Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday inaugurated a museum at Kolkata’s historic Alipore Correctional Home and recalled Bengal’s contribution to the freedom struggle.
“Had there been no Bengal, there would have neither been any renaissance nor the freedom movement,” she noted.
A view of Alipore Museum, after it was inaugurated by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in Kolkata on September 21, 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI
Alipore Correctional Home, now Alipore Museum, is a historic place where national icons like the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Rishi Aurobindo and Bidhan Chandra Roy were interned and scores of freedom fighters went to the gallows.
The Chief Minister said that the cells were the freedom fighters were kept have been preserved alongside the plank where the freedom fighters went to gallows.
Among those who went to the gallows at the correctional home, which was built in 1906 and spread over 15.5 acres, are Dinesh Gupta, Pramod Ranjan Chowdhury, Anant Hari Mitra and Dinesh Majumdar. In 2019, the West Bengal government transferred the inmates from the correctional home to Baruipur in South 24 Parganas to restore the place, which is located in the heart of the city.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee innaugurated a musuem at Kolkata’s historic Alipore Jail on September 21, 2022. | Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI
The Chief Minister expressed hope in the museum turning out to be “heritage spot” and an important tourism destination. To this end, the State government has set up a coffee house, restaurant and a food kiosk there.
Experts said that five buildings of the prison have been restored and the museum has started its journey from the restored buildings. Cells where prominent freedom fighters were incarcerated and a central watch tower are among the parts of the complex that are now open for the public.
It was from the same correctional home that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose contested and won the election of Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation in 1930. Four persons, including Netaji, who were incarcerated at the prison went on to become Mayor of Kolkata. Historians point out that Indira Gandhi had come to meet her father Jawaharlal Nehru at the correctional home.
The restoration has been done by Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation.
Ms. Banerjee also claimed that attempts were being made to rewrite history for a political purpose. At a time when the country is celebrating 75 years of independence, such museums tell our countrymen about the sacrifice of freedom fighters and reminds us that leaders must lead all sections of society, she said.
