Balaka Statues
Balaka Statues Dodge A Bullet
Naeem Mohaiemen
NEW AGE, December 1, 2008
Unlike the Baul statue circus a month ago, the group that came to smash Balaka Chattar/Biman Office statues (storks, also by Mrinal Haque) came near midnight. This time, no government officials, no advance “protest” in media, no advance anything. They worked quickly, with hammers. Other reports said “ramda”, but I tend to think that’s fear shorthand.
Then the police arrived. According to BdNews24, for the first fifteen minutes they did nothing. Then I suppose the “higher ups” decided whether to stop or allow, impede or accelerate. And then the police “swung into action.” Or, as Shamokal reports it, dhawa palta dhawa. Police wounded, attackers in custody, conveniently wearing white robes. Almost ready for their photo-op.
The hammers managed to get through the plaster legs, but stopped at iron rods.
I arrived after midnight. Lot of police vans. My CNG driver knew about it: “Ektu agei hangama hoise, oidike jaiben”. Helpful tour guide.
Al Jazeera camera crew were there. Video camera nicely set on tripod. Of course. It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good. I said to a photographer friend, I knew the trouble was over, because in a real volatile situation, there would be no time for steady shots.
Al Jazeera seemed excited by the flyer left behind, even though it was about Mandar, the play banned by Islami Chatra Shibir in Rajshahi. What is the link between Mandar and these statues? Or were they too cheap to print their own slogans. Or is Udichi to blame for the storks as well? It’s all one gigantic hodge-podge. But I’m sure some TV station will clarify and simplify, turn it into a bite-sized chunk and juicy headline.
And then two days later, a friend will write me from New York “What’s going on over there?”
Oddly enough, there seems to be only one copy of the flyer (and one copy with the police official, who didn’t want to share). Or maybe some were taken away by the newspaper photographers, who had already taken their snaps and left to file the story. Deadlines, deadlines. As soon as we start photographing the flyer, a crowd gathers around us. The camera makes the event or just brings it into focus I don’t know. If I just didn’t comment on the image, illusions would run one way.
The police ask our group which paper we are with. We’re not with anyone. Ah, he says nodding, that’s why you’re so late.
Police are questioning a municipal sweeper. Or maybe they are chatting. A jhalmuri-wala has appeared out of nowhere. Hungry police officers. A relaxed air. We clearly have arrived late, after the rush. A rickshawalla wants to know if I will need a ride. Thakbo?
Just how many people attacked the statue is a mystery. Some people we talked to said the first attack was a group of three men with hammers, who were soon joined by a larger group.
But how many people?
“Couldn’t say, at least fifty.”
“What are you talking about, many more than that,” snapped his superior.
We asked somebody else, who says, “Hundreds, for sure.”
An older man, for good measure, “Thousands, I stopped counting.”
Thousands? I think those storks would be rubble if there were thousands. But perception shapes reality.
BdNews24 is reporting “Al Bayenat” is claiming responsibility. Al who? Shamokal reports in the AM, hundred protesters “including madrasa students”.
When I first left my house after getting the call, I had a feeling of dread. Drishtipat’s Asif sent an SMS “Ki arombho korlo!” And yes, we headed to Motijheel thinking to avert another travesty. Not this statue too! If only we were fond of the artwork, but free speech is also about defending unpopular speech. But later, when it turned out that after all they hadn’t broken it, we veered uneasily into gallows humor. That the rod in the stork legs were not Chinese, mojbut maal, not 2 number. That it was a band of irritated art critics. That it was a stunt by people who hated the 1971 installation at the Dhaka Biennial, that most despised art event.
And the unintentional comedy of the other site of attack. A small foundation stone laid a block away, for another statue. This one laid by Mayor Sadeq Hossain Khoka. Smashed very successfully. Hmmm…
What is sand and pitch is a global audience, creating a conundrum for activists. I am glad they didn’t manage to smash the statues. Dodged the bullet, this time. And because there’s relief, our group starts having a discussion about tactical media. When we go home tonight and blog about this, we will put up our images by habit. But then what, where will those images go?
Our struggle is for very basic simplicity and transparency: an end to obscurantist definitions of theology, the politics of religion, and a new beginning to free spirited daily life. But some journalist somewhere will take these same images and start writing about “Bangladeshi jehadi camps”– in a manner already in the Indian media after the horrific Mumbai attacks. Pakistan is the main suspect, but someone will try to blame Bangladesh as well. Is Balaka statue going to be grist for another Sadanand Dhume op-ed in Wall Street Journal? In a piece written the day after the shocking Mumbai tragedy, Dhume makes the amazing unsubstantiated assertion that there is “public sympathy with the militant Islamic worldview” in Bangladesh.
