Financial Express.bd, Bangladesh
July 9 2005
City Sights
Bahadur Shah Park
FE Report
7/9/2005
The park bears the memory of Bahadur Shah, the last Mughal
emperor in whose time the first independence war known as Sepoy
Mutiny took place. For a long time after the mutiny, this place
remained a haunted area and even in broad daylight people feared to
tread upon this ground. In the 1960s, Dhaka City Corporation
renovated the park and converted it into a memorial in honour of the
martyrs in the first struggle for freedom.
The park was known as Victoria Park named after Queen Victoria. It
was created in the first half of 19th century at the initiative of
Nawab Abdul Gani in the Sadarghat area of Dhaka on the ruins of an
old building, called Angtaghar, a clubhouse of the Armenians then
living in a large number in the neighbourhood. The place got a
special identity because, during the struggle of 1857, some mutineers
including a woman were hanged at this spot. In 1858, the commissioner
of Dhaka Division read out Queen Victoria’s famous proclamation here
before a large assembly of people. Much later, the Dhaka Improvement
Trust (now Rajuk) erected a huge cenotaph inside the park to
perpetuate the memory of the patriots who sacrificed their lives in
the cause of freedom. There is an obelisk inside the park.
In the past, the park was oval in shape, and was enclosed with iron
railing. Four British canons, embedded in earth marked the boundary
of the former clubhouse, but these canons were later taken out and
installed inside the park. In Taylor’s time, the neighbourhood had a
different appearance. At the junction of busy old town streets there
was a small open space in the form of a square and with a circular
garden in its centre. In the vicinity of this square, and along the
bank of the river to the distance of half a mile, were situated the
English Factory, St. Thomas’ Church, Government Collegiate School,
and many houses of the European residents.