Indian culture dances in terror-hit Dhaka

Lubna Marium, dancer and art director says the greed for petro-dollars and migration to the Middle-East.
Indian culture dances in terror-hit Dhaka

NEW DELHI: Mere days ago, youth was killing youth around plates of crumbling croissants and bagels at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka’s posh pocket, Gulshan. Five minutes away from gunshots and screams, dancers were thumping their jingle-belled feet to the tabla at Shadhona. The former was noise, the latter was sound; both vying for the same space in time. Because Bangladesh is turning a deaf ear to the melody of sound, a blare is tearing through its nerves, says Lubna Marium. She’s serves as the Artistic Director at Shadhona since 1994.

Lately, parents have been asking her why Muslims should follow Hindu customs like reciting shlokas and lighting brass lamps before Bharatnatyam and Kathak performances. Marium reminds them that it’s about culture and not religion.

Lubna Marium, dancer and art director says the greed for petro-dollars and migration to the Middle-Eas has brought Pan-Islamic Wahhabism to the forefront. Never before has she seen her young relatives emphasise the social need of a hijaab. Parallely, a message of consumerism transmitted by the West and a local youngsters’ inability to achieve that standard of living prompts him or her to become a part of something more global in appeal like the ISIS.

In Villages, where more than 60 per cent of her country lives, she points to the presence of mystic minstrels like the bauls and the boyatis carry forward the spiritual sahaja way of life. Earlier, police was seen handing bamboo sticks to villages to combat militant attacks on minorities. National authorities identified the JMB as the cause. A wake up call for the government to realise that terror has modernised itself. Missions are international, weapons resemble those seen in movies and branding is done on social media.

“This year, nearly 600 students went missing from English-medium schools in Dhaka. Were FIRs lodged and what did the police do about them?” she asks. Ruptured by inequity and ideological vacuum, Bangladesh is fertile and barren, and look what’s growing on its soil.

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