TMC MP raises question in Parl on Tagore’s statue in Jallianwala Bagh memorial
The Statesman | 25 July 2025
In a written response to a question raised by Trinamul Congress MP Ritabrata Banerjee the ministry of culture has confirmed that there is no statue of Kobiguru Rabindranath Tagore at the Jallianwala Bagh memorial, and, more disappointingly, that there is no plan to install one either.
Tagore was one of the most prominent and principled respondents to Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Deeply shaken by the colonial brutality, he renounced his Knighthood conferred by the British Crown, as a mark of protest against the horrific violence unleashed upon innocent civilians.
To ignore Tagore is to sideline Bengal’s indelible contribution to the freedom struggle. We urge the central government to correct this omission and ensure that the voice that once shook the British Empire finds a rightful place in Jallianwala Bagh, said TMC leaders.
MP Ritabrata said, “I’m not at all satisfied with the answer by the govt. We had wanted to know from the ministry of culture if the memorial at Jalianwalah Bagh has any statue of Rabindranath Tagore. If there is none, if there is any plan to put one.”
“The massacre happened in 1919 and Tagore was the first to protest in the severest language against it. The knighthood he received in 1915, he surrendered in 1919 just after the massacre. The Manchester Guardian in 1925, in an interview, had written that Tagore was ‘a passionate politician’. We demand that immediately a statue of Tagore should be installed there and also the letter he wrote, surrendering the Knighthood, be displayed. This BJP is a Bengali-hater party,” said the Rajya Sabha MP.