| Curzon Hall meant to be a town
hall, was named after lord
curzon, the Viceroy of India, who laid its foundation in 1904.
A year later Bengal was partitioned and Dhaka became the capital of the
newly created province of East Bengal and Assam. Following the annulment
of partition in 1911 it was used as a premise of Dhaka College, and after
the establishment of Dhaka University in 1921, became part of the university's
science section and continues as such. Laid out in a spacious and carefully
maintained garden, this double storeyed brick building has a large central
hall, lateral wings on the east and west with several rooms, and a continuous
verandah on all sides.
One of the best examples of Dhaka's architecture, it is a happy
blend of European and Mughal elements, particularly noticeable
in the projecting facade in the north which has both horse-shoe
and cusped arches.
|
|
Curzon
Hall, Dhaka University |
Courtesy:
Md Johir Uddin |
The style combined traditional art with modern technology
and functions and favoured Mughal forms such as arches and domes, believed
to have entered the Islamic world from the west. It marks the casting
aside of veiled power after the sepoy
revolt of 1857, and India's passing directly under the British
Crown, seeking legitimacy by linkage to the Mughals. The red colour substituting
for red sandstone, and the ornate brackets, deep eaves, and domed terrace
pavilions (chhatris), specially of the middle section are strikingly
reminiscent of the small but well-known Diwan-i-Khas in the palace fortress
of Fatehpur Sikri, Emperor akbar's
capital between 1570 and 1585. Not only were both cities new capitals,
but the deliberate choice of the Fatehpur Sikri style may be explained
by the fact that the British favoured Akbar as the wisest and most tolerant
of all the Mughals, feeding into the ideal of their own role in India.
The Curzon Hall has attained a great significance in
the history of the language
movement. It was here, in 1948, the students of Dhaka University
uttered their first refusal to accept mohammed
ali jinnah's declaration that Urdu alone would be the state
language of the then Pakistan. [Perween Hasan]
|
