India urges Bangladesh not to demolish Satyajit Ray’s ancestral home, offers help in repair

India’s external affairs ministry on Tuesday urged the Mohammad Yunus government in Bangladesh to reconsider its decision to demolish the ancestral home of noted filmmaker Satyajit Ray and offered help to preserve the iconic building, as it symbolises Bangla cultural ‘renaissance’. New Delhi described the move to demolish the “landmark” building in Mymensingh as a matter of “profound regret” and urged Dhaka to convert it into a museum symbolising shared culture of the two countries and pledged to extend cooperation for it.
The building belonged to the filmmaker’s grandfather, Upendra Kishor Ray Chowdhury, also a renowned litterateur.

“We note with profound regret that the ancestral property of noted filmmaker and litterateur Satyajit Ray in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, belonging to his grandfather and eminent litterateur, Upendra Kishor Ray Chowdhury, is being demolished,” the MEA said in a statement.

“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 MEA said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that it is “extremely distressing” that eminent filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s ancestral home in Dhaka is being demolished by Bangladeshi authorities. She said the building is intricately tied to the cultural history of Bengal.

Banerjee had appealed to the Mohammad Yunus government in Bangladesh to take steps to preserve the ancestral property. She said the demolition of such a place was “heartbreaking”. The Ray family is one of the foremost bearers and carriers of Bengali culture, Banerjee wrote on X.

She called upon both the governments of Bangladesh and India to take steps to preserve the historic site, describing the Ray family as “torchbearers” of Bengal’s cultural legacy.

“I learnt from media reports that the memory-entwined ancestral house of renowned writer-editor Upendrakishore Roychowdhury in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh city is being demolished. The reports say that the demolition process had already begun. This is heartbreaking news. The Ray family is one of the most prominent torchbearers of Bengal’s culture,” Banerjee wrote on X.

The house had fallen into disrepair and had been left unused for nearly a decade. It previously housed the Mymensingh Shishu Academy but was later abandoned.