Dhaka, Aug. 21: A high court today cleared the way for the government to take over actress Suchitra Sen’s childhood home in Bangladesh and turn it into a museum.
The 80-year-old screen legend, whose real name was Rama Dasgupta, was born at her maternal grandfather’s home at Bhangabari village in the northwestern district of Pabna. She studied at the Mahakali Pathshala in Pabna town and later at Pabna Girls’ School, now known as Pabna Government Girls’ High School.
Her family moved to India months before Partition, when Sen was about 16. The house was listed as a vested property and turned into a residence for district officials for sometime.
In 1987, the Imam Gazzali Institute, run by the Jamaat-e-Islami, moved in and later opened a kindergarten in the house in 2009. The Pabna district administration recently served a notice to the institute to vacate the premises.
The high court today directed the institute to hand over possession of the house to the government within two months. It directed the government to protect Sen’s memories at the house and maintain it.
The institute, though, is likely to appeal against the verdict. The court had passed a similar order in July last year but the institute had challenged it.
“Suchitra Sen is the pride of Pabna. Her ancestral home certainly qualifies as a historical establishment. It is very unfortunate that her ancestral residence was occupied,” said Saidul Haque, convener of the Suchitra Sen Memory Preservation Committee in Pabna.
Sen, who lives as a recluse in Calcutta, may be glad to know that her birthday is celebrated enthusiastically at her birthplace every year. This year, there was a strong call from her fans in Pabna to declare the house a heritage site and turn it into a museum.
This isn’t the first time that the Bangladesh government is taking over the ancestral home of a popular Indian personality and preserving his or her memories. Former Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu’s childhood home, in the village of Barodi on the outskirts of Dhaka, will soon be turned into a museum and a library.
The court order on Sen’s ancestral home comes at a time India-Bangladesh relations are at an all-time high.
