Sri Aurobindo Bhavan A House Steeped In History

Anindita Mazumder

This neo-classical mansion on Shakespeare Sarani has a rich historical background as the birthplace of a great son of Bengal, Aurobindo Ghosh and also because it served as the headquarters of the Bangladesh Government-in-exile during the Bangladesh War.

Sri Aurobindo was born in the outhouse of this mansion, then 4, Theatre Road, on August 15, 1872. It is not known when exactly, this house was built but it had belonged to a Jewish gentleman, Ezra. Aurobindo’s father, Dr. Krishna Dhan Ghosh was a member of the Indian Medical Service; posted at various district headquarters he was therefore, constantly on the move. His wife, Swarnalata, the daughter of Rishi Rajnarayan Basu had developed early symptoms of mental derangement. His friend, barrister Mono Mohon Ghosh rented the house for Swarnalata who was in advanced state of pregnancy and her two young sons, Benoy Bhushan and Monomohon and a European governess and looked after them in absence of Dr. KD Ghosh. It is to be noted that soon after his return from abroad in 1871, Dr. Ghosh was forced to sell off his ancestral house in Konnagar after he refused to do penance for crossing the seas.

After 1879 when Dr. KD Ghosh left for England with his three sons and a daughter, his friend, Monomohon Ghosh moved into the house. Subsequently, the house number was changed to 8, Shakespeare Sarani.

The house then changed hands several times before being eventually purchased by the government of Bengal. Initially, it was the official residence of Commissioner, Presidency Division and later on that of the Premier of Bengal or Chief Minister, Prafulla Ghosh. Later, it became the official residence of Kiron Shankar Roy, the home minister. In 1970, it housed the Bangladesh Government-in-exile when East Pakistan was being subjected to massacre by Pakistani forces.

After much persuasion the West Bengal Assembly passed ‘The Sri Aurobindo Memorial Act’ and the house was converted into a national shrine and renamed as ‘Sri Aurobindo Bhavan’ on August 7, 1972 which was also the birth centenary year of Sri Aurobindo. But before that there was quite a bit of controversy because of a prevalent belief that Sri Aurobindo was born at another house, ‘Rajani’ located at 237 Lower Circular Road which now houses the office of Ministry of External Affairs. The house was the residence of Barrister Monomohon Ghosh and Sri Aurobindo’s birthday was even celebrated here in 1949. But Sri Aurobindo had said he was born at 4 Theatre Road and a rejoinder was issued by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry.

Chief Minister, Siddhartha Shankar Ray who was persuaded by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi to hand over the house had imposed certain conditions including that no religious rituals would be performed except for “meditation, silent prayers or floral offerings” in its premises.

The sacred relics of Sri Aurobindo were also sent from Pondicherry and enshrined here. There is also a half bust statue of Sri Aurobindo overseeing it. The upper storey of the two-storeyed house has a photography museum of rare photographs of Sri Aurobindo and Mother and other materials from archives. The huge central hall and the adjoining balcony are used for holding classes and seminars while the library is located downstairs. On the first floor, there are two rooms which were used by Prafulla Ghosh and Kiron Shankar Roy. In fact Roy even breathed his last in this house.

It is interesting to note that Shakespeare Sarani leads straight to the spot in front of Victoria Memorial where Sri Aurobindo’s statue was installed on the same pedestal, once occupied by a statue of Lord Curzon, the architect of the plan to partition Bengal. During his active role in freedom struggle Aurobindo Ghosh had attempted to revoke the partition of Bengal and was declared to be the greatest threat to the Empire because he preached “religious patriotism”.

The calm and peaceful ambience provides the perfect setting for meditation and pursuits of erudition and hence is truly a shrine dedicated to man about whom Chittaranjan Das had said: “… long after this controversy will be hushed in silence, long after this turmoil, the agitation will have ceased, long after he is dead and gone, he will be looked upon as the poet of patriotism, as the Prophet of Nationalism and the lover of humanity.”