Kolkata: The West Bengal government has plans to set up a museum at the north Kolkata house of 19th century social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar where he had spent the last few years of his life, state minister Partha Chatterjee Friday.
The museum will come up at Vidyasagar’s residence at the Badur Bagan locality where pictures and models, chronicling his life from his birth place at Birsinghapur village in West Midnapore district to the house in north Kolkata, will be put on display.
Partha Chatterjee, who is the West Bengal Education Minister, said this at a function after inaugurating ‘Vidyasagar Academy’ at the social reformer’s residence on his the 200th birth anniversary.
Some items used by Vidyasagar which are gathering dust in the storeroom of the house, will be brought out for public viewing at the museum. This will help the present generation to know about the man, who had waged a war against women oppression and propagated widow remarriage, Chatterjee informed.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had recently announced that Vidyasagar’s birthplace at Birsinghapur village will be developed as an educational tourist hub.
A bronze statue of Vidyasagar was unveiled Thursday at Vidyasagar College also located in north Kolkata.
“Those who are against the social reforms of Vidyasagar had vandalized his bust at the institution associated with his name,” the minister said. He was referring when the bust of Vidyasagar was vandalised during a road show by BJP chief Amit Shah in the city in May.
PTI