Amar Kutir

Amar Kutir (আমার কুটির) (meaning: my cottage), once a place of refuge for independence movement activists has been turned into a cooperative society for the promotion of arts and crafts.

[1] It is located on the banks of the Kopai River, about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Santiniketan in Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

[2][3] In 1922, on an invitation from Rabindranath Tagore, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, just released after imprisonment for political activities, visited Santiniketan.

Sushen Mukherjee, the founder of Amar Kutir was born late in the eighteenth century, hailing from a remote suburb of Calcutta City, in youth, imbibed with Ramakrishna Vedanta Culture and ideology wandered vehemently to find an answer to query "What is the purpose of life!” Out of this yearning he moved around criss-cross all over India and even traveled to distant Tibet like a wandering monk.

So fortunately he found a place measuring 100 acres (0.40 km2), around remotest area of Birbhum district in West Bengal, kissing the banks of river Kopai.

Or else, he would travel to Bombay, Madras to find avenues of earning revenue for the establishment he so fondly founded in Amar Kutir.

He was the pioneer in this type of artifices trading and which, of course, he mastered through intermingling with traders visiting India from Malayasia, Indonesia in the late thirties and early forties.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, many of the revolutionaries left Amar Kutir and were directly involved in organizing peasant movement in the villages.

[1][4][5] Tarapada and Jata Majhi of Rupur Samaya Sadan died in police firing in a raid on Bolpur Railway Station conducted by thousands of people assembled by Amar Kutir.

would be his worthy successors and would be able to carry the mantle of his selfless work and would help maintain the legacy which he (Sushen Mukehrjee), throughout his lifetime held dearly so close to his heart.

Out of passion or ideal one great soul founded one organisation but to veer it towards the rightful destiny needs yet an equally astute mind and a gigantic heart to reverberate one small creation into a much bigger centre for multifarious activities.

Amar Kutir is a cooperative unit that produces leather goods, kantha stitched saris, bamboo crafts and batik at a reasonable price.