Drishtipat Blog

Smash Palace
Naeem Mohaiemen
Daily Star, November 2, 2008

A cycle of outrage over baul statues has created many dissonant coalitions: youngbloods (Charu Kala protests), musicians (bauls and fusion bands), signifiers (wear a gamcha in support), and shushil (umbrellas at National Museum). And diverse editorial tactics: cowardly capitulation (Afsan Chowdhury, New Age, 20/10/08), stop it before it’s too late (Kamal Lohani, Janakantha, 21/10/08), king’s men (Hana Shams, Daily Star, 21/10/08), core heritage (Inam Ahmed, Prothom Alo, 28/10/08), middle ages (Audity Falguny, Shamokal, 29/10/08), Islam’s tolerance tradition (Humayun Ahmed, Prothom Alo, 27/10/08).

[Photo: STAR]

Humayun Ahmed is worth studying, because the novelist presumes exhaustive theology research is needed to settle the issue. Invoke Byzantine painting of Mother Mary spared by the Prophet, Sheikh Sadi’s mazaar statue, paintings of animals preserved by Hazrat Omar, and IOJ will retreat to their barracks. It is what Jeebesh Bagchi described in the context of debates about Kashmiri Pandits as “the mistaken belief that if you just keep piling up enough facts, the other side will be stunned into silence.” Theological debates, important as they are, will not be sufficient to navigate a political conflict.

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Ashfaq Wares Khan: Time To Take Stand
Amini: I will pull down all statues
Badruddin Umar: Gentleman Intellectual’s Movement (Bangla)
Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, et al: Baul Bhashkorjo (Bangla)
Citizens to Unite

Protesters on Dhaka University campus. [Photo: STAR]

Police battle cultural activists trying to hold rally at Muktangan. [New Age photo]

Sculptors, painters, artistes and writers on Saturday joined the teachers and students of Dhaka University in a street protest against the removal of baul statues from the airport road roundabout under pressure from religious zealots…Later at a rally, professor emeritus of Dhaka University Serajul Islam Choudhury came down heavily on Islami Oikya Jote leader Fazlul Huq Amini who announced to raze all sculptures to the ground. He also criticised the government’s silence over such threats from fundamentalists. Symbols of national pride like central Shaheed Minar, Aparajeya Bangla and Sangsaptak are not free from such threats, he said. ‘It is not impossible for them to attack our national symbols as they had tried to establish Islamic nationalism in Bangladesh,’ he said, adding that evil forces were issuing such threats with the help of the government. Muntassir Mamun, a professor of history, found no scope for confusion about the present government’s support for the religious fundamentalists. ‘The authorities see no wrong in fundamentalists bringing out procession and violating emergency rules. But they act upon promptly and obstruct when university teachers proceed to form a human chain at Shaheed Minar.’ Cartoonist Rafiqun Nabi, poet Muhammad Samad, dramatics teacher Israfil Shaheen, journalism teachers Getee Ara Nasrin and Robaet Ferdous and drama director M Hamid attended the rally. Sammilita Sangskritik Jote also held a rally at the Central Shaheed Minar in the afternoon denouncing the government’s role of maintaining double standard. ‘Cultural activists need to take permission from military for holding a cultural programme across the country, but the mullahs face no resistance even if they go out for creating anarchy,’ said an activist. Playwright Mamunur Rashid said the fundamentalists could show such audacity as the government did not punish the war criminals yet. Awami League publicity secretary and actor Asaduzzaman Noor said the government was trying to confuse the people and divert their attention to another issue from the next general elections.

[Bangladesh Engineering University Protests. Photo: bdnews24.com]

Bangladesh Chhatra League burnt an effigy of Amini in front of Raju Memorial Monument at the evening to protest his speech. Bangladesh Chhatra Union and the students of fine art painted the street in front of the institute, denouncing the role of the government favouring the bigots. The central steering committee of the 11-Party Alliance on Saturday demanded that the government take stern action against the religious bigots, who are out to destroy the country’s art and culture…The bigots were trying to stifle the nation’s glorious heritage and move the country towards darkness, the leftist leaders said. They also condemned the ‘audacious’ remarks of four party alliance leader Fazlul Haque Amini to demolish all the sculptures….Chaired by Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon, the meeting was attended among others by Pankaj Bhattachrya, Mohammad Nurul Islam, Giasuddin Haider, Abu Hamed Shahabuddin and Asit Baran. Democratic Left Alliance, a combine of left leaning political parties demanded stern action against Fazlul Haque Amini for his statement for demolition of all sculptures

PROTEST: Wear a Gamcha in Protest Against Lalon Statue Destruction

October 16th, 2008: 118th death anniversary of Fakir Lalon Shah
October 15th, 2008: Government Officials pull down Lalon statue after protests by Bigots

Tiktiki wrote: “Compromises, compromises…..Since when Bauls became anti Islam?”

