Movie Director Satyajit Ray.
| Picture Credit score: The Hindu Archives
Bangladesh on Thursday (July 17, 2025) stated {that a} home in Mymensingh district that’s being demolished resulting from “dilapidated, dangerous and unusable” construction has “no affiliation” with eminent filmmaker and creator Satyajit Ray.
India on Tuesday (July 15, 2025) called on Bangladesh to reconsider its decision to demolish the ancestral property of Satyajit Ray and supplied assist to protect the enduring constructing because it symbolises Bangla cultural “renaissance”.
In a press release issued on Thursday, Bangladesh’s Overseas Ministry stated a “detailed inquiry into the archival data re-confirmed that the home in query by no means had any relation with the ancestors of Satyajit Ray”.
India had urged Bangladesh to transform the “landmark” constructing right into a museum symbolising the shared tradition of the 2 nations and pledged to increase cooperation for it.
Bangladesh’s Overseas Ministry stated the home was constructed by native Zamindar Shashikant Acharya Chowdhury subsequent to his bungalow for his workers. Upon the abolition of the zamindari system, it got here below the management of the federal government, which allotted it to the ‘Shishu Academy, it stated.
“The district authorities have reviewed the land data associated to the home and confirmed that, as per the previous data, the land belongs to the Authorities and has no affiliation with the Ray household in anyway,” the assertion stated.
It added that native senior residents and people additionally stated that “there is no such thing as a recognized historic connection between the Ray household and the home and land at the moment leased to the Shishu Academy. The home will not be listed as an archaeological monument, both”.
Nevertheless, the highway in entrance of the home, ‘Harikishore Ray Highway’, is known as after Satyajit Ray’s great-grandfather Harikishore Ray, the assertion stated, including that the Ray household had a home on Harikishore Ray Highway, which that they had offered way back and thus now not exists.
“A multi-storied constructing was constructed there by the brand new proprietor. The constructing that’s now being demolished was dilapidated, dangerous and unusable,” it added.
“Since 2014, the Academy had shifted to a rented property elsewhere in Mymensingh metropolis, and the deserted home turned a den for illegal actions by native anti-social parts. Therefore, an initiative was taken to assemble a semi-permanent constructing on the website within the first half of 2024,” the Ministry stated.
It stated that in a gathering of senior residents, literary and cultural personalities, journalists and local people members on Wednesday, eminent author Kangal Shahin stated that the constructing doesn’t belong to Hari Kishore Ray or Satyajit Ray.
“All attendees have been in unequivocal settlement that the deserted constructing of the Bangladesh Shishu Academy has no historic or familial ties with Satyajit Ray or his household. On this regard, Swapan Dhar, an archaeology researcher from Mymensingh, additionally acknowledged that the home in query will not be the ancestral dwelling of Satyajit Ray,” it added.
Revealed – July 17, 2025 08:19 pm IST
