Dhaka, Bangladesh – On Monday, Bangladesh marked its first Bengali New Yr, often known as Pahela Baishakh, since a student-led rebellion ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina final 12 months.
However the renaming of an iconic parade, which has been held on the event for many years, has led to a debate on-line and offline, highlighting a political and cultural division throughout the South Asian nation.
Days earlier than the procession, Dhaka College’s positive arts college, which organises the annual occasion, introduced that the parade, recognized as far as Mangal Shobhajatra (Auspicious Parade), could be renamed Borshoboron Ananda Shobhajatra (Joyous New Yr Parade).
The organisers have defended the renaming of the colourful parade recognised by UNESCO in 2016 as an intangible cultural heritage, saying it has merely reverted to what it was as soon as referred to as, in 1989, when the occasion was launched.
“This can be a reversion to the parade’s authentic identify,” Prof Azharul Islam Sheikh, coordinator of the organising committee and dean of the positive arts college, advised Al Jazeera.
For the organisers, the identify change represents a break from the legacy of Hasina’s Awami League which dominated Bangladesh for 15 years and confronted accusations of great human rights violations, together with extrajudicial killings and compelled disappearances.
However critics are pushing again, arguing that the shift is about greater than a brand new begin. They are saying it dangers erasing a logo of Bangladesh’s pluralistic custom.
What’s the parade about?
The parade begins at daybreak on the primary day of the Bengali New Yr.
It options monumental, vibrant makeshift statues crafted from bamboo and paper, together with representations of animals, birds, and folktales. Ladies often put on white saris with crimson borders, and males gown in panjabis, the lengthy, collarless shirts worn over pyjamas by Bengalis in India and Bangladesh.
The procession strikes by way of the streets of Dhaka, accompanied by the rhythmic beats of conventional drums, and is broadcast dwell on nationwide tv, permitting households throughout the nation to partake within the celebrations. Contributors usually maintain up banners with a spread of messages.
The inaugural Ananda Shobhajatra in 1989 was conceived as a refined but highly effective act of cultural resistance in opposition to the then-military dictatorship of Common Hussain Muhammad Ershad.
Dhaka College’s pupil organisers crafted giant, vibrant effigies — grotesque owls to characterize corruption, tigers symbolising braveness, and doves for peace — to mock the regime’s authoritarian grip.
Whereas the parade didn’t characteristic overt protest chants, its very existence was a type of dissent. By reclaiming public house for creative expression and cultural celebration, the scholars challenged the suppression of civil liberties below navy rule. The procession’s symbolism and timing conveyed a collective craving for democracy and freedom.
A little bit greater than a 12 months later, in December 1990, Ershad resigned following mass protests and civil unrest, resulting in the institution of a caretaker authorities and the restoration of parliamentary democracy.
In 1996, organisers modified the identify of the Ananda Shobhajatra to Mangal Shobhajatra. The phrase “mangal” has Sanskrit origins, which means “auspicious” or “welfare” within the historical Indian language, launched to symbolise a collective aspiration for a greater future, reflecting the nation’s renewed dedication to democracy following the top of navy rule.
However the identify would show controversial.
Why are these names controversial?
In recent times, conservative and Islamist teams have criticised the occasion, viewing it as opposite to Islamic ideas.
In April 2023, Supreme Court docket lawyer Mahmudul Hasan despatched the Hasina authorities a authorized discover, arguing that the time period “mangal” has Hindu non secular connotations due to its Sanskrit roots. He argued that the occasion’s motifs, corresponding to sculptures of birds and animals, offended Muslim sentiments, citing, amongst different issues, part of the Bangladesh Penal Code that punishes “anybody who intentionally and maliciously insults the faith or non secular beliefs of any class of residents”.
Hasan stated following his discover, the federal government withdrew a notification it had despatched all universities to mandatorily maintain the Mangal Shobhajatra, because the Bengali New Yr in 2023 got here through the month of Ramadan. The primary parade, organised by Dhaka College, went forward as at all times.
Nonetheless, Hasan’s transfer didn’t go unchallenged.
In an announcement at the moment, the Sammilita Sangskritik Jote, an alliance of a number of left and centre-left cultural organisations, stated the lawyer’s transfer was an try and destabilise the nation by way of communal rhetoric.
The motifs that Hasan objected to have been central to the parade’s visible parts from the inaugural 1989 procession, together with within the years when the Awami League and Hasina have been out of energy, and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion (BNP) has been in workplace.
Historian Mohammad Golam Rabbani of Jahangirnagar College stated considerations over the parade lately concerned extra than simply non secular elements.
Early celebrations of the Bengali New Yr had been deeply rooted in rural tradition and the agrarian economic system; there have been occasions marking the harvest, as an illustration. “Nonetheless, in the previous few many years, it has grow to be urban-centric,” Rabbani advised Al Jazeera. “The motifs chosen by the city artists for the Mangal Shobhajatra had been usually unrepresentative of the agricultural people.”
