Ramna Kalibari: a History revived

Pradip Kumar Dutta

Last week,I had been to the Amor Ekushey Boimela(Immortal 21st February Book Fair) on a couple of occassions to rummage for books of interest and at the same time,to feel the vibe of the huge event. Its an annual affair arranged by Bangla Academy of Dhaka and in less than half of a century years has become one of the biggest Book Fairs in our planet. While in the premises of the Fair in Suhrawardy Uddyan(erstwhile Dhaka Race Course),a place which has earned a place in Bangladesh's glorious history, my memory spools started rewinding.Having been present personally there as a 1st year

Engineering student on the 7th March 1971,I heard the epoch making epic of a speech by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman calling his people to get ready for The Great War of Liberation,if the just demands of the Bangalees were not acceded to. I recalled that here at this place 9 months later the barbaric Pakistani occupation army had surrendered unconditionally and in public to the Joint command of Indian and Bangladesh Forces. A beautiful high Memorial dedicated to the Bangladesh Independence (Swadhinata Stambha) is standing there to sing the glory of the War of Liberation. At the same time another high spire of a temple drew my attention. This very Kali Temple is our subject of discussion today.

    Of late,Ramna Kalibari has hit the headlines in the newsmedia in both Bangladesh and India in a big way and may be elsewhere to a lesser degree. It has come to the limelight after the Honourable Indian President has inaugurated the newly built Temple dedicated to Hindu Goddess Kali. He went to the newly built Temple with his wife and entourage, inaugurated the structure,built with Indian financial assistance,met devotees and inmates and offered prayers there. Promise to rebuilt the temple was made by Ms Sushma Swaraj the then Foreign Minister of India as one of the items of a package of Indian assistance to Bangladesh.It is reported that an amount of Tk 7 crores have been allocated and spent by our Indian friends to accompilsh the job.

Before we go into the recent details we may do well to reminisce the past history of the temple which dates back to not less than half of a millennium. It is known that these areas were ruled by one of the Baro bhuiyans of Bengal namely Kedar Roy when a Sadhu descended from the Himalays Devabhumi(still those parts if Himalaya beyond Haridwar and Hrishikesh are called so). He was Sri Gopal Giri who came from Joshimath near one of the char dhams Badrinarayan. He being a saintly ascetic of the Giri Sampradaya, soon had many followers and they settled in the present southern part of Suhrawardy Uddyan engaging themselves in prayers and set up an Akhra devoted to religious discussions,songs,music and prayers. It was called Kathgar in those days. These activities continued for about 200 years when the then head priest Haricharan Giri established a Kali Mandir there, Kali being revered by local Bengali population to a high esteem. Kali !having many forms) was consecrated in this temple as Bhadra Kali. She had mundamala as a sign of destruction of demons and red hibiscus garlands. On her two sides were Dakini and Yogini, her consorts in the destruction. At a later stage Idols of Sri Ramakrishna Dev and Mata Sarada Devi were also installed. The Kali Temple established by Sri Haricharan Giri became very famous and was one of the oldest Sanatan Temples in Dhaka. It's fame spread far and near and people from all walks of life from all over India used to come here for performing Puja. Some of the devotees who were performing different essential duties of the daily routine rituals started staying there. With the invent of British colonial regime,a total of 2.22 acres of land was recorded in the c.s. survey in the name of Ramna Kalibari as Devottar property.District Magistrate of Dhaka excavated a tank in the territory of the temple to provide water for daily use of the temple rituals and the inhabitants. Later, Rani Bilashmani Devi of Bhawal,a pious soul took over the management of the temple,reexcavated the tank to make it more useful,provided for necessary repairs and additions. The place of worship became very famous far and wide and was visible from a long distance with it's 120ft tall Shikhara.

