist the British, which passed into Bengali folk legend.

Titumir was ranked number 11 in the BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of All Time.

Titumir was educated in a local madrasa, where he became a hafiz of the Quran by the age of twenty, besides being accomplished in Bengali, Arabic, and Persian.

However, Titumir was jailed on account of a conflict with zamindars for high taxes from farmers and upon release, in 1822, left his job to embark upon Hajj.

In Mecca, Titumir was influenced by the Islamist preacher Syed Ahmad Barelvi, an Indian Muslim revivalist, who advocated for Indian Freedom Movement and strict enforcement of free Land form Zaminders,.

Titumir's fatwas penetrated into the social life, as well: men were to have beards with trimmed moustaches and women adorn burqas instead of saris; those who did not abide by were to be boycotted.

Titumir shifted his base from Chandpur to Narikelberia, and began organizing an armed militia.

Titumir was bayoneted to death, as were 50 fellow soldiers.

In 2004, Titumir was ranked number 11 in the BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of All Time.

Mahasweta Devi wrote a novella Titumir that sought to recover subaltern history.

In 1978, Utpal Dutt directed an agitprop drama Titumir which critiqued the crude representation of Titumir in colonial historiography; it received critical acclaim and was commercially successful.