Kirkwood’s initiative caused an uproar in the city. In this context, Navin Chandra Sen wrote, ‘I don’t know what Rashi this man (Kirkwood) had. But even if the man was going to do good work, he would do it in such a way that the pure people of the country would have gone astray.
There was no good system of toilets in Chittagong then. But despite this, Navin Chandra Sen mentioned the reason why the townspeople started protesting against Kirkwood’s initiative. According to him, ‘At that time, most of the poor Muslims had houses on Chittagong city. Hindu houses are only houses. Their Bhadrasan Bati is in Palligram. At that time, it was a reprehensible thing for a gentleman, whether a Hindu or a Muslim, to leave his ancestral home and live in the city. Many people have heard, even carry your wife’s bath water, yet do not allow her to go to the village well. Therefore, these Muslim women will have to go to public places, public closets, what could be a more serious revolution than this?’
According to Navin Chandra Sen, all but one of the commissioners of the municipality opposed the initiative. Hundreds of people from the city surrounded the municipal office. The city vibrated with the movement of people. But Kirkwood paid no heed to this movement. He was determined to carry out his plan. He prepared four latrines at four places in the city. In this situation, the agitators appealed to Chittagong Commissioner Lewis. At one point, the agitators set fire to three out of four public toilets. Kirkwood was enraged and filed a case against Zamindar Lalchand Chowdhury, who was leading the movement. However, Lalchand was acquitted in the legal battle. Later Navin Chandra Sen and lawyer Manomohan Ghosh sent a ‘memorial’ (petition) to the government. Kirkwood was strongly reprimanded by the government in the wake of this petition. At the same time he was demoted.
