¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·

1989. It had already been way more than five years since Hussein Muhammad Ershad assumed office in December 1983. A political gloom filled the air. Not only in the capital Dhaka, but everywhere. We could feel the fearfulness, the gloom and the repression, then still living in a western small town, eagerly hoping to step in the University of Dhaka as a student.

Some students, later aided by teachers, of the Institute of Fine Art, which so became in 1983 after it had moved to its present location, as the Bangladesh College of Arts and Craft on the University of Dhaka campus, as Najib Tareque, a friend of mine since my college days who was a student of the institute, at one point recollected, planned to do something that could allow them some breathing space. The planning began in the third week of March.

What they did in the middle of April that year instantly made a noise, loud enough that continued in the coming years, setting in to become a Bengali tradition. They pulled out a band of students to prepare for a rally and a procession to mark Pahela Baishakh, the first day of the Bengali year, which fell on April 14.

They made paper masks and painted them in bright colours in keeping to the style of Bengali folk art. They made large installations, of elephants, horses, birds and peacocks. They prepared artworks. They made paper crowns. A poster that they had made said the procession would begin at 7 o’clock in the morning on the first of Baishakh of the year 1396. He later recollected that the gate to the institute was opened about an hour later.

As the gate opened, many female students dressed like peacocks and many male students dressed like horse riders started streaming out of the institute to the Shahbagh crossing and then to the Teacher-Student Centre. The procession had by then pulled a large crowd, with some having been drawn in. Past the Doyel crossing, the marchers reached Shiksha Bhaban, afraid that the police might stop them as they had no permission that was needed.

But the police guided them towards the Institution of Engineers, from where they marched down the road past the Dhaka Club up to the Shahbagh crossing. The procession rounded off there. They tried a limited campaign with a poster that Tarun Ghosh designed. They posted it at some places around the university campus the evening before. All the excitement about what they did ended, with a sense of completion, setting in, unknowingly, to set foot in history.

This was not the first such celebration that marked Pahela Baishakh. A group of students of a private art school called Charupith in Jashore, then Jessore, brought out a similar procession in the mid-1980s. The procession that was held in 1985 to welcome the Bengali year 1392 was sudden. The procession the next year to welcome 1393 marched down the road stretches from Charupith to the Jessore Institute. But, the organisers of the Institute of Fine Art programmes say that theirs were in no way a copy of the Charupith programme although it had drawn inspiration from the 1985-1986 events.

The Jessore events were kept off politics and mainly concerned folk life and motifs. The Dhaka event was political in nature in the cloak of a cultural event. The procession also played its role, not above all interests always though, speaking up against political ills.

The 1989 rally and the procession became an instant success, without much of a campaign. The Ittefaq, in its Baishakh 3, 1396 (April 16, 1989) issue put in a three-column photograph of the procession on the front page. ‘The Ananda Shobhajatra of the Institute of Fine Art, the University of Dhaka’ went in as the caption. It was Ananda Shobhajatra, or the procession of joy, as it began, but without, perhaps, any theme.

A single-column report, headlined ‘Pahela Baishakh celebrated’, said that ‘teachers and students of the Institute of Fine Art of the University of Dhaka brought out a colourful procession [Ananda Shobhajatra] in the morning. Giant artworks in the form of puppets, elephants and horses were accompanied by people in varied dresses, playing music and dancing. The procession caught the eye of the spectators as it marched down the road.’

The Dainik Bangla, which also printed a three-column photograph of the procession on its front page of the day’s issue, went overboard in two single-column news items. The first one, headlined ‘New year celebrations,’ said: ‘An exceptional programme that marked this year’s Pahela Baishakh celebrations was a procession of joy [Ananda Shobhajatra] that the students of the Institute of Fine Art brought out. This colourful procession marched down various roads after it had come out from the institute premises.’

The other report solely on the Institute of Fine Art initiative, headlined ‘The delightful, laudable Pahela Baishakh procession and rally,’ said, ‘A new feature has been added to this year’s Pahela Baishakh celebrations. The feature won the heart of the people at the instant sight of it. This has been a talk of the town.

