Inside the birthplace of Vande Mataram, a fight for survival

But as political parties wage a credit war, pitting the poet against fellow literary icon Rabindranath Tagore, the Baithakkhana remains in the shadows, battling government neglect and public apathy as it struggles to keep Chattopadhyay’s legacy alive.

Signs of this neglect appear everywhere: in walls marked by seepage, in poor lighting, and in the absence of air conditioning to preserve artefacts.

The staff at the institute list their biggest problems as lack of finances and manpower. The museum relies on the state government for upkeep, and officials say it needs urgent repairs but funds are scarce.

“It’s true that the rooms where Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s personal items are kept — including original pictures of his family — need upkeep,” Ratan Kumar Nandi, director of the Bankim-Bhavan Gaveshana Kendra, which also takes care of the museum, says. “Renovations to remove the damp walls here will begin shortly.”

At the same time, he laments the limited resources the institution has to work with. “There are only seven people working here. Those who have retired have not been replaced,” he adds.

It’s a sentiment the poet’s family share — though they also cite a larger problem: few visitors.

“Since the museum and the research centre depend solely on state funds, they have not been able to extend it,” Swati Ganguly, Bankim Chandra’s great granddaughter who lives in Delhi, says. “However, what is [really] sad is that it finds very few visitors. Only a handful of people – mainly researchers — visit the place. I also request the state government to do something about the condition of the Kolkata House.”

Bratya Basu, the state education minister under whose department the museum falls, did not respond to calls.

The bust of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay at the house in Kolkata. (Express photo: Partha Paul)

The museum

The song Vande Mataram was first published in the Chaitra issue of the monthly magazine Bangadarshan Patrika — a publication that Bankim Chandra and his brother Sanjib Chandra edited at different times. It appeared as part of the 10th chapter of the first volume of Bankim Chandra’s novel Anandmath, first serialised in the Bengali year 1287 (Gregorian year 1881), when Sanjib Chandra was editor.

Anandmath was published as a book in 1882, and ‘Vande Mataram’ was eventually set to tune by classical vocalist Jadunath Bhattacharya. Over the years, it took on several renditions — including one by Tagore at the Indian National Congress’s 1896 session in Calcutta.

In Kantalpara, the ‘Baithakkhana’ — where the poem was first written — and the adjacent family home of the Chattopadhyays form part of the Bankim Bhavan, which houses a museum, a research centre and a library.

A view of the Bankim Bhavan Gaveshana Kendra Research Centre in Kantalpara in North 24 Parganas. (Express photo: Partha Paul)

The main room of the Baithakkhana displays his iconic shawl and pargi (turban) in a mounted glass case, along with a single black pedestal fan. Other items include a lantern, wooden chess pieces the brothers once played with, and photographs of the Chattopadhyays and visiting Bengali luminaries.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s iconic turban at the Bankim Bhavan Gaveshana Kendra Museum in Kantalpara in North 24 Paraganas. (Express photo: Partha Paul)

The third room contains a table and a chair that the poet-novelist used during his writing sessions.

Next to the Baithakkhana — separated by a narrow path — stands a two-storeyed white colonial-style building. Once the family home, this structure, with its distinctive colonnades and latticework, has served as a research centre and library for 35 years, though part of it, including the ‘Vande Mataram Gallery’ on the ground floor, has been sectioned off as an extension of the museum.

There, Nandi recounts how his renovation proposals have yet to see the light of day.

“Some years ago, I submitted a proposal to the state government for renovation and a light and sound show. The entire project was to cost Rs 2 crore. However, we were told to scale it down,” Nandi says.

The proposal was revised twice more, with Nandi eventually reducing it to Rs 56,00,000 — a quarter of the original estimate.

“Even that is yet to be cleared by the state government. How will we preserve Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s legacy here?” he says, adding that construction on a three-storey building beside the Baithakkhana museum has also been stalled.

