Ratha Yatra ( Car festival) is a huge Hindu festival associated with Lord Jagannath held at Puri in the state of Orissa, India during the months of June . Most of the city's society is based around the worship of Jagannath (Krishna) with the ancient temple being the fulcrum of the area. The festival commemorates Lord Jagannath's annual visit to his aunt's home.
Usually the deities such as Jagannath (Krishna), Balarama and Subhadra are worshipped within the temple, but on the day of the Rath festival they are taken through the streets so that everyone can have the fortune of seeing them. Three richly decorated chariots, resembling temple structures, are pulled through the streets of Puri. This commemorates the annual journey of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balarama, and their sister Subhadra to their aunt' s temple, the Gundicha Temple. It is situated at a distance of 2 km from their temple. New chariots are built every year.
The festival is also known as Gundicha Jatra, Ghosa Yatra, Navadina Yatra, Dasavatara Yatra and by a variety of other names. For the devoted and believers, it is considered the most auspicious occasion. It is believed that if someone see a glimpse of the Vamana, the dwarf form, an incarnation of Lord Jagannatha, is sure to ensure emancipation, release from the cycle of birth and death. Jatra is an essential part of the ritual of the Hindu system of worship. Jatra literally means travel or journey.
Interestingly, the Yasho Madhab Rath Yatra is a chariot festival dedicated to the Hindu God Yosho Madhab located in Dhamrai Kahet Pada, Bangladesh. Lord Vishnu has many names in South Asia. In Dhamrai, the Lord is known as Lord Yasho Madhab. The deities were housed in an elaborate six storied wooden chariot and were taken out in a grand annual procession known as the Ratha yatra. Each floor of the Rath was adorned by carvings of Hindu deities together with interesting moments of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Kavi Jashimuddin described these form of arts in his famous poem, Dhamrai Rath. The Ratha yatra of Dhamrai is the oldest and most famous in Bangladesh attracting thousands of devotees from all over the country. The annual Ratha yatra in Dhamrai was famous because of the 60-foot-tall (18 m) chariot, built by the Baliati Zamindars during the 19th century. However, the Rathayatra utsav in Dhamrai is believed to be 300 years old. In Dhamrai, where Lord Vishnu in the form of the Lord Madhab is dragged to visit the house of his father-in-law located in Yatra Badi which is about a quarter kilometer from Kahet Pada temple. Lord Madhab is brought back again to the original temple on the eighth day. Sadly, this Chariot was burnt it to ashes by the Pakistani Army on April 17, 1971, the period is famously known as war of liberation. They also tried to burn the idol of Lord Madhab but some unknown reasons it didn’t burn.
After liberation war local Hindu communities formed a committee entitled, “Yasho Madhab Mandir and Rath Parichalana Committee” headed by Late Thakur Gopal Banik to look after the maintenance of both Mandir and Rath. The committee since then is responsible for all activities with the support of Kumudini Welfare Trust. It is believed that former sevayets of Yosho Madhab temple were awarded huge amount of agricultural land (patta) in order to maintain regular expenditure of the temple during the time of Moghal emperor Shah Alam. Unfortunately, the land documents are untraceable now. The then Subedar of Bengal also allowed the local sevayets to collect taxes during the two months of Ratha mela in order to maintain Ratha Mela cost. The system is still exists in Dhamrai. The committee is now responsible for this activity in accordance with the power given by the court. In addition, after the abolition of Jamindari system, the cost of maintenance of Rath and Yasho madhab temple was partly borne by Late Ranada Prasad Saha of Mirzapur.
Baliati , is best known as the home of the Baliati jaminders. It is in Saturia Upazila Head Quarter. The distance between Dhamrai Upazila Head quarter and Saturia Upazila Head quarter is about 15 kilometers. From a distance their house stands up above the level plain, an imposing mass of masonry which recalls a Georgian country house in England. A closer inspection shows that it is not at all one fine house, but a terrace of five very ordinary ones. The founder of the family was one Gobinda Ram Saha who was a big salt merchant in the middle of the 18th century. He left four sons, Dadhi Ram, Ananda Ram, Pandit Ram and Golap Ram. Dadbi Ram left two sons whose descendants now form the “east " and " west " houses as they are called. Pandit Ram's family forms the " middle house " and Golap Ram's the “ north house," while Ananda Ram's descendants are known as the “ Golaba'i." The Jagannath College in Dhaka was founded and endowed by a member of the Baliati jaminder family, Babu Kishori Lai Ray Chaudhuri, in memory of his father.
Dhamrai is well placed is history of Bengal. Ruins of stupas built by Asoka in the village Dhamrai (Dhaka) still stands as a witness of supposed to have derived its name from Dharmarajika. The historians Jatindra Nath Bose corroborated this view. The nomenclature itself has a significant background. Savar, not far from Dhaka was visited by Buddha according to Buddhist literature and was confirmed by the Bengal historian J. N. Bose. It has mount created by King Asoka. In course of time the place has been known as Dharmarajika which again turned into Dhammarajika. Like the ruins in Dhaka district bearing theatrics of rich Buddhist culture another district, Dinajpur (northern part of Bangladesh) also bears evidence of Buddhism, highly patronized by the ruler themselves. The Pala kings were princes of Gaur, a name that seems to have applied rather to the whole province, of which Dinajpur formed the principal part. The founder of this dynasty appears to have come from Western India and had become Buddhist.