You can’t think of so many things, so many audiences, says Asif, we have to name what we see around us. You fight the “militant Islamists” in whatever form you find them. And you put quote marks around “Islamist” to indicate that yes, we are talking of reactionary, manipulative politics not religion and spirituality. We don’t want madrasa students used as cannon fodder any more.
And you always try to make sure your local struggles don’t get used to paint Bangladesh as “the next Afghanistan” (as in Hironmoy Karlekar’s alarmist book). Someone will always hijack your narrative for their own agenda. But we need to keep plugging away. Small fights, small wins.
The storks are still standing.
[Images+Text: Naeem Mohaiemen]
naeem, i salute you! thank you for your incisive analysis and sense of humour
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Humor only came about because the attack failed. If they had managed to take it down, we would be in a much darker mood.
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i’m glad you were there.
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“”(no one in the artworld seems to like Mrinal, some call him a “city contractor, not an artist”, others have quipped in private “I want to smash his statues myself ..)”"
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Hmmm, I got the same reaction from a Deshi master artist living in USA, claiming Mrinal maybe involved in serious art hijacking of other artists’ design to get city contracts. Thats a shame!! Even artworld is corrupt!! Art eyo karchupi?
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your images are not bad at all.
we submitted a petition to Khoka on thursday 27th demanding for the city to organise a body of experts to be designated with the responsibility of deciding what is to be constructed, where, and by whom, for city beautification. so it is really funny to see the smashed plaque just two days later.
hahaha are the “islamists” supporting us?
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and why are these stork statues being targeted in the first place? you do not explain this. i am confused
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1. In an area that is deserted at night
2. I dunno, anti-stork racism?
3. To get us to run around in circles screaming, while Islamists cooks the election goose (has anyone paid attention to how many seats Jamaat got, and where?)
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Zaid, I saw Khoka laying a new plaque on the Dhanmondi road next to Rangs Anam Plaza the next morning. Buijho!
KGazi, Of course artworld has corruption as well. Only reason not that much, because there’s not that much money sloshing around. Wait until Bangladesh gets “discovered” (before which we were in caves) by MOMA or somesuch, you will see chadabaji and tender telesmati as well. After my project got rejected by Shilpakala/Dhaka Biennial (140 artists were selected from BD), I was told by a senior art professor I should have told him, uni bole diten. Bujho, tahole ekhane o to dhora dhori r byapar, ke kake chene, kisher baal er aesthetics.
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Naeem, dhora dhori happens to an extent in artworld evrywhere – from Picasso to Van Gogh, (whose bro-in-law btw happened to be an art dealer, altho not his art). But Mrinal Haq apparently stealing other artists’ work to get city tenders, is daylight robbery.
Surya, DS newspaper today says “an islamist group claiming statue attack, believes all stautes are anti-islamic.”
What those islamists dont realize is that destroying public property and vandalism is MUCH MORE anti-islamic than harmless statues. And destructive people are EVEN MORE anti-islamic than vandalism !!!
Basically, breaking statues is severely anti-islamic.
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I think its a case of being really really thick. this thickness in the islamic sector has been politically created by its enemies in Bangladesh over decades. they are calling themselves ulama. how intriguing.
There were valid reasons (spatial decorum, religious taste, naffness) for the airport statues to go, in my opinion. birds are ok, quite graceful in fact. Ive seen birds even on prayer mats, ok shia prayer mats, but prayer mats nonetheless.
i dont know where all the b!tching about the artist is coming from.
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Not the artist, but the manner in which he has a monopoly on all public art in Dhaka city– obtained through a non-transparent process of state patronage. The triple pearl in front of PM’s office (meant to be homage to Khaleda & 2 sons), the horse carriage in front of Sheraton, Sea Fish at Navy HQ, 2 police on horses at Ramna Thana, Peacock at ShatRasta, Silver Fish at Farmgate/Ananda Cinema Hall, Car of Chains at Tejgaon Petrol Pump, Horse Carriage at Hotel Sheraton, etc etc. Ask any artist or critic, including people who don’t make sculptures (so you know it’s not jealousy), many will say he has a chokehold on all Dhaka public installation.
Also, when the baul statue fracas happened, Mrinal Haque volunteered to remove it. Later when my Charu Kala friends were agitating, he told one photographer he could not join because “amake kaj korte hobe to”.
If you look at the statement signed by artists and activists (Shachetan Shilpi Shamaj, not the oldisgold constellation of shushil samaj), it says they want the ZIA chattar renamed “Lalan Chattar” but they do not want re-installation of the baul statue. They also demanded setting up a government committee that approves all public sculpture through a transparent process.
