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Dhaka (spelled as Dacca until 1983), the capital of Bangladesh, with a 1999 population of 9.3 million in an area of 1,528 square kilometers, is one of the densest cities of the world. Situated in the deltaic plain of Bengal, in the midst of a maze of rivers and canals, it is the last big urban stop on the great Gangetic stream as it cascades into the sea. The name Dhaka has often been used synonymously, and rather incorrectly, with Louis Kahn’s Capital Complex project that forms only a precinct—a significant one—in this burgeoning metropolis.
The literal meaning of the name Dhaka is “concealed.” The enigmatic name might have originated from the “dhak” trees that are presumed to have been common in the area or the renowned 16th-century Dhakeswari Temple. Dhaka went through waves of decay and growth, from sporadic settlements datable to 10th century AD to a Mughal provincial capital in the 17th century and a deteriorated condition in the 18th c. until its consolidation as a thriving city in late 19th century The strategic location of Dhaka in the fertile and riverine land-mass of Bengal, once known for the fabled fabric muslin, and later for the world’s largest jute production, made it the prime city in the region. As the capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka is now an administrative, educational, commercial, and industrial center that includes the highest concentration of export-oriented garment industries.
Like similar cities undergoing rapid transformations, Dhaka is also a city of social, economic, and developmental contrasts. Despite bearing the typical afflictions of so- called developing cities (overpopulation, pollution, traffic problems, housing crisis, etc.), Dhaka is the center of an exuberant Bengali culture expressed in its literary and artistic life and various urban rituals and festivities.
Once located on the northern banks of the river Buriganga, Dhaka has grown largely toward the north, being delimited on all other sides by rivers and mostly fertile agricultural land subject to heavy flood. The extent of greater Dhaka now comprises the river port of Naryanganj in the south and the industrial town of Tongi and Gazipur on the north. Although most of Dhaka city is still on a higher level, population increase in recent times has driven people to build on the low-lying flood-prone areas. The city is now constituted of roughly five distinct urban morphologies: (1) the so- called old city, the original settlement that grew along the river Buriganga and later developed into a thriving Mughal city, with its jostling mixed-use buildings, narrow, winding streets, and legendary neighborhood (moho lla) traditions; (2) the so-called colonial part, the site of new governmental, cultural, institutional, and residential buildings, especially around the Ramna area in a bungalow and garden typology; (3) post-1947 developments of a mixture of regulated and planned residential areas, and sporadic commercial and institutional pockets; and (4) vast amorphous areas of semi- and unplanned growth, often with inadequate infrastructure, symptomatic of planning incapacity in addressing demographic and economic pressures. The fifth morphology is that of the exclusive National Capital Complex, better known as Sherebanglanagar that represents Kahn’s vision of a government and civic complex.
The unassuming status of Dhaka belies its substantial role in the history of the Indian subcontinent. Historically, Dhaka has experienced paradoxical political orientation: On the one hand, it was the base of a Muslim ideology that led to the formation of Pakistan, and on the other hand, it was home to a Bengali nationalism that eventually led to the breakup of Pakistan and the formation of Bangladesh.
A strong Muslim culture was established with the consolidation of Mughal rule over Bengal in 1596, making it the eastern edge of a vast empire ruled from Delhi and Agra. For the nearly 150 years that Bengal was a Mughal province, the capital vacillated between Dhaka, Rajmahal, and Murshidabad, and with that fluctuated the economic and cultural spirit of the city. Dhaka went into a slow decline when it finally lost its capital status in 1704, as the Mughal administration left town with all its pomp and resources. The slump was deepened when the English wrested control of Bengal (1757) and established Calcutta as the base of their trading outfit. The economy of Dhaka was particularly hurt when its legendary muslin production was literally destroyed by English trade and tax machinations. Population would decrease drastically (from 450,000 in 1765 to 69,000 in 1838), and buildings would be overrun by vegetation. Dhaka would not gain a new momentum until the beginning of the 20th century under different English policies.
