When millions of people are scattered across 34 countries, separated by oceans and deserts, you might expect their shared traditions to fade away. But for 50 million Matua people living in India, Bangladesh, and beyond, drums and songs have kept their community alive for more than a century.
Professor Carola Lorea from the University of Tübingen in Germany spent more than ten years studying how the Matua have held their society together despite being pushed apart by borders, swamps, and the sea. Her new book, the first English-language study of the Matua, reveals something remarkable: their noisy, euphoric gatherings — filled with hours of singing, drumming, and dancing — have created an unshakeable sense of belonging that politicians can no longer ignore.
"If you want to understand them, you have to understand their music and religion," Lorea says. "Through the Matua, we can also learn something about a sense of belonging in general, in the age of Spotify and other streaming services: We are what we listen to!"
The Matua faith began in the 1800s in what is now Bangladesh, founded by Harichand Thakur. He taught that all people are equal, opposing the Hindu caste system that kept the Namashudra community — the main followers of Matua — at the bottom of society. For centuries, Namashudras worked as landless peasants and fisherfolk, forced to live in difficult river delta regions prone to flooding.
In 1947, when British India split into India and Pakistan, millions of Matua Hindus migrated to avoid violence. Then in 1971, when East Pakistan became Bangladesh, many more moved to West Bengal in India. Some ended up on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an archipelago of 200 islands in the Indian Ocean located more than 1,400 kilometers from the mainland. Today, about 10 million Matua live in Bangladesh alone, and millions more are scattered across the globe.
At the heart of Matua life are gatherings where people sing holy songs for hours, repeating and varying them while accompanied by drums, cymbals, and simple stringed instruments. Followers also perform a sacred dance they say brings them to a raised state of consciousness. Preacher-singers travel hundreds of kilometers to lead these events, serving as gurus, healers, performers, and community leaders all at once. This creates a shared identity that crosses every border.
"The Matua are severely disadvantaged in society and have been pushed into remote areas throughout their history," Lorea explains. "But they are now very well organized and their vote can influence election results."
That organizing power has drawn attention from the top. In 2019, 2021, and 2026, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the two central Matua shrines in West Bengal and Bangladesh — a sign of how far this once-overlooked community has come.
The Matua story shows that even when people are scattered across continents by politics and displacement, shared music and rituals can build bridges stronger than any border wall.