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Why are people attacking the artist (Mrinal Haque)? Is this thread about people smashing up sculptures or about aesthetic sense? Because the latter is really subjective, and it does not seem fair to use the platform provided by DP to trumpet such subjective views.
Making allegations against anyone regarding plagarism is serious business. Naeem, you indicate yourself that your work was not selected for Dhaka Biennial, and the artist’s work was. So please stop ranting against him; it just detracts from your credibility and makes you look small.
Your comments seem to indicate that you wouldn’t mind knocking down a few statues yourself. Of course, your reasons would be much more elevated: you would be acting out of a higher artistic standard and to free us from bad art.
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Confused, you’re mixing things.
1. I mentioned Biennial in response to KGazi’s comment “even artworld is corrupt”. My not getting selected made me irked at Shilpakala bureaucrats that run it [ http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2008/11/01/art.htm ], not at Mrinal Haque.
2. Take a walk down to Charu Kala and ask any of the hundreds of organizers of Shochetan Shilpi Shamaj what the position of the artist community is on Baul statues. This is an important issue, where there is a generational divide. The response of the older generation, shushil shamaj, ghadani, muktijuddher pokkhe shokti, etc was the usual bleating of outrage followed by a demand to reinstall the Baul statue.
However, the younger generation, especially as led by CharuKala (which is ground zero for statue activism since the Baul event), has very clearly said that they do not want reinstallation of Mrinal’s Baul Statue. Rather they want the square renamed “Lalon Square”. In addition they demand setting up a committee which will oversee all public art projects in Dhaka. The two versions of this petition received the largest number of signatures, the latest one was submitted to Khoka (bit ironic, that) as Zaid points out above. (I will post PDF as soon as I get the e-copy).
3. Of course I don’t want to knock down any of his statues, and I will defend them from any obscurantist who does. But when the dust has cleared, the issue of corrupt state patronage of public art through non-transparent, closed processes must be discussed. It’s not an either-or.
4. I didn’t make the allegation about MH plagiarism, Kgazi did. Personally, I think that’s a grey area, as artists, filmmakers and writers are influenced by everything they see.
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On this topic, there can be no valid *religious* reason for downing an art statue once erected, whether it is humanoid, people, stork or egyptian pyramid.
If Quran said ‘lakum deen ukum wal yadeen” (every religion must be respected), then destroying the Bamiyan Buddha statues by Afghan Talibans was a HUGE sin, and breaking Baul stautes in Bd was religiously senseless.
ART is not anti-islamic. If you respect the art of your mosque, you must respect the art of all men. : )
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There can be no valid *religious* reason for downing an art statue once erected.
I can imagine a few, without even bringing ‘naffness’ into the equation. The higher objectives if the shariah intend to promote five things; faith, life, dignity, intellect and property. So there are easy reasons like.
-it being made of pilfered materials.
-it posing a safety risk.
-it being of someone such as yourself, mooning in public.
and thats discounting the value given to social unity.
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a) Those 3 you listed are not *religious* reasons.
b) “faith, life, dignity, intellect and property” applies more to vandalism than art.
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Kgazi, I think fug is doing “shaitan’s advocate”, showing that there could indeed be a “religious” argument. In fact reason # 1 and 2 could even be an argument that the State offers as rationale (Rangs Building demolition is a strange hybrid of 1 & 2, not pilfered material but pilfered permission, not safety risk but risk to road communication). However reason # 3 is a moralistic reason.
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Naeem – fug – Once the statue is erected by the State (city), we understand that the design must have gone thru State guidelines of legal, moral, ethical and religious standards when the Permit to erect statue was granted.
Years, months after statue erection, if state finds corruption in the permit issue, like plagiarism, patronage, mastani, immoral design, whatever, which violates those design standards, then *only the state* is legally entitled to modify or demolish the statue. eg Rangs building – State has legal right to take necessary action aganist bldg, whatever it decides to be right.
However, the public have no right to damage or demolish any Public/State art statue or building. Public have all right to file a complaint or raise protest, activism etc – but any wilfull damage to State property must be illegal vandalism or fanaticism.
Otherwise everyone will run around destroying mosques, building bridges etc – saying “it does not comply with my Shariah”. Funny enough thats exactly what happens in jalao-porao politics. And that needs to be banned.
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Kgazi, i think you’ve got a different idea of religion in the public interest/civic/social/political/intellectual realm than I. I happen to think that the higher objectives of the shariah need to be foregrounded to avoid daftness from shariaphiles and shariaphobes alike. I’m less interested in state policy, more interested in the moral vernacular abd the character of moral initiative.
