Mamata Banerjee Raises Alarm Over Reported Demolition of Satyajit Ray’s Ancestral Home in Bangladesh

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has voiced deep concern over reports that the ancestral home of legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray, located in Mymensingh city, Bangladesh, is reportedly being demolished.

Taking to social media platform X on Tuesday, Banerjee stated, “News reports reveal that in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh city, the ancestral home of Satyajit Ray’s grandfather, the renowned writer-editor Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, steeped in his memories, is reportedly being demolished. It is said that the demolition work had already begun. This news is extremely distressing.”

Banerjee emphasised the cultural and historical significance of the Ray family in Bengal’s literary and intellectual heritage. “The Ray family is one of the foremost bearers and carriers of Bengali culture. Upendrakishore is a pillar of Bengal’s renaissance. Therefore, I believe this house is intricately tied to the cultural history of Bengal,” she said.

She appealed to the Government of India to intervene and urged the Bangladesh government and citizens to take all necessary steps to protect the structure.

Banerjee also recalled that she had recently written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to address another similar issue with the Bangladesh government: the reported vandalisation of the ancestral home of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in Sirajganj.

In that letter, she had stressed the importance of taking strong diplomatic steps to preserve such culturally invaluable sites and ensuring that the perpetrators of such acts were brought to justice.

The Chief Minister’s remarks highlight a growing concern over the fate of shared cultural legacies between India and Bangladesh, and the need for joint efforts to preserve sites deeply embedded in the Bengali identity and heritage.