Satyajit Chaudhury in his office at Bankim Bhavan
Bankim-Bhavan Gaveshana Kendra (B.B.G..K) is a Research Centre, registered in the Ancestral House of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhya, creator of our National Song Bande Mataram and most eminent litterateur of 19th Century Bengal. This Research Centre is maintained by the Govt. of West Bengal in the Dept. of Higher Education.
Requested by the then Higher Education Minister Prof. Satya Sadhan Chakraborty Dr. Chaudhury took charge as Honorary Director of B.B.G.K in September 1999.
At that time one of the Prime Heritage sites of our country was almost completely devastated and reduced to a awful Khandahar. It had been a hard task restoring such a dilapidated huge mansion. Prudently Dr. Chaudhury sought the help of the Architecture Department of Jadavpur University. The Jadavpur University authorities deputed Dr. Somen Chakraborty, the then Head of Department to supervise the restoration and development work. Dr Chaudhury approached various authorities for required fund. The Dept. of Culture, Govt. of India, the Information and Culture Dept. Govt. of West Bengal, the Calcutta Corporation and Sri Mrinal Sen (The then M.P, Rajyasava) contributed from time to time. 90% of the restoration work has been completed and remaining works were expected to have been complete within Dr. Chaudhury’s tenure i.e by October 2012.
Bankim Bhavan Gaveshana Kendra, Kanthalpara, Naihaiti, Bengal
Presently Bankim-Bhavan Gaveshana Kendra has an educative museum, an archive rich with several thousand paper documents, important manuscripts etc. collected from the families of Bankim Chandra, Mahamahopadhya Haraprasad Shastri, Samaresh Basu and other literary luminaries of Bengal. These are invaluable materials for research on the socio-cultural history of Bengal. These precious materials were being digitised and laminated.
Another invaluable collection is 41 records of the Bande Mataram song sung by Rabindra Nath Tagore, Pt. Omkarnath, Maghubai Kurdikar, Dilip Kumar Roy, M.S Subbulaxmi and others.
The library was B.B.G.K started with a small collection received from Bankim’s family. Gradually it has grown enormously receiving personal libraries of Prof. Chintaharan Cakraborty, Prof. Dilip Kumar Biswas, Prof. Bhabotosh Dutta, Prof. Chuni Chaudhury, Dr. Nirmal Roy, Sri Gobinda Prasad Ghosh, Sri Jyostnamay Ghosh and others. Present number of Bound journals and book stand at nearly 20 thousands. This collection also includes nearly one thousand Puthi (hand written manuscripts).
Birth Site of Bankim Chandra Chattyopadhyay at Naihati, Renovated
On the other hand the famous Bangadarshan Patrika originally published by Bankim Chandra himself in 1872 was revived in 2000 by Dr. Chaudhury. 14 portly numbers published upto July 2011 that include 4 special issues on Nihar Ranjan Roy, Binod Behari Mukhopadhya, Bishnu Dey and Somnath Hore.
The research and publication unit of the B.B.G..K had been functioning in a very organised way and brought out books and monographs regularly. The publications include Bangadarshan Parampara an analytical history of the journal with complete index edited by Dr. Bhabotosh Dutta and Dr. Bijali Sarkar and on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindra Nath Tagore was published Rabindranather Bankim Chandra a definitive collection of Tagore’s writings on Bankim Chandra edited by Dr. Bijali Sarkar, Research-Fellow of the B.B.G.K. Some very important monographs on different aspects of Bankim-Study have also been compiled and published from B.B.G.K by Dr. Sarkar. Such research works established this Centre as one of the leading academic institution of West Bengal.
The B.B.G.K has been affiliated to the West Bengal State University.
Dr Chaudhury assiduously devoted himself for long twelve years for developing Bankim-Bhavan, the only memorial of the great man who infused the nationalist spirit, as an institution of national importance.
He handed over the charge of the B.B.G.K on 1st August 2011 and while handing over the charges Dr. Chaudhury commented to the new incumbent that “This is the only memorial of Bankim Chandra in our country. You should see that this sacred institution is maintained with due dignity.”