Locked legacy of Mujib’s room as visitors vanish after Dhaka upheaval
Telegraph | 20 November 2025
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s room at Baker Hostel, where the founding father of Bangladesh spent his student days in the city, has been locked and largely forgotten for over a year. Once a frequent stop for visitors recommended by the Bangladesh deputy high commission, the room now sees hardly any footfall.
There used to be many requests from the deputy high commission for visitors to see the room, but no such request has come since July 2024, said an official of Maulana Azad College, the hostel’s custodian.
The dip comes in the wake of political upheaval in Dhaka, where an uprising ousted Mujib’s daughter and then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, forcing her to flee the country.
Baker Hostel, located on Smith Lane off Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, houses two rooms converted into a small museum. Mujib lived in one of these rooms while studying at Islamia College, now Maulana Azad College, in the 1940s. Anyone seeking entry must secure prior permission from the college since the hostel still has many students residing in it.
Mujib’s first-floor room in the three-storey hostel building preserves his personal belongings: books, a table, a chair and a cot. A gallery showcases photographs and documents tracing his political journey. On Wednesday, hostel security guard Aftabuddin Molla said: “The museum is now locked up.”
Maulana Azad College principal Krishnendu Dutta told Metro that the room is regularly maintained, “but there are hardly any visitors.”
He added: “Immediately after Hasina’s ouster, the state education department instructed the college not to allow any visits without departmental approval. That instruction still stands, but we have received no requests.”
The Bangladesh acting deputy high commissioner in Calcutta, Sikder Mohammad Ashrafur Rahman, declined to comment. Sources there said they too had not received any requests from groups or individuals to visit the museum.
“Since we did not receive any requests, forwarding any request to the college authorities did not arise,” a source said.
Baker Hostel was commissioned in 1910. It was built with funds donated by Nawab Khawaja Salimulla of Dhaka and support from the then government of Bengal.
Today, students from Surendranath College, Asutosh College, Bangabasi College and City College reside in the hostel, along with Aliah University students in a new annexe commissioned in 2012.
The foundation stone for the new annexe — named after Mujib — was laid in 2011 by Bangladesh’s then foreign minister Dipu Moni.
College principal Dutta recalled a legend from the college’s history: Mujib, along with fellow students, reportedly escorted a Hindu economics professor through Muslim-majority areas during the communally tense 1940s, a time marked by the 1946 Calcutta riots.
“The culture of pluralism has continued in our college,” Dutta said. “We celebrate Eid as well as Saraswati Puja here.”