Memoir of M.H. Khan

MEMOIR OF M.H. KHAN

Turbulence in the Indian Subcontinent

Rear Admiral M.H. Khan

Copyright ©2016 by M.H. Khan

M.H. Khan has asserted his right under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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ISBN: 978-1-86151-571-1

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART 1: THE PRE-INDEPENDENCE EPOCH

1. A glimpse of the sub-continent

2. Embarking on a service career and contemporary national affairs

3. Early days at home, and the memories of the decade of post-RNC Greenwich

4. European and Middle Eastern tours

5. The acquisition of patrol craft and contemporary Bengali nationalism

6. Internment of Bengali officers and sailors after the Liberation War

PART 2: THE POST-INDEPENDENCE ERA

7. The development of the Bangladesh Navy

8. The assassination of Bangabandhu, and Martial Law Government

9. The Farakka dispute

10. State affairs and maritime issues

11. The greenhouse effect in Bangladesh

12. Industrial activities and military indiscipline

13. Extended social activities

PART 3: FAMILY HISTORY AND THE PROSPECTS FOR BANGLADESH

14. The emergence of Bangladesh

15. Our ancestry and family tree

List of Annexures

1. Ministry of Water, September 1976, White Paper on the Ganges Water Dispute, Impact of India’s Unilateral Withdrawal of Ganges Water & International Law, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

2. US Department of State: Diplomacy In Action. About Foreign Relations, Volume E-8 Documents on South Asia, 1969-1976, noon, July 2, 1976. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/e8/97099.html-

3. Khan, Musharraf Husain, October 7, 1976, Speech of Rear Admiral M.H. Khan, PNS, CNS, Advisor to the President at the 31st Regular Session of the UN General Assembly, United Nations Secretariat, New York.

4. United Nations General Assembly, 24th November 1976, Consensus Statement, United Nations Secretariat, New York,

5. Ministry of Water, The Merits of the Consensus Statement, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh,

6. Assessment on the Consensus Statement.

7. Khan, Musharraf Husain, November 5, 1977, speech of Rear Admiral M.H. Khan on the occasion of the signing of the Ganges Waters Agreement, Government of Bangladesh, Dacca.

8. Ministry of Water, Agreement between the Government of the people’s republic of Bangladesh and the Government of the Republic of India on sharing the Ganges Waters at Farakka and on augmenting its flows, Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka.

9. National Oceanographic and Maritime Institute, 7th March 1982, Symposium of the Bay of Bengal, National Oceanographic and Maritime Institute, Dacca.

10. Refer to-Tanaka, Kisei, December, 2011, ‘ICE Case Studies Number 270’, USA.

11. Refer to Joint Oceanographic Assembly in Mexico 1978, for items I referred to in the edited draft (pages 216 & 217).

12. International Oceanographic Conference, Dhaka, November 1992, Chairman’s Address

13A. Joint Oceanographic Assembly, Mexico, 1988

13B. Pichavaram Mangrove Ecosystem, a suitable ground for prawn and fish farming, Chandtasekaran and Natarajan

Dedication

I am humbly dedicating this book to my late parents, Mr. Muazzam H. Khan and Mrs. Shafia Khan. This is also a golden opportunity to share with my wife, Fahmida, for her constant support and encouragement in writing this book. Our only son Maruf H. Khan Noorpuri has been a joy, and he inspired me to write this memoir.

I cannot forget my two beloved grandsons Musavvir and Muazzam for their eagerness to learn about my life.

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my thanks to all those who came forward to encourage me to write my memoir. My parents nurtured and guided me throughout my formative years. I shall not forget that my father always asked me to keep a diary and write what actually happened, which enabled me to pen this book.

I would specially like to thank those who have helped me in writing and typing the papers. I would also thank my publisher Mereo under the guidance of Mr. Chris Newton, who edited the book.

Introduction

This book has been written with the aim of giving people a glimpse of the events of the past few decades and their effects. I have tried to connect the political history of the Indian subcontinent with the history of Bengal and how the two communities of Hindus and Muslims fell apart, ultimately to seek separate homelands.

