Visva Bharatis'Institution

8/8/2019 Visva Bharatis'Institution

1/68

VISVA-BHARATIS INSTITUTIONS

a) Patha Bhavana

I am trying hard to start a school in Santiniketan. I want it to be like the ancient hermitages we

know about. There will be no luxuries, the rich and poor alike will live like ascetics. But I

cannot find the right teachers. It is proving impossible to combine todays practices withyesterdays ideals. Simplicity and hard work are not tempting enoughWe are becoming spoilt

by wasteful pleasure and the lack of self-control. Not being able to accept poverty is at the rootof our defeat.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1901.

Our regular type of school follows an imaginary straight line of the average in digging its

channel of education. But life's line is fond of playing the seesaw with the line of the average.Rabindranath Tagore, 1917.

There are men who think that by the simplicity of living introduced in my school I preach theidealization of poverty which prevailed in the medieval age. The full discussion of this subject is

outside the scope of this paper, but seen from the point of view of education, should we not admitthat poverty is the school in which man had his first lessons and his best training?...Povertybrings us into complete touch with life and the world, for living richly is living mostly by proxy,thus living in a lesser world of reality. This may be good for ones pleasure and pride, but not forones education. Wealth is a cage in which the children of the rich are bred into artificial

deadening of their powers. Therefore, in my school, much to the disgust of the people ofexpensive habits, I had to provide for this great teacher this bareness of furniture and materials not because it is poverty, but because it leads to personal experience of the world.


The Basic Facts :

The school in Santiniketan, Patha Bhavana is, literally, VBs nursery. As has been stated

earlier, Tagore founded it in 1901 within the Ashrama which his father had set up in 1863 on 20

bighas of land purchased by him from the Raipur Estates in the District of Birbhum.

The school started in 1901 with 5 boys and 5 teachers and was called Brahmacharya

Ashram. Tagore invited Brahmabandhob Upadhyay, the distinguished convert to the Roman

Catholic faith, to take charge of organizing the Brahmacharya Ashram along with his Sindhi

disciple, another Catholic convert, Revachand. These two set up the school with rudimentary

features, investing the enterprise with the character of a monastery for the very young. The name

was changed the following year to Brahmavidyalaya, as did several features of its functioning,

especially in emphasizing the minimalism of its curriculum and the maximalism of its variedforms of activity with the idea of happiness pervading the students. As Tagore put it, The

mind is greater than education, vigour greater than information; under the weight of the printed

word no energy is left in us to make use of our minds. Having started as a school for boys it

admitted girls in 1908 but the experiment was discontinued soon thereafter to be revived notbefore 1922.

Tagore had to sell many of his possessions including his wifes jewellery, his gold watch

and chain, (a wedding gift) and his seaside bungalow at Puri, to start the school. The students


2/68

were not charged tuition fees and financial difficulties beset the school as well as Tagore who had

to borrow money for the upkeep of the school.

Later, Rabindranath took to touring the country with his dance-dramas to raise funds.

Today, funds are not a problem for Patha Bhavana. If it is still austere in some respects

as it should be it is not for lack of funds or potential funding.

The School has 1036 students (resident 238, day scholars 798) in the secondary schoolmode from Class I to X. Patha Bhavana (PB) admits students every year in these two categories,

viz., residential and day scholars, through admission tests conducted in each category. The

admissions for residents, subject to reservation rules for SC, ST and other categories, are based on

a test. For day scholars admissions follow a reservation of 50% for the wards of the staff

members. PBs classes begin with Class II for which the feeder channel is the Mrinalini AnandaPathasala (kindergarten) where 50% of the children are wards of VB employees with the balance

50% open to all.

The PB enjoys a student-staff ratio of 16:1. Apart from customary subjects, the students

are taught co-curricular subjects like Dance and Music, in regular routine. Moreover, they aretaught Fine Arts subjects like modelling, painting, artistic handicrafts, weaving, woodwork,

metal work. In addition to that they are taught physical education in a regular routine. In the

lower classes of the school stress is given not on particular printed books, rather emphasis is laid

on direct teacher-student interaction. Knowledge acquisition through this method is rewarding in

subjects like nature study and story-telling which serve as an introduction to Science and History

respectively for Classes II to IV and Tagore studies for Classes VI VIII. Regular co-curricular

activities like drama, recitation, creative writing, cleaning class rooms etc (as part of

environmental awareness) are regarded and taught as an integral part of the curriculum.

The medium of instruction is Bengali, with a provision for students from other regions to

appear in their assessment examination in English.

PB has introduced computer education from 2005 but there is no internet connection.