‘The teachers and students of the Institute of Fine Art held a rally and a procession of joy. Both people and animals simultaneously took part in the rally held on the institute premises. There were fantastical, awe-inspiring masks galore. Painted brightly, the masks along with animal installations added colours to the celebrations. The elephants, horses and donkeys were not real animals but they were humans wearing the forms of animals. They enthralled people instantly. It made a huge noise. It sent out waves of joy everywhere at the institute. It was a jubilant rally with people in shirts and pants and in masks and animal forms. Some participants wore made-up crowns to play kings, adding to the celebrations. Such kings led the procession.

‘Elephants, horses, cows, donkeys and humans walked down the roads. Pedestrians, enthralled, stopped short, lining along the road stretches to watch. Some of them joined the procession out of excitement. The joy that filled the institute premises also sent out ripples of joy on the road, with the novelty catching the eye from all around. The people who planned the programmes were startled for a while at the instant success of what they did inside the walls and out on the roads. The gorgeous procession ended at the National Press Club. The participating humans and animals were welcomed along the road stretch from the institute premises to the press club. People hugely clapped and applauded, the prize that the participants earned.

‘Allegations have it that residents were not notified of such a novel programme beforehand. Had it been the case, many others could have watched the rally and the procession. This was a regret.

‘The telecast of the programme at night created a noise in some families. Many parents felt distressed as their children, in teary voice, complained of not having been taken there to watch the procession.

‘A few posters about the programme of the Institute of Fine Art were posted in some areas. Brilliantly coloured, the poster had a face painted in folk motif. The masks and animals in the procession were reflective of the same style. The simple folk motifs reflected in the painting style laid bare the natural beauty of the folk art and craft that won people’s heart. The reason for the huge success of the Institute of Fine Art programme, perhaps, lies in this.

‘Such two hugely successful programmes of the Institute of Fine Art created resentment in some. Some said that the organisers of and participants in the programmes, which were good and gave the people reasons for revelry, were not socially aware. People in some areas of the country are facing a famine. Some people are reported to have died from starvation. In such a situation, it is unbecoming to hold such a loud programme. Some resented saying that when people lay dead like dogs and cats in this city and the countryside in the famine of 1974, an eye-catching procession shouted slogans and held up posters asking why the children of Chile were sad. People decried that procession. People still talk of the procession with dislike. It is no wonder if the procession that artistes held this Pahela Baishakh is viewed the same way.

‘Debates apart, there is no doubt that the two programmes of the Institute of Fine Art certainly added a new dimension to the Pahela Baishakh celebrations.’

The report, spanning almost a column and a half with four lines on the front page and the rest running on page 7, was bylined Sayid Atikullah.

The Dainik Bangla spoke of the programme in half a paragraph in the report on Pahela Baishakh celebrations headlined ‘New year celebrated with fanfare’: ‘Students of the Institute of Fine Art bought out a colourful procession carrying giant elephants and horses. This mask procession was novel.’ The double-column report went with a three-column photograph of the Institute of Fine Art procession lower down the front page.

The Inquilab, which printed a three-column photograph of the Institute of Fine Art procession in the top right under the masthead, in the celebrations report headline ‘Pahela Baishakh celebrated’ was critical of the initiative beginning that year. It listed the organisations that celebrated the occasion and under the subhead of ‘Institute of Art and Craft’, said: ‘The colourful procession that the Institute of Art and Craft brought out in Dhaka marking Pahela Baishakh caught the eyes. Students of the institute in lungi and dhoti and particoloured dresses riding horses (as it seemed), made of cloths, marched various roads of the city. It was accompanied by the music and songs of puja.’

