Nawshad Haque Bangladesh

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ME AND MY PLACE

I originally come from a typical Bangladeshi village called Karpashdanga, located in the north-western district of Chuadanga.

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HISTORY OF MY VILLAGE

Karpashdanga is an old historical village located in the border area of Bangladesh with West Bengal state of India. This village was famous in the region for rural business centre from long ago. The big Bazaar on the bank of the Bhairab river was one of the oldest rural commercial meeting place from the Mughal to the British era. Even in the present days, the business has grown more and more. There is a historical 'Nil-Kuthi' on the Bank of the river Bhairab. This 'Nil-Kuthi was one of the Head Quarters of the then East India Company during British Raj for administering the cultivation of indigo in this area. The main part of the Nil-Kuthi is now in a ruined state. The other part has been renovated and converted to a girl's secondary school about 15 years ago. The old name of the village was 'Nishchintapur'. Although there is no definitive proof, some people think that this village may be the same village, mentioned in the famous novel of Pather Panchali (translated as Palms of the Way) written by the Novelist Bibhutibhusan Bandyopadhyay and this novel was later made into the famous film of 'Pather Panchali' and 'Apur Shangshar' by famous director and film-maker Satyajit Ray. Pather Panchali (1955) is the first film in the Apu Trilogy. Satyajit Ray later completed the trilogy with 'The Unvanquished' (1956) and 'The World of Apu' (1959). Click for Some images from Pather Panchali and some information in BANGLA (from the Ittefaq; note: you need adobe acrobat to read this. If you find problem, please reload this page again).

There is also a graveyard in Karpashdanga village used to bury the white people of East India company when they deceased. It is heard that one such name of a white man was Mr. John Larmer (locally people used to call Larmer shaheb) who was very tyrant administrator during British rule in that area. Please read in Bangla about Amjhupi Nilkuthi near Karpashdanga (from the Ittefaq). (It is said as a proverb that he was such a ruler, he could force tigers and bullfallos to drink at the same place of the river without showing any hostility to each other). There is also a mention of a small grave in the novel, about the young Edwin Larmer, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Larmer who died early and was buried there, and all these details were cast on his grave. However, there is a difference, the name of the river in this case is 'Bhairab' whereas in the novel 'Ichamati'. Many critics agree that the novel is a biography of the author and as he might had picked up a typical village in greater Jessore region as he was born in this region. The village is only 15 km away from the then greater district town of Nadia (Krishnanagar) and also not far from Ranaghat of West Bengal. These towns were mentioned frequently in the novel.

Another historical event in this village is that the rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam stayed in this village for some time and during his participation with non-cooperation movement organised against British Raj. There were few active members of the 'Shadehsi' group, whose descendant live in western area of christian community in Karpashdanga. A Nazrul museum has been established in the local high school with the collection of things Kazi Nazrul Islam left in that house.

Though it is not certain and the matter is debatable, one unfortunate thing is that we are losing such opportunities that we could develop the opportunity of tourism by using these types of historical events, buildings, establishments etc. associated and common in many villages in Bangladesh. The most of the remnants I have mentioned here are about to be destroyed or already nearly in ruined state by people, due to the lack of proper care and maintenance by the government authority and absence of an organis1ation who can take care of these heritage values.

PRESENT CONDITIONS

Though Karpashdanga is a village, it has now got a small country town appearance. There are a significant number of educational institutions. There are two government primary schools, two high schools, three madrashas (religious schools). A college for post-secondary education was established a decade ago.

This village is a Union Council Head Quarter, the lowest local government unit in Bangladesh. There is a branch of a national commercial bank in the Bazaar. The Rural Electrification Board (REB) has extended its network to this village few years ago providing the electricity facility to this villagers. The Roads and Highways Department has constructed a new 30 km road from Darsana (the largest Sugar Mill of the Carew and Company is located in this town) to Mujibnagar (historical place where the first Bangladesh government took oath in 1971) via Karpashdanga located in the mid-way. Also this village can be reached by bus or other modes of road transport via another road from Damurhuda Upzilla Head Quarter. All these roads are connected to Chuadanga-Kaliganj Road which in turn is connected with Dhaka-Khulna Highway.

DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

The majority of the people are farmers. The agricultural land is very fertile. The majority of the land area is under irrigation and used to cultivate high yielding variety of rice. Farmers get at least three crops in a year. The productivity is around 5.5 ton of rice/hectare of land per crop season. However, significant numbers of people are businessmen. Usually very small business e.g. a small shop for selling light refreshment, groceries etc.; medium business e.g. a textile shop, fertilizer dealer, hardware shop etc.; large businessmen only a few, usually the owner of few shops have establishments in the local Bazaar.

There are some government employees particularly, a large number of school teachers comes from this village. This village is divided into parts (eastern Bazaar area and western area). The majority of people are muslim. About 25% of the total population of 15000 in the village is christian. There are two large churches belong to two groups of christian e.g. catholic and protestants. There is also a missionary hospital run by the christian missionaries and is famous in the area for medical treatment facilities and care of patient. In general, there is a nice harmonious relation among the people. People also work for many non-governmental organizations (NGO).

Overall this village is growing quite fast toward the path of development in recent days. There were some sporadic events of the outlawed group not in this particular village but in this area for some time in the past. Now those have been under control according to current news from the village. Those people who would like to travel around and enjoy the beauty of rural Bangladesh, this village and many villages similar to this village are ideal spots to explore. There are small hotels in Chuadanga and Darsana, both and this village can be accessed by bus from Dhaka (the capital city) and train and other modes of transport from other major cities. The best travel time is winter (a lot of cheap fresh foods, vegetables, juice of date palm tree, home-made sweets etc. are available around) and the travelling in the villages should be completed within a day from the morning to the evening, if you do not have any relatives or acquaintances in the villages. Generally the majority of the rural people are very friendly and have a good sense of hospitality. The major attractions may be the historical buildings, remnants, vast green paddy field, other crop fields during winter and meeting and talking to local people in the Bazaar.

MY COUNTRY

Please enter the following links for information about my country.
Bangladesh Online E-Mela Virtual Bangladesh
Newspapers: Prothom Alo Janakantha Ittefaq Daily Star News from Bangladesh Jai Jai Din Weekly
Entertainment: Durdarshan India Ruposhi Bangla TV Homeview Bangladesh
Environment: BCAS EB2000 Nirmal-Bangladesh Egroups Nirmal-Bangladesh