Islamising languages, linguistic diversity and language management: an ethno-case study of the Biswa Ijtema in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper examines how Islamic beliefs and practices shape conceptions of language, linguistic diversity, and language management in the context of spiritual tourism, focusing on the Biswa Ijtema as a key site of religious multilingualism. It argues that dominant ‘Northern’ models of language management are reconfigured through Islamic epistemologies and moral reasoning, highlighting the relevance of Global South perspectives for multilingualism and language sustainability. Held annually in Bangladesh, the Biswa Ijtema is one of the world’s largest Islamic gatherings, bringing together millions of participants from diverse linguistic backgrounds and creating a multilingual contact zone where sacred, heritage, and vernacular languages intersect. Despite this sociolinguistic richness, such religious mega-gatherings remain underexplored in sociolinguistic research. Situated within the sociolinguistics of Islam, the study draws on more than two months of micro-ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation, semi-structured interviews with organisers, interpreters, and local and international participants, and fieldnotes. Data were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis informed by Spolsky’s tripartite model of language policy. The findings show that multilingual practices are organised not primarily around communicative efficiency but through ethical, devotional, and historical logics, with Arabic, Urdu, and Bangla forming a transnational Tablīghī daʿwah register. Language management thus operates as moral and cultural stewardship.

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