By Aditya Poojan
Satyajit Ray’s ancestral dwelling has lastly been demolished. Regardless of a suggestion of help from the Indian authorities, the Bangladesh authorities tore down the home on Wednesday morning. Situated in Mymensingh, the home was constructed by Satyajit Ray’s grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. A day earlier than the demolition, authorities officers had revealed their plan to tear down the constructing, which prompted India to enchantment to the Bangladesh authorities to rethink. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee additionally expressed her disapproval of the choice in a publish on X. Though India supplied to assist protect the home, the Bangladeshi authorities was unwilling to alter its determination. There are two major causes for India’s outrage over the demolition, although Satyajit Ray by no means visited the home: first, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury’s contributions to Bengali literature, and second, a rising pattern of destroying cultural heritage websites in Bangladesh which might be related to India.
Home Constructed by the Grandfather
Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury constructed the home a couple of hundred years in the past. The 36-acre property on Harikishore Ray Chowdhury Highway in Mymensingh included residential rooms, a prayer room, a kitchen, a backyard home, a playground, and two separate ponds for animals and people. Satyajit Ray’s father additionally by no means lived in the home. After the formation of Bangladesh, the home turned authorities property. In 1989, a Shishu Academy (kids’s academy) was began there. By 2007, the home had fallen into disrepair, and the academy ceased operations. The home then turned abandoned, its partitions crumbled, its doorways and home windows had been stolen, and it suffered in depth vandalism. Authorities officers said that the home couldn’t be repaired, and due to this fact, it might be demolished to assemble a brand new constructing for the Shishu Academy to renew operations. The Indian authorities had supplied to assist Bangladesh convert the home right into a museum. It had proposed creating the home as a shared cultural heritage web site between the 2 international locations, however Bangladesh rejected the supply.
Main Determine in Bengali Literature
The first motive for India’s emotional connection to the home is its hyperlink to 3 generations of Bengal’s literary and inventive heritage: Upendrakishore, his son and well-known poet Sukumar, and Satyajit Ray. Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury is taken into account the daddy of kids’s literature within the Bengali language. He did outstanding work to popularize science amongst kids by means of easy language and is taken into account a key determine of the Bengali Renaissance and an necessary a part of Bengal’s literary heritage. This legacy was carried ahead by his son, Sukumar Ray, after which his grandson, Satyajit Ray. Whereas Sukumar Ray made literature his medium, Satyajit Ray received an Academy Award for filmmaking. Although each of them by no means visited the home in Mymensingh, it was their ancestral heritage, and due to this fact, the outrage in India over its demolition is justified.
‘Anti-India Sentiment’
The second main motive for the outrage is the current incidents in Bangladesh during which symbols related to India have been attacked. Not simply India, however symbols related to Hindi and Hindustan have been more and more focused in Bangladesh. In June of this yr, a mob attacked Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestral dwelling within the Sirajganj district. Previous to that, a number of temples had been vandalized throughout protests towards the Sheikh Hasina authorities final yr, and Hindus had been additionally attacked. This pattern has continued even after Mohammed Yunus took cost. Satyajit Ray and Rabindranath Tagore are a part of Bangladesh’s cultural heritage as a lot as they’re part of India’s. After the assault on Tagore’s home, officers claimed that the mob turned violent attributable to a dispute over parking. Nonetheless, the choice to demolish Satyajit Ray’s ancestral dwelling was made by the federal government itself. One would possibly marvel if the federal government is a participant on this anti-India sentiment.