Observations:

The HLC members visited the core Ashrama area on which Patha Bhavana stands, on 23

June, 2006. The premises have an agreeable simplicity to them. And there was also a refreshing

naturalness to the surroundings.

Winding their way through the pathways, led by the Principal and Vice-Principal, the

HLC members noted the discipline and dedication of the teachers and the taught in the classes in

the open, under the shade of trees. They wondered if their presence would disturb the classes.

The Principal said what was so obviously true : They do not seem to mind.

First on the agenda was a visit to the PBs Library (total books 32,600). The books had

been arranged as per the model given by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay; thematically, but the

stacks, shelves and books were covered with dust and there was a lack of neatness andcleanliness. Expenditure of the Library is met out of VBs revenue allocations. Rs. 85,000/- is

sanctioned every year and Rs. 7,000/- is received from the Central Library a modest sum even

by Tagores standards of 1922!


3/68


4/68

consulted teachers, parents, Santiniketan residents, alumni and others were of the view that

PBs student strength, which is now nearly 5 times of what it was in the early phases of VB was

its chief problem. Sheer numbers placed the PBs teaching and other resources under great strain.

This apart, the students principal sourcing VB in-house was also seen as a problem.

Our respondents described the concomitant situation and problems as being:

1. PB is becoming increasingly insular, since the student body now overwhelminglycomprises children of staff and alumni. The few residential scholars from outside come from abackground that is different from that of the day scholars who come from the homes of staff.

2. The attitudes and expectations of the parents and guardians reflect current concerns,namely, marks-based academic performance geared to prospects for higher education the

straight line Tagore did not want. Parents and guardians of PB students do not want their wardsto play the seesaw with the line of the average; they wantthe average, the conventional and the

predictable. So, they organize private tuitions by the PB teachers who have to respond to these

pressures for examination-cramming, at the cost of paying less attention to the resident scholars.

3. Day scholars come to school only when classes start and go back when teaching isover. They are disconnected with the extracurricular and community activities that take place

after school hours for the residential scholars in a manner integral to the original PB principles.

4. By the principle of opposites, residential scholars who have the advantage of beingrooted in the Ashrama have a much longer routine from dawn to dusk and, as a result, their

academic performance suffers.

5. Professor Indranarayan Basu Mallick drew the attention of the HLC to the fact thatthe PB was perhaps the only eco-friendly school of its kind in the country (a debatable

observation). He also drew attention to the fact that girls comprised a good 50% of the schools

student strength a highly commendable feature.

6. Professor Basu Mallick however drew the HLCs attention to the fact that the schoolhad only two urinals for the day scholars which were more often than not, ill maintained and

dirty.

Recommendations :

1. PB is probably the only institution in our country where a school that teaches the very

young (from class II to class VII) is integral to a university system. PB has been and will

continue to be the seedbed for the VB University, although the open-system being recommended

by the HLC will bring other post plus-2 candidates to the colleges as well. PB will always

continue to influence the shape of the universitys student profile. The good in PB is, by

definition, therefore the future good of VB. Equally, the weak and the defective in PB must growinto the weaknesses and defects in the university. To state the obvious, the good in PB needs to

be preserved and developed, while the defective needs to be rectified. One traditional area of

PBs strength has been the informal ease of equation between teacher and taught in which

students enjoyed a sense of freedom and responsibility, with regular evening meetings in whichstudents read from their contributions on general subjects, beyond the confines of the curriculum,

playing an important part.


5/68

2. The HLC regards the major strength of PB as being its residential character. The school,

therefore, needs to be made entirely residential, without loss of time, in order to be a good school

with a difference, rather than a routine one. The new hostel buildings must be designed to be

simple without being primitive, austere without being monastically so.

3. Prior to it being made entirely residential, PBs size has to be optimized. What would be

the ideal student strength for the PB? We believe it should be around 600, with all the studentsdrawn through an open system accessible to the entire country, that can be introduced gradually

over a three-year programme. This will, of course, modify the students composition and will alsocall for a concomitant modification in the medium of instruction.

At present, the bulk of the admissions are from the Mrinalini Ananda Pathasala, the pre-

school nursery establishments to which all the small children of VB staff go. These children are

admitted en masse to Class II of the PB, well-nigh saturating the PB strength. The HLCcommends the decision, by no means an easy one, taken by the then Upacharya, Professor Sujit

Basu, in restricting admissions from within the VB system to 50%. The HLC would recommend

that over a period of three years, from admissions in the year 2007, this internal quota be scaled

out with VB children being free to compete for admission through an open test along with others,

but not admitted automatically. The Ananda Pathashala should therefore not be regarded as thepre-school feeder of the PB after the three year period.

