India Offers to Work With Bangladesh to Restore Satyajit Ray’s Ancestral House
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: India on Tuesday (July 15) offered to help restore filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s ancestral home in Bangladesh, after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee voiced concern over reports that it was being demolished.
On Tuesday evening, Bangladesh’s Daily Star reported that the ancestral house of Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, Ray’s grandfather and a towering figure in Bengali literary and cultural history, was being razed in Mymensingh city to make way for a new building.
Ray, one of India’s most celebrated filmmakers who was awarded its highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, spent his childhood in his grandfather’s Kolkata home after losing his father at the age of two.
The Mymensingh property, built over a century ago, came under government control following partition and was converted into the Mymensingh Shishu Academy in 1989.
However, it has remained unused for the past decade.
Officials quoted in the Daily Star report said the demolition had official approval, citing the deteriorated condition of the structure. A new semi-concrete building is being planned to house the Academy’s activities.
Reacting to the news, Banerjee posted in Bengali on X that it was “extremely distressing”.
“This news is extremely distressing. The Ray family is one of the foremost bearers and carriers of Bengali culture. Upendrakishore is a pillar of Bengal’s renaissance. Therefore, I believe this house is intricately tied to the cultural history of Bengal,” she wrote.
Banerjee called on the Bangladesh government to preserve the house and also asked the Indian government to “pay attention to the matter”.
Late on Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement expressing “profound regret” over the demolition, noting that the property was currently in a state of disrepair.
“Given the building’s landmark status, symbolising Bangla cultural renaissance, it would be preferable to reconsider the demolition and examine options for its repair and reconstruction as a museum of literature and a symbol of the shared culture of India and Bangladesh,” said the statement.
India added that it was “willing to extend cooperation for this purpose”.
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