Moyukh Mahtab
- From 1688 agreement between English East India Company and Armenian merchants
When we speak of the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection in
Armanitola in Old Dhaka, it is almost always of the once prominent role
the Armenian community here—their businesses, their zamindaris, and the
impact they had on the development of the city. Yet, what is often
overlooked, and what is now understood much better due to recent
scholarship by historian Sebouh David Aslanian, is that the Armenians in
Dhaka were part of a truly global network. They had bases in Surat,
Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chinsura, Calcutta and Dhaka to as far as Canton,
Jakarta, Lhasa and Singapore. But this too was only part of the
expansive network of settlements, connected to the central node of New
Julfa in Isfahan in Safavid Iran. These merchants, trading all sorts of
goods including textile, had settlements in St Petersburg, Moscow,
Astrakhan, Istanbul, Venice, Livorno, Paris and Amsterdam, to name only a
few.
Armen Arslanian, the current warden of the Armenian Church in Dhaka,
feels this history of Armenian migration has been largely forgotten
among even Armenians today. The more recent history of the Armenian
Genocide in 1915 which resulted in large-scale migration of Armenians to
different parts of the world overshadows the history of the Armenian
merchant community. And yet, he himself inhabits a world shaped by both
histories.
Armen was born and raised in Argentina. His parents emigrated there
from Cilicia, now under Turkey, after the Armenian Genocide. Their
initial plan was to eventually return. After five years in a refugee
camp in Greece, when they saw there was no progress, they decided to go
to Argentina. “They went with nothing, but Argentina was a very generous
country—it still is. It gave them the opportunity to start over and be
what they are today—the Armenians are a thriving community there still
today,” says the 58-year-old.
Today, as the warden of a church built by Armenian merchants in 1781,
Armen is trying to preserve the rich heritage and history of their
presence in the Indian subcontinent—which could possibly date back as
far as the 16th century—and how it was connected to the regional and the
global. As he explains: “The Armenians in this side of the world, in
India, Bangladesh or Burma who came here in the 16th, 17th, 18th century
were not refugees. They were following the routes of business.”
The 1688 agreement between the English East India Company and
Armenian merchants encouraged Armenians to alter the course of their
trade to and from Europe. The agreement promised special privileges to
the merchants, including low customs fares. It also promised religious
freedom to the Armenians, most of whom belonged to the Armenian
Apostolic Church. Along with the founding of New Julfa in Isfahan in
Iran in 1605 due to the deportation of Armenians from Old Julfa in
Armenia by Safavid ruler Shah Abbas, this is considered today as one of
the principal reasons which accelerated migration and settlement of
Julfan Armenian merchants to India in the seventeenth century.
“They came as a community, they embraced the country and the
cultures—they got along with the Mughals, the British and then with the
local authorities afterwards. After the partition, their business was
not favourable anymore. Because of that a lot of them went looking for
better horizons. I am no historian, but as far as I know, a lot of them
went to Australia and Canada after the '70s,” says Armen.
***
The story of how Armen, from another part of the world, came to be in-charge of a church in Dhaka is just as intriguing.
As he narrates it: “Wherever Armenians went, they developed
themselves as businessmen—that's how they came here. That is the case
even today; I am a living example of that. I came to Bangladesh in 2008
as we were opening a business here. Even three weeks before my first
visit, I had no idea about the existence of this church. My daughter who
was going to an Armenian school in LA, when she learnt I was coming
here, told me there was an Armenian church in Bangladesh.” Armen
initially thought his daughter was referring to a church in India. “So
the first thing I asked my business partner when I came to Dhaka was if
he had heard about the Armenian Church. That's how we ended up coming
here and meeting Mr Martin.”
Mikel Housep Martirossian (anglicised Micheal Joseph Martin), had
been probably the last Armenian living in Bangladesh at the time—even in
1871, there were around 100 Armenians living in the city.
Armen says: “I was in a state of awe when I came through that door,
it was really amazing. From then on, every time I came to Dhaka, I came
to the church and met Mr Martin and got to know each other very well.”
Out of respect, Armen always insisted that if Mr Martin needed anything,
he should contact him.
Martin had a stroke in 2014. His daughters, who had already emigrated
to Canada, decided that there was no way he could continue to live
alone and take care of the church. And thus, at the insistence of
Martin, the wardenship of the church went to Armen, since he was the
only Armenian Martin knew who had frequent connections with the city.
Armen still reveres Martin, now living in Canada, as his mentor: “For a
long time he was the only Armenian in Dhaka and he stood his ground and
kept this place for the future generations.”
