Bolpur municipality on Thursday halted the demolition of a house belonging to the family of painter-writer Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951) in Aban Pally, a neighbourhood in Santiniketan named after him.
The one-storey dwelling holds significant memories of Rabindranath Tagore’s nephew, considered to be the founder of the Bengal school of art.
A source said that the descendants of Abanindranath, who inherited the house, sold the entire property to two Calcutta-based individuals in April last year. Recently, Uttam Roy, a local contractor, began to demolish the old structure to build a new one.
“It came to our notice two or three days ago that a local contractor was demolishing the house of painter Abanindranath Tagore. Since it is connected to the memory of the Tagore family, our team went there on Thursday to stop the demolition and lock the main gate of the premises,” said Parna Ghosh, the chairperson of the Trinamool Congress-run municipality.
Abanindranath was the founder of the Indian Society of Oriental Art in 1907 and a major exponent of Swadeshi values in Indian art. His painting of Bharat Mata is one of his famous works.
Known in Santiniketan as Aban Thakur, he was also a prolific writer, particularly for children.
The house, named Abaas (home), is popularly known as Aban Thakurer Bari.
It was established by the Tagore family at least 75 years ago and holds sentimental value for many old-timers and veterans of Santiniketan.
Many feel that the demolition of such a historical house would erase a part of the region’s history.
“It is very unfortunate to know that a large part of the house has already been demolished. We heard from our seniors that Abanindranath Tagore stayed there a couple of times during his time in Santiniketan,” said Kalpika Mukhopadhyay, a Santiniketan veteran and a well-known retired Sanskrit professor at Visva-Bharati.
“The area is named Aban Pally because of that particular house. Now, the demolition of the house means the name of the area will be erased,” said Sudripta Tagore, a member of the Tagore family.
“Already, half of the entire house has been demolished. It’s good that the work has been stopped midway, but the municipality should ensure the building is restructured to its original condition,” said a senior Santiniketan resident.
Ghosh, the chairperson of Bolpur Municipality, said: “We will certainly discuss the next course of our action.”
However, some Santiniketan residents questioned why the local TMC councillor or the civic body failed to recognise the significance of the building before the demolition began.
When asked about this, Ghosh said: “Neither the local councillor nor the civic body was informed before the demolition started. As soon as we were notified, we stopped the work.”
A source stated that the information about the demolition reached Nabanna, from where top government officials instructed the local administration to take appropriate action.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has often mentioned how she stopped the sale of Swami Vivekananda’s house in Calcutta and asked the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to buy it for preservation before it was turned into a multi-storey building.
Sudripta, a member of the Tagore family, praised the municipality’s efforts to protect the house before it was entirely demolished but urged the government to keep track of all historic and old houses in Santiniketan to save them from disappearing from the local map.
“I appreciate that the municipality stopped the work because the house can still be restructured. But many buildings should be under the scrutiny of the local administration before they are damaged or demolished,” Sudripta said.
When contacted, Uttam Roy, the contractor, said: “I was asked to demolish the 75-year-old house as the new owners of the property gave me a contract to build a new one. The municipality requested all the required documents, and we have submitted them.”
Many Santiniketan residents questioned why the descendants of Abanindranath decided to sell the property.
The previous owners could not be reached for comment.
Urmila Gangopadhyay, a great-granddaughter of Abanindranath who lives in Santiniketan, but is not an owner of this particular property, said: “Those who own the house are elderly and cannot maintain the property while residing in Calcutta. We all have beautiful memories of the house, but they are nirupay (helpless). The municipality did its job and I will not make any comment. I want to say what once Aban Thakur had said, jiboner palabodol (transitions of life).”