India on Tuesday expressed regret over reports of the demolition of the ancestral property of celebrated filmmaker and writer Satyajit Ray in Bangladesh's Mymensingh and offered to help in the repair and reconstruction.
The external affairs ministry said it was regrettable that the property in Mymensingh, which once belonged to Satyajit Ray’s grandfather, eminent litterateur Upendra Kishor Ray Chowdhury, was being demolished.
“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,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The Government of India would be willing to extend cooperation for this purpose,” it said.
After the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the government took over ownership of the property, which was then turned into the Mymensingh Shishu Academy in 1989.
Why is Satyajit Ray's ancestral home being demolished?
Reports in Bangladeshi media said the house is being demolished to make way for a new semi-concrete structure.
Reports in Bangladeshi media said the house is being demolished to make way for a new semi-concrete structure.
The century-old house, located on Harikishore Ray Chowdhury Road in Mymensingh, has been abandoned for about 10 years and is in a state of disrepair.
“The house has been left abandoned for 10 years. Shishu Academy activities have been operating from a rented space,” Bangladeshi daily, The Daily Star, reported while quoting Md Mehedi Zaman, the district Children Affairs Officer.
The officer added that a semi-concrete building with several rooms will be built in place of the old house to restart the academy’s activities there.
Mehedi also told The Daily Star that the old building posed safety risks to children gathering at the compound.
Locals said the house had remained in a sorry state for years and blamed the administration for its neglect. They also said that its demolition would wipe out the legacy of the Ray dynasty in Mymensingh city.
"The house remained in a sorry state for years, with cracks forming on its roof – yet the authorities never cared about the rich history these old buildings hold," poet Shamim Ashraf was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Ashraf added that locals had repeatedly called for its preservation, but to no avail.