4. The future residential facility for PB should, therefore, be planned for the optimal number

of students who will be then able to return with the advantages of right-sizing to the original

concepts of PB. The hostels should be sensitively designed so as to retain a simplicity which is

not impractical in an age where electricity and plumbing are not what they were in 1901.

5. Meanwhile, PB should arrange for all day scholars remain in school and participate in all

activities through the day in the same manner as residential students.

6. The examination and evaluation systems for grading student performance need to be

tightened and imaginatively reformed so as to test what students learn from actively exploringtheir natural and human surroundings and not simply what they pick up from tutors at home. The

students should be given the opportunity to be innovative and to develop awareness of the huge

world outside India and outside also Britain and Europe. Each class of students can be divided

into groups (by the lottery method) and be honoured on the basis of collective achievement. An

attempt should be made to get Vinaya Bhavana involved in these experiments, by way of

participation, periodic review and research. Reliance on Bangla as the medium of instruction in

PB and SS is understandable and is not to be undermined. But greater attention to the pupils

ease of communication in English is clearly called for in both schools.

PB, at present, stops before the +2 course. This has more disadvantages than advantages.

VB must integrate the +2 course in PB with a wider option of electives in areas like music, fine

arts and crafts in which the institution is strong. In other words, the Uttar Siksha Sadan (USS)should, in a given time-frame, wither away. For this the Siksha Satra (SS) in Sriniketan will have

to do likewise, viz., add +2 to its structure. The HLC strongly feels that the two schools should

develop closer links, holding joint classes wherever possible and extra-curriculars, sharing faculty

and infrastructure. If for historical reasons the two, viz., the PB and the SS are to remain distinct,they should nonetheless come to function as two wings of the same institution rather than as

separate bodies.


6/68

For this, the classrooms of the PB in the +2 Classes will have to take in the Siksha Satra

students of the same classes. This will call for a concomitant investment. Getting a PB Class XII

public examination recognized as equivalent to Government HS exams should not be difficult

because PB is even now independent of the National Boards for its class 10 exam.

7. HLC would recommend bringing in the Kala Bhavana and Sangita Bhavana talents to

enrich teaching in PB. Here, the HLC would stress the need for Vinaya Bhavana and PathaBhavana also to interact closely, PB giving to the teacher-trainees the feel of PBs personalized

traditional teacher-student closeness and VnB giving PB the benefit of advancing techniques inteacher-training.

8. Right-sizing the PB cannot be done without an alternative being provided for those

children of the VB staff and alumni who may not be able to get into the restructured PB through

an open competitive examination. This would require the creation of one or more KendriyaVidyalayas or a Navodaya School in the vicinity which will offer quality day-school education.

But those institutions should be outside the VB system.

9. The HLC would recommend that the PB library be made a model library handled entirely

by the school in the spirit of the PB Sammilani with a student committee advised by the Principal,in-charge of the library. The cleaning and preserving of the shelves should be done by the day

scholars and residential students together and should come for some form of credit in the inter-

sessional grading. The library did not appear to have a well-thought out inflow of school-level

journals and periodicals.

b) Siksha SatraThe Basic Facts :

Siksha Satra (SS) is a non-residential school and the student composition is essentially

semi-urban and rural, coming from areas surrounding Sriniketan. The curriculum of Siksha Satrais the same as that of Patha Bhavana; the difference is in core subjects, namely, Horticulture and

Electrical Services-cum-maintenance. Its total student strength is 600, an optimum strength.

Siksha Satra was originally conceived as a place where students would be given

vocational training in addition to academic training so that they could learn creative work, that

would help them to be of service to the villages and rural areas they hail from, causing a

regeneration in the villages and forming a new rural society. The school was to cater to students

who hail from villages in the area. Siksha Satra was one of the many steps which the founding

fathers of VB felt would be imperative to make a wholesome human being out of a student as also

to make Santiniketanself-sustaining.

The Horticulture option has the following objectives:

i) To teach the children how to make profitable use of all the available land by growingvegetables.

ii) To give a scientific knowledge and practical experience to the village students in growingdifferent kinds and variety of vegetables and fruits for their own use and marketing.


7/68

iii) To teach them about the different seasons and the conditions in which the different cropsare grown and the prices of the vegetables at different times of the year so that they may know

what crops they ought to grow at what time of the year.

iv) To provide for a study of nature in its various aspects.v) To provide for farmyard discipline which is very necessary for a gardener.vi) To provide for team work and healthy competition.vii) To provide for a study of drawing, arithmetic, geography and any other subject whichmay have a bearing upon the gardeners vocation.