Dhamrai was one of the most important trade and commerce centre of Dhaka district. About 15,000 people, both men and women, were involved in activities starting from manufacturing metallic utensils products to trading in Dhamrai and its neighbouring villages. They lost their jobs because of the availability of low cost aluminum and plastic products. As a result, quite a significant number of people were unemployed. Unfortunately, government played role in this situation was just as spectator. Many people became poor, many people died , many migrated to India. The life of them is miserable with no hope to escape.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Geographical Indication, Saree and Firms’ Competitiveness
Management experts often talks about firms’ competitiveness in order to justify their survival in the market. According to them productivity enhancing firms will only survive because of cost considerations. Some of the important facets such as foreign exchange rate and certain products that correspond to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g. a town, region, or country) are unfortunately ignored here.
For example a firm may remain competitive by producing any product if the said country’s Central Bank decides to follow fixed exchange rate against a standard foreign currency. Assume trade baskets of two countries such as A and B is same. Country A follows fixed exchange rate regime and country B follows managed float regime. Now consider FoB (free on board or border price) price of a shirt is $10 in both country A and B. The condition is more interesting when country B’s currency appreciates (say from US$ 1=Tk 70 to US$ 1=Tk 60) because she follows managed float. As a result the US$ price of the shirt may be US$11.67 if this is imported from country B. In contrast country A is not affected because she follows fixed exchange rate regime. So firms in country A are still remain price competitive because they follow fixed exchange rate regime. Accordingly, firms in country B lost so-called competitiveness. This will affect job in country B in the garments sector.
Likewise, the sarees produced in Bangladesh such as Rajshahi Silk, Tangail Tant, Pabna Tant, Dhakai Jamdani Saree may be cited here. This year we have observed huge imports of sarees such as Pochampally, Kancheepuram , Mysore silk, Banarasi silk sarees and their made ups in Indian market from China. The said management expert may be tempted to argue in the light of scale economies, large scale production and so on. Imagine a situation if you see a China made Dhakai Jamadani saree in one of the retail store in Dhaka . The price will definitely be cheaper than that of Bangladeshi product due to two important considerations, one, exchange rate distortion and two, the Chinese product is machine-made.
All told, the geographical contours of global production of goods and services have seen significant shifts in recent times. This has been caused as much by forces of globalisation as by technological changes. In fact, the interaction of the two have caused an impact which in magnitude is greater than that of either alone.
While globalisation has made almost all product and factor markets global, technological change is bringing equally massive upheavals in its wake — all of which is still not fully understood. In the midst of such massive changes, the immobility of labour will perhaps continue and all our policy decisions will have to be based on this feature in the foreseeable future though even fewer services will need to be produced locally.
What was the basic idea of globalization? The answer is that the firms must explore their comparative advantage by specializing their skills. If firms in Bangladesh are specialized in producing final product in the garments sector, some firms are equally specialized in Taiwan in producing zippers. Hence the trade possibilities exist between Bangladesh and Taiwan. Firms can even upgrade their technology in their respective clusters. Think it. Why is chom chom of Porabari special? It is special because, historically, the supply of labour with relevant skill-set has been available in Porabari. In other words, labours are efficient in Porabari in producing chom chom. In the name of so called competitiveness, you cannot just change a chom chom producing worker to health technician.
Most newer technologies entering the market through newer products and processes are skill-biased in the sense that they use skilled workers more intensively than the older technology. Economists have found that adoption of new technology is affected by the relative supply of skilled workers in a country — countries having a higher supply are likely to be quicker in new technology adoption. Their overall costs are lower, so the proportional increase is greater. As a result weavers of Rajshahi Silk, Tangail Tant, Pabna Tant, Dhakai Jamdani Saree may lose their job.
Another example may be cited here in order to understand of how government miserably failed for not taking appropriate steps such as upgrading the traditional skill-set to new skill-set in accordance with the new product. About 15,000 people, both men and women, were directly involved in activities starting from manufacturing metallic utensils products to trading in Dhamrai and its neighbouring areas. The indirect job losses are even higher. They lost their jobs because of the introduction of low cost aluminum and plastic products. They are now the candidates for poverty in this region.
Take the cases of women labour such as Jariman bibi and Batasi in this context. They were indirectly employed in this industry. The loss of their job however, implied more responsibilities for Batasi and Jariman from household management to reproduction. Later, they started working as maids. When they returned late, the husbands abused them as prostitutes and beat them. The advocates of firms’ competitiveness should understand this aspect. Did you think about the pains when the policy entrepreneurs decide to destroy Adamjee?
