A Trinamool councillor suggested at the civic body’s council meeting on Thursday that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s archives, which contain documents detailing a crucial period in India’s pre-Independence records history, be made accessible to the general public.
Such a step was required at a time “when there is an effort to distort history and truth,” according to Ward 98 councilman Arup Chakraborty.
The local authorities should set up a mechanism that enables people to access archival data by visiting Town Hall, where a museum and resource center will be constructed, according to Chakraborty, a party spokesperson. The more than 12,000 volumes and records kept in Town Hall itself are anticipated to be digitized.
Digitizing the material in the KMC archives becomes even more important when we see attempts to skew history. He stated during the monthly meeting of the council members that “many academics and journalists would like to access the historical records.”
Chakraborty attacked the BJP in his speech, claiming that it had “misrepresented and humiliated” Bengali icons by twisting the facts. Someone claimed that Raja Rammohan Roy was a British agent. Another claimed that Rabindranath Tagore was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Jismey ek Raja Ram Mohan Roy bhi theh, woh bhi Angrezo ke dalal ke roop mein desh mein kaam karte rahe” (Raja Ram Mohan Roy, too, was one, he too continued working as an agent of the British), stated Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar in November.
Following what appeared to be pleas from the Bengal BJP and directives from the national leadership, Parmar later released a statement of “apology and repentance.”
BJP national president Nitin Nabin told party members in Durgapur on Wednesday that Rabindranath Tagore had received the Nobel Peace Prize during his first visit to election-bound Bengal.
In 1913, Tagore became the first Asian to win the literary prize.
During the KMC debate, Ward 23 BJP councillor Vijay Ojha praised the plan but expressed uncertainty about whether it was made with “a clean heart” or if there was “malice in it.”
“The proposal is not good if it is motivated by malice,” he stated.
“Let me speak,” Ojha stated in response to some Trinamool council members attempting to interrupt his statement. Despite being an Ojha, I speak Bengali. Do you not enjoy that?
“Calcutta is where my father was born. “This city is where I was born,” Ojha remarked.
In support of Ojha, KMC chairperson Mala Roy intervened and requested that the Trinamool council members allow him to speak.
According to KMC sources, the civic organization’s records contain the first speeches made by C.R. Das following his election as mayor in April 1924 and Subhas Chandra Bose following his election in August 1930.
Following the start of the Indianization of local administrations, C.R. Das was elected mayor of the Corporation of Calcutta in 1924.
In-depth descriptions of the city during the riots in 1946 and the Bengal Famine in 1943 can be found in the archives. There are numerous infrequently viewed images.
Das appointed Subhas Bose as the chief executive officer when he was elected mayor. Regretfully, Bose was arrested in a few of months. Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy, the deputy mayor, spoke during the council meeting on Subhas Bose’s arrest. “That speech has been archived,” a KMC official said.
A bright young Muslim politician at the time, Suhrawardy went on to become prime minister of Bengal and then prime minister of Pakistan following independence.
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