The Electrical Services-cum-Maintenance course has the following objectives:

i) To enable the students to learn the elementary aspects of electricity.ii) To let them acquire the basics of different types of wiring through practical experiences.iii) To make them able to repair the faults in the wiring systems.iv) To enable them to repair simple faults of commonly used electric gadgets like irons,stoves, etc.v) To prepare students to take this discipline as a vocation in the future.

Even as the Ananda Pathasala is the kindergarten school which funnels into the PB, the

Santosh Pathasala is the kindergarten for the age group 4-5 years, which funnels into the SS

secondary school. The kindergarten products of the Santosh Pathasala enter the SS in Class II as

internal candidates. Outside students, namely, students from outside the VB system, are admitted

in Class V and VI.

The Student-Teacher ratio at the SS is 14:1.

SS has entered in the computer world with a computer laboratory installed in April 2006.

SS takes part in the National Service Programme, its students attending NSS camps at nearby

villages and performing social duties like campus and hospital cleaning and hygiene and literacy

campaigns in the local villages.

The SS, like the PB, is a co-educational school with reservations for SC/ST candidates as

per rules and has a special additional weightage of 15% of the marks obtained for candidates

coming from villages within the Command Area of the Palli Sangathana Vibhaga.

Observations :

Currently about 60% of the student profile is urban. The Principal and teachers

interacting with the HLC said that the emphasis of the School, over the decades, has changed to

make it a more conventional school. Organising camps for students (in villages) was mandatory

earlier. Now, however, due to various constraints that has been restricted to one of two classes

occasionally.

Book-binding which was a Siksha Satra specialization is now stopped as students are not

interested in it.


8/68

A teacher drew the attention of the HLC to the high dropout rate among SS tribal

students (both girls and boys) a major concern for Siksha Satra.

The Adhyaksha of SS, in a written comment, dated 1.6.2006, told the HLC that VB was

not paying the attention it deserved to PB and SS, although these two were meant by Tagore to be

the seedbeds of VB. The Adhyaksha said We believe attaching more importance to higher

institutions ignoring the junior sections is the main cause of the deterioration of VB. He alsolamented the inadequacy of infrastructure facilities like laboratory, library and proper rooms for

vocational courses. He also referred to the deleterious impact of the present internal quotasystem in admission to the SS.

The Adhyaksha of the SS informed the HLC that there was no denying the fact that many

of the former activities of the SS had to be discontinued in course of time consequent upon the

changed social ambience and pressing demands for conformity to the prevailing system ofeducation and examination. The Adhyaksha made the significant observation that if SS was to

retain its distinct identity, it would have to undertake some characteristic activities as envisaged

by Tagore and suggested the following:

1) Many activities associated with the collective life of a residential institution can beintroduced if SS hostel facility was to be restored.

2) Workshops should be held for the students of the neighbouring schools where the scopeof learning such subjects as wood-work, weaving, electrical servicing and maintenance, batik,

bandhni (tie and dye), toy-making etc are not available. This opportunity will enable the students

of the neighbouring villages to learn crafts which besides being immensely useful in life, will

inculcate an aesthetic sense in them. Reciprocal arrangements will have to be made in other

institutions too. Village craftsmen and artisans may be involved in such programmes.

3) SS students may share the cultural heritage of VB with the surrounding villages uniquecultural life. The students may occasionally organize cultural programmes in the neighbouring

villages in collaboration with the students there. These interactions will enrich them make themaware of their social responsibilities and above all forge a harmonious relation with the people

and nature around them.

4) Besides the activities mentioned in sub-paras 2) and 3), SS can play a significant role inconduction of various programmes undertaken by the Palli Sangathan Vibhaga of Sriniketan.

5) Some new courses/programmes such as tailoring, computer-literacy, language lab (forEnglish), scientific model-making may be added to the current curricular or co-curricular

activities.

When asked if they felt that Siksha Satra was making a contribution of its own in our

modern times or not, the Principal and teachers said it was.

Siksha Satra, they said, was the model school that could envision a new type of village.

For this, choosing the subjects, quality of teaching, involvement of teachers and curtailing the

number of students would be essential.

It was, however, essential that if the SS was to be a model school which can envision a

new type of village, it should have a quality of leadership imbued with a vision on its faculty.

Without this, SS cannot but degenerate into a conventional school.


9/68

Recommendations :

1. An important allied issue is the connection of PB to the Siksha Satra set up in 1924

initially in Santiniketan and subsequently moved to Sriniketan to cater to children from the

villages in the vicinity of Santiniketan. The Siksha Satra provides all round education to village

children with a view to equipping them with training to earn a livelihood and also contribute torural regeneration. The syllabus, modes of teaching and activities in the Siksha Satra are

broadly along the lines adopted in PB but with a greater emphasis on work-related education.Students from the Siksha Satra join those from PB in the 10+2 Uttar Siksha Sadan segment of

schooling.

