The road to the
building,Step Aside,Darjeeling was named after the great patriot,Chittaranjan
Das. It is roughly five minutes’ walk from Chowrasta(Mall),Darjeeling. The creamy
yellow building nice in condition will be in the left side of the road,will
surely attract your eyes, where C.R.Das had come to recover from ill health on
16-th May 1925 with his wife and daughter.Popularly called “Deshbandhu”,the friend
of the Nation. A barrister at the Calcutta High Court,
he defended Sri Aurobindo Ghosh,another
prominent patriot, in the Alipore bomb trial. Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das was also
the first Mayor of Calcutta (Kolkata) corporation.
The building Step Aside was constructed early in the 19-th century, owned by Mr.Warnsei and was later purchased by Sir N.N.Sircar,who was a friend of Deshbandhu.Mahatma Gandhi and Annie Besant visited Darjeeling and stayed at Step Aside with Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. During the visit of Gandhiji, from June-4,1925 to june-9,1925,the two great leaders had long political discussions and it was in this Step Aside where Mahatma Gandhi, gave lessons of spinning (Charkha) to Deshbandhu. In Gandhiji`s words, “He has converted his Darjeeling house into a spinning club”. Deshbandhu passed away suddenly at Step Aside on 16-th june`25, at the age of 55.This building has seen two great leaders of India coming closer, during the five day visit of Gandhiji in Darjeeling it was reflected in his speech, “the five days communion with the great patriot (C.R.Das) which I had in Darjeeling brought us nearer to each other than never before”
In 1952 the house was registered under the Society act and named “Deshbandhu Memorial Society” with His Excellency Sri Harendra Kumar Mookerjee,the then Governor of West Bengal, as the President.In 1954 Step Aside was acquired by the Society through a gift deed by Sri R.N.Sircar,son of late Sir N.N.Sircar. At present, one room of the first floor of Step Aside where this prominent son of India breathed his last is preserved as personal museum with few of his furniture and other part of the building is used as a Charitable Society for the children and women.
The building has seen life of a person, becoming the subject of a sensational story of real life. Another story of the Step Aside is very famous “Bhawal Sanyasi Case”.Ramendra Narayan Roy,Prince of Bhawal(in Bangladesh)took the building on rent and was undergoing medical treatment in Darjeeling,found dead on May-9,1909. The dead body of the Prince was taken for cremation by some local Bengalis,but,the people, left the Prince uncremeted because, a strong hailstorm had started at that time, and from the crematorium the dead body was found missing. After twelve years of this incident, a sage appeared at Bhawal who resembled the dead Prince Ramendra Narayan who expired in 1909,at Step Aside at the age of 25.A case was lodged,many exhibits were produced and finally it was proved that the sage was actually Ramendra Narayan Roy, co-sharer of “Bhawal” by the judgement passed in 1937.This case is one of the famous cases of the Indian judicial history.
Even today lots of tourists visiting Darjeeling are still unaware of the Step Aside.Century old building
in Darjeeling a silent witness to several important incidents, is still standing upright, to tell the story itself
The building Step Aside was constructed early in the 19-th century, owned by Mr.Warnsei and was later purchased by Sir N.N.Sircar,who was a friend of Deshbandhu.Mahatma Gandhi and Annie Besant visited Darjeeling and stayed at Step Aside with Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. During the visit of Gandhiji, from June-4,1925 to june-9,1925,the two great leaders had long political discussions and it was in this Step Aside where Mahatma Gandhi, gave lessons of spinning (Charkha) to Deshbandhu. In Gandhiji`s words, “He has converted his Darjeeling house into a spinning club”. Deshbandhu passed away suddenly at Step Aside on 16-th june`25, at the age of 55.This building has seen two great leaders of India coming closer, during the five day visit of Gandhiji in Darjeeling it was reflected in his speech, “the five days communion with the great patriot (C.R.Das) which I had in Darjeeling brought us nearer to each other than never before”
In 1952 the house was registered under the Society act and named “Deshbandhu Memorial Society” with His Excellency Sri Harendra Kumar Mookerjee,the then Governor of West Bengal, as the President.In 1954 Step Aside was acquired by the Society through a gift deed by Sri R.N.Sircar,son of late Sir N.N.Sircar. At present, one room of the first floor of Step Aside where this prominent son of India breathed his last is preserved as personal museum with few of his furniture and other part of the building is used as a Charitable Society for the children and women.
The building has seen life of a person, becoming the subject of a sensational story of real life. Another story of the Step Aside is very famous “Bhawal Sanyasi Case”.Ramendra Narayan Roy,Prince of Bhawal(in Bangladesh)took the building on rent and was undergoing medical treatment in Darjeeling,found dead on May-9,1909. The dead body of the Prince was taken for cremation by some local Bengalis,but,the people, left the Prince uncremeted because, a strong hailstorm had started at that time, and from the crematorium the dead body was found missing. After twelve years of this incident, a sage appeared at Bhawal who resembled the dead Prince Ramendra Narayan who expired in 1909,at Step Aside at the age of 25.A case was lodged,many exhibits were produced and finally it was proved that the sage was actually Ramendra Narayan Roy, co-sharer of “Bhawal” by the judgement passed in 1937.This case is one of the famous cases of the Indian judicial history.
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| Step Aside,Darjeeling |
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