Three decades of ineptitude cannot be excused
If the present is hostage to the inefficiencies of our policymakers and bureaucrats, one can easily guess how safe the past – or all that is left of it – must be in their hands. Take, for example, the woeful state of the Shree Anandamoyee Shiva and Kali Mata Mandir – also known as "Dhaksinashar Mandir," or "twin temples" – in Mymensingh's Muktagacha upazila, which are on the verge of collapse due to decades of neglect by the Department of Archaeology (DoA). According to a report by this daily, weeds and bushes have overtaken the once magnificent premises built in the 1820s, while cracks have developed on the structure's roof and walls, making it unsafe for the devotees to perform their rituals inside the temples.
It is inconceivable that a cherished heritage site and a marker of the local community's religious and cultural legacy have been left to rot by the authorities, with the temple's management committee at a loss as to how to address its deteriorating condition since it is now under the jurisdiction of the DoA.
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The DoA authorities took over the temple in 1993, citing it as an archaeological site, with the intention of preserving and renovating it. However, three decades later, the authorities apparently are yet to even approve the project for renovation. What can explain such apathy of the DoA, whose primary responsibility it is to ensure the preservation of our dwindling archaeological and heritage sites? If three decades of neglect are any indication, it is that we, as a nation, have failed miserably at recognising the value of our own culture, traditions, and history, as well as at preserving them for posterity's sake. We have given the crucial task of their preservation to an institution whose very foundation, at this point, seems weaker than that of centuries-old monuments.
Whether it's the 300-year-old temples in Jasore, or a 600-year-old shrine in Dinajpur, or the Mughal architecture of Old Dhaka, heritage sites across the country are in ruins or under occupation of influentials, despite the grandiloquent rhetoric from the government about preserving the past. Whatever little we still have left of our past must not be allowed to be ruined permanently. We urge the government, and the DoA high-ups in particular, to fulfil their promises and mandates, and take urgent steps to preserve the twin temples in Mymensingh.
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