While not recommending a merger of PB and Siksha Satra (except in +2), HLC

recommends a greater interaction between the two so as to strengthen the PBs exposure to rurallife and provide the resident students of PB with an opportunity to develop an interest in affairs

beyond their own future career prospects. With the changes in the rural and suburban setting, it is

also important that creative ways be looked at regarding the vocational training and the

handicrafts and introduce aspects of job-oriented activities. This would mean a new emphasis in

areas like the use, servicing and repair, of solar energy and gadgets which employ kerosene oil,petrol, apart from basic electricity.

2. The dropout rate among the Santhal students referred to by a teacher needs to be studied

and corrected. An assessment should be made as to why this dropout rate is high and why the

concerned group feels neglected or marginalized.

3. The book-binding course should be revived and the money that the Central Library pays

to private parties for binding their books could flow into Siksha Satra making it self-sustaining to

some extent, after CLs clearance of the proposal. Once this arrangement is introduced, the CL

should keep watch on the quality of the binding and send quarterly reports to the Adhyaksha of

SS and the Upacharya of VB.

4. The HLC would recommend a revising of the admission procedures on the same lines as

it has recommended for the PB so as to make admissions open for students without being

monopolized by the VB community.

5. The HLC would be cautious about introducing computerized education in SS before

identifying the specific uses to which computer technology could be put in the overall programme

of the SS.

6. Locating faculty with the kind of vision SS needs would require clarity on the vision

itself, namely, on the vision of a village which, while sited in the 21 st century, is yet able to think

non-stereotypically. Even as Tagore could be passionately proud of his country, but not belong

to its orthodoxies, it should be possible for SS to be aware and even appreciative of moderntransformations in Indias rural life without being enslaved by theories of urbanizing rural India.

The HLC would recommend that VB engages, for the benefit of PB and SS, in a discussion with

schools with an alternative approach to non-urban education such as Rishi Valley School,

outside Madanapalle, in Andhra Pradesh; guided by the thought of J. Krishnamurti. The work of

David Horsborough in Karnataka which is geared to primary schools and is very successful

should also be looked at along with other pedagogical systems.


10/68

The HLC would recommend that just as Patha Bhavana should not become a clone of

conventional schools, SS should not become a clone of PB as it is today. Both SS and PB have a

role to play in partnership and the HLC would hope that the day would not be far when students

of PB and SS could actually become one entity in two venues, maintaining at the same time, their

relative diversities on a footing of complete equality.

7. Taking note of the Adhyakshas recommendation that a hostel be built for the SSstudents, the HLC would recommend that the hostel be built in no way less congenial than the one

proposed for the PB, with greater emphasis on the setting up of work spaces for the vocationalcourses that are offered at the SS.

8. The HLC notes the following shggestions made by the Adhyaksha for the improvement

in the physical infrastructure of the school:

a) Open air classrooms for the students as it gives the students an opportunity to interact inthe lap of nature and derive the source of learning directly from nature. However, the need

exists for well equipped classrooms for some specific classes as well. If a few rooms are built

with appropriate facilities of teaching it could immensely facilitate the teaching-learning of

different subjects

b) Subjects like artistic handicrafts, weaving and woodwork, are of paramount importance inthe institution and SS needs the infrastructure and equipment to accommodate talented and eager

students in the workshops of those subjects. SS needs a Science Museum in order to facilitate the

learning of science for application in everyday rural activities.

c) In order to develop physical fitness norms among the students SS needs a properplayground and a gymnasium within the periphery of SS.

d) SS needs to introduce new courses on environmental science and agriculture for thestudents of the school.

e) In order to develop skills of SS students in English listening, speaking, reading andwriting, SS has set up a language lab with modern equipment and appropriate numbers of

academic and non academic hands to facilitate teaching and learning. It also needs to promote

cognitive learning, error analysis, remedial courses, creative skill development in the school. A

unit to encourage and train SS students in creative writing would be good.

f) While SS has no dearth of books because of regular book-grants, the stack-rooms arestuffy, with more than the optimum number of stacks accommodated in insufficient space. Many

books do not get proper care and are in poor condition. So the library needs more rooms, stacks

and book-cases with glass shutters.

g) In another section of this report, the HLC will be commenting on and recommendingmodifications in the administrative structures of VB with specific reference to Sriniketan. Part ofthat modification should be the identification of a locomotive person, who would not displace

the present SS hierarchy, but would play a pioneering role in making SS not just a school with a

vocational edge but a school with a visionary programme for Birbhum, rural West Bengal andindeed, rural India.

h) The HLC would, however, like to point out that the lap of nature thesis is notapplicable, in our present times, across the board of pedagogy. Science Classes, for instance,


11/68

cannot be taught under trees because equipment is required. The Open Air classes, which are

quite admirable at the primary school level, rather fade out at levels above that. But SS can

pioneer a new balance, ending the divisions between classrooms and the physical environment

outside.