I have indirectly associated the story with people’s activities in British -ruled Bengal, how their political objectives kept on evolving and also the interplay of communities and their own interpretations of how they would be ruled after the British left. I have also looked into the partition of the Indian subcontinent, and later Bangladesh’s appearance after being ceded from Pakistan. What happened after that was something which I passed through and directly witnessed.

It is difficult to marry the present with the past and draw a line of connection which had not been thought of at the time, although some indications and forecasts could be made on decisions taken arbitrarily without taking into account views, opinions and actions which would have a long-term effect on the lives of people. It is easy to check the correctness of statements if we deal with the present only, but there can be different opinions due to differences of thought and individuals’ concepts and beliefs about the happenings of the past.

I have written this book at the behest of my family, and it covers the history of my life, where we lived at different times and how local influences affected our daily lives. I have also described what I saw in the environment around our homes, which took me to the previous era and when and how the people left their footprints through time by way of relics and monuments.

Learning my profession and dedicating myself to the service of the Navy in the interests of promoting my abilities from the very beginning took the best part of my youth. It also gave me a lifelong trade, through which I was able to contribute to setting up a new navy from scratch in the new, independent Bangladesh.

I have started the book with part of Jaques’ famous monologue from Shakespeare’s As You Like It. I believe that the life of a human being goes through cycles in the same way as the geological timescale of the earth and the oceans. It runs through a cycle of conception and geological movement and grows through time. It is like the Earth, whose formation from the coagulation of meteor debris can be compared with human birth pangs. Just as after aeons human beings will start to fade towards oblivion, the Earth will one day disintegrate.

At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then, a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then, the justice,

In fair round belly, with a good capon lined,

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws, and modern instances,

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

As You Like It, Act II Scene VII

PART 1

The pre-independence epoch

Chapter 1

A glimpse of the sub-continent

Humans have watched and witnessed events through the passage of time, which is in a continuous progression during our worldly existence. There is never any permanency, even to the so-called solid structures that we earthlings leave behind for posterity. All marks left on the terrestrial surface are like footprints in the sands of time. They are there, but there will be another avalanche to obliterate everything it passes over, leaving no human signature. We are back where we started, so the present is past and the future is present. Perhaps the importance of the present cannot be over emphasized, excepting that it has fresh in its mind the events of the past and waits for things to happen at the next moment, moving into the future.

I am going back down the time tunnel to look back at the beginning of my life. As I start, I am perched on our beautiful building MHK Terminal, constructed by my wife. The building is located at the junction of VIP/Airport road and Eskaton Road, Dhaka. Now it is named Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue.

The chronology of the naming of Bangla Motor is important in the history of Dhaka, though this corner had no earlier name. When Bangladesh was part of Pakistan, this corner was called Pak Motors, then it was changed to Bangla Motor. The road used to be called Shahbagh Avenue and also Mymensingh Road, with a gate near Curzon Hall. Sitting above this road, one can observe the history of Bangladesh in the making. VIPs arriving and departing, besides the excitement and merrymaking during the festivities that take place in the metropolis, leave an imprint on the history of this country.

The idea of this preliminary introduction is to give a view of the sea changes that have taken place within the short time, little above forty years, since the inception of Bangladesh. During this period, I have lived on and off in Dhaka, which is the seat of the Government of Bangladesh. I am by profession a sailor. I left home in Dhaka soon after the British left the subcontinent in 1947.

My father, Muazzam Husain Khan, joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1927 by qualifying in the All-India Examinations. The first three groups of the Imperial Indian Service were the Indian Civil Service, the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service, where candidates were selected through examinations and the rest were selected on the merit of their university results – the Indian Educational Service and the Indian Medical Service. The opportunities for service in corporations were very limited under British rule and business was totally in the hands of the British, who preferred non-Muslim businessmen due to the historical events between British and Muslims, though Muslims had owned the businesses since the late 18th century.

As always, finance plays the most important role in administering a country. Bengal at that time prospered on its produce and had surplus rice, sugar, indigo, silk and opium, which were exported to the West and the East. Bengal became the hub of trading under some of the prominent rulers and businessmen, like Subedar Murshid Quli Khan and Marwari Manik Chand, who was awarded the title of Seth by the then Mughal (Timurid) Emperor of India. Afterwards, in Bengal particularly, after the demise of indigo farming (indigo is a plant of the bean family), jute started as the primary cash crop. There were a few jute mills in Calcutta and therefore the only opening for postgraduates was to sit competitive examinations for jobs in the administrative cadre of the Government, which provided ample opportunities for better individual standards of living.