How about this religious reason for the more ritually sensitised strands of your DNA. I would be interested in responses to the last sentence, because i haven’t heard one yet.
“A Muslim tradition says that angels do not visit the house where there are human images. Perhaps this is why dhaka university is such a god-forsaken place? Hmmm the gate to our country, to the ijtema may not be the best place for this kind of jive. Additionally, travellers might mistakenly think that the people of this country are generally hindu.”
What creative renaissance do baul statues represent? come on… seriously?
Even in the UK, faith is re-emerging as a legitimate category in public policy, for all sorts of reasons. Deshis might find some additional dignity and cohesion by tooling up and not ceding deeni symbolic ground to 1930s mislamisms.
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fug – each Imam/scholar has a diffrent opinion about statues and Shariah, some say its Ok, some say No. Which one are *we* in Bdesh going to endorse? The one that we Like? or the one that alienates other religions??? Which one? You like the one that “muslim tradition says”, but that tradition is 1500 years old from Middle east, when cameras were not invented. One imam told me all pictures are bad. Then does that make all homes that have a TV (images) not visitable by angels?!! How primitive should our progress be?
Bdesh does not have a religious or state policy re statues of Art in public places. There are countless statues everywhere, why target Bauls? Ok you may be concerned people will turn to worshipping bauls, but that can happen to anyone. How about worshipping Khaleda Zia – should we keep her permanently in Burkha to prevent potential worshipping of her? Sorry for the analogies – but really!!
Your question: what creative renaissance do baul statues represent? Answer: Ask 150 million people, how many can make one statue (very few), and you will know how creative it is. But beauty of Art is in the eye of the beholder. How creative is a Pile of Bricks in Tate Art Gallery London?
You said ” travellers might mistakenly think that the people of this country are generally hindu.” With broken statues everywhere they might even think these people are generally Savage Fanatics!! Theres nothing worse than that.
How about the Shahid Minar? More people almost Worship that structure more frequently than Baitul Mukarram every year. Have you ever thought of that? How does that comply with the Shariah? So if that structure is acceptable by Shariah, why the panic about storks and Bauls? Nobody worships them !
Quite honestly, fug, I think the Ulema should concentrate much more on the perversion of immoral Corruption that permeates our society, abusing law and order and exploiting the poor and hungry, than on the artistic creativity of irrelevant street decorations.
Corruption in finance and politics is much more harmful to society and religion, and destroys the fabric of Islam much deeper than one or two statues. What exactly DOES the Shariah or “tradition” say about corruption – does anyone know??? I doubt it.
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Ah the priorities of corruption argument. dude, im not responible for the priorities of frustrated people on the ground. Corruption harms all five of the mentioned maqasid. As you know already, its a no brainer.
Faith – people lose faith and do terrible things out of desperations
Life – doctors are stupid and negligent, factories poison the earth, bankers rape it.
Intellect – schools churn out rotten fruit. standards flop. educated classes become mean. schooling becomes associated with social mobility rather than being able to distinguish right from wrong.
Dignity/lineage – chidren are born without knowing their fathers, accusations are made without any redress
Property – material goods are stolen, institutions are devoured, land is approprated
I think your expectation of ‘ulama’ (as narrowly defined) is higher than they can deliver. For the sociology of corruption in the Asia context and problems facing indigenous thought in developing societies see this chap, he was an Alim to me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syed_Hussein_Alatas.
On the ‘which law shall we follow? im so confused?!?’ angle, why dont people say the same about the diversity in all legal traditions?
You know if bengalis were maliki not hanafi, we’d have less of a bloodbath every qurbani eid as people show off their meat fetish and imagined power. If we adopted khums from the shias (20% of earnings to ‘charity’), we would have a legitimate local funding stream for that ‘civil society’ people are always chatting about.
What generally gets adopted into individual and social practice is negotiated. Its not ‘brahmin/whiteman/saudi say , you follow’.
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Such acts are an embarrassment to art and to islam. And a tragedy for peace-loving Bangladeshis.
It appears that ‘ulema’ themselves are confused. Their own definitions – is it art or god? was it crime or justice? statues are halal or haram? and in their confusion, like Savage Fanatics they run around vandalizing public property. These acts must be discouraged by the ulema, and by society, to raise above such anti-social acts.
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Speaking of “differing islamic views on statues”, how about differing Islamic views on different kind of minar designs, the 2 ton chandelier that hangs from the ceiling of the 2nd biggest mosque in the world, the designs in the tiles used or even general architecture of grand mosques? So if these things can exist in an “islamic state” then why can’t statues of storks?
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i think someone forgot to carry the 3.
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