The HLC is also of the view that the SS Adhyakshas observation at 7(b) overlaps with

the work of Kala Bhavana (KB) and could see an integrative initiative with Kala Bhavana.Likewise, the proposal at 7 (c) should be connected with the work of the Department of Physical

Education (DPE) in Vinaya Bhavana. The HLCs concern is that many small bits and pieces ofactivities in VB repeat each other and the possibility of synergy is lost. The recommendations

above for connecting the work of the SS with that of KB and the DPE is intended to avoid

scattering and unconnected repetititon.

c) Kala BhavanaI consider the three years I spent in Santiniketan as the most fruitful of my life. This was not so

much because of the proximity of [Rabindranath]It was just that Santiniketan opened my eyes for the first time to the splendours of Indian and Far Eastern art. Until then I was completelyunder the sway of western art, music and literature. Santiniketan made me the combined productof East and West that I am. As a film maker I owe as much to Santiniketan as I do to Americanand European cinema.

- Satyajit Ray in his last piece of English writing published just before his death in

1992 Quoted by Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson in Rabindranath Tagore The Myriad-Minded Man (1996).

The Basic Facts :

The Kala Bhavana (KB), VBs Institute of Fine Arts was founded in 1919, two years

prior to the founding of the VB University. It is significant that among the various faculties in


12/68

VB, only Patha Bhavana is older chronologically. KB is, today, regarded as one of Indias

premier institutes of visual art and design.

And yet it is not generally appreciated today that KB, with its remarkable faculty led by

Acharya Nandalal Bose, had become an institution within an institution, recognized as the centre

for an art movement in pre-Independence India, Benodebehari Mukherji, Asit Kumar Haldar and

Ram Kinkar Baij becoming inspirational figures for the country as a whole.

The Kala Bhavana has 5 academic departments in which it offers undergraduate and

postgraduate courses:

Sculpture

Painting

Design

Graphic Art

History of Art

KB also offers Ph.D and research programmes in all the 5 departments.

The KB also runs a 2-year certificate course in Design for which admissions are made

directly after practical tests and a viva. There are 18 students pursuing this course at the time ofwriting, all of who are from outside the VB-Santiniketan community. KB runs, besides, a 1-year

casual course for foreign students in graphic art, painting, sculpture, history of art and design

(ceramic and textiles). At the time of the writing of this Report there are 14 foreign students

pursuing this course who gained admission as per norms of admission applicable to foreigners

studying at VB.

There is a similar 1-year casual course for Indian nationals in the same subjects. At thetime of writing, there are 8 such students.

The more mainstream courses are a 4-year Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA-Hons.) course for

which 30 seats are earmarked, with no reservations for VB-Santiniketan students. Admissions are

by way of practical tests. The 2-year Masters (MFA Advanced Diploma) is in the samesubjects. Currently, there are 57 students pursuing this course. 50% of the total seats in each

Department are reserved for an internal quota subject to first class according to merit. KB also

runs a 1-year bridge course which connects to the MFA in Art History. Currently there are 6

students pursuing this course from outside VB-Santiniketan. It should be recorded that several

hundred applications for admission are received by KB every year, though it can take in only its

small designated number.

The KB has a museum and a library. The museum, now called Nandan Museum, started

functioning around the same time as the inception of the Bhavana by Acharya Nandalal Bose. It

arose as a result of the students and teachers of the KB gathering and bringing from surrounding

villages whatever local specimens of craft that attracted them. The region at that time abounded

in terracotta structures. Casts were made of these terracotta designs and brought to serve asarchival material. Visitors to Santiniketan and friends of Tagore from places outside India also

contributed gifts to the museum. Though small, the museum has a valuable collection of works

by master craftsmen from the region as well as abroad, fully justifying the name of the University

VB. There is in its holdings a priceless Ming Dynasty scroll by Shen Chou and several Noh

theatre masks from Japan. Specifically deserving of notice are the original works of Tagore, his

nephews Abanindranath and Gaganendranath and Nandalal Bose, Benodebehari Mukherjee and

Ram Kinkar Baij.


13/68

The KB has a library with a professional assistant who is also designated as Library In-

Charge, a Semi Professional Assistant and a Senior Library Attendant.

