The Gurusaday Museum is a folk arts and crafts museum located in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

History

The eminent Indian ICS officer and folklorist,

Gurusaday Dutt Gurusaday Dutt (10 May 1882 – 25 June 1941) was a civil servant, folklorist, and writer. He was the founder of the ''Bratachari'' Movement in the 1930s. Early life and education Gurusaday was the son of the Ramkrishna Dutta Chaudhuri and A ...

collected over 3000 artifacts in the course of his entire career, spanning from 1905 to 1941. The bulk of the artifacts were collected between 1929 and 1939. Dutt has been referred to as, arguably, one of the foremost pioneers in the field of conservation of folk art and culture. The notable Bengali historian Nihar Ranjan Roy once commented: "Gurusaday Dutt had revealed the origin and flow of folk art and culture with the insight of an expert jeweller, who can easily identify a real stone". After his passing away his belongings, especially the artifacts, were collected in an estate which was placed under the supervision of a trust of which the two original trustees were his brother-in-law, Major (Honorary) Basanta Kumar De, Commercial Traffic Manager (retired), of the BNR, who was the family nominee on the board of the trust and Shri Subimal Ray,

Bar-at-law A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the law and givin ...

, formerly Judge of the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

, who was the legal adviser to the trust. Dutt's son, Birendrasaday Dutt, Esq., formerly of the Burma Shell, was also closely involved in the management of these artifacts. Based on the recommendations made by the two members of the trust and his son, the Bengal Bratachari Society founded the museum. Later, these artifacts were shifted to the newly established museum built in Joka, Kolkata. The museum building was formally opened in the presence of the then-chief minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Ray in 1961 and the galleries were opened in the presence of the education minister of India,

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Humayun Kabir in 1963. The museum was administered by Dutt's daughter-in-law,

Aroti Dutt Aroti Dutt (1924–2003) was a social worker from India. She was the world president of the Associated Countrywomen of the World for two terms, from 1965 to 1971, and subsequently their Member of Honour. She was also the international vice-pres ...

, who was its long-time chairperson. The historian,

Barun De Barun De (30 October 1932 – 16 July 2013) was an Indian historian. He served as the first professor of social and economic history of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, founder-director of the Centre for Studies in Social Sc ...

, was a family nominee on the board of the museum for several years. The museum is an autonomous body, which has been under the guidance of the Ministry of Textiles of the Government of India since 1984.

Collections

Its collection includes archaeological objects, deities, manuscripts, masks, musical instruments, paintings, textiles and woodwork.

Present status

In 2017, the central government stopped funding for the Gurusaday Museum and since then the museum had resorted to crowd-funding in order to sustain itself. The central government proposed to transfer all the artefacts present in the Gurusaday Museum to the

Indian Museum Indian Museum (formerly called Imperial Museum of Calcutta) is a grand museum in Central Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It is the ninth oldest museum in the world and the oldest, as well as the largest museum in Asia, by size of collection. It ...

. This decision which may have been taken independently of the staff at Gurusaday Museum was met with widespread criticism. As of December 2022, the museum has been temporarily closed to visitors.

References

External links

* Museums in Kolkata Indian handicrafts Folk art museums and galleries {{ethnographic-museum-stub

History

Collections

Present status

See also

References

External links