The above case is a government failure case. The government now can play as a biggest easer in the saree sector. In the short run, government can form a statutory body for preparing the saree industry for globalization in the WTO regime. As it is, a geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g. a town, region, or country). GI is a part of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement signed under the WTO frame-work. GIs are defined as indications, which identify a good as originating in the territory and having specific attributes. It confers legal protection to the products, safeguarding against unauthorised use by other countries. Accordingly government can help the weavers of Rajshahi Silk, Tangail Tant, Pabna Tant, Dhakai Jamdani Saree to register under GI system a form of Intellectual Property Rights protection.
People are now worried in this sector. A good government actually creates condition for level playing field before facing external competition. In the process they build trust rather than destroying it.
For example a firm may remain competitive by producing any product if the said country’s Central Bank decides to follow fixed exchange rate against a standard foreign currency. Assume trade baskets of two countries such as A and B is same. Country A follows fixed exchange rate regime and country B follows managed float regime. Now consider FoB (free on board or border price) price of a shirt is $10 in both country A and B. The condition is more interesting when country B’s currency appreciates (say from US$ 1=Tk 70 to US$ 1=Tk 60) because she follows managed float. As a result the US$ price of the shirt may be US$11.67 if this is imported from country B. In contrast country A is not affected because she follows fixed exchange rate regime. So firms in country A are still remain price competitive because they follow fixed exchange rate regime. Accordingly, firms in country B lost so-called competitiveness. This will affect job in country B in the garments sector.
Likewise, the sarees produced in Bangladesh such as Rajshahi Silk, Tangail Tant, Pabna Tant, Dhakai Jamdani Saree may be cited here. This year we have observed huge imports of sarees such as Pochampally, Kancheepuram , Mysore silk, Banarasi silk sarees and their made ups in Indian market from China. The said management expert may be tempted to argue in the light of scale economies, large scale production and so on. Imagine a situation if you see a China made Dhakai Jamadani saree in one of the retail store in Dhaka . The price will definitely be cheaper than that of Bangladeshi product due to two important considerations, one, exchange rate distortion and two, the Chinese product is machine-made.
All told, the geographical contours of global production of goods and services have seen significant shifts in recent times. This has been caused as much by forces of globalisation as by technological changes. In fact, the interaction of the two have caused an impact which in magnitude is greater than that of either alone.
While globalisation has made almost all product and factor markets global, technological change is bringing equally massive upheavals in its wake — all of which is still not fully understood. In the midst of such massive changes, the immobility of labour will perhaps continue and all our policy decisions will have to be based on this feature in the foreseeable future though even fewer services will need to be produced locally.
What was the basic idea of globalization? The answer is that the firms must explore their comparative advantage by specializing their skills. If firms in Bangladesh are specialized in producing final product in the garments sector, some firms are equally specialized in Taiwan in producing zippers. Hence the trade possibilities exist between Bangladesh and Taiwan. Firms can even upgrade their technology in their respective clusters. Think it. Why is chom chom of Porabari special? It is special because, historically, the supply of labour with relevant skill-set has been available in Porabari. In other words, labours are efficient in Porabari in producing chom chom. In the name of so called competitiveness, you cannot just change a chom chom producing worker to health technician.
Most newer technologies entering the market through newer products and processes are skill-biased in the sense that they use skilled workers more intensively than the older technology. Economists have found that adoption of new technology is affected by the relative supply of skilled workers in a country — countries having a higher supply are likely to be quicker in new technology adoption. Their overall costs are lower, so the proportional increase is greater. As a result weavers of Rajshahi Silk, Tangail Tant, Pabna Tant, Dhakai Jamdani Saree may lose their job.
Another example may be cited here in order to understand of how government miserably failed for not taking appropriate steps such as upgrading the traditional skill-set to new skill-set in accordance with the new product. About 15,000 people, both men and women, were directly involved in activities starting from manufacturing metallic utensils products to trading in Dhamrai and its neighbouring areas. The indirect job losses are even higher. They lost their jobs because of the introduction of low cost aluminum and plastic products. They are now the candidates for poverty in this region.
Take the cases of women labour such as Jariman bibi and Batasi in this context. They were indirectly employed in this industry. The loss of their job however, implied more responsibilities for Batasi and Jariman from household management to reproduction. Later, they started working as maids. When they returned late, the husbands abused them as prostitutes and beat them. The advocates of firms’ competitiveness should understand this aspect. Did you think about the pains when the policy entrepreneurs decide to destroy Adamjee?
The above case is a government failure case. The government now can play as a biggest easer in the saree sector. In the short run, government can form a statutory body for preparing the saree industry for globalization in the WTO regime. As it is, a geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g. a town, region, or country). GI is a part of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement signed under the WTO frame-work. GIs are defined as indications, which identify a good as originating in the territory and having specific attributes. It confers legal protection to the products, safeguarding against unauthorised use by other countries. Accordingly government can help the weavers of Rajshahi Silk, Tangail Tant, Pabna Tant, Dhakai Jamdani Saree to register under GI system a form of Intellectual Property Rights protection.
People are now worried in this sector. A good government actually creates condition for level playing field before facing external competition. In the process they build trust rather than destroying it.
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