Observations :

1. General

The HLC visited Kala Bhavana on 24 June, 2006. The time spent by it on the KBcampus showed a certain international touch, so important for VB. The students form outside

India seemed to be enjoying their stay and finding their experience creative as well as pleasant.

The refreshing absence of inwardness, because of KBs admission policy being open and

welcoming, too was noticeable.

Nonetheless, the precincts looked quite run-down and although the students were seen

working on their practicals, the buildings and their environment seemed to lack another aspect of

practicality the attentive eye and the active hand that keeps the precincts tidy. A work-place

has to be busy and in the process of work it can have the look of operational disorder. But the KB

premises seemed to be in a form of disorderliness not dissimilar to what the Committee found inthe Central Library. The lack of maintenance had also crept onto the works of art on display.

2. Courses of Study

Not surprisingly the majority of KBs Indian students are from the state of West Bengal,

followed by Assam. The profile of students states of origin as in 2005 is given below :

Name of the State B.F.A M.F.A.

Andhra Pradesh 01 02

Arunachal Pradesh 01 -

Assam 04 03Bihar - -Gujarat - 01

Haryana - 01

Himachal Pradesh - 01

Jammu and Kashmir - 02

Jharkhand - 01

Karnataka - 01

Kerala - 03

Nagaland - 01

Orissa - 02

Punjab - 01

Rajasthan - 01

Sikkim - 01

Tripura 01 -

Uttar Pradesh 01 -

West Bengal 13 24

KB has had the following pattern of admissions of non-Indians : Over the last 10 years,

Thailands has been the most consistent presence, particularly in the MFA/Advanced Diploma

Course, followed by Bangladesh, Korea and Japan. But at no time has any country had more than


14/68

3 students pursuing any of the courses offered by KB. Over the last 10 years no course has had

more than 6 non-nationals, except in the year 1999 when the MFA/Advanced Diploma Course

had 8 non-nationals.

Despite the single digit number of the foreign students at KB, the HLC observed that the

KB was one department at VB, which had a clear and sustained international dimension to it. Itwas also observed that within this modest feature of internationalism, the KB has a strong Asian

and East-Asian identity.

3. Museum

The Curator of the KB Museum informed the Committee, in a valuable Note, that in May

2006, of the 19400 items physically verified, 9535 articles had been accessioned textually and inphoto images. No comprehensive catalogue of the collection has yet been published although two

small catalogues have been produced on the Museums Tagore and Kalighat holdings. The last

physical verification of the collection was done in 1993 by a group of teachers from KB. The

museum has an annual budget of Rs. 2,40,000 covering all heads of expenditure including

maintenance contracts for the air-conditioning machines.

The following observations of the Curator drew our notice :

There are many areas in which development is necessary on an urgent basis. Some of which,

like the setting up of a centralized Conservation Lab for the maintenance and restoration of the

invaluable articles housed in Rabindra Bhavana and Kala Bhavana museums as well as the

smaller museums in other departments of this Unviersity, have already been jointly put forth in an

earlier proposal by Rabindra Bhavana and Kala Bhavana. But there are some other areas which

also require urgent action. These are :-

a) Increasing the capacity of the strong-rooms,b) Professional digitization of the museum articles,c) Ensuring the maintenance of stable conditions of relative humidity and temperature by

purchasing our own generator and a Barigo thermo-hygrograph.

She clarified further :

a) Though most of the works of important artists in the Kala Bhavana Museum collection

are housed fairly well in steel drawers and cabinets, there are many articles like textiles and

sculptures, masks etc, which due to lack of space have been stacked together in ordinary almirahs,

instead of being properly rolled/stretched and kept in custom made cases. Many terracotta and

other such delicate articles are also kept lying around on the floors of the strong-room due toscarcity of space. There are two large rooms of 600 sq.ft area each on the 1st floor of the museum

extension. The Kala Bhavana Museum and faculty staff all feel that these rooms can be

developed into full-fledged strong-rooms or even visual storage-rooms for the articles in clay

stone, metal, leather, etc. Subsequently the textiles and other more delicate articles will have

more breathing space in the ground floor strong-rooms. For this purpose the 1st floor rooms need

to be damp-proofed before being air-conditioned and appropriately furnished and secured. This

will be an expensive project and Kala Bhavana doesnt have the necessary funds for it.

Intervention from the Higher Authorities is therefore requested.