The Kolkata House

At 5, Pratap Chatterjee Lane in Kolkata stands a desolate building, its pale blue exterior blackening and cracking in places. The sign outside reads ‘Sahitya Samrat Bankim Smriti Granthagar’, and just inside the padlocked iron gate sits an iron bust of Bankim Chandra.

This is the house where the poet breathed his last on April 8, 1894. Converted into a library under the Left Front regime in 2006, it now lies derelict, with a broken cardboard box and blanket on the portico — tell-tale signs of squatting — the only evidence of human presence.

The house at 5 Pratap Chandra Chatterjee lane in Kolkata, where Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay breathed his last. The derelict house, which was converted into a library in 2006, is locked. Express photo: Partha Paul

“No one comes here,” one local says. “Only on his birthday [on June 26, 1838] do some political parties come to pay homage. But we haven’t seen the library open recently. Some people sleep near the main entrance at night.”

Debate over provenance

Born on June 26, 1838, to a Brahmin family, Bankim went to Hooghly Mohsin College, graduated in Arts from Calcutta University, and later studied law. Son of government official Jadab Chandra Chattopadhyay — the deputy collector of Midnapur — Bankim too joined the British government, becoming the deputy collector of Jessore and later a deputy magistrate.

With the museum and the house now crumbling, his descendants seek state government intervention, not only for funds but also to facilitate better research.

According to Swati Ganguly, Bankim Chandra’s great granddaughter, there is also confusion over when ‘Vande Mataram’ was written.

“While the central government celebrates it on November 7, 1875, there’s indication that it was written during the Durga Puja of 1874… I feel there should be research into when it was actually written,” she says.

Experts such as Partha Pratim Chattopadhyay, a research assistant at the Bankim Bhavan Gaveshana Kendra who has also authored a book on the poet, also believe evidence suggests the song predates its publication.

For this, he cites anecdotal accounts from the writings of Bankim Chandra’s younger brother Purna Chandra and Lalit Chandra Mitra, son of playwright Dinabandhu Mitra, about a time when Bankim was still editor of Bangadarshan Patrika.

“Ram Chandra Bandyopadhyay, an employee of the Bangadarshan Patrika, came to him one day and said he was short of nearly one page worth of material for [the Agrahayan 1281] issue and asked if the editor could write something. That’s when his eyes fell on the poem ‘Vande Mataram’ on the table in front of Bankim Chandra. Seeing that, Ram Chandra asked if he could publish it.”

But an upset Bankim refused. “He put the paper back in a drawer and said, ‘You cannot understand whether it is good or bad now. You will understand after some time, [and] it’s possible that I will not be alive then’. It’s clear from this that Bankim Chandra composed the song when he was editing Bangadarshan,” Partha Pratim says.

According to the researcher, Vande Mataram is a developed, rhythmic form of the emotional core expressed in Bankim Chandra’s essay Amar Durgotsav, later part of his collection Kamalakanter Daptar.

“Amar Durgotsav was first published in Bangadarshan’s Kartik issue [publication date October 12, 1874]. From the writings of Purna Chandra, it’s clear that on October 19 — the night of Mahashtami that year — Bankim Chandra became emotional after a rendition of the song ‘Eso Eso Bandhu Eso, Aadho Anchare Baso‘ sung by Balahari Das of the Reneti Gharana in the worship hall of his house.”

The poet then wrote about the song in his piece Ekti Geet in the Chaitra issue that same year. Around this period, a growing sense of patriotism steadily took hold of him.

“In that piece, he also wrote ‘Where did my Deshalakshmi go’ – making it clear that he was thinking about the motherland at that time. Is it such a stretch of imagination to believe that, in such an emotional state, a great mantra such as Vande Mataram came to his mind?”

He goes on to say: “If we see, as for the last piece in the Agrahayan 1281 issue, Bankim Chandra used — his critical analysis of contemporary poet] Ishan Chandra Bose’s Chittavinod Kavya. Instead of using the 28-line song Vande Mataram, Bankim gave Ram Chandra a criticism of Ishan’s work, which had 29 lines. According to the so far information found [in the writings], this was probably on the night of Mahashtami – October 19, 1874.”