Lalon's Akhra Has Now Become a Mazar

The essential character of Lalon's Akhra courtyard at Cheuria in Kushtia has been destroyed; its own bhab-gata identity has been lost. Beneath gleaming modern structures lie crushed the Bauls and fakirs, and the destitution-steeped environment of their sadhana.

The resolution to build installations within four kilometres of this historic site and heritage, as recommended by the National Committee, has not been withdrawn. As a result the authentic fakiri bhava has been lost. The custodianship and authority of the Baul-fakirs over the Akhra have gone by the board. Charged with guarding and looking after Lalon's Akhra, the Lalon Academy, tortured by a guilty conscience, looks on helplessly as a stranger in its own land at the Baul-fakir-sages living around the Lalon Akhra.

When, on the other hand, ten years passed after the Supreme Court's order, the Bauls got back the charge of the Akhra as their own. Even though the long legal battle ended with the Baul fakirs the last losers, again and again the Bauls lost heart.

Under the Awami League government in 1996, the governor of then East Pakistan, Monayem Khan, founded the Lalon Folk Heritage Centre beside Lalon's burial ground. In 1997 the institution was named the Lalon Academy. From its very founding, the dislocation of Baul-fakir-sadhus from Lalon's Akhra began.

On 15 October 1989, when the district administrator and the chairman of the Lalon Academy called a religious assembly at Lalon's Akhra, the Bauls, believers in the religion of humanity, resisted it. When nearly five thousand Baul-fakirs demonstrated, reserve police were deployed and they were dragged out of their Akhra.

To recover their lawful authority over the Akhra, the Baul-fakirs took refuge in the courts in January 1991. At the end of a long 19-year legal battle, on 11 February 2009 the Supreme Court ruled that the responsibility of administering Lalon's Akhra be handed over to the organization of the Bauls, the 'Lalon Mazar Sharif O Seba Sadan Committee'. Even after ten years had passed since the Supreme Court's order, the Bauls got the Akhra back. Till today no initiative has been taken by the government or the local administration to settle the matter of the handover. The Lalon Academy too still keeps the Akhra under its control as before.

Setting aside the Baul-fakirs' lawful claim, a project was taken up in 2004 to build the Lalon Complex at the cost of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. Disregarding the National Committee's recommendation against installations within four kilometres of the historic site and heritage, at the very heart of Lalon's Akhra an ultra-modern auditorium, a museum and a guest house - a four-storied building - have been built. The Kaliganga river, which flows by in memory of Lalon, has been filled in too, and a stage erected.

The ownership of all the lands in and around Lalon's Akhra courtyard now belongs to the Lalon Academy. Yet the whole of that property once belonged to Lalon himself. Since Lalon's death in 1890 it was the Bauls who performed the rituals and kept it clean. Now the demand of the Baul-fakirs' hearts is that the Akhra courtyard of Lalon Saiji be returned to them alone.

At the Lalon Academy's office, the Baul-fakirs spoke with several of them about their troubles and problems.

On this subject the senior-most fakir Bazlu Shah told New Age Bangladesh: "The troubles inside the Lalon mazar are these - the fakirs who were once here and discussed the doctrine are no longer the original fakir circle. Those who are here - the committee or academy circles - are the ones running the doctrine. But they do not know the law-canon-tariqa of the fakiri path."

Citing the law of the fakirs themselves, Bazlu Shah said: "What the fakirs once did - the seat-honour-service, that devotion - that thing is no longer here. It has become something else. That environment of the fakirs - which in our tariqa means service, in the tariqa means sound, the seat; that people of the bazaar will cook, that they will run the errands - that environment is now not within the Lalon Academy."

The Baul Rajjak said: "Once Lalon's Akhra was like the hermitage of true sadhus. Now building upon building has turned it into something else; Lalon's Akhra has now become Lalon's mazar. The essential character of the Bauls' environment is there no more."