15/68

b) The Deputy Curator (Exhibitions) of the Kala Bhavana Museum is at present engaged in

taking digital images of the articles, beginning with the more important ones. But since he is not

professionally trained for such purpose, the matter of photo-documenting our collection is not

being fully accomplished. Therefore digitization of the holdings needs to be professionally

handled to ensure their security with regard to their exact appearance from all sides and angles.

c) The present contractor who provides generator services to the Kala Bhavana Museum is

also responsible for providing the same services to Madhavi, Karabi girls hostels and theNatyagharduring powercuts. But the AC plant at the Kala Bhavana museum, Nandan, does not

operate in low or high voltage conditions which are often the case during summer and winter

evenings. During these times the AC plant reportedly does not get any generator service. Also

for the last 1-1 years, the AC plants were forced to be shut down for hours, sometimes days

together during prolonged power-cuts or voltage fluctuations. Under the circumstances it wouldbe far more appropriate for the Nandan complex to have its own generator of a minimum capacity

of 50 kv, along with a voltage-stabilizer., The relative humidity of the strong-rooms has so far

been maintained by the AC plant. Despite that, however, a thermo-hygrograph (preferably of

Barigo make) should be installed for foolproof readings of temperature and relative humidity

inside the strong-rooms and the museum display galleries on the 1st floor.

The departments of sculpture and painting, we noted, were working on developing a

digital archive and a multi-media facility. This was for the good.

Recommendations :

The Premises

1. The upkeep of the KBs compound must involve the students and the staff for, unlikeinstitutions of scholastic learning, this Bhavana is a workplace apart from being a venue of

learning and students in it are required to use their physical energy in their craftwork. Also,

unlike in other departments the students at KB generate a certain amount of craft-related debrisclearing which should really be part of completing work on a creative project.

2. That said, KB should have its own conservancy staff, independent of the cleanersemployed under VBs central arrangements.

3. As Shri Jogen Chowdhury pointed out to the Committee, the KBs classrooms wereoriginally planned with small-sized sitting desks where students could do small

tempera/watercolour works. Now a larger number of students work on far bigger scales, whether

foundries or canvases that need larger studio space, particularly in the Sculpture and Painting

Departments. The Committee could see that KB needed larger classrooms for the Painting

Department in particular. But these classrooms, we recommend, should be built with inputs from

the KBs own faculty and students as regards the nature and quality of materials to be used andthe architectural design to be adopted.

4. The artworks in the museum, many of them of great value, have been housed rather thandisplayed. KB can hardly be faulted for this since it does not have a sufficient display area. It is

important that the KB museum, bearing as it also does, the name of Nandalal Bose, be given the

best possible museological attention, invoking the new and innovative programmes of the

Department of Culture for museum upgradings in the country.


16/68

5. The HLC recommends follow-up on the points made by the Curator (summarized underObservations). The HLC agrees that while the KB museum merits a new display area, it also

needs a restoration and preservation laboratory. We would recommend that while KB seeks the

assistance of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, for an upgradation, it also adds to its

museum facilities a restoration and preservation laboratory with one or two specially qualified

personnel. This laboratory could in fact also become a centre for a course in art conservation and

restoration which is missing from the KBs syllabus at present. Such a laboratory could alsoundertake responsibilities for the upkeep of art objects scattered all over Santiniketan outside of

Vichitra and Sriniketan, including murals and sculptures that dot the campus including theextraordinary one by Nandalal Bose at Santiniketan.

6. Students at KB mentioned to the Committee the absence of computerized networking atKB. Given the fact that an institute for the teaching of the fine arts must remain well-connected

to similar institutions all over the world, we would recommend that KBs needs for computerizednetworking to facilitate multimedia support for its work be gone into by a specialist in the field,

perhaps from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

Seclusion is desirable for creativity; isolation is not. KB seems to have the advantages of

seclusion but also the disadvantages of isolation. This can be and should be remedied urgently.

To strengthen KBs national character, the HLC recommends that its national tests be

made better known in different Centres so that more students from outside West Bengal can come

into it.

Teaching Courses

1. We have already recommended that a course on restoration and preservation of art works

be linked to the proposed restoration and preservation laboratory at the KB museum. We would

also endorse a suggestion made by Shri Jogen Chowdhury that KBs Department of Design be

extended with more modern, technological equipments and facilities. KB would be the

appropriate venue for certain courses which are not available in art colleges elsewhere, such ascourses in : (a) interior designing using rural craft, (b) apparel designing and personal

ornamentation with non-urban, organic and traditional materials.

2. KB having been one of VBs most international Bhavanas, it must strengthen its teaching

by a strong stream of visiting faculty. The Committee would recommend that one of the beautiful

but sadly neglected Panchavati Cottages be specifically restored and reserved for an artist in

residence invited by KB. It is to be recalled that if the painter Andree Karpeles from Paris and the

then young art historian Stella Kramrisch from Vienna, could have visited VB in the early part of

