By A.H. Jaffor Ullah
“No man
is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.”
—Epictetus
“No man
is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.”
—Epictetus
Bangladesh’s premier city Dhaka may not boast having anything like Taj Mahal or Qutub Minar, however, it is home to many mosques. Some of them are quite ornate and pretty to look at. Unfortunately, these eye-catching mosques are located in Old Dhaka—a place not so easy to reach because of the treacherous traffic the city's olden section is known to have. Dhaka as a city is much older than Job Charnoc’s Kolkata. It was the capital of Mughal Subah Bengal. However, when the Mughal rule was on the wane, the new ruler of Bengal—the Nawab of Bengal, shifted the capital of Bengal to northwestern part of Bengal at Murshidabad.
The old section of Dhaka still has
some of the remnants of old time. The roads in old Dhaka are narrow
and traffic congestion is ever present. That is the reason not many
tourists venture out to old Dhaka to see the splendor of Mughal Bengal.
Dhaka was never a place to be called a Muslim town. The city had
a mix of population comprising both the Hindus and Muslims. Therefore,
one could find in Dhaka many Hindu Mandirs and an equal number of mosques
and darghas. The religious harmony was being maintained all
throughout its existence except for in the 1940s when politicians favoring
Jinnah’s Two-nation theory started
a hate campaign to scared the minority Hindus so that they would pack up
and leave for Kolkata or nearby areas in West Bengal. This article
is not about Desh Bivagh or Partition that divided the Bengal into
two separate political entities. The damage that was done cannot
be repaired so easily.
Mosque in the Old High Court compound is a
familiar structure to Dhakaites
This article is about the new Islamic
sculptures that one can find all over Dhaka. In the late 1970s, someone
or some group of people made a conscious decision to give Dhaka a new demeanor.
These powerful people may have opined that the city does not look like
an Islamic one. Therefore, through their conscious efforts the city’s
demeanor started changing. Credit must go to the two military despots
who ruled this impoverished nation from 1976 through 1990. Even though
the dictators are long gone, the process of Islamization of the landscape
of Dhaka continued without hindrance. To make a strong case for my
observation I will only cite one example with photograph. I presume
that will be enough. But before I give you the example, a short intro
is a must.
This is the first structure you will see coming
out of Zia International Airport
After the Desh Bivagh in 1947, Dhaka retained its neutral posture as far as communal relationship is concerned. Dhaka had preponderance of Mosques, which is natural because the town was home to so many Muslims. Nevertheless, at the same time, Dhaka had many Mandirs as well. The two that comes to my mind were Ramna’s famous Kali Bari (House of Mother Goddess Kali) and Dhaka’s famous Dhakeshwari Mandir located not too far from Polashi Barrack or Nil Khet area. Bengal had always been a stronghold of Shivaists (worshipper of Shiva). Mother Goddesses Durga and Kali, both being the incarnate of Parvati, Shiva’s wife, became very popular in all parts of Bengal. Naturally, one expects more Mandirs dedicated to the Shakti school of Hinduism than any other branches of this ancient religion. However, after 1947 as more and more Hindus were exiting the erstwhile East Pakistan the Hindu Mandirs were showing signs of deterioration because of disrepair. The Kali Bari of Ramna was once a thriving place with Mother Anandamoey’sAshram located inside the Mandir compound. In the 1960s, I have seen this living Mandir. But in 1971, the Pakistani military blasted the entire structure. They hated the Mandir so much so that every brick from the demolished Mandir was disposed from the site. Thus, there are no vestiges of once flourishing Kali Bari nowhere in the site where this Mandir once stood. After gaining independence, there were some activities to promote re-construction of the Kali Bari Mandir but the tragic event of August 1975 and subsequent political events in which two military despots with Islamic leanings ruled this impoverished nation. Because of these unforeseen events, Ramna Kali Bari remained an entity in the minds of Hindus. The place that housed Kali Bari cannot be recognized any longer. If one juxtaposes these unfortunate developments regarding the sad demise of Kali Bari vis-à-vis construction of Islamic sculptures all over the town a different picture comes out of Bangladesh. The two tinhorn despots who ruled Bangladesh from 1976 through 1990 popularized the Islamization of Bangladesh. And we can see the stark evidences everywhere in Dhaka. The little Mosque that was located in my neighborhood in Tejkunipara is a huge structure now. The Mosque, which is a multistoried building now, is home to many businesses. The national Mosque, Bait-ul Muqarram was constructed in 1961. Within 40 years, the structure now looks awesome. It is serving as a prototype for future Mosques in which business is being mingled with the Mosque.