NEW AGE/Oct 16/Bigots against baul monument
Some Muslim bigots on Wednesday forced government authorities to pull down a monument of bauls on the roundabout at Zia International Airport in Dhaka after they had tried to raze and rallied against the sculpture. The Dhaka City Corporation six months ago decided to erect a monument at the place as part of the city beautification programme.

Sculptor Mrinal Haque about three months and a half ago started building the monument, sculptures of five bauls holding ektaras, single-stringed instruments, symbolising the exuberance of the Bengali culture. The initiative was sponsored by the United Commercial Bank. ‘I have completed 80 per cent of the work amid protests by some Muslim bigots in the name of religious sentiments being hurt,’ Mrinal told New Age. ‘Sensing trouble, the airport and the civil aviation authorities decided to pull down the monument and I agreed to the proposal.’ Several hundred bigots, teamed up as the committee against statue in the airport crossing, tried to stop the initiative just after Mirnal had started work. The bigots on Wednesday gathered near the neighbouring Babu Salam Mosque and brought out a procession demanding that the monument should be immediately dismantled. A large number of lawmen, including Rapid Action Battalion personnel, reached the place, but failed to tackle the situation. The situation deteriorated when several hundred people from different mosques reached the place and joined the protesters at about 3:00pm.

High police officials and the civil aviation authorities at a brief meeting decided to move the sculpture to ward off further trouble. The civil aviation authorities assigned the Fair Enterprise and the Probhati Enterprise to move the sculptures and the protesters joined the demolition job at about 5:00pm. The Airport police told New Age they were pulling down the monument at the directive of higher authorities.

An email from a friend:
“A couple of weeks ago, my friend Adel had talked about a documentary titled “Obsession“- an anti Islamic hateful propaganda film being distributed widely through newspapers and post office mailings by the Clarion Fund- a republican support group- in the swing states to scare and incite voters against Muslims and hence vote for Republicans. (more…)

A butterfly flaps its wing somewhere in Borneo, setting off a perturbation in the weather system that eventually leads to a depression in the Bay of Bengal, and millions in the coastal Bangladesh fear the worst. This is a popular characterisation of chaos theory - a branch of mathematics that says that small changes in the initial condition has big impacts in the final outcome. I don’t know whether Arifur Rahman read about chaos theory or not, but when one of his cartoons was published by the Daily Prothom Alo last Sep, what happened was pretty close to chaos. This is how we covered the issue when it started.

This was a time of fraying nerves. Tazreena Sajjad describes the zeitgeist of the time here. It was within weeks of the Dhaka University riots. For a while, there were rumours of Prothom Alo being shut down. In the event, things calmed down after Prothom Alo editor, a one-time communist, apologised to the Imam of the national mosque in the presence of the information minister of the military-backed regime.

After a year, we can think about the controversy with a calmer mind. That’s what this post attempts. First it notes the role played by a new generation of activists - online and in the ‘real’ world - during the crisis. Then it notes that this wasn’t the first incidence of its kind. Finally, it discusses where and how we might draw the line between freedoms of speech and faith.

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Are we seeing a Bangladesh version of Dutch cartoon fiasco? Recently a cartoon at weekly Alpin magazine of Daily Prothom-Alo raised protests among the bigots and Muslim fundamentalists of Bangladesh.

Daily prothom Alo swiftly withdrew the issue and apologized for the cartoon. I am not sure whether that was needed, but this should have been enough for those who may have been offended.

However an alarming news just came . Bangladesh Government has arrested the cartoonist Mr Arifur Rahman.

This arrest raises serious concern about continued patronization of the religious zealots, fundamentalists and bigots by the successive governments in Bangladesh.

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