Visit to Ethnological Museum/ Chittagong
A visit to the Ethnological Museum at Chittagong...Read about it from the news papers but never had a chance to visit...Established in the mid 1960s but formally opened after the independence, this museum is a perfect example of how Bangladesh state has so far textualized/ represented the indigenous population in the country. The approach is colonial, racist and has no relation with contemporary understanding of ethnicity.
The organization is directly under the tutelage of the Archaeology department of Bangladesh state. During a visit to this museum ( Feb 9, 2010) I noted that the museum mostly had objects which concerned the so called ‘tribes’ and ‘aboriginal’ people of the country living in the borderland areas and did not have any consistency in naming the people, labeling them alternatively as tribe (moula), aboriginal (adim) or even indigenous (adivasi) especially in depicting the newer objects. It also incorporated the adivasis of the plains (clearly a sign of the effect of rights discourse) in its newer collection
I came to know that the museum was almost complete for public display by the end of 1960s but could not be formally opened before the liberation war of 1971. The museum was inaugurated after the liberation but some of the objects planned before the liberation war remained with the exhibits. Such objects include ‘tribal’ people from the then West Pakistan. The older collection/ exhibits mainly focused on the ‘tribes’ of Chittagong Hill Tracts.
A messenger at the Chittagong Ethnological Museum while helping me out at the gallery told me that Murangs are the most ‘primitive’ among all the tribes. Referring to the photographic works of higher officials working at the museum the man said, “Every time our sirs go to picture them, they discover that the people have moved even further (meaning closer to the inaccessible border regions). While this movement on the part of the Murang community could be read in many ways, it is reduced down by this apparently less educated Bengali man only by one dimension: “‘they’ do not want to modernize” (Interview date: Feb 9, 2010 name of the messenger is withdrawn).
So much can be said about this particular museum ..perhaps the photographs of the exhibits which I took will clarify some of the issues I raised above..(that can wait) ..a must visit for people who want to study ethnicity issues in Bangladesh.
The organization is directly under the tutelage of the Archaeology department of Bangladesh state. During a visit to this museum ( Feb 9, 2010) I noted that the museum mostly had objects which concerned the so called ‘tribes’ and ‘aboriginal’ people of the country living in the borderland areas and did not have any consistency in naming the people, labeling them alternatively as tribe (moula), aboriginal (adim) or even indigenous (adivasi) especially in depicting the newer objects. It also incorporated the adivasis of the plains (clearly a sign of the effect of rights discourse) in its newer collection
I came to know that the museum was almost complete for public display by the end of 1960s but could not be formally opened before the liberation war of 1971. The museum was inaugurated after the liberation but some of the objects planned before the liberation war remained with the exhibits. Such objects include ‘tribal’ people from the then West Pakistan. The older collection/ exhibits mainly focused on the ‘tribes’ of Chittagong Hill Tracts.
A messenger at the Chittagong Ethnological Museum while helping me out at the gallery told me that Murangs are the most ‘primitive’ among all the tribes. Referring to the photographic works of higher officials working at the museum the man said, “Every time our sirs go to picture them, they discover that the people have moved even further (meaning closer to the inaccessible border regions). While this movement on the part of the Murang community could be read in many ways, it is reduced down by this apparently less educated Bengali man only by one dimension: “‘they’ do not want to modernize” (Interview date: Feb 9, 2010 name of the messenger is withdrawn).
So much can be said about this particular museum ..perhaps the photographs of the exhibits which I took will clarify some of the issues I raised above..(that can wait) ..a must visit for people who want to study ethnicity issues in Bangladesh.
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