Do we owe Lord Mornington for the bequest that is Cox’s Bazar, or do we thank the seasoned servant of the Honourable East India Company, Captain Hiram Cox, whose name, as it were, is carried as “the maker’s name?”
It is, of course, Mother Nature herself to whom we owe the famous “world’s longest continuous natural sea beach,” on the verge of which, beside the estuary of the ever lovely, historic Bakkhali river, the city stands.
But, although today’s city may not, in most eyes, be much of a thing of beauty, bequeathed to the nation of Bangladesh by, first the British, who founded it, and the Arakanese, Portuguese and Bengalis who have developed it, to, above all, today’s tourists from all over Bangladesh, as well as not a few from India, Arabia and elsewhere, it remains close to Bangladeshi hearts.
No doubt it was, in fact, remote East India Company administrators who conceived the value of settling the unsettled peoples of the area, in the late 18th century. Most of them were Arakanese refugees from the depredations of the Burmese army; and there were others, including rootless Portuguese, displaced by British expansion in Bengal, onto cultivable lands around markets, of which Cox’s Bazar, the largest, was one.
There are parts of Cox’s Bazar, even today, where luxuriant tropical growth fringes the silver sand of the beaches along sprawling water courses, and can readily conjure up what Hiram Cox first saw; with, no doubt, two hundred and fifteen years ago, roaming elephants and tigers.
Few such conspicuous bequests, perhaps, in Bangladesh, are as distinctively marked as today’s city of Cox’s Bazar. But whether, in the end, we owe this settlement for the social and economic enrichment of the recently acquired lands under British control, to administrators in Dhaka or Calcutta, to Governor, the Earl of Mornington, brother of the famous Duke of Wellington, or to Hiram Cox himself, it has proved itself as, unquestionably, an enduring contribution to the social and economic development of all these lands that are now known as Bangladesh.
A bequest, of course, is an inheritance, a legacy, of value, something to be valued and, preferably, passed on, and, whichever way you look at it, without Hiram Cox, there may well have been an initiative undertaken, but as his companions, to commemorate his social interests, and his integrity, named this centre for him, and marked, forever, his own contribution to such heritage.
Even within today’s city, unnoticed, perhaps, by most of those who travel to enjoy, however briefly, all that is Cox’s Bazar today, there is a very tangible gift from Cox; within the ancient Buddhist Temple, which was probably all that originated before Cox, there is a small, Burmese, image of the Buddha, that Hiram Cox presented to them.
Flood waters may have swept away the grave within which he was interred following his untimely death in 1799, just a year after founding the Bazar, leaving behind no other tangible memorial, except his name.
This year, opening Cox’s Bazar Surf Club on Shugandha Beach, the British High Commissioner, His Excellency Robert W Gibson, also unveiled a small memorial plaque to commemorate the man himself, the Scot who ended his life undertaking what, today, we would call refugee relief, at a mere 39 years of age.
Born in 1760, only fifteen years after the 1745 rebellion in which Prince Charles Edward Stuart, “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” came close to overthrowing the monarchical dynasty that has now ruled Britain for over two hundred and fifty years, Cox hailed, it is believed, from Inverness, on Scotland’s east coast.
The punishment of Scots for the rebellion saw many take up roles in the burgeoning Empire, of which, of course, the lands of Bangladesh might reasonably be called the foundation stone. Captain Hiram Cox was, clearly, amongst them, and might, in his own way, even serve as something of a poster child for an Imperial administration evolving from ruthless chancers to servants with the interests of subjects within their commitment.
The lands that are now Cox’s Bazar district had, through previous centuries, been much fought over and invaded. Arakanese, Tripurans, Burmese and even Mughal armies had tramped the lands and contested overlordship. These were lands between powerful kingdoms, with, perhaps, little of real value in themselves, although the Roman cartographer, Ptolemy, about 150 CE, nearly one thousand nine hundred years ago, clearly identified historic Ramu, which lies some 16km north of Cox’s Bazar, also on the banks of the Bakkhali, and evidently, at that time, widely known as an important trading centre associated with the first of the international Silk Road trading routes, known, today, as The Southern Silk Road.
Lost within the sprawling, and, frankly, ugly, development of what some refer to as Uttara by Sea, no compliment intended, there are still to be found glimpses of, perhaps, what was, but is no longer. The mangroves beside the Bhakkhali; boat building of ships probably largely unaltered in shape, except for the lack of masts, but traditionally craftsmen built; terracotta potteries; the remaining wooden houses; above all, perhaps, the fishing fleet.
Only a few years ago, the town included a mid nineteenth century prison, which would have made a great visitor centre … such places are very popular with tourists around the world … but it was sadly bulldozed to make room for extra Eidgarh space.
Within half an hour or so travel, today, of course (probably slower then in Hiram Cox’s time) lies Ramu, where Cox was based. With what is reputed to be a 3rd century BCE Buddhist Temple, founded by the great Ashoka himself, some beautiful wooden Temples, centuries old, and, overlooking the town, on what the locals call “Golden Hill” for the treasure they believe hidden therein, a thousand year old Stupa dominates the Bakkhali valley.
It is clear that Cox intended his Bazar, his Market place, to serve the lands around. That, today, it serves tourists, mostly from across Bangladesh and north east India, but also the world at large, makes his bequest an even richer one than, perhaps, even he could ever have envisioned.
Maybe, being born in the Highlands of Scotland, only sixteen years after the disastrous ’45, he empathised with the displaced, the disadvantaged, but we do know that he was a very sensitive, even intellectual type. His comrades mention his sensitivity and empathy, but we also know that he was a devotee of the game of chess, and a leading exponent of a peculiar variant, four handed chess. His memoir of his time as ambassador of the honourable company in Burma, where it seems he was at odds with the King and his court also underlines a more than passing interest in engineering.
Above all, his integrity shines through what is known of him; not a quality it is immediately easy to associate with such Company contemporaries as Collector Lindsey of Sylhet.
This then, the city by the sea, on the longest beach, that after 215 years still bears his name, is a lasting bequest of one man’s determination that creates yet another jewel in the extraordinary crown of heritage that is Bangladesh’s, and its visitors, to enjoy.