In the beginning of the twentieth century a new dimension was added to the place of devotion. One Mr Ramani Mohan Chakraborty,an efficient person born in Bikrampur had his early professional career in Austogram and Bajitpur of Kishoregonj area before being appointed as caretaker of the Dhaka Nawab's properties in Shahbag which was just in that Ramna Kalibari area. Mr Ramani was married to a young girl from Brahmanbaria who was very pious and had saintly qualities. People had firm belief in her miraculous healing and helping powers and she soon became famous as Maa Anandamoyee. At the instance of her desciples,she established her Anandamoyee Ashram  adjacent to the Ramna Kalibari with Kalibari's nod and both the religious bodies ran in tandem. In 1920s the Maa took care of Dhaka Siddheswari Kalibari too. The Hindu village around the Ramna Kalibari had been there from time immemorial and a couple of hundred inhabitants passed their uneventful life there happily. Even during communal disturbances pre and post partition of Indo Pak subcontinent had no bearing on them. A Mogul era mosque was nearby and both the communities were living in perfect harmony. Everything was smooth till 1971 March. The Kalibari youth went to 7th March meeting of Awami League to listen to Bangabandhu's epic of a speech in processions. Some have listened to the speech from the terrace of the Temple as well. Whereas the elderly heard it sitting at home. Many a pictures taken by local and foreign journalists of that day's meeting clearly shows the tall Shikhara of the Kali Mandir. But that was not to stay much longer. In 20 days it would be gone and gone with a 500 year's history and lives of reportedly 250 people,their belongings and even their domesticated cattle and cows.

When the Bangalees of Pakistan rose to the occassion to press forward their just demand of parity in all spheres of life, they were met with brute force. The legitimately elected party  Awami League led by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was denied transfer of power to form a Government. All democratic norms were flouted by the Pakistani high ups including ruling military and civil bureaucracy. Instead,they tried to suppress the just demand of Bengali population by armed action. Operation Searchlight was the code name of the Pak army action commandered by Gen Khadim Hossain Raja under which tanks rolled out of the cantonments . Pak army went on rampant killing,arson,destruction, rape and all such activities which tantamount to Genocide. The first targets were Awami league activists and Hindus in general. Immediately all Hindu localities in the country,specially the business or religion wise thriving ones became vulnerable. Ramna Kalibari was no exception. Rather it topped the list. The religious establishment was attacked on the night of 26/27 th March. The tall Shikhara was diminished to nothing and both the Kalibari and the Anandamoyee Ashrams were torn to pieces. All inmates were hunted out of their hide outs and filed. They were ordered to recite the Kalema and then shot dead or bayoneted. The incumbent Head Priest Paramananda Giri was no exception. It is estimated that around 250 people were killed on that night. Later  an enquiry committee led by Justice K M Sobhan could gather the name of 101 victims. You can not expect to get the exact names of a mass killing after 30 years of the massacre. But the Genocidal acts of the barbarian army was established beyond doubts.

So,by end March,1971 there was no Ramna Kalibari in existence. All what was there were signs of demolished structures reduced to rubbles. The inhabitants were either annihilated or fled where ever possible for survival. Pak authorities were carrying on a planned Genocide against Bengalis in general and Hindus in particular. No question during that barbaric regime could arise of resuming any Sanatan religious activities at all. The Bengali Nation fought a glorious War of Independence for long nine months in which the Muktibahini(Freedom Fighters) were enormously supported by the Indian authorities. They trained our boys,equipped them with arms,provided artillery cover in the initial months of the War and later fought directly in the frontal war when they got entangled in the war directly. A couple of thousand of Indian soldiers laid their lives on the altar of our Freedom together with our own three million. Many were injured in the fronts,some were permanently disabled. Indira Gandhi's Government housed and fed 10 million of our brothers,sisters,parents and children who had to take refuge in Indian territories to save themselves from Pak atrocities. India fought for our cause throughout the world on the diplomatic front. Progressive people all over the world were sympathetic to us. On 16th of December,we came out victorious. The Pak army eastern command signed an unconditional Instrument of Surrender to the Joint Command of Bangladesh and Indian Forces in a  public surrender. Ironically it was in the same premise of Dhaka Race course(now Suhrawardy Uddyan) where our Ramna Kalibari and Anandamoyee Ashram were situated. The stage of surrender was at the northern end of the Uddyan whereas the Kalibari was at the southern end. Thus the Dhaka Race course became a piece of History. It was decided that the ownership of Dhaka Race course would be transferred from Dhaka Club to the Public Works Department. The whole huge chunk of land will be transformed into a National garden named after National leader H S Suhrawardy and a suitable monument will be erected to commemorate our Victory and the epoch making Bangabandhu's speech of 7th March. Existence of Ramna Kalibari and Anandamoyee Ashram was mentioned nowhere. 