He added: "Lalon Saiji has two memorial observances - one on his Tirodhan Dibas, the other at Dol Purnima. The rule of sadhu-sanga that is needed there no longer holds. That used to be before."

Agreeing with him, Sukh Chand Fakir said: "Lalon's Akhra was once of one kind. Now they have taken Lalon upon their heads and are bringing him down! Someone or other, carrying Lalon's name, is driving it here and there through this world. The reason is that his love is not the love of love. That love of his, that anguish of true love, is not here. What goes on here is bargaining, the pursuit of self-interest. This is not Lalon's teaching."

He said further: "The freedom of will the Baul-fakirs once had is gone. The peace that was has turned into something else. That land of love is there no more. Lalon had no breath of tolerance; he was never 'ham parenga tam parenga'. Now all these things have been set up here, in this mazar."

Fakir Abdul Mannan said: "A class of contractors has emerged who are now fighting and feuding in Lalon Fakir's name - would that they did not. They want to make themselves famous through Lalon, that is, to earn. Yet they know nothing about Lalon. It is they who now want to display Lalon's Akhra with pomp, to dress it up." He said, "Lalon himself was the answer to all this. I too declare my protest. We want our Lalon Akhra back."

There had been a movement to save the Lalon Akhra. The convener of the Lalon Akhra Protection Committee, Sirajul Islam Choudhury, led it as joint convener. The convener was the poet Shamsur Rahman.

Sirajul Islam Choudhury said: "The Bauls want no buildings or installations. But that is just what has been done at Lalon's Akhra courtyard. The thing has not gone right. It is a commercial aggression upon the Bauls' own culture. Fairs are now held here. We protested against it, but for various limitations we could not carry it through."

He said: "The Bauls here are Lalon's successors. Lalon is an important part of our culture. The Bauls' cultural identity must be protected, not destroyed. Authority over Lalon's Akhra courtyard belongs to the Bauls themselves. It is right that it be handed back to them."

A member of the Lalon Akhra Protection Committee was Bhaskar Rasa. He welcomed the Supreme Court's verdict in the Bauls' favour as the sign of a new dawn and said: "That even after ten years this verdict has not been carried out astonishes me. However the government may put it, implementing this verdict is the state's constitutional duty. If this verdict is not implemented, national heritage will suffer."

He said: "Lalon's history is self-evident. He cannot be bound by the rules of any academy. The Akhra courtyard of Lalon must be handed back into the hands of the Bauls."

Lalon Sangeet artist Farida Parveen said: "Why this verdict has not been implemented all these days ought to be looked into. Academic, political and administrative contractors have kept Lalon's Akhra courtyard in a shambles. On the stage erected, howling microphones and all, Lalon's songs are being sung. This is the Baul-fakirs' place; the fakirs ought to live here. Lalon's Akhra courtyard ought to be handed over into their hands."

The director of the Lalon research centre at Kushtia Islamic University, Lalon researcher Abul Ahsan Choudhury, said: "I always say that Lalon's Dham is the Dham of the Baul-fakirs. Unauthorized people have no authority here. It is painful and astonishing that the authority of the Baul-fakirs has not been established at Lalon's Dham. As soon as possible this Dham should be handed over to the Baul-fakirs."

On this matter, when asked, Kushtia's former district administrator Bimali Bhoumik said: "Nobody has come to us with the Supreme Court's verdict. If someone comes with the court's order, I will, without the least hesitation, hand over the Akhra courtyard of Lalon into the hands of the Bauls. There is no one outside the law. I personally think that the authority of the Baul-fakirs over this Akhra courtyard should be hundred per cent. It is right that they be made to understand this."

Kushtia's district administrator Saiyed Belal Hossain said: "I do not know the matter. Nobody has come to me with the court's order. There is no scope or capacity in any way to disregard an order of the honourable Supreme Court. If someone comes to me with the court's order, I shall act accordingly."

Firoze Ehtesham, Newsbangladesh.com