The military dictators of Bangladesh
encouraged rapid Islamization of Bangladesh. Pakistan’s strongman
Gen. Zia ul-Haq was their Guru, undoubtedly. Under the aegis of these
two dictators, Bangladesh made conscious efforts to win the hearts and
minds of Saudis and other Islamic nations in the Sand Dunes. Petro
dollars were flowing in and our path to Islamization was paved with gold.
I first visited Bangladesh in March 1973. I did not see any sign
of Islamization when I reached at the old Airport that is practically walking
distance from my parent’s house. The second visit that I made was
in November 1975. I don’t remember seeing any sign of Islamization
as I exited the Old Airport. In December 1978, I visited for the
third time. Again, the Old Airport at Tejgaon was my arrival point.
But this time I saw a distinct sign of Islamization. As I was exiting
the airport, I saw a wall in which Islamic painting was made. The
wall had 99 names of Allah. In addition, there were some ornamentation
made with flower and branches of vines. This wall painting is still
there when I visited Bangladesh in June 2001.
The commercials have marred the sanctity of
islamic sculpture at Zia International airport. But then, who cares?
The old airport at Tejgaon ceased to function as civilian airport sometime in early 1980s and in its place, a brand new airport was opened at the northern edge of Kurmitola, the home of Bangladesh’s main military cantonment. I can’t recall seeing any Islamic sculpture at the place where the exit road from the International airport met the main road coming from Dhaka and heading northerly towards Tongi. However, in 1986 in the heydays of Gen. Ershad an Islamic sculpture indeed sprang up at the junction. In June 1995, while I arrived at the Zia International Airport I saw this colorful Islamic sculpture. The idea was to give the incoming visitors the idea that Bangladesh is an Islamic nation. In June 2001, when I visited Bangladesh for the last time, I decided to take the photos of this sculpture. This site has become very colorful one. It looks like some kind of monument. On the wall, one could find excerpts from Qur’an. The entire thing was done with a design. Let the incoming folks know where they are coming. Please look at the photograph and let the readers decide what all this means.
I have visited many places all over the world and I don’t remember seeing anything like this in any other places. I hope Kolkata and New Delhi airports have not erected any Hindu sculpture in which slokas from Bhagabat Gita are brazenly written to remind the incoming passengers that they have just entered a Hindu Utopia. Similarly, I never came across any Buddhist sculpture in Beijing or Narita airport in Tokyo nor have I seen any Christian Sculpture outside the Paris, Heathrow, or JFK airport.
The preponderance of Islamic sculpture
at Zia International airport speaks in volume about the mindset of our
people in power in Bangladesh. Somehow, our leaders think that it
is their God-given rights to announce with a lot of hubris that in-coming
passengers have entered an Islamic Utopia. This sends a very negative
image of our motherland. In this globalized world, the parochial
painting creates a very negative image of our people. This tells
incisively that Bangladesh is a backward nation. To show our people’s
piety we don’t need these Islamic monuments. Showing the passage
of Islamic holy book Qur’an does not serve any purpose. A greeting
in English at this site with a flower garden could make an incoming foreigner
feel more at home. Our leaders not being so enlightened quite do
not understand that religion does not play a bigger role in this world
as it did a century ago. Bangladesh needs to embark on a path to
secularism. May be, they can reincorporate the article of secularism
in their constitution and thereby send a clear signal that all this love
affair with Islamization is a done thing. Enough is enough.
Now is the time for secularization of Bangladesh. The economic prosperity
of the nation is more linked with glasnost (openness) than charting a course
with insular view, which could keep this nation in a quagmire for years
to come.
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A.H. Jaffor Ullah writes from New
Orleans, USA. His e-mail address is - Jaffor@netscape.net
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