Bagchi Zamindar House - A story of the abolition of Indian Feudalism

Jamsherpur Bagchi Bari was established by Indian Zamindar (a feudal landlord in British India) Srinarayan Bagchi in the late 1780s. This was also the birthplace of the famous Bengali poet Jantindra Mohan Bagchi. Jantindra Mohan Bagchi was a poet known for helping Indian freedom fighters during British rule in India. The Bagchis were vassals of the Natore Raj family of zamindars and Rani Bhabani's granddaughter married into the family. In the years 1624-1711 AD, the house that Sristhidhar Bagchi built in the village of Jamsherpur in undivided Nadia by converting the mud house into a pucca house became known as the 'Old Bagchi House'. Over time, this house took on the shape of a royal palace. Masons from Murshidabad, Lucknow, and Allahabad came to build this beautifully crafted house. Since 1832/33 AD, the Bagchi family had introduced Durga Puja in the Old Bagchi House. There was a Theatre, stables, elephant house, Lion's door, dance hall, tomb of the poet's elephant (Kali), mango garden, lotus pond, rose garden in the house. Although dilapidated, parts of the house are still occupied by members of the family. The house once played host to leading poets like the first Indian Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, D. L. Roy, and famous musicians, and theatre artists from Bengal. Gopendra Narayan Bagchi was the last feudal ruler or Zamindar of the estate. The arches and lion's gates are now collapsing. This heavenly Old Bagchi House is now a dilapidated, dirty, smelly, dusty, almost ruined building known as a haunted house, swallowed by the ravages of time at Jamsherpur, West Bengal; India on 27/11/2024.