In the police my father had various responsibilities, such as to maintain law and order and settle political equity, in addition to his daily roster of duties. During Mohammad Ali of Bogra’s premiership of Pakistan and in the early 1950s, my father was chosen as the DGIB (Director General of the Intelligence Bureau). It is an appointment chosen from amongst the most senior officers from the intelligence side of the police. His appointment was equivalent to the Senior Secretary of the centre and he became a very powerful person in Pakistan in determining the morale of the state. He held the chairmanship of the combined defence, civil and national intelligence.

My elder brother, Mubarak Husain Khan, was born in 1927. He was born rather physically weak and always suffered from minor illnesses. However he recovered and regained health soon afterwards. In time he became the first and most senior jute technologist in Bangladesh and later on the Manager of Delta Jute Mills.

I was born in 1931, in Berhampur, the District Headquarter of Murshidabad, where my father’s first posting was. This was the capital of Suba-e- Bangla, comprising the provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa during the latter part of the Mughal period, when the capital was transferred from Dhaka to Murshidabad. HMG (Her Majesty’s Government) was in full control at that time and its word was law. In spite of various agitations in pockets of many localities in the way of political activities, there was apparent calm in daily life.

Our life was intertwined with my father’s movement from one district to another, and we also moved likewise from one school to the next. This gave us the enjoyment of seeing new places, but the change of environment also had an adverse effect in getting adjusted to school friends and teachers but somehow life continued.

Our parents’ daily routine was more or less centred on their friends in the district towns and officials. Besides attending at the office in the case of police officers, the day used to start with a parade in police lines and then going to the office to check the mail from various outlying police stations. Mostly in the late afternoons they used to go to the club to play tennis and later after coming home, they would change into casual clothes to go back to the club for a hand of bridge. This is where my mother learned to play bridge and tennis to keep company with my father and his British friends in the District Headquarters.

There were some very interesting districts where we travelled, which I still remember. I started my schooling in Bogra and joined the Bogra Zilla School when my father went there in 1936/37. Every district had a government school called the Zilla School. There were other high schools and girls’ schools also. I found it strange to sit with the other students in class three in my school, because that was the first time I had found myself with so many children and a teacher in front. I used to be carried on a bicycle by Jabbar Miah – we used to call him Moulvi Shaheb – who was my father’s bearer/valet. On our way to school, he used to tell us a lot of stories about his experiences with my father and about people and places.

There were a few roadside shops and bazaars for fresh vegetables around the high schools. Half the district’s activities were around the railway stations. Most of the people used to go there for newspapers, which came from Calcutta.

Behind our house, there was a field where farmers grew green peas, grams and other vegetables. We used to go there, particularly in the evening, to pick the green peas and put them in the fire. We enjoyed the roasted peas, that was great fun. I remember those lovely days fondly.

We had an opportunity to visit various areas of the district with my father. We saw Mohasthangar, which was a 6th century Buddhist Bihar, under excavation at that time when new findings were emerging. It was exciting to see old clay pots with various writings which were being translated and explained.

The first riot in which I saw people getting killed over rights and illegal possessions was between the Muslims and Shantals. It took place at Adina Mosque, the largest mosque in what was then Bengal. Shantals captured the mosque, which provoked the feelings of Muslims in that area, and I observed it from far away. I was standing with a policeman when the mosque was stormed by the Police Regiment and the Shantals were forced out. It was my first experience of people getting killed, something I came to see more of in later life.

Bogra was a Muslim majority district then, and the first election of the District Board took place amidst high sentiment and rising emotions between the political parties having Muslim and Hindu members. In our house, regular meetings took place every day with the then Nawab of Bogra, Mohammad Ali. The excitement over the election continued till the final day came about. Mohammad Ali was elected and became the chairman of the District Board. This was in pursuance of the Government of India’s self-rule.

