Language pioneer's museum, Sylhet's cultural wealth

There existed long years before contemporary footwear, when the khorom, the wooden sandal was a royal symbol. There were days when any wooden shoe could be bestowed with additional dignity through the embellishment of ivory trimmings. In a time much before the 'Londoni' expats from the country's northeast had colonised parts of Britain, Sylhet had its own alphabet. The Sylheti Nagari script was unique.

Given the strength of Sylhet's regional culture and longstanding linguistic tradition, it's barely conceivable that any Bengali language movement could begin without noteworthy Syheti contribution. While the Language Movement with its aim to install Bangla as the state language of East Pakistan would reach its pinnacle in 1952, events in Sylhet began earlier.

On September 9, 1947, with a month yet to pass from the births of independent India and Pakistan, the first meeting to discuss the state language was arranged. It was convened by two leading figures: prominent comic litterateur Syed Mujtaba Ali, and local advocate, bureaucrat and writer Matin Uddin Ahmed.

In retrospect it's unsurprising that Ahmed was a Language Movement pioneer. As the author of 58 published and unpublished, mostly children's books, Ahmed's love of the written word and of learning is aptly demonstrated. As a lawyer and from his civil service career, Ahmed held an awareness of matters of state. Indeed, his official career led to criticism of his being involved in the Language Movement; yet at a second meeting held on August 30, 1947, at the Sylhet Ali Madrasa Ground, Ahmed was the chair.

These two meetings were surely among the first to raise the issue of the state language anywhere in East Pakistan.

Ahmed frequently wrote in periodicals, including the monthly Saogat, The Daily Azad, Ittefaq and Ittehad. According to late Professor Dewan Mohammad Azraf, Ahmed's writing career began early, in Kolkata in the days before Partition. Yet notwithstanding his writing and activism, Matin Uddin Ahmed is probably best remembered in Sylhet for the museum that bears his name.

The museum visitor can observe an eclectic mix of old coins and notes from various dynasties; the preserved muslin saris of Ahmed's wife and daughter who held landlord status; a cannonball from the Second World War; an idol of Cleopatra; an ivory chess set; an early edition typewriter. The museum also contains more than four thousand archaeological assets.

“Ahmed collected many of the exhibits himself,” says current director Dr Mustafa Shahzaman Chowdury Bahar, who was among those to establish the museum in 2004, now located on the fourth floor of the Central Muslim Literary Council building.

Inside, among the many artifacts that serve to paint a picture of Sylhet's rich cultural heritage, one might even find a pair of those old wooden shoes, the khorom, and portfolios written in eloquent Syheti Nagari script.