A vanished Bangladesh at its finest
Afsan Chowdhury appreciates a memoir of time, people and values
Kaka Babu'r Toyhouse, a book of reminiscences on time spent by a young Muslim boy (Dinu Billah) in a Hindu household Of Prof. Ajit Guha- in 1960s' Dhaka is a remarkable piece of cultural history, a truly unique product. Not only is it an enthralling read as a splendid work of storytelling but it reconstructs for readers the mental landscape of several generations of 'Bangladeshis' Muslims and Hindus- who could well be the most liberal, humanist enlightened Bengalis of them all, this or that Bengal. Dinu Billah is a member of the culturally illustrious Billah family of Dhaka who like so many were part of the 60s cultural mix that was built on the rising tides of nationalism. Economically middle class, they were culturally advanced with singing, dancing, literature and social exchange, all part of the platform which identified them in society. Even more significant for cultural and political historians is the fact that they were deeply religious and saw no contradiction between their faith based cultural life. This pattern of life produced an essential mix for personal, social and spiritual growth not just for the family but for the generation as well. Dinu Billah's vivid description of his father sitting on the jay namaz and talking to the family on various secular issues is a reminder of a near vanished society and life where religious and secular aspects were not considered mutually exclusive for many members of that liberal society. Prof.Ajit Guha, fondly called 'Kakbabu' by all, was not keeping well and hearing this, Dinu Billah's mother decided to send him to stay with the ailing family friend. Kakababu stayed in a slim house which once belonged to the Zamindars of Baldha, who established the fabled Baldha Garden, now in old Dhaka. The book is about his life there where he also met the middle class cultural icons of that time who were all part of the mindset that laid the values that powered the nationalist movement. One doesn't need a political treatise to understand what it meant to be a liberal Bengali then. The lives of these people mentioned in the book describe it with anecdotes, not arguments, making it such a valuable lesson in history. That is why this book should be treated as a socio-cultural text and not just a fine work of remembering the past. The book has two parallel threads running together, one on the person and the other on the time itself. Ajit Guha was a professor of Bengali at Jagannath College and had become a legend in his time as a teacher and a mentor. He was also an activist of the Ekushey movement and in general was very much part of the progressive socio-cultural movement. But it was a time when opposing the dictatorial government of Ayub Khan of Pakistan meant coming by a traitor certificate. If one was a Hindu, as Prof. Guha was, it meant being accused of being a spy for India, constant watch by the police and the anxiety that comes with such a life. Dinu Billah tells of many episodes and encounters that describe this shadow life that many professional Hindus lived in. But Guha was even more suspect because he was an intellectual, the one kind who could never be trusted. It was a life which was on constant notice. Yet it's from within this milieu that the Bengali mind, which represented the most enlightened of visions of society, was constructed. The author speaks of the many friends who came to the sitting room and in their discussions were fashioning an intellectual world that was merit based, rational and not influenced by faith, identity or wealth. But that's only part of the pleasure of reading this book because there may be no other book to remember the internal/domestic world of gentlemen Hindus of East Pakistan/ Bangladesh like the ancestral zamindar family of Prof. Guha, who lived in Comilla. Describing the family life, its rituals, pleasures and routines, one is irresistibly drawn to it like watching a documentary of a world gone by and away. The quiet calm of the Comilla Ashram is another such example where stalwarts of that era lived by the principles of their Gandhian leader. Dinu Billah is not a disinterested neutral observer but a passionately involved as one who obviously enjoys the world of cross-cultural social intimacy. Such vignettes are treasures because there are no records of those times and places any more and no observer either. It becomes for the author and perhaps for many readers a celebration of the world of inter-faith harmony that existed in Bangladesh once. It is this harmony that becomes the great motif of the book and the threats to the same posed by politics. Although the clouds of uncertainty always hang over the lives of the protagonists, it ultimately becomes a disaster when Prof. Guha loses his job. He is forced into becoming a partner of a printing venture, with the inevitable negative consequences. Life really becomes a serious problem and finally his friend Prof.Ali Ahsan gets him a job offer from Chittagong University. On his way to the job he passes away, ending a life that was an example for all who knew him. But it's also about the Billah family, their intense cultural commitment, balance between the secular and the divine and articulation of nationalist ideals that make them a showcase of the luminaries of the Bangladesh in its prime. The Billah sisters and brothers are all well known cultural activists but it is the mother who shines as the leading light of the family. On her own as a widow, she not only nursed their mind and body but their souls as well and it was on her insistence that Dinu Billah went to live in the Toyhouse. It is the mothers of Bengal who have written its most glorious but silent chapters. Billah's becomes the greatest character in the book and it becomes a homage to her too. Once in a while, a book is read which it is a privilege to praise and this is one of them. It is one book which every Bangladeshi should read to understand the kind of cultural environment that was generated but which later died in Bangladesh's post-1971 politics.
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