Partition Casualty and Its Restoration: With Mother’s Blessing on August 18, 2023, Bangladesh, Rebuilding Its 1700s Shrine
Partition
Casualty and Its Restoration:
With Mother’s Blessing on August 18, 2023, Energizes an
Oppressed
Community in Bangladesh,
Rebuilding
Its 1700s Destroyed Shrine
By
Sachi
(Sabyasachi) Ghosh Dastidar
While
visiting Laklshmankathi in Bangladesh in September of 2022, the ancestral land
of our indigenous families, several villagers led by P Debi came running,
saying Uncle Kaku, could you please fix our destroyed shrine – temple – of
Mother Kali, the famous Black Mother who protected our families by destroying
the demons? This rocked our soul! It is said that our ancestors built the
village in 1500s when Bengal was ruled by a Persian (Iranian) Islamic ruler who
sought our ancestors help for governance or finance, and because of their help
Persian king honored the family with “Dastidar” honorific title that many
descendants added to their last name. One of the ancestors left their Gava
(Gabha) village in the same Gour Nodi sub-district, also called Police Station,
of southern Barisal District of eastern Bengal, now Bangladesh, and established
the village. This is possibly 30 or 35 miles away from Gava taking an hour or
two today, but in the old days of travel by boat it easily took a day to cover
that distance.
Remains of the Shrine Represented by a Ghot or Pitcher, as Is the Tradition
Gour Nodi Sub-district:
Lakshmankathi is South of Mahilara
Since
our visit in early 1980s we have been requested first to rehabilitate the Sri
Bishnu (Vishnu) Mandir whose temple was destroyed, but the deity survived as
the deity was a single granite stone structure built in 1500s. During that era,
it was possibly a custom to build and dedicate a deity of Sri Bishnu, the
builder of the world structures. Locals even found a smaller Sri Bishnu deity
in a pond of nearby Mahilara village, where America’s Probini Foundation built
its first school for the poor and the orphaned and a home for devotees – Nihar
Kana Bhaktabash O Bidyaloi. (Since then, Probini has built over dozen schools-hostels-orphanages
in Bangladesh, and in India’s West Bengal, Assam and Mizoram, and provide
scholarships to students in dozens of schools in those areas.) At Mahilara local
villagers found documents that the deity belonged to my father-in-law, Dr.
Prafulla Kumar Sengupta, but the local administration took that murti (statue)
from a local Hindu Temple to a bureaucrat’s place. My appeal and that of the villagers
were ignored by the bureaucracy. I believe that it was an immense task to have
deities of Koshti Pathor or granite as those had to be imported from distant
lands in India with stone mountains, which doesn’t exist in Bengal.
When
we first visited the temple, it was in poor condition, and local villagers
wanted us to take the deity to India, that we refused. The building was gone. Many
villagers were also afraid that terrorists may destroy the deity.
1982 Visit: Remains of the 1500s Shrine of Sri Bishnu.
Little girl on left, standing, we
met again in 2023 on August 18, 41 years later, a mother now, whereas her
mother standing behind in white sari, was a great guide for the visitors, but
passed away few years back.
Since
we visited the village dozens of times, it gave us lots of energy, pleasure,
and joy.
After
our 1982 and 1986 visit, we informed our extended refugee family about the
plight of Sri Bishnu Mandir temple, that our Mejda, or Middle Older Brother,
Amitabha or Mr. A. G. Dastidar, a well-known soil and foundation engineer with
offices in Kolkata and Mumbai, decided to help build a new shrine of Lord
Bishnu, and brought new life to the oppressed indigenous Hindu minority and secular
Muslim community. (He was also involved with a top Bangladeshi industrialist to
build many big buildings, and most likely of the building of Barisal Airport
that we took many years after his passing. Empire's
Last Casualty: The Barisal (Barishal) Airport, Bangladesh
(empireslastcasualty.blogspot.com)
Dedication by A. G. Dastidar
New building brought new
life to the poor villagers of Lakshmankathi. By the way, even today the area locally
is known as Bishnu Bari or Home of Lord Sri Bishnu, which includes homes of centuries-old
“Ghosh Dastidar” families, most of whom were illegally occupied after
anti-indigenous pogroms that began after India’s 1947 partition. Partition created Secular
India and Islamic Pakistan, planned and promoted by England. In 1986 a local
schoolteacher, a Muslim lady, gave us a tour of the area showing homes of our extended family, that were taken over by illegal settlers.