The procession of revelry was known as ‘Ananda Shobhajatra’ only that year. The organisers of the procession changed the name to Mangal Shobhajatra, or the procession of well-being, beginning in 1990, as Najib Tareque recollected, via vote of a kind. It was also when Charushilpi Sangsad, or the council of artistes, joined in. It came to be known that painter and language movement hero Emdad Hossain and singer Waheedul Haque advised the change in the name. A former dean of the faculty of fine art has also echoed the year of the name change.

The Institute of Fine Art event, which began as a procession of revelry but soon turned into a carnival, spawned off similar celebrations in other universities and parts of the country and, even, beyond the border. Mangal Shobhajatra began in the University of Chittagong in 2008. The celebrations began in the University of Rajshahi as Barshabaran Shobhajatra in 1995, but it came to be known as Mangal Shobhajatra soon after the turn of the century. It began in Jahangirnagar University on a small scale in 2009 and with a greater participation in 2010, when the drama and dramatics department was the organiser. Fine arts students joined the drama and dramatics students in the celebrations after the department of fine art had been opened there. Jagannath University started holding Mangal Shobhajatra in 2014.

Mangal Shobhajatra became part of the Pahela Baishakh celebrations in Kolkata, West Bengal, in 2017 after ‘Mangal Shobhajatra on Pahela Baishakh’ was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on November 30, 2016 keeping to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Yet, Mangal Shobhajatra had earlier been part of Pahela Baishakh celebrations at two places outside Kolkata in West Bengal since 1994.

The faculty of fine art could not hold the procession in 2020 as Covid-19 broke out in March, forcing a complete lockdown for months. The students designed a poster that did the rounds on social media. The 2021 celebration was on a limited scale as the Covid situation eased a bit, keeping to the health protocol and the maintenance of physical distance.

But the procession has never ceased to be criticised by right wing groups. The Inquilab the next year focused on the congestion that the procession created when it passed by the Children’s Park and the Institution of Engineers. Yet, the next year, the Inquilab ended the description of the procession in the celebration news, noting, ‘But, many started asking if there are any reasons for wearing masks of animals in the new year celebrations.’

The holding of the procession ran to a legal issue when a lawyer of the Supreme Court on April 9, 2023 sent a legal notice, asking cultural affairs secretary, religious affairs secretary, home affairs secretary, the deputy commissioner of Dhaka and the dean of fine art in the University of Dhaka to take steps to stop Mangal Shobhajatra, which is ‘unconstitutional, illegal and artificial,’ noting that a writ petition would be filed in court on the failure of the authorities.

In the changed political context, which resulted from the July–August 2024 mass uprising, right wing political forces and other quarters this time had a consistent demand that the name Mangal Shobhajatra should be changed as the word ‘mangal,’ a Sanskrit word used in Bangla, is associated with some Hindu rituals although the organisers of the first procession defined the word ‘mangal’, which means the quality of being auspicious, as something opposed to the martial law and the political fearfulness of the time that they thought inauspicious. Right-wing Hefazat-e-Islam’s demand was to revert to the name it was known on the first occasion—Ananda Shobhajatra. Ananda, a Sanskrit word used in Bangla also closely associated with rituals in Hinduism, has a horde of meaning, from happiness and to bliss and can refer to god and temple.

The University of Dhaka at a briefing attended by the vice-chancellor and the dean of faculty on April 10, three days before Pahela Baishakh this year, chose to rename it as Barshabaran Ananda Shobhajatra, making happy some quarters opposed to such celebrations and creating resentment in some quarters that were associated with procession or have supported it all along.

The university authorities seek to have reclaimed the initial name of the procession, explaining the unacceptability of the word ‘mangal’ in society and claiming that it was not a change in name but getting back to the original, which it appears not. They have not explained who or which they have reclaimed the name from. Although there is no point in not continuing with the name it has been held for 34 years, getting back to the initial Ananda Shobhajatra could be an acceptable step.

With ‘Barshabaran’, which is one phrase too many, prepended, it certainly is a name change that takes the political statement off the procession that it has made with a pithy, emotive phrase on every occasion.

Ìý

Abu Jar M Akkas is deputy editor at ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·