***

I also got to see for the first time the Indian Muslims’ active political role. The Indian independence movement had started decades before, but actual sentiment for independence rose amongst the people at the beginning of the 20th century. This Hindu-Muslim adverse interaction started way back in 1905 when Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal into East and West Bengal. Dhaka and Calcutta became the respective capitals. The province of East Bengal also included Assam. This partition was not accepted by the Bengali Hindu elite, so agitation started for the restoration of a united Bengal. The Muslims of Bengal were comparatively ignorant about the gains they would have accrued from the partition and were not at all politically aware.

During the time of British rule in India, the Hindu Bengalese had the opportunity of developing themselves from the British by educating themselves and advancing intellectually compared to the Muslims, because after the Mughal rule came to an end in 1857, following the first war of Independence, Muslims were considered the prime instigators of the uprising against the British, so they were left behind in terms of education.

The struggle of the Muslim League for the rights of the Muslims of India started around the early 20th century by organizing this party to safeguard their interests in 1906 at Dhaka. At that time, all Muslim leaders were with the Congress, the main political organ of India, which was organized in 1885. It was formed on the initiative of the British, so that they could hear about the opinions of the Indian people. The Congress proliferated amongst the Indian Nationals so strongly that it linked all the communities, including the second largest community, the Muslims. By 1890 or so, the then prominent leaders like Md. Ali Jinnah and Shaukat Ali joined the Congress, followed by many other prominent Muslim leaders. Mr Jinnah was by then a very prominent barrister in the court of Bombay and in the Privy Council.

The Muslim League was launched by Sir Salimullah after a meeting with Muslim leaders from all India to safeguard their political rights. However, it was a pity that there was no movement in support of the partition of Bengal which was in their favour. Obviously, the agitation was only to restore a united Bengal as before. The reason for the lack of mass information was primarily inadequate communication among the Muslim leaders of that time, who failed to identify the pros and cons of the division and the reasons for supporting the division of Bengal. The British Government, which was in full control of India, started to find difficulty in administering, because the Hindu Bengalese started agitating to annul partition, although Dhaka had already been made the capital of the new Bengal-Assam province and the construction of government buildings was in progress and most were completed.

The Hindu community of Bengal was well organized, unlike the Muslim community, by the mid-19th and the early 20th century. They were politically vocal with the Indian Congress, who became the mouthpiece of self -rule which later became the movement for independence. The Hindu Community took the opportunity to organize Anushilon Shamity, which later turned into a revolutionary terrorist organization. Their motto was to undo the done thing. It also brought about extreme nationalist sentiments amongst the Bhodrolok (upper class Hindu) class of Bengal. But Muslims were allowed no entry in the Shamity by the Hindus, as they were not considered by them as ‘Bhodrolok’ (the elegant class).

It may be of interest to note that the movement to reunite Bengal received impetus from Hindu intelligentsia, including Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote the poem Sonar Bangla to inspire the people emotionally.

In the face of agitation, the Government cancelled the formation of the new province and the status quo ante was restored. This did not stop the movements, but on the other hand it gave rise to various political parties, like the Swadeshi movement, similar to the Anushilan Party, mostly based in the parts of East Bengal. These were primarily underground parties for self-rule and revolutionary in characteristics for armed movements. The objective was to create the conditions for the British to quit India. They attempted to assassinate the British officers in provincial towns and succeeded in doing so in many places.

The prime movers in bringing about this tension were Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay with his Bande-Mataram paper, Swami Vivekananda and Aurobindo Ghosh. These parties were also prominent in the movement for the revival of Hinduism. It was surprising that INC (Indian National Congress) never took a role in undoing the division of Bengal. This however materialized with increasing local opposition; the partition of Bengal was aborted in 1912.

After WWI, the British Government started to think about how the Indian nationals would be allowed to participate in the state operation. Montfort reform was introduced in the Indian administration. This was the political competitive act of 1919, bringing in separate electorate systems in local government for Hindus and Muslims. This act, although accepted by both the parties, also set in motion a division in their political thinking.

There was a brief period of unity between Hindu and Muslim with the Khilafat movement in protest at the removal of Calipha in Turkey during the year 1920. Gandhi agreed to this movement along with the Muslim leaders at that time, but it only lasted for another year and a half with the Congress’s withdrawal of non-cooperation movement, and at the same time the Khilafat movement came to an end.

