Page 135 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

132 ART AND CRAFTS

From the Partition of India to the Bangladesh Period
The partition took place in 1947. Two independent countries were created, India and
Pakistan. There was great India between East and West Pakistan. The disparate state
of the two Pakistan’s was due to them having a Muslim majority. The partition and the
ensuring pain, insecurity, in many cases, rootlessness is a pathetic and distressing
chapter in the history of this region. The communal riots and killings are like a scar in
its history. The history of the art of Bangladesh entered a new chapter in these restless
and insecure times. The eastern part of Bengal included in Pakistan was named East
Pakistan. The capital of the new province was Dhaka. As in all other aspects of history,
a new chapter was introduced in the history of art.
With the creation of Pakistan began the process of shifting of countries, residences,
workplaces. Government employees were given the option of being transferred to East
or West Bengal as immigrants. Bengal had developed as the center of modern art as
the capital of British India till 1911 and later as the capital of Bengal. Though Dhaka
was an older city than Kolkata, it had not development as a center of modern art.
Sculptural practice was limited to Neoclassical sculptures to decorate the palaces of
the nobles. It was only natural that famous sculptors from this Bengal went to either
Kolkata or the other centers of India where there was a demand for sculpture or where
the art institutes were located.
Two Muslim-painters who had achieved fame in India, Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin
and Safiuddin Ahmed came to East Pakistan. Quamrul Hassan, Anwarul Huq, Shafiqul
Amin, Habibur Rahman, Syed Ali Ahsan and others also came to East Pakistan. It is
particularly notable that there were no sculptors among them. It was natural for
Muslims to have less enthusiasm for sculpture. Even in the Mughal era when painting
and architecture achieved excellence, sculpture retained its existence only in folk life.
When the country was divided according to religion, naturally Islam's disapproval of
sculpture was established. If one of the founders of the Institute of Fine Art in Dhaka
had been a trained sculptor perhaps sculpture would have been introduced at the
inception of the Institute. With the creation of Pakistan Bengalis begin to express their
allegiance with Muslim culture. That is why when the artists who arrived from
Kolkata tried to establish the need for an art institute in East Pakistan they organized
a poster exhibition on the occasion of Pakistan Day on 14th August 1948, the subject
chosen was the history of the first Muslim conquest of India to the birth of Pakistan.
Perhaps due to these reasons the foundation of modern sculpture was not made under
the auspices of the art institute.
Sculpture was introduced to former East Pakistan by a Muslim woman. Novera Ahmed
(c. 1930- ) due to some extraordinary events was trained as a sculptor from the
Camberwell School of Art in England. The desire to learn sculpture was completely her
own, we do not know of any well-wisher who encouraged her. She also went to further
her study in Italy and Austria. Her professor's comments about her sculpture as a
student supports the fact that her work was quite satisfactory, that they even had some