Mob vandalises Rabindranath Tagore's ancestral home in Bangladesh; video goes viral
A row over a parking ticket led to the scuffle between a visitor and staff member of Rabindra Kachharibari; this incident triggered a mob attack on the site
A dispute over parking fees led to a mob vandalising Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestral mansion in Bangladesh’s Sirajganj district on June 11.
The incident at Rabindra Kachharibari, also known as Rabindra Memorial Museum, escalated after a visitor was allegedly assaulted. Subsequently, a mob damaged the auditorium, and a director was reportedly attacked.
The video of this incident went viral on social media.
Entry suspended
The department of archaeology has suspended the entry of visitors and a three-member committee has been constituted to investigate the incident, said news reports. The committee has been asked to submit the report within three days.
Md Habibur Rahman, Custodian of the Kacharibari, told journalists, “The authority has temporarily suspended the access of the visitors into the Kacharibari due to unavoidable circumstances.”
What triggered incident?
On June 8, a scuffle broke out between a visitor and a staff member of the Rabindra Kachharibari, also known as Rabindra Memorial Museum, in Sirajganj. The visitor had come to the place with his family. The row broke out over the parking fee for a motorcycle, said PTI, citing bdnews24.com.
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The situation escalated when the visitor was allegedly locked inside an office room and physically assaulted. This incident triggered anger among the locals who led a protest on June 11.
However, after the protest, a mob stormed the museum premises and vandalised the Kachharibari auditorium. And, the attackers also reportedly assaulted a director of the institution.
Historical worth
Located in Shahzadpur in the Rajshahi division, the Kachharibari had been the Nobel Laureate Tagore family’s revenue office and residence. Tagore wrote many of his notable literary works in this place.
Meanwhile, BJP “condemned” the attack.
In a post on X, Sambit Patra talked about “the attack” on Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestral home in Bangladesh, which “suffered significant damage”.
He said, “It is unacceptable that such an international museum was not protected. So far, the interim government of Bangladesh has not taken any action.”
Further quoting media reports, he said this house was attacked in a pre-planned act of violence, carried out by members of Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam.
Assault on Bengal's cultural soul
BJP leader and head of party’s IT cell, Amit Malviya also took to X to post about the incident which he pointed out happened right “under the very nose of Muhammed Yunus government”.
“The mob raised hateful slogans against Tagore, shattered windows, and destroyed furniture — an open assault on Bengal’s cultural soul. Tagore belongs to the world, but he is the pride of every Bengali. Yet across the border, his legacy is being trampled…”