Since the 19th century Dhaka and Calcutta have played out a sort of tale of two cities in the history and psyche of modern Bengal. As Dhaka came to be seen, and in some ways projected itself, as the bearer of a Muslim culture, Calcutta became, despite or because of a stronger English presence, a Hindu-dominant city. The partition of Bengal into two provinces in 1905 that established Dhaka as the capital of East Bengal, again annulled in 1911, triggered a nationalist uprising that was to be a basis of the Indian independence movement. It was in Dhaka that the Muslim League took root as a political party in 1906 whose leadership was eventually to go to the Bombay-based M.A.Jinnah in the articulation of a separate state for Muslims. That political program was realized in the partitioning of India and the formation of Pakistan in 1947. Pakistan was to be constituted of two provinces, separated physically by India, where Dhaka became the capital of the eastern province. The argument for a Capital Complex in Dhaka came up as a result of this improbable condition when the government decided to transfer the parliamentary business between the central capital in Islamabad in West Pakistan (designed as a brand- new city by Doxiadis) and Dhaka (where a “Second Capital” was to be built). The defeat of the Pakistan Army in Dhaka during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 represented the ascendance of a Bengali nationalist ideology and the establishment of the city as the capital of an independent country.
Dhaka has been described variously as “the city of mosques,” with every conceivable neighborhood hosting a structure or two, and the city with “ba-anno bazaar, tepanno goli” (52 bazaars and 53 alleys), referring to the intricate network of winding streets forming the fabric of the old city. Although the profusion of mosques bespeak of a predominant Muslim culture since the Mughal era, there are 8th-century Buddhist ruins in the Savar area and various Hindu structures, including the well-known 16th-century Dhakeswari Temple.
Although Mughal building activity focused primarily on forts, katras (special dwellings), and mosques, residential neighborhoods of that time established morphology of dense, cellular buildings and courtyards along commercially active streets, traces of which can still be seen in parts of the old city (such as Shakhari Bazar, Islampur). Buildings of the colonial era were devoted mostly to administrative and institutional types that shifted stylistically between European neoclassical and quasi-Mughal modes. The typology of the bungalow in a garden setting became established at that time as a mode of urban dwelling that is followed even today in planning strategies despite the densification of the city.
Modern architecture was introduced in the city by two buildings that received immediate iconic status when they were built in 1954–56: The Bangladesh College of Arts and Crafts and the Public Library (presently Dhaka University Library), both designed by Muzharul Islam. These and other distinctive buildings, including the Science Laboratories (1959), N.I.P.A. Building (1969), buildings for Jahangirnagar University (1969), the National Archives (1979), and dozens of residences, established an international reputation of Muzharul Islam as a committed architect attempting to reconcile modernity with place and climate. A few foreign architects also contributed toward the process of establishing a modern architectural paradigm for Dhaka in such projects as the Kamlapur Railway Station by the American architect Robert Bouighy (1961), the Teachers-Students Center at Dhaka University by the Greek architect-planner Constantin Doxiadis (1963), and of course, the Parliament complex by Louis Kahn (1963–84). Architects of later generations have pursued diverse interests, exemplified in such notable projects as the Savar Monument by Mainul Hossain (1976), S.O.S. Youth Village by Raziul Ahsan (1984), housing complexes by Bashirul Haq and by Uttam Saha, and the Liberation Monument by Urbana Architects (2000). Although thoughtful and creative architectural work prevails in Dhaka, the city has seen very few compelling models of large-scale urban development.
The monumental and epochal architecture of Kahn’s Capital Complex that put Dhaka on the international architectural map is a 1,000-acre site devoted to the parliament complex, government offices and residences, and a host of institutional buildings. The Parliament Building, the crown of the Complex, along with adjoining brick buildings presented a stunningly new and yet mythopoeic vocabulary for the city and the region. At the same time, the buildings in an environment of lakes, parks, gardens, and orchards offered a vision of a deltaic urban composition. It is perhaps poignant that when the city has moved away, both physically and strategically, from its deltaic roots the Capital Complex curiously evokes that condition.
KAZI K.ASHRAF
Sennott R.S. Encyclopedia of twentieth century architecture, Vol.1 (A-F). Fitzroy Dearborn., 2004. |