HMG wanted a consensus of ideas on the reservation of provincial and central assembly between two major religious groups. The wave of nationalism and sectarian rivalry started to disclose itself through different colours and factions. HMG called a round table conference in London in 1927, where Muslim leaders like Maulana Md. Ali, Shaukat Ali, Md. Ali Jinnah and the Aga Khan attended. The Indian Congress was represented by Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and others. The round table conference did not bring about any agreement amongst all the contending parties and soon after, Viceroy Lord Irwin announced that under the leadership of Sir Simon, a parliamentary committee with seven members would be formed. But as Indians were not in the committee, INC and Jinnah announced that they would boycott the commission. This resulted in stiff resistance from the Simon Commission. The Commission kept the electoral system unchanged on a communal basis.

A joint meeting with the Congress and the Muslim League was held to review the Simon Commission to find a solution and put forward an agreement between all the parties. Jinnah proposed the reservation of one third of the seats in the central council for the Muslims, but it was rejected. This was the parting of ways between Muslims and Hindus.

With the failure of the Simon Commission at the first Round Table conference, the British Government called another conference on 12th Nov, 1930. INC boycotted the conference and went for non-cooperation. In order to bring Gandhi to the Round Table, an agreement between the Viceroy and INC took place to withdraw non-cooperation.

The second Round Table conference took place in 1931. This also ended in failure due to the Muslims’ insistence on having a constitution on a communal basis. In 1932, the British Prime Minister announced the representation of different interest groups. The third Round Table conference began in November and ended in December 1932. It stated that a central assembly would be formed on a communal basis, having 105 Hindu members and 82 Muslim members out of a 250-strong Assembly. The rest of the members were from a few smaller groups of other communities. This became the 1935 Act of India.

The Indian Government announced that the Act of 1935 would be enforced from April 1937. With preliminary opposition from both Congress and the Muslim League, they participated in the election. Except for the communal representation, both parties had similar political thoughts.

The election took place that year and all the parties participated, in spite of initial opposition to the 1935 Act. Jinnah stated in that year, If I can achieve Hindu-Muslim unity, believe me, half the battle of the country’s won. He was given the title ‘Ambassador of Hindu- Muslim unity’ by Mrs Sarojini Naidu, a renowned English poet.

In the election, the Unionist Party and the Krishok Proja Party, along with the Muslim League, participated. The Muslim League performed badly in Punjab and Bengal; however it did win more seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bombay and Madras. In Bengal, KSP and ML formed a coalition government in the province.

Slowly but steadily Md. Ali Jinnah was finding that Mahatma Gandhi had a strong directional attitude. Gandhi generally believed in Hindu nationalism and remained so inclined. He never thought that Indians, whoever was making a home in India, could reject Hinduism. According to him, Indian nationalism was nothing but an extension of Hinduism. The Indian National movement slowly and sadly became a communal movement. Jinnah, Iqbal and all the other Muslim leaders who were English speaking in the early 20th century found that Congress was becoming totally a Hindu political party, although a prominent Muslim leader like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was in Congress and the estrangement between the two communities was more pronounced during the election in 1937. By the 1930s, the situation had changed radically when the Muslim leaders saw how their community was treated and looked down on the low caste Hindus as untouchables. At that time only 3% of those in Congress were Muslims. Tensions between Hindus and Muslims continuously rose. This led to many riots and bitter feelings and the Muslim League slowly started to gain strength.

***

When WWII was declared by the British against Germany in 1939, the Congress rejected participation of Indians in the war as the British did not consult with them. Therefore, in October 1939, Congress started an individual disobedience movement. Congress and the Muslim parties did not participate in totality but at that time the general workers went on strike. So Congress left the provincial Government in protest.

We hardly felt the great WWII, except for a couple of events that I remember. One was when we heard that Calcutta had been bombed by the Japanese. Although it was only hearsay, lots of people were killed and people started to panic. We saw at the railway station the terrible panic as people left Calcutta in a rush, practically leaving everything behind and even in some cases selling their belongings. The trains coming from Calcutta were so overcrowded with passengers that we could not see the railway compartments except for people’s heads packed in every possible way and covering every inch of space available. We went from the school to serve water to the passengers and were horrified to see their plight. In that melee we also observed people trying to run away with trunks and men running to catch them. The other incident was the Government’s evacuation of criminals from jails to places up country. We were very afraid to get near them. They were all chained with leg-irons. They were not offered any hospitality by the students and teachers escorted us away from them.