1986 Tour of Homes of Our Extended Family
New Temple after 1987 Rehabilitation
by A. G. Dastidar
Mother
Kali’s children’s life took a better turn after the rededication of Sri Bishnu
Mandir in 1987. As we worked with Probini Foundation since early 1990s, we
visited different parts of Bangladesh, and Indian states of West Bengal, Assam,
and Mizoram on a regular basis, but not necessarily Lakshmankathi. In 2019 we
visited our ancestral village and Bishnu Bari with my elder sister Didi or Mrs.
Pratima RoyChowdhuury, and her friend from Kolkata, India.
Didi, 3rd from Right in
White Sari, 2019
Here is report of
Lakshmankathi on our visit that we did via Barisal Airport. Empire's
Last Casualty: LakshmanKathi 2019 (empireslastcasualty.blogspot.com),
and our airport experience Empire's
Last Casualty: The Barisal (Barishal) Airport, Bangladesh
(empireslastcasualty.blogspot.com).
During
our visit to the village in 2019, Didi and I were requested by villagers if we
will be able to protect the rebuilt structure as after 30 years its tin roof was
leaking, and wooden windows were falling apart, and more. Luckily, Swamiji or
the Hindu Monk from adjacent Madaripur District Jiban Maharaj was with us, and
he took responsibility to explore the time, money, and labor needed to make it
lively again. He worked hard to rehabilitate the building and the rededication
was broadcast live on Facebook with the help of some local volunteers.
Rehabilitation looked nice. Empire's
Last Casualty: Re-dedication Celebration of Ghosh-Dastidar Family-Established
15th Cent Sri Bishnu Temple in Barisal District, Bangladesh
(empireslastcasualty.blogspot.com). This writer requested the
Hindu monk to appoint Mrs. Das as the regular priest for the shrine, that the
monk had full support, but Mrs. Das had to be taught the protocols of being a
priestess for such a historic temple.
2021 Sri Bishnu Mandir Rededication
In
September of 2022 during a visit to Bishnu Bari with Swamiji Jiban Maharaj,
some local villagers came running to us asking “Would you please rebuild our
destroyed Kali Mandir that now stands with only Ghot or Pitcher representing
our Mother Kali with a tin roof over the Ghot?” I didn’t have time to think,
and at first didn’t want to get involved in new projects. After returning to
the United States, and discussing with my family, I decided to explore of that
possibility with monk Jiban Maharaj. So, in December of 2022 the monk visited
the village, talked with the local folks, and gave us an estimate of how much we
have to raise to complete the project, that ran into thousands of dollars, or
hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi takas. Shefali, Shuvo and Sumedha, and
granddaughter Shriya-Lakshmi of my family thought that it will be great if we
could rebuild the pogrom-destroyed shrine of our Black Mother Kali.
Ghot (Pitcher) Represented the Destroyed Temple
Thus, I began sharing our plan with several of our friends and refugee family members in the U.S.A. and India. With pleasant surprise I got immediate positive encouragement. People from the U.S., India, Singapore called and promised donation for reconstruction. With a positive note, we realized that we received support from Americans, Indians, Bangladeshis, Bangladeshi Hindu refugees, Singaporean, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian supporters. In the end, the shrine received 29 donations, including many from our families, and from complete strangers. Donors are, in order of when we received it, Mr. Shuvo G Dastidar*, Mrs. Sumedha J Dastidar*, Miss Shriya Lakshmi Ghosh Dastidar (9-year-old), Mr. & Mrs. Anil & Chhaya Gupta*, Mr. Bidyut Sarkar, Prof. Dr. Saradindu & Dr Mrs. Seema Mukherji*, Mr. Nirmal Mondol, Doctor Bhola Banik, Prof. Jill Hamberg, In Memory of Mihir Sen by Dastidar Family, Mr. Khurshedul Islam, Mr. Amitabha Chatterjee, Mr. Dilip Chakravorti, Prof Dr Sujata Ghosh Dastidar, Mrs. Babia Dutta, Rev. Arlene Wilhelm, Prof. Dr. Minna Barrett, Mr. Pranesh Biswas*, Mr. & Mrs. Dilip & Snigdha Chakrabarti, Prof. Dr. Birendra Prasad Pramanik, Doctor Rudra Nath Talukdar, Mrs. Subhra Goswami, In Memory of Uma Sengupta by Dastidar Family, Mr. Anirban Ghosh*, Mrs. Aruna Advani, Mr. Sanjib Mazumdar, Dr. Sumita Sengupta, Mrs. Pratima RoyChowdhury, and Prof. Dr. Sabyasachi & Dr. Shefali S Ghosh Dastidar* for donating for temple rebuilding. (Names are in order of donations received. People with * donated at least $1,000 dollars or Rs. 50,000 rupees. Donation ranged from $20 to $2,500+ dollars.) This was Mother’s Blessing!