Meantime,the living inhabitants of the premises who survived the carnage slowly started coming back to Dhaka. They soon started taking initiatives to raise the question of reviving the religiously important place,rebuilding of the Kali Mandir and obtaining rights of performing religious rituals there. They ran from pillar to post but to no avail. Once they could meet Bangabandhu who listened to them sympathetically and instructed some of his aides to look into the matter. Before his directives could pass through the bureaucratic red tape Bangabandhu himself was brutally murdered by some over ambitious treacherous officers of Bangladesh Army. Next came the military rules of Gen Ziaur Rahman and Gen H M Ershad. In the beginning,the Hindu community leaders could not master enough momentum behind this cause and it could not be raised strongly enough. Consequently it was not paid any heed to. From 1979 upto 1986 several attempts were made by a committee formed by mostly the younger generation of the original inhabitants and their well wishers. On a couple of occassions they even could succeed in getting initial permission to perform puja at the site and arranged festivities accordingly. Unfortunately every time their endeavours were foiled midway by some or the other Government agency. In 1984 the Committee raised a title suit claiming the ownership of 2.22 acres of land in the name of Ramna Kalibari producing all relevant documents as claimed by Mr Bikash Roy,one of the petitioners,who was all along active in reviving the old glory of the age old religious Institution. Mr Roy later migrated to the Netherlands. The movement to restore the Mandir at its original place continued. In the early 2000s a public enquiry committee headed by Mr Justice K M Sobhan was formed for fact finding of the Ramna Kalibari incident and the Genocidal acts that took place there on 26/7 March,1971. The enquiry committee also had historian Mr Muntasir Mamun and Journalist Mr Shahriar Kabir as members. Another journalist Mr Basudeb Dhar worked as the member secretary. They have worked arduously having an office in DU TSC and interviewed many witnesses including some eye witnesses of the March 1971 massacre. They could confirm names of 101 Martyred on that fateful 26/7 march 1971. However they could ascertain that the real number was much more. As a result of continuous pursuing results had to be positive. Since that enquiry period religious rituals started at the venue in a limited scale which gradually gained momentum and were increased with time. Temples of Bhadra Kali, Lord Shiva, Loknath Temple,Anandamoyee Ashram,Radha Gobinda Temple have henceforth been consecrated. During one of her visits to Dhaka,the then Foreign Minister of India Honourable Sushma Swaraj promised to reconstruct the Ramna Kalibari with an Indian grant as a gesture of friendship. It was of course one of a group of such ventures of goodwill. It took rather long but better late than never. At a cost of Tk 7 crores of Indian grant the Kalibari has come into being and stands tall. As mentioned earlier,Indian President Honourable Ramnath Kovind has already inaugurated the holy place which has brought smiles to many a faces. It would have been better if it would have seen the light of the day earlier and Honourable Sushma Swaraj could also be present on the occassion. The community will remain ever grateful to the Government of India for this gesture of goodwill and friendship.

   On a different note,it may be observed that Tk 7 crores is an amount which could have very well been spent by us Bangladeshis and long ago we could re-establish this temple of National importance doing away with all red taped barriers. We are,after all,a self respecting Nation.

Pradip Kumar Dutta is a Masters in Engineering. He writes regularly in Bangladesh Newspapers on History,heritage, traveling, people's rights and environmental issues