‘No affiliation’ with Satyajit Ray: Bangladesh on home in Mymensingh that’s being demolished

Bangladesh on Thursday (July 17, 2025) stated {that a} home in Mymensingh district that’s being demolished on account of “dilapidated, dangerous and unusable” construction has “no affiliation” with eminent filmmaker and writer Satyajit Ray.

India on Tuesday (July 15, 2025) known as on Bangladesh to rethink its determination to demolish the ancestral property of Satyajit Ray and provided assist to protect the long-lasting constructing because it symbolises Bangla cultural “renaissance”.

In an announcement issued on Thursday, Bangladesh’s Overseas Ministry stated a “detailed inquiry into the archival information re-confirmed that the home in query by no means had any relation with the ancestors of Satyajit Ray”.

India had urged Bangladesh to transform the “landmark” constructing right into a museum symbolising the shared tradition of the 2 international locations and pledged to increase cooperation for it.

Bangladesh’s Overseas Ministry stated the home was constructed by native Zamindar Shashikant Acharya Chowdhury subsequent to his bungalow for his staff. Upon the abolition of the zamindari system, it got here underneath the management of the federal government, which allotted it to the ‘Shishu Academy, it stated.

“The district authorities have reviewed the land information associated to the home and confirmed that, as per the previous information, the land belongs to the Authorities and has no affiliation with the Ray household in any respect,” the assertion stated.

It added that native senior residents and people additionally stated that “there is no such thing as a identified historic connection between the Ray household and the home and land presently leased to the Shishu Academy. The home isn’t listed as an archaeological monument, both”.

Nevertheless, the street in entrance of the home, ‘Harikishore Ray Highway’, is called after Satyajit Ray’s great-grandfather Harikishore Ray, the assertion stated, including that the Ray household had a home on Harikishore Ray Highway, which they’d offered way back and thus now not exists.

“A multi-storied constructing was constructed there by the brand new proprietor. The constructing that’s now being demolished was dilapidated, dangerous and unusable,” it added.

“Since 2014, the Academy had shifted to a rented property elsewhere in Mymensingh metropolis, and the deserted home turned a den for illegal actions by native anti-social parts. Therefore, an initiative was taken to assemble a semi-permanent constructing on the web site within the first half of 2024,” the Ministry stated.

It stated that in a gathering of senior residents, literary and cultural personalities, journalists and area people members on Wednesday, eminent author Kangal Shahin stated that the constructing doesn’t belong to Hari Kishore Ray or Satyajit Ray.

“All attendees had been in unequivocal settlement that the deserted constructing of the Bangladesh Shishu Academy has no historic or familial ties with Satyajit Ray or his household. On this regard, Swapan Dhar, an archaeology researcher from Mymensingh, additionally acknowledged that the home in query isn’t the ancestral house of Satyajit Ray,” it added.