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| Aldeen House, where Serampore College was born,.telegraphindia.com/ |
It was in the Aldeen House, once a palatial building with many rooms, where Serampore College had begun to function. This old heritage structure where it is said ' the seeds of modern education had been sown is in a dilapidated state due to neglect and lack of interest in preserving old monuments that once served the people here. The decrepit Aldeen House, Serampore (33 km from Kolkata), the birth place of the earliest modern education in Bengal is a sore in the eyes of public. The Education minister Partha Chatterjee , when inaugurating an academic education and unveiling the busts of William Carey and fellow missionaries Joshua Marshman and William Ward at the historical Serampore College, said ....the state government will do “all it takes” to renovate the dilapidated Aldeen House.'' Roughly, for three consecutive years from July 15, 1818, Aldeen House had been a center of learning and initially had just a batch of 37 students mostly European learning Sanskrit, Persian, astronomy, geology and botany. They happened to be the first students of Serampore College, which shifted to its current address in 1821.
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| location map. .Serampore town, west bengal, India. weather-forecast.com |
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| Serampore colle, W, Bengal. outlookindia.com |
As for William Carey (he worked as a professor of Bengali at Fort William College, WB till 1831), ''a pioneering figure both in the spread of modern education and laying the foundation of modern institutions” , said VC of Jadavpur University, Suranjan Das. It is nice if the Aldeen House is turned into a tourist spot. There seem to be some problem related to land acquisition and ownership as the old structure is close to the Metro water Pumping station of CMDA, just 55 meters from the college building.
The state govt. has given serious attention to renovate the house as early as possible. To begin with the ownership issue and transfer of property need to be resolved first.
https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/west-bengal/renovation-assurance-for-education-cradle-in-serampore/cid/1746217
www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/feb/20/kolkata-diary-2105969.html