The above picture is that of ancestral home of legendary political figure, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy during the independence movement of the country. The mansion, located as it is on Shakespeare Sarani (Theater Road), though classified as a heritage building, is now in the hands of a realty developer, who is tearing it down to make way for a glitzy shopping mall.
I’ve got this story from the blog of Ershad Ahmed (including the picture). Here is what Ershad Ahmed has to say:
40 Theatre Road, the legendary house, ancestral home of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in the posh area of Kolkata (Calcutta), and witness to many political events of the independence movement of India and partition of Pakistan during his Premiership of Bengal is being demolished. The house was listed as a ‘heritage building’ of India in West Bengal, but its custody was taken over by a non-Bengali businessman Mr. Shyamsundar Dhanuka in 2000 from the Kolkata City Corporation, after removing the name from the heritage list for construction of a shopping complex. Demolition work started 20 days ago, every night, slowly under cover of darkness and taking advantage of high perimeter wall to hide from public eyes. With its demolition, a monument of Indian political history will be buried. [Link to his post]
Technorati Tags: heritage, heritage building, kolkata, calcutta, india
Leave a Reply