Indian pays up for fixing Ram Mohan’s tomb after 165 yrs

Singapore-based businessman Aditya K Poddar donated the 50,000 pounds for the tomb’s restoration work whose state has deteriorated over the last 20 years. Poddar has his roots in Kolkata.

The tomb has been a centre for pilgrimage for thousands of people from Bengal and other parts of India who visited Britain from the 19th century onwards.

Carla Contractor, a local historian who has worked over the years to preserve and cherish Rammohun Roy’s links with Bristol, said that this would be the first time that major restoration and repair has been undertaken since the tomb was built in 1843.

The tomb, which is covered by a canopy, has become a prominent symbol of the cemetery. The canopy is a faithful replica of a Bengali ‘chattri’, or a funeral monument. According to archives in Kolkata, minor repairs were carried out at the tomb in 1871.

The restoration work includes replacing some stones at the top of the ‘chattri’, repairing of cracks in the pillars, protective work and to find out the reasons why the main stone platform is pushing outwards.

Contractor hopes the work will be completed well in time for the annual commemoration event at the tomb on September 27, Rammohun Roy’s death anniversary.

The city of Bristol has held the event every year at the tomb for the last 170 years.

“I am delighted that at last this major monument in Bristol is being repaired and conserved. The Raja was a remarkable man in his day. This is very important to me – it has taken 20 years to get to this stage,” Contractor said.

All Indians can take pride in what the city of Bristol has done in memory of the Raja and be proud too of their own roots in the Indian subcontinent, he said, adding his tomb today marks the modern multicultural Britain and highlights the importance of links between Britain and India now.

Contractor, who has worked for the last 35 years to preserve Rammohun Roy’s legacy in Bristol, is married to Phiroze Contractor, a Parsi from Mumbai. She has collected an extensive archive of original and secondary material related to Rammohun Roy’s short time in Bristol.

Over the years, Bristol city leaders and local enthusiasts have scripted a fascinating story of how Rammohun Roy’s legacy has been preserved and cherished.

In 1903, Max Muller opened the Bristol Museum and Art gallery with a portrait of Rammohun Roy by Henry Briggs, one of Queen Victoria’s official painters. At the opening, Muller mentioned Rammohun Roy as one of the greatest people to come to Bristol.

After India’s independence in 1947, a fund was created in the Indian high commission to carry out activities related to Rammohun Roy. In the 1980s, a road in Bristol was named after him as announced by the Lord Mayor during a major exhibition.

In 1995, a delegation from Bristol visited the then West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu in Kolkata, who presented a bust of Rammohun Roy. The bust was unveiled in the Council House in the city centre by the then Indian high commissioner L M Singhvi.

During India’s 50th anniversary of independence in 1997, Rammohun Roy’s statue by noted sculptor Niranjan Pradhan was installed in a prominent location in College Green in the city centre. Local council officials reserved the site for the statue for 13 years.