Visva- Bharati and Rabindranath Tagore

Visva- Bharati and Rabindranath Tagore

Subject: History

Section: Personalities

Context: There have been a string of resignations at Visva-Bharati University in the backdrop of relentless agitation by a section of students on campus.

Concept:

Visva- Bharati University:

• It is a public central university and an Institution of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India.
• It was founded by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1921 who called it “Visva-Bharati”, which means ‘the communion of the world with India’.
• Until independence it was a college. Soon after independence, the institution was given the status of a central university in 1951 by an act of the Parliament.
• At Visva-Bharati, if a course demanded by a student is not available, then the university will design a course and bring teachers for that course.
• The university would not be bothered by the consideration of whether there is a demand for the course.

Rabindranath Tagore:

• Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, novelist, and painter, who was born in Calcutta on May 7, 1861 and was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the west.
• He was also referred to as ‘Gurudev’, ‘Kabiguru’, and ‘Biswakabi’.
• He was the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for his work on Gitanjali in 1913.
• In 1915, Tagore was awarded knighthood by the British King George V. However, in 1919, following the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre he renounced his Knighthood.
• Rabindranath Tagore was a good friend of Mahatma Gandhi and is said to have given him the title of Mahatma.
• He not only gave the national anthems for two countries, India and Bangladesh, but also inspired a Ceylonese student of his, to pen and compose the national anthem of Sri Lanka.
• Tagore believed in open-air education and had reservations about any teaching done within four walls. This was due to his belief that walls represent the conditioning of the mind.
• Tagore did not have a good opinion about the Western method of education introduced by the British in India; on this subject, Tagore and Gandhiji’s opinion matched.
• So, he devised a new system of learning in Visva-Bharati which allowed students to continue their course till the student and his teacher both are satisfied.