INTACH Odisha chapter opposes demolition plan of ancestral house of Rabindranath Tagore

The decision to demolish the ancestral house of Gurudev Tagore located on Chakratirtha Road in the pilgrim city of Puri has evoked sharp reactions from Convener of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Odisha operations and former DGP Amiya Bhusan Tripathy.

In a letter to the Puri district administration, Mr Tripathy asked the administration to stop the plans of razing down the building and instead take measures for the proper restoration and conservation.

He has given an assurance that INTACH could take up the project and ensure that the structure gets a new lease of life. 

Mr Tripathy said certifying a building unsafe is a routine work of PWD which lacks qualified persons who can do proper restoration and conservation work.

The place was home to the famous poet who used to love Puri and where he had composed some of his famous literary works, including his Nobel Prize winning work ‘Gitanjali’, says heritage expert and historian Anil Dhir.

A bust of the bard is installed at the far end of the building. A large number of documents and articles penned by Tagore are still preserved at the building. Some of these documents have been lost due to decay and lack of proper maintenance, but a few invaluable artifacts remain, Mr Dhir said.

A portion of the building was being used as a hostel for students of an adjoining College. However, the asbestos roof of the building was blown away during cyclone ‘Fani’  a few months ago, and since then it has been lying as an abandoned structure.

Mr Dhir said Puri Sub-Collector Bharat Charan Sahu has claimed that the building is in ruins and there is no other option but to demolish it.

It is not known if the district administration has given a thought to restore this building keeping its heritage value in mind, the historian remarked.

Mr Dhir said Odisha PWD had declared many buildings unsafe and through the efforts of INTACH  they were repaired with proper conservation techniques and stand proudly today.

The Kanika Library and Assembly Hall at the iconic Ravenshaw University, the Cuttack Circuit House, and the old Board of Revenue Building too were at some time declared as unsafe, but they were all restored. In fact in Katak, the very same PWD which had declared the structures unsafe did the restoration under proper guidance.

The Jobra Workshop was preserved by INTACH and a grand Maritime Museum stands in place today.  In Puri too, the house of Janaki Nath Bose, father of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose was given to INTACH in 2015 and the building stands in one piece after proper conservation.

In Sambalpur also the house of the Assamese Poet Laureate, Laxminath Bezbaruah,  which was marked for demolition is currently in the process of conservation by INTACH. The Rani Bhakri and the Old Town Hall of the City, which was in ruins,  are also in the final stages of restoration.

The Vice-Principal of the  Samant Chandrasekhar Junior College, Sankarshan Dash said that they had been intimated by the civic body regarding the demolition.

“Since the building is synonymous with the legendary Rabindranath Tagore, we have requested the Works Department through a letter to construct a building which can be made into a ‘Tagore Museum’ to preserve the documents and artefacts in ‘Patherpuri’, he said.