***
The Armenian Church in Armanitola today stands in almost the
exact conditions as it was built. Before 1781, the grounds of the church
were a graveyard. The church once even had a clock tower which was
destroyed in an earthquake in 1897. The massive bell from the church's
belfry was also stolen over time, and has now been replaced with four
smaller ones.
Today, we know that churches were significant for Julfan traders as a
means of fostering a sense of common identity worldwide. The church in
Dhaka, along with Armenian churches in Chinsura and Saidabad in India,
used to be under the jurisdiction of the regional node, the Church of
Holy Nazareth in Calcutta. These regional nodes were in turn under the
jurisdiction of the Armenian church in New Julfa, and this network was
one of the means of communication between the trade community scattered
throughout the world.
So, Armen feels that although the church has a religious value, it
also has a historical value which should be preserved. “Mr Martin did a
wonderful job of preserving the church and keeping it intact. We changed
the electricity lines and restored the two paintings that you now see.”
And indeed, one is struck by the beauty of the paintings as soon as
they enter the church. Possibly the work of English painter Charles
Pote, who was also a headmaster of the Pogose School in Old Dhaka, these
paintings were in tatters. “So from the Armenian Church, they sent two
diplomat restorers who had studied in Italy. Gevorg Endza Babakhanyan
and Rev Fr Sevak Saribekyan, came over here and did the restoration—they
did an amazing job. I had initially thought one of the paintings was
beyond repair.”
***
Armen has big plans for the church. His idea is to promote the place
as a site of historical value and cultural exchange. To that end, he
also wants to promote research work on the Armenian community in
Bangladesh. But over the years, many church documents, which would be of
immense historical value, have disappeared. Armen, after he took over,
could find only some registers of births, deaths or marriages. “But when
it comes to older documents or pictures, there were not many left.”
He continues, “We want to conduct research through professionals
about the community in the Bengal area, to find out how the Armenians
here were linked to the Armenians in Kolkata and from Kolkata to Julfa."
“I have a lot of expectations about the research. We constantly
receive questions about the community—what had happened to them. There
is little information available and whatever exists is not compiled. So
one of our projects is to conduct a research study and make a
professional compilation of the history of the Armenian community in
Bangladesh, from the beginning until today.”
For preservation purposes, Armen also got in touch with the Armenian
ambassador to Bangladesh, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in Bangladesh
and Unesco for designating the church as a Unesco world heritage site.
“The process is complicated. But, this initiative has the support of the
board of the church, the Armenian Church in Armenia, and Mr Asaduzzaman
Noor has expressed support too. The process has to be started here from
the local government, and he has said he is interested in promoting
it.”
Now, he is getting mail from some Armenians about how they had
visited the church, or telling him how one of their forefathers lies
buried here. But Armen feels that Armenians still don't know much about
their historical presence in this part of the world. He says: “The
Armenian diaspora probably amounts to seven million people living
outside Armenia, mostly in western countries. Among most of them there
is very little knowledge about the Armenians who came to the Indian
subcontinent. I remember that when we were kids, we knew that there were
some Armenians in India and this and that but it was very vague
information. The lack of awareness is something I am personally working
on. I always send out and share articles published on Armenia. Now we
are receiving emails expressing surprise, asking questions.”
Armen's interest goes beyond just the church. He says, “We keep
hearing of other Armenian settlements here even beyond Dhaka. I was told
about the Pogose School, one of the first private schools in Dhaka
which was built by the Armenian Zamindar Nicholas Pogose. I went to the
school, and the state of the place is pitiful. So maybe we can bring
some relief to the school—maybe some funding from Armenians. We think it
is our duty to do something since it is part of our heritage.”
As the warden of the church, Armen visits Bangladesh every one and a
half months or so. “I wish I had more time to work here. We would love
to see if somehow the City Corporation can help us with the entrance. We
want the outside to be a bit more accessible. We can do a lot more. If
we can make the cultural centre, I think it would be a great
contribution, as long as the Bangladeshi community embraces the place."
Armen Arslanian's work on the church has not only meant better
preserved premises, but the church is also drawing more visitors. But,
he is also trying to make the church a more integral part of the
community in Bangladesh. The church arranges to feed 300-400 local
underprivileged people twice every month now, and also arranges free
medical camps for locals.
“I don't want people to see this as a foreign church and they have
nothing to do with it. You don't have to be a Christian to come to the
church—you can come here and pray if you want. I want to eventually
create a scholarship here. We have the Armanitola High School here, we
have the Pogose School. We want to do something in the name of Nicholas
Pogose, maybe have classes on Armenian history and encourage students
there in researching our shared history.”
"My goal is to preserve the history and the future of the church in
hope that its legacy is one that will be remembered for generations to
come," says Armen.
"The Daily Star," April 30, 2018
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