ED STC

Mystery of the Lungi ban Sadiqur Rahman attends the first-ever Lungi march in the capital

Around 400 young men and women were wearing lungis at a gathering in Banani on April 13. The lungis were of varying colours and designs, much like the people wearing them.

The men wore lungi with sandals and even formal shoes. Some went as far as to wearing formal coats and shirts with the lungi. Women were seen rushing to the spot, to bring out lungis and wear it over their trousers.

It is interesting that these people had all showed up responding to the call of a Facebook event titled the ‘Lungi March’, to protest against an alleged ban on lungi-wearing rickshaw-pullers inside the Baridhara Housing Society area. Although the police stopped the march from proceeding toward Baridhara, they informed the marchers that the society has not placed any such ban on lungis.

The police have pointed out that the confusion has stemmed from a potential plan from the Baridhara society, in a bid to stop criminal activities from occurring inside the diplomatic zone, following the brutal murder of Khalaf al Ali last year. However, due to the ensuing confusion, rickshaw-pullers wearing pants can be now sighted in the diplomatic zone, besides their lungi-wearing colleagues.

The Marchers

What was unique about the protest was that the event, despite not being organised by any particular group or organisation, still managed to attract a huge crowd.

Khatib Zahan, a student studying GCE Ordinary Levels and from Gulshan area, shares with Xtra, ‘I have found rickshaw-pullers falling victims to the local security guards, traffic polices and even by the residents of these posh areas. These pullers seem helpless to their aggression. So when I saw the event details on Facebook, I felt that this can be a way through which I can try to stand by these pullers.’

Software engineer Asif Islam had rushed from Khilgaon to Banani Pujar’r math on April 13 to join the rally also. ‘I want to say strongly that I can wear whatever I want on the roads of this free country. It can not be banned by anyone,’ Asif says to Xtra.

Others had a different motivation to pull them to the protest rally. Antora Tithi, a student of Eden College, tells Xtra, ‘Lungi is our traditional dress. I have seen my father and uncles wearing lungis at home. So I could not take the drive against lungi-clad rickshaw-pullers easily and have come here to protest against the ban.’

Soraya Ayer, a German-born Bangladeshi at the rally, asks, ‘Lungi is comfortable to wear. So why should the rickshaw-pullers not wear it while doing such daily strenuous work?’ She adds, ‘It is almost a national dress and it seems strange to most foreigners when they see Bangladeshis or Indians wearing trousers rather than lungis.’

Ban on lungis?

Almost a month back, news had surfaced in a number of dailies that rickshaw-pullers wearing lungis have been banned from Baridhara. The news led to protests from the civil society.

According to marchers who hail from Baridhara, the Baridhara Society had stated earlier that the poor dress up of the rickshaw-pullers seem improper to the foreigners living in the area. At the same time, the society had felt that the dresses somehow show poverty of Bangladeshis to the foreigners. But Jerome Charbonneau, deputy director of Alliance Francaise, says, ‘This is not true. No foreigners have ever complained about the dresses of worn by rickshaw-pullers. Foreigners are aware of the fact that lungi is commonly worn by Bangladeshi men.’ ‘We have no problem to ride rickshaws even if its pullers wear lungis,’ he adds. When the rally tried to move towards Baridhara, they were stopped by the police. Kazi Mainul Islam, inspector of Banani police station, claimed on April 13 that the propaganda against the Baridhara Society banning lungi-wearing rickshaw-pullers is entirely false. On behalf of the Society, Islam informs Xtra, ‘The society has only ruled to wear a half-sleeved green shirt with society’s monogram for the rickshaw-pullers so that security guards could recognise rickshaw-pullers who ply in these areas. They were also asked to have a lamp (huriken) in their rickshaws when plying these roads at night.’

He explains that these notions while being implemented could have spread as a ban on lungi. ‘These decisions have been implemented as the society has long been concerned over the security issues in the diplomatic zone,’ he tells Xtra.

However, a different story was told by the rickshaw-pullers of the area. Mohammad Latif, a rickshaw-puller who has pulled a rickshaw in the Gulshan Baridhara areas over the past 20 years, says, ‘No foreigner ever insulted me for my lungi.’ He adds, ‘A month back, guards of the Baridhara Housing Society asked me not to enter the area without pants.’

Anwarul Islam, another rickshaw-puller, says that though these newly-implemented rules have been relaxed this week, ‘I still find it difficult to pull the rickshaw wearing pants.’

Lungi heritageSyed Abul Maksud, a renowned researcher and social activist of the nation, has been wearing ‘lungis’ for the past ten years to protest against the Western invasion of Bangladeshi culture. He tells Xtra, ‘The ban on access into Baridhara by rickshaw-pullers wearing lungis is a blatant violation of the national Constitution of Bangladesh and also the Human Rights Charter of United Nations.’ He continues, ‘The elite society of Baridhara has insulted Bengali culture, ritual and national heritage greatly.’

Maksud, who has been researching on late Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, the greatest pro-people politician of the country, says, ‘Moulana also used to wear lungi all the time. He even made foreign trips wearing lungis,’

According to him, Maulana Bhashani visited China during 1963 and 1964 wearing lungi and met high officials of the Communist Party of China, including Mao Zedong. He also visited Japan, Cuba, Egypt and Syria to meet with Fidel Castro, Jamal Abdel Nasser and Hafez al-Assad while wearing lungis.

Criticising the Baridhara Society’s move, he says, ‘Even in the SAARC countries of India and Sri Lanka, most highly-ranked politicians, ministers can be found wearing lungis while making public appearances.’ He also adds that as the lands inside Baridhara are leased from the government, ‘No one there has the right to violate the civil rights of Bangladeshis.’

Maksud went as far as to threaten the Society authority with legal action against it, if the authority does not apologises to the nation within the next 15 days. ‘They have insulted the whole nation, so they should apologise,’ he feels. Baridhara Society president Feroz M Hassan clarifies to Xtra that the society did not impose any ban on lungi-clad rickshaw-pullers in the area. ‘It could have been a miscommunication between some security guards and rickshaw-pullers,’ he says. But he refuses to comment whether the Society would apologise for the incident despite being widely criticised by many quarters of the country.