Shakhari Bazaar: Sustaining in the cultural context

Time and again, prevailing wisdom has remained ignorant of the fact that city dwellers' physical well-being is not something separated from the non-physical well-being. Although one complements the other, it has been repeatedly situating our problems of well-being only in the physical context. Urban planning and design consequences of this negligence have not been producing any good for Dhaka lately. The cases of recent unplanned construction in Sher- e-Bangla Nagar and the proposed demolition plan for Shakhari Bazaar are the relevant examples of this unresponsive planning wisdom. It is time that we bring change in this dominant (physical) mindset. From my understanding of Shakhari Bazaar (started in 1987, as part of a fourth year architecture restoration project), I argue that broader well being issues there demand attention from the cultural context. One that includes the physical context, but is not necessarily confined within it.

We must note at this stage, after Agnew et al (1983), that our situating Shakhari Bazaar crises in the cultural context implies two things: First, networks of practices and ideas exist that emerge from the shared experiences and histories of social group. Second, these practices and ideas are responsible for specific patterns of settlement growth and form. They help us appreciate, first and foremost, the significance of the listed 32 buildings in the cultural context.

Shakhari Bazaar is a historic quarter, and has been a sanctuary of a specific ethnic (business) community for more than three centuries. Eminent sociologist Prof. Najmul Karim informed us back in the mid 20th century that history of Dhaka is incomplete without Shakhari Bazaar. Here we should note that the historic Shakhari Bazaar is more than a collection of three-four storied dilapidated buildings. Unique urban life, a way of living, pulsates there.

Observed life-style has a long history, and is part of a tradition that dates well beyond the age of these ruinous buildings. The pace and practice of life found there mix and mingle with other parts of Old Dhaka with due harmony. The exuberant diversity of life and its colourful expressions, in part, give that part of Old Dhaka a true sense of urbanity. These observations, taken together, suggest the presence of a space that is different from the visible physical space ­- a social space for an ethnic group. Events like annual puja festivals and daily rituals as well as visible signs and symbols embedded in the walls of now-dilapidated buildings suggest the symbolic presence of this social space. This social space, contained in the physical space, gives a sense of psychological security as well as ethnic identity to a Hindu community. The significance of the physical presence of these listed 32 buildings lies in providing a backbone to social space. These 32 buildings are also the visible landmarks in the cultural landscape of an ethnic community, if not Old Dhaka. Erasing them would surely deface their social space and shrunk the cultural landscape: an eventual loss of the spatial setting of dwellers' practices and ideas.

Living and living environment in Shakhari Bazaar have long reached an unsustainable state, due to inadequate and non-existent services and sanitation, crime and violence, and economic hardship. Despite existence of social cohesion, manifested in the form of an operating panchayet, these problems do not make living in Shakhari Bazaar a very pleasing experience. Increase in population, accompanied by highly skewed ownership pattern and low affordability, results in the additions of floors above an inadequate foundation instead of redevelopment. The inevitable outcome is dweller's living with death. My point is not that dwellers don't enjoy living in those cramped and crowed one-room houses. Rather, the point of contention is that a physical perspective to an apparently physical problem is less helpful when it is part of an existing multi-dimensional crisis. Unfortunately, an absence of this holistic perception highlights the institutional mindset in their dealing with the Shakhari Bazaar case; regrettably, it has also derailed institution's approach to Dhaka's urban problems in general.

As the listed buildings become dangerous to live in, intervention options of either 'demolition' (followed by redevelopment) or 'conservation' can become physically biased. These options identify the dilapidated buildings as physical objects for engagement. They would hardly take other uses and their users into consideration. Experience from different parts of the world suggests that demolition and the subsequent redevelopment would dislocate people against their will as being unable to afford the redevelopment costs; in the process, dwellers will lose their home and distinct way of living. Conservation or restoration of Shakhari Bazaar, on the other hand, will also displace them due to gentrification from within (and outside) their ethnic community.

The third alternative course of action suggested here -- sustaining Shakhari Bazaar -- takes a more realistic and user responsive approach. My selection of the word 'sustaining' instead of hitherto preferred conservation or restoration is not without reason. The notion of sustaining pre-supposes the existence of a system (of some sort) at work. Actions or interventions aimed to sustain a dis-functional part of that pre-existing system do not aim to replace it with a new one. Actions merely put the dis-functional part back into operation. As a key advantage, the pre-existing set up and balance between the different component parts are not altered in significant ways. Besides the listed buildings -- the physical object -- people's way of living and livelihood are also considered with due importance.

Shakhari Bazaar crisis is an emotive cultural issue as much as it is a down-to-earth housing question. An intervention has been long due to address both these issues and questions. In preparation of a progressive sustainable intervention, this paper concludes by suggesting the following key courses of actions:

1. Short Term Structural Crisis Mitigation: A detailed technical study of the listed vulnerable buildings should be the first step to restore the structural safety without demolition; methods used by reputed local firm Shaheedullah & Associates Ltd. can be considered in this regard.

2. Long Term Housing Crisis Improvement: We need to devise special financial schemes for the repairs and renewal of residential buildings having a larger number of occupants, especially, for those located in the historic quarters of Old Dhaka. The following policies adopted by the 'National Housing Policy of India' for the 'Conservation of Housing Stock and Rental Housing' (Clause 4.6.1.) can act as pointer to develop our own: (iii) fiscal and property tax incentives and financial assistance for expansion and upgradation of dwelling units and for proper maintenance of buildings; (iv) access to materials and technical assistance.

3. Stakeholders Participation: Decision making process at all levels must involve meaningful participation of the stakeholders, especially the Shakhari Bazaar panchayet.

The author is an Associate Professor and teaches Urbanism and Housing at the Dept. of Architecture, BUET.