In an auspicious day in
late January of 2023, Swamiji did Vith Puja or Foundation Laying for the temple
with the presence of local villagers.
Swamiji with Local Villagers doing Vith Puja (Foundation Laying), Offering Prayer to Mother Nature
Video of the Vith Puja (Foundation
Laying): Offering Prayer to Mother Nature.
We
received regular update of the construction progress. As it came closer to
completion, Swamiji decided that the final rededication will be done at the
auspicious hour or ththi of 11 am in the morning of Friday, August 18,
2023.
Swamiji and local villagers requested that I
attend the rededication, just a few days after our return from a trip to
Greece, Cyprus, Islamic North Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, and Turkey. A few
days before departure an air ticket was bought for Kolkata, the first stop, via
Delhi, India. After a brief stay in Kolkata, West Bengal State of India, I
crossed the land border at Benapole-Petrapole crossing. Ironically, it was
August 15 when the British divided India into Pluralistic India and
Monotheistic Intolerant Islamic Pakistan, that included East Pakistan, now
Bangladesh. Crossing the Indian side took a few minutes, but on the Bangladesh
side I was kept waiting for the Entry Visa on Arrival for over an hour and a
half. I was the only one waiting with non-India or non-Bangladesh passport.
Individuals were nice, but not their bureaucracy. The rental car waited for me,
then we headed to the grave site at Tungipara in Gopalganj District of the
Founding Father Mujibur Rahman who was murdered by pro-Islamist and
anti-secular groups on August 15, 1975. Most of the commemoration was done in
the morning, including by the Prime Minister Hashina Wazed, the daughter of
Hon. Mujibur Rahman. Sadly though, many of the murderers were/are sheltered in
Muslim-majority nations, as well as in open democratic nations like the U.S.,
Canada, and U.K. It is worth mentioning that not one murderer of 3 million
Bengalis – overwhelmingly indigenous Hindu minority with secular Muslims, has
been punished by Pakistan, Muslim-majority nations, or in the West. Hindu Lives
not matter? Tolerance and secularism do not matter?
Hon. Mujibur Rahman’s Memorial at Tingupara, August 15, 2023
Ticket to Founding Father Mujib Museum in Dhaka City
After my arrival at Barisal, I stayed at the guest space of Madaripur Ashram, barely 30 minutes from the village, and visited the village and the beautiful-looking shrine before August 18. (There are no hotels near Lakshman-kathi village. This is true for most villages in the Subcontinent. Guest rental rooms are great at Madaripur Ashram. The monk can also arrange for rental cars and tour of historic nearby places.) And, then on Friday, August 18, 2023, Swamiji, Anirban – a donor from Singapore, and I left Madaripur Ashram in a rented car for the sacred work for the sacred village. The deity of Mother Kali was delivered a few minutes before the rededication. And rest is joyous history. (After the ceremony and wonderful Bengali vegetarian bhog lunch - pious offering to the Mother - we all headed to Barisal City for a brief visit, returning back to Madaripur guest house.)
Some Bangladeshis and Indians called
this the first revolution for indigenous oppressed minorities since partition
of India in 1947!
Here are some pictures of dedication.
Sri Bishnu Temple, left, New Shrine in the middle, and the Memorial for the Destroyed Shrine, on right.
Two Monks, Jiban Maharaj of Pranab Ashram of Madaripur and Dayamoy Sadhu of Mahilara Mott (place for monks) at the Opening
Cutting of the Red Ribbon was Done by Sabyasachi Ghosh Dastidar, while Two Hindu Monks held the Ribbon. Anirban of Singapore joined him.