The July 2024 rebellion that culminated in Hasina’s ousting the next month “sparked a need for a cultural” reset, he stated. The present debate over the identify of the parade was, he added, a “reflection” of this.
Nonetheless, the renaming this 12 months has confronted opposition too. Left-leaning pupil teams have condemned the change, calling it “a give up to communal forces” by the interim authorities and a risk to Bangladesh’s custom of secular cultural expression. On Tuesday night time, unidentified arsonists set hearth to the house of an artist who created a number of the busts used on this week’s parade.
Some college students at Dhaka College’s positive arts college have additionally criticised the identify change. They argued that the phrase “mangal” had no hyperlink to the previous governing get together’s ideology.
“If the 1996 renaming was unjust, so is that this,” stated Zahid Jamil, one of many college students.
What are the brand new motifs within the parade?
This 12 months’s procession retained its conventional aesthetic, together with motifs of animals and fish, however included political motifs in floats that participated within the parade reflecting final 12 months’s lethal rebellion.
Main the march was a 20-foot-tall “Face of Fascism” bust, broadly seen as representing Hasina. Different motifs included a typographic design of “36 July”, representing the 36 days of lethal rebellion from July 1 to August 5 final 12 months, throughout which about 1,400 folks had been killed, and a portrait of Mugdha, a younger man killed whereas serving water to the protesters through the rebellion, symbolised by a water bottle.
Whereas some hailed the symbolism, others criticised it as an try and politicise Bengali New Yr celebrations.
“Hate breeds hate; generations are trapped within the binary of hatred. But, could each thoughts be free from hate,” Nadim Mahmud, a Bangladeshi researcher on the College of California, wrote on Fb.
Different motifs targeted on the nationwide fish hilsa, often known as the ilish, figures of horses and tigers, and the watermelon — symbolising Palestine and resistance.
Bengali versus Bangladeshi: Politics of nationalism
The talk over the renaming and which means of the parade additionally displays broader fissures in Bangladesh, significantly the ideological divide between Bengali and Bangladeshi nationalism.
Bengali nationalism, championed by the Awami League (AL), emphasises ethnic and linguistic id rooted in Bengali language and tradition.
In distinction, Bangladeshi nationalism, promoted by the BNP, centres on a territorial state id, highlighting Islamic heritage and nationwide sovereignty.
“Ideologically, the AL promotes a tribal id, whereas the BNP and different like-minded events promote a nationwide id,” stated Rezaul Karim Rony, analyst and editor of Joban journal. “The distinction in how Pahela Baishakh is well known might be defined by way of these competing ideologies.”
The appearing head of the interim authorities’s cultural ministry and fashionable playwright, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, accused earlier administrations of limiting the celebration among the many Bengali majority.
“We’ve lengthy handled this as a competition of (solely) the Bengali folks, but it surely’s a celebration of all of Bangladeshis, (together with all ethnic minorities),” he advised reporters at Dhaka College earlier than becoming a member of the parade.
This 12 months, the parade featured participation from 28 ethnic minority teams carrying conventional apparel, a lot of whom had been invited formally by the federal government.
“For the primary time, we had been formally invited,” Chanumung, head of the southeastern hill tract district of Bandarban’s competition committee, who goes by a single identify, advised BBC Bangla. “It seems like Pahela Baishakh is lastly being celebrated by all.”
Additionally seen within the parade had been gamers from Bangladesh’s ladies’s soccer workforce, carrying their workforce jerseys.
Farooki rejected ideas that the present authorities was politicising the parade — as an alternative accusing the AL governments of getting used the celebration for political messaging.
He stated the federal government had not imposed the identify change and that it was a call taken by Dhaka College’s positive arts college.
What occurred at Monday’s parade?
Since early morning on April 14, the principally younger crowds poured in from Dhaka and close by areas, packing the road in entrance of the positive arts college properly earlier than the parade started.
Contributors like Kaiser Ahmed, who joined final 12 months’s antigovernment protests, stated that they had returned to the celebrations after years.
“I boycotted this occasion for a decade below Hasina’s oppressive rule. Immediately I’m right here once more in a free surroundings,” he advised BBC Bangla.
Some analysts view the return to the unique identify of the parade as a reversal of “cultural fascism”, regardless of considerations that it displays the politicisation of tradition.
“Below the Awami League, Pahela Baishakh turned a instrument of cultural dominance,” stated Rony, alleging that the Bengali Muslim peasant majority was sidelined.
Different analysts like Kamal Uddin Kabir, assistant professor at Jagannath College’s division of theatre, differed.
“This units a foul instance,” he advised Al Jazeera, referring to the political use of motifs. “I by no means imagined the New Yr celebration could be organised like this. If energy shifts once more, the following authorities may do the identical.”
Rony, nevertheless, stated he sees no downside with the politicisation of the New Yr celebration.
“Tradition is inherently political, however the important thing query is whether or not the political expression of tradition upholds rights and promotes inclusion or suppresses variety and sows division.”
