Ila Mitra's childhood home may be lost for lack of maintenance

So well-regarded was firebrand peasant leader Ila Mitra, born in 1925 in Jhenidah district, that from her supporters she earned the moniker 'Rani Ma', meaning 'queen mother'. Like her husband Ramendra Mitra who participated in the British-era Tebhaga Andolon movement, Ila was a committed communist. She earned a reputation as a people's champion in her own right.

Yet sadly, although she lives on in popular memory, her childhood home in Bagutia village of Jhenidah's Shailakupa upazila is all but forgotten.

Once renowned across the Subcontinent but especially in Bengal, Ila Mitra grew up in the upper middle class home at Bagutia, living there until her marriage, when she left for her husband's house in Chapainawabganj. It was there, in Nachole upazila, that Ila was arrested in 1950 for organising a Santhal peasant movement.

Following arrest she was tortured, found guilty of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment; but four years later Ila was pardoned and allowed to pursue health treatment in Kolkata. Ila Mitra never returned to then-Pakistan, living in India until her death in 2002.

The aristocratic woman who shunned personal happiness for establishing the rights of the Santhal farmers.

In an advanced state of decay, her childhood residence is currently occupied by one Kiamuddin Hazi and his family. His son Abdur Rashid told The Daily Star his father purchased the property from Ila Mitra's successors and that they have valid documents. According to Rashid, maintenance work has not been possible due to frequent attacks by rival villagers.

With maintenance of the property seemingly left unattended for decades, Jhenidah and indeed Bangladesh looks set to lose this historical site.

While Ila Mitra herself might not, in accordance with her favoured communist ideology, have stored much value in preserving a building of relative privilege such as her family home, local people do.

"The historical residence of Ila Mitra should be reconstructed as an important memorial to her," says Nikhil Kumar Biswas of Bagutia. "She sacrificed her whole life fighting for the peasants. The government should take proper care of this dilapidated building."

Shailakupa's upazila nirbahi officer Didarul Islam advises he has no direction from the government on the matter and will look into it.