On
the Back, from Left to Right, Pushpa Debi, Anirban, Swamiji, and Sabyasachi, at
Opening Ceremony
Enchanting
Kirtan Musicians
Kirtan Singers from the Village
Local Villagers Expressing their
Gratitude and Obtaining Power to Stay in their
Ma Kali with Monk Dayamoy Sadhu
Local Ruling Awami League Party Youth Leader Mohammad Sahel, Center, and Associates with Builders of the Temple
Presentation by Sabyasachi (Sachi)
Ghosh Dastidar
The 1500s Sri Bishnu
Murti at the Bishnu Mandir (Below), Saved in 1987:
Celebration and Jaggyo or Offering to Fire God at the Adjacent Sri Bishnu Temple Patio on August 18, 2023, Continues:
Some of the Attendees of
Rededication
(That little girl in the second
picture is now a married woman, 2nd from left.)
Mrs. Pushpa Rani Das Honoring Sabyasachi Ghosh Dastidar
Here Are Some pictures of the
Lakshmankathi Village established in the 1500s:
All
are welcome to visit the historic and holy place. Please visit the place on
your Bangladesh tour. The village is west of Batajore Bus Stop on the main
Dhaka-Barisal Highway. During our first visit we had to cross two rivers. We were going
north from Barisal City in public bus with ferry services taking lots of time.
Now, two bridges cover those two rivers, saving hours to reach Barisal City
from Batajore, or vice versa. In addition, a new Padma Bridge in the north has
cut travel time between capital city of Dhaka and Lakshmankathi by hours. In
addition, flying from Dhaka to Barisal airport also saves time, as Barisal
Airport is close to Lakshmankathi village. One can easily rent space at Madaripur Ashram and visit Lakshmankathi Bishnu Bari, historic Mahilara Mott, and a Pithasthan or Sacred Place on Sandhya Nodi River.
Om Shanti! Peace be upon us! Joy
to Lakshmankathi! Victory to Village Residents!
Comments:
Dear Kaku (Uncle):
Thanks for sharing. This is a great
write up.
I really appreciate you involving me
in this project.
Had a great time together.
Regards,
Anirban 9/11/2023
******
Namoshkaar (Greetings) Prof.
Dastidar:
Would you be able to present your
work in Bangla?
Topic: Rededication of August 18, of
1700s Kali Temple destroyed in 1950s……..
Rajiv 9/11/2023
******
Dada (Older Brother), I am so happy to find out how
our poor and oppressed peoples found strength in this rehabilitation. I am
happy about that.
Islam, 9/12/2023
*******
Congrats on your Mandir Opening
Ceremony of August 18, 2023.
Joy, September 13, 2023
******
Important paper …... Thanks for sharing!
Regards,
Rishabh 9/20/2023
******
Thanks Dr. Dastidar - extensively documented with all the
trappings and benefits of modern technology (including over coloring of
photos). PLUS OTHER POSTS on MINORITY CLEANSING IN BD to this day.
(THIS) IS
A “LONG READ” ALONG WITH SOME BEAUTIFUL PICTURES RECENTLY TAKEN IN “Bangladesh”
used to be known as East Bengal before partition of India.
BB
9/20/2023
********
Namaskar: Greetings:
I just read your article on Lakshmikathi temple on Facebook.
We want to publish a Bengali translation of the article in our newspaper. I'll
be obliged if you allow it. ………. It would be great if you could give me the
original text. Secondly, if you allow the use of some of the videos you have
mentioned, it will be nice. We can share a video on our portal as well. In that
case, you will also have to send me video clippings.
Such reports will be very much appreciated by our readers
here. Please give permission, I request.
Be well. Pronam.
Arijit 9/21/2023
********
An important note from
Prof. Dr. Mahatapa Palit of New York
Dear Shefali-di and
Sabyasachi-da:
Our respect and love for you knows no bound as we watch
with amazement and pride what thirty-five years of real comradeship can
achieve.
To this beautiful union our warmest wishes.
May His Blessings continue to inspire you and May your
work be fulfilled.
Mahatapa
*********
Comments
Post a Comment