Destruction of cultural property during 1971

Attempts to eliminate a civilization by indiscriminately killing human beings and destroying significant cultural or religious monuments are no exception in history. Targeting cultural property is one of the common phenomena during armed conflicts. Ancient acts of tyranny and humiliation, which might have taken place hundreds or thousands of years ago, often legitimize hate, violence and ethnic cleansing in the present. But various forms of cultural property and representations are targeted to eliminate the very existence and identity of a group. Over the last fifty years, history shows that cultural property has been an easy target during armed conflicts. There is no denying that destruction of cultural property is less shocking than acts of murder, torture and rape. However, in understanding armed conflicts and the ideological motivations working behind them, this aspect, that of destruction of cultural property, is of utmost importance since such acts often have serious impacts on the identity of a group, the very existence of which is largely dependent, among other factors, on culture, tradition, heritage and history. History abounds with examples. It is evident in the case of Ayodhya Babri Mosque Destruction in 1993. In early 19^th century, Napoleon Bonaparte plundered cultural objects throughout his campaigns to conquer the world. Even before that, the Romans and Goths perceived the aim of warfare to be conquest, which was achieved by massacres, destruction and pillage. During the Third Reich, similar motivations prompted the Nazis to destroy synagogues and other Jewish places of worship. Thousands of mosques were destroyed in Bosnia and Herzegovina during a campaign to eliminate the Muslim population living there. Religious symbols constituted the main target of attacks on cultural properties during the Yugoslavia war. Khmer Rouge’s wanton destruction of Buddhist and Muslim places in Cambodia was an attack against the country’s rich cultural heritage. Francaise Bugnion says that in attacks on cultural heritage, not only monuments are targeted but the collective consciousness of the people is also assaulted. He believes that this type of destruction is sometimes the other face of genocide.

They attack culturally significant properties as they believe that their enemies are culturally superior or inferior. With the destruction of cultural property, they wish to establish and exhibit unilateral political authority over “the others” by destroying their rich cultural heritage.

The earliest historical monumental architecture in Bengal comes primarily from the Buddhist traditions and includes Stupas, temples and monasteries. As historian Asok Basu observes, the architecture of Bengali temples is an exemplary social encounter with the dialectic as it combines the classical and the common. Mosques, mazars and madrasas, and their renewed building techniques – the arch and the dome – generally characterize the Sultani architecture. Muslim culture itself entered into a dynamic and creative relationship with Laukik culture (vernacular/folk culture). In the case of Bangladesh, several incidents of cultural property destruction took place during 1971 Liberation War that have yet not been recorded properly. Many of these were later reconstructed by both public and private sectors. The pattern of the Liberation War of Bangladesh was the outcome of a genocide campaign launched by the West Pakistan Army on the civilians of what is now Bangladesh. During the war, Pakistan Army and their local collaborators committed international crimes including genocide and crimes against humanity. Eventually they put in motion a process to thoroughly deform the culture of people which was a blend of ancient Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. The Pakistan Army attacked and destroyed the historic temple of the Hindu Goddess Kali located at Ramna, Dhaka on March 27, 1971. The five hundred year old temple was considered a symbol of Hinduism in Bangladesh. As part of the Operation Searchlight, the Pakistan Military Forces destructed the first Shaheed Minar (a memorial for language martyrs of 1952 Bangla Language Movement) located beside Dhaka Medical College. The monument was regarded as a symbol of Bengali nationalism. After the military crackdown when the emergency situation was relaxed for two hours, people came out of their houses and saw the Shaheed Minar demolished. Furthermore, the fundamentalists affixed a poster with the title ‘Maszid’ (mosque) on the body of the demolished Shaheed Minar. Dhamrai Chariot was the biggest chariot of the Indian sub-continent. This four hundred year old Chariot was the major attraction for the Hindu community in Bangladesh. People from different parts of the country, irrespective of religious identity, used to visit Dhamrai from far and wide to glimpse the Lord of Jagannath and pull its rope. On April 9, 1971, this historical Chariot was burnt down by the Pakistan Army with the local collaborators in Dhamrai. Even libraries of the university halls were burned down. Popularly known as Lalkuthi, the Northbrook Hall in Farashganj Road of Old Dhaka was built as a town hall during the British period. During the war the occupation army destroyed numerous books from the Hall. Against this backdrop, one cannot help repeating the question why an occupation army specifically targets cultural property in times of conflict or war? In response to this question, Professor Dr Adam Jones, a genocide scholar from the University of British Columbia, observes that they attack culturally significant properties as they believe that their enemies are culturally superior or inferior. With the destruction of cultural property, they wish to establish and exhibit unilateral political authority over “the others” by destroying their rich cultural heritage. Cultural tradition and heritage is a threat to the occupation army. It explains why the Pakistan Army demolished our first Shaheed Minar in 1971. The main motivation behind targeting cultural property is basically to erase memory and heritage culture in order to create new historical narratives that suit their agendas and interests. That’s precisely why we should consider such erasure as a crime against civilization and make sure that no perpetrators of such a crime enjoy impunity.[The article is an abridged version of the writer’s master’s thesis titled “Destruction of Cultural Property during Armed Conflict: A Criminological Study on Bangladesh.”]

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Naureen Rahim is a Research Associate at Liberation War Museum. She did her LLB (Honours) from Eastern University and MSS in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Dhaka. She holds a Post-Graduate Diploma from the Centre for Genocide Studies, University of Dhaka. She can be reached at: [email protected]