Indian Nobel laureate Tagore’s house to be made heritage site
Rabindra Bharati University operating from the house to be relocated to eastern part of the city
Kolkata: Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestral home at Jorasanko in north Kolkata will be preserved by the state government as a heritage site.
Speaking to reporters from the state secretariat, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said: “It is a heritage structure. People from all over the country and abroad come here to visit this place. Thus we have decided to preserve this important house as a heritage site.”
The state government has also decided to relocate Rabindra Bharati University that is operating from that same building to the eastern part of the city.
“Since a campus of Rabindra Bharati University is located in this house, the state government has decided to relocate it to Rajarhat New Town area. A plot of 10 acres of land is being allocated to the university authority for the purpose,” the chief minister, who is a Tagore aficionado, said.
Rabindra Bharati University was set up in 1962 in the Tagore family’s house, primarily as a centre for music and fine arts, but was subsequently extended to arts and humanities.
“I have already discussed the matter with the vice-chancellor of the university who is open to the idea as the building is a landmark of the city and needs to be preserved the way Tagore’s used it,” Banerjee added.
Built by Prince Dwarkanath Tagore (Rabindranath Tagore’s grandfather) in 18th century, on land donated by the famous Sett family, the house is where the poet and first non-European Nobel laureate was born on May 7, 1861.
He spent most of his childhood days at the house and breathed his last the on August 7, 1941.
Presently, the house serves as the Tagore museum for Kolkata.
The museum offers details about the history of the Tagore family including its involvement with the Bengal Renaissance and the Brahmo Samaj. It has been restored to reflect the way the household looked when the Tagore family lived in it.
Joanne Taylor who has written a book on the Forgotten Palaces of Calcutta was spell bound by the Jorasanko Thakur Bari. “These structures form the fabric of Kolkata’s history,” she says.