My father was transferred to Maldah in 1939 when WWII was going on. Interestingly the District Town was called English Bazaar. It was on the eastern bank of the confluence of Mahananda and Kalindi River, a small tributary of the Ganges. The district has a very chequered past. The first Muslim invasion in Bengal took place in 1398 and Bakhtiyar Khilji established Muslim rule in Bengal, having captured Gaur, the capital of Bengal, under Lakhan Sen. Bakhtiyar arrived in Bengal directly from Rajmahal, by crossing the river where Lakhan Sen was the Raja of Bengal. Bakhtiyar invaded Bengal, as the Subedar of the Khilji Emperor of India. On hearing Bakhtiyar Khilji’s movement with 11 soldiers on horseback arriving from the West, Raja Lakhan Sen ran away without a fight, which played a big part in history. From then on, the first Muslim rule under the Khilji dynasty of Delhi was established in Bengal.

The Capital, Gaur, was very well developed, having comprehensive schools, mosques and commercial houses. The people of that area still talk about the invasion of the 11 horsemen who landed in Gaur and how Lakhan Sen ran away. We used to visit that area often to see the first land that Muslims conquered in Bengal, which became the first capital of the Subedar. The ruins of those institutions are still there. The capital moved from Gaur to Sonargaon in the 14thCentury. We visited all the ruins during our stay in Maldah from 1939 to 1942. The features of English Bazaar were dominated by a very big maidan with a remarkable mango tree in the centre. It was the largest mango tree I have ever seen. Our playground was around that tree in the adjoining field.

There were some very joyful outings that I would like to mention. One was a very well-organized duck shooting trip in winter to the marshland north west of Maldah. We enjoyed the camping and elephant rides every winter. It was memorable because my father organized seven elephants; we all went by car to the nearest place, where we were to stay in tent encampments. It was a trip of about five days. The camping ground was like the mobile settlements of good old days. Before we went, the advance party erected the tents. We lived in tents, while the kitchen area and camps for the followers were separate. The elephants were tethered in an area with lots of fodder and Mahouts’ living quarters. The kitchen area was big open area of operation with water storage, fresh vegetables and a lot of storage for all kinds of ingredients.

The party comprised about five other families. The tents were allocated according to family groups. Every day we used to ride elephants and go out shooting. The programme started before sunrise and finished well after daylight. We would watch for ducks either flying in flocks or singly from their resting places near the marsh. The entire morning programme continued till 11 am and by the time we finished our shooting, each team had bagged at least five or six ducks. In the afternoon the youngsters got busy to gather wood for the evening bonfire. The days of duck shooting ended with a big bonfire in the evening before departure and the families went their separate ways the next day.

During the summer, it was mango harvesting season. The district had a number of mango gardens. Most of these gardens went to West Bengal as Maldah was also partitioned except for the subdivision of Nawabganj. Each garden was around three quarters of an acre. The mango trees were generally grown from cuttings so that they did not lose the quality of their parent trees. The old mosque and the ruins were mostly situated in the mango groves. During our stay in Maldah, we used to visit such gardens regularly in summer. We stayed in Dakbunglows in the gardens. These rest houses were located in all police stations of the district and generally used by District officers for inspection of the local area.

One of the most eventful and colourful annual functions was the two Eid festivals, and we used to look forward to participating in them with joy and enthusiasm. While my father was in the district towns we used to celebrate the occasion for at least three days. He used to organize primarily lunches and occasional dinners for all the elite of the city. All of us under the guidance of our chotto khala (youngest aunt) tried to do the assigned task to the best of our ability. Our task was to decorate the gate; in fact we used to do at least two gates and these were decorated with flowers and paper bunting. The tables looked very beautiful with ‘Eid-Mubarak’ in Arabic written in coloured rice. It was lovely to look at, as the tables were delightfully decorated with flowers at each table setting. We also had a police band in attendance. The air was full of