Baishali Ghosh says her research on Burdwan may help further studies on India’s religious structures.
 In her talk titled “Religious structure, Burdwan: Testimony of Lords’ trial” at the Art, Resources & Teaching Trust this fortnight, Baishali Ghosh, a lecturer of fine arts at the University of Hyderabad, will address the prevalence of political forces aiding the construction of religious monuments in India’s history. The religious structures in the city of Burdwan – or Bardhaman, in West Bengal, which was the region’s district headquarters in British India – will only serve as an example, and will not be at the centre of her discourse, clarified Ghosh in an email exchange. “This is a case study, and could be referred to to do another enquiry,” she said.
Ghosh will, however, discuss the Burdwan Raj, a feudal estate that was created under Mughal rule in the former province of Bengal. “Aurangzeb recognised Burdwan Raj as zamindars [landlords or revenue collectors] in 1689,” noted Ghosh. “In 1770, the East India Company recorded the Burdwan Raj as the highest revenue payer, notwithstanding the famine of the same year.” According to historical records, although the Burdwan Raj was noted to have lorded over a mammoth estate – of about 13,000 square km at one point – they were never accorded the privileges of a princely state, like the neighbouring Cooch Behar. They would, nevertheless, frequently make their presence felt in the region by establishing numerous religious institutions in a style that would typically employ brickwork and terracotta plaques.
 Ghosh will address such constructions from the perspective being connected to the political movements in the region over the years, leading all the way up to the abolishment of the zamindari system in 1958. The history of the court trials preceding that act of abolition, a look at the land occupation efforts of the communist party of India in the ’70s, apart from practices related the pitha-sthan – or the land where the body parts from rituals of Sati, or self-immolation were deposited – were all intertwined in the context of Burdwan’s history, and this study, said Ghosh.
The fortunes of rulers and of ruling political parties, resulting in “discords amongst patrons or their downfalls”, would almost directly influence both the religious and the secular architecture of the region, noted Ghosh. The style of terracotta temple architecture has, meanwhile, come to be regarded as a form of “community identity”, she observed, where state-funded projects in recent times have brought in design elements of the kind that adorn various government buildings and public spaces. Ghosh added that she wasn’t intent on overly “politicising” the basis of her talk. The talk itself could result in a larger debate about political motives driving various religious constructions, she admitted, but she wasn’t too keen on turning the project into one of activism. Jaideep Sen |
Register
