Scottish Church seeks heritage panel help to reclaim, restore Duff College for 2nd campus

Kolkata: Scottish Church College has sought the help of West Bengal Heritage Commission (WBHC) to reclaim Duff College — popularly known as the ‘Jorabagan Rajbari’— with a commitment to restore and renovate the prized piece of heritage architecture for using it as its second campus by the time the institution celebrates in bicentenary in 2030. Currently, the architecture is lying in ruins.In a letter to WBHC chairman Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Scottish Church College principal Madhumanjari Mandal cited the richly storied history of Duff College, founded by Rev Dr Alexander Duff, the first overseas missionary from the Church of Scotland. The Free Church Institution was set up in 1843 in a rented building at Nimtala Ghat Street. The building that later came to be known as Duff College, was constructed at 78 Nimtala Ghat Street in 1857 and the Free Church Institution moved into it. This building with Tuscan columns and slatted wooden louvres housed 28 rooms and three halls, two of which had galleries. The college could accommodate 1,200 students.In 1908, it was merged with the General Assembly’s Institution to form the Scottish Churches College. When the established Church of Scotland and the Free Church were formally united in 1929, the college was renamed as the Scottish Church College. With more assets than it could manage, Scottish Church authorities sold the Duff College building to the British authorities and the Jorabagan Police Station (PS) moved into its premises in 1929.What happened thereafter is far removed from academics. British police officer Charles Tegart turned parts of the building into a torture chamber to interrogate revolutionaries. Post-Independence, during the Naxal movement in the 1970s, bombs that had been confiscated and stored in the first floor exploded, causing major damage to the building. Though Jorabagan PS continued to function from the premises, the main building was abandoned. Now, Scottish Church College wants to renovate it according to heritage norms and make it safe for future academic use, said the college principal. Conservation architect and former WBHC member Partha Ranjan Das said the restoration of the landmark Duff College could become a significant milestone in the city’s movement to conserve buildings of historical and architectural significance. “The vegetative growth that has overtaken the building has to be carefully removed as sections are restored vertically. The building has to be strengthened,” said Das, who had helped repurpose the Jorasanko Thakurbari and BT Road campus for Rabindra Bharati University. (With inputs from Poulami Roy Banerjee)
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