At Vidyasagar birthplace, villagers shocked by vandalism in Kolkata

GHATAL (WB): Anguish and anger were writ large on the faces of the residents of Birsingha, the birthplace of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, as they staged a protest on Wednesday. They felt let down by Tuesday’s vandalism on the Kolkata college campus that bears the name of the son of their soil, a key figure of the Bengal renaissance who went on to pioneer path-breaking social reforms.
Vidyasagar’s ancestral house, renovated by the state government last year, stands in Birsingha, 125 km from Kolkata in West Midnapore’s Ghatal. Among the protesters were Vidyasagar’s uncle’s fifth-generation descendants. The family comprises Dilip Bandyopadhyay (55), his wife and daughter. Dilip’s great-great-grandfather, Kalidas Bandyopadhyay, was Vidyasagar’s uncle.
Dilip’s family lives in a mud house beside Vidyasagar’s 12-cottah ancestral house. Dilip, previously a farmer, is now the caretaker of the Vidyasagar Smriti Sangrakhan Samity which oversees the upkeep of Vidyasagar Janma Bhite, the ancestral house. The place has been converted into a museum on Vidyasagar. Among its exhibits are some of his writings and works.
“What happened in Kolkata on Tuesday is beyond contempt. Those behind the act should be meted out exemplary punishment. My great-granduncle, the author of ‘Borno Porichoy’, is a God to me,” Dilip said.
Another protestor, 87-year-old Sanat Singha Roy, a retired primary schoolteacher, said, “I was shocked to learn about the vandalism on Tuesday. My uncle and brother were non-teaching staffers of Vidyasagar College. I never imagined that people could indulge in such vandalism.” Sanat was a caretaker of the plot owned by Vidyasagar’s son Narayan. Today, a library in Vidyasagar’s memory stands on the land.
Another Birsingha resident, Dilip Santra, said, “Though I am illiterate and haven’t read ‘Borno Porichoy’, I respect Vidyasagar as an ancestor from our village. What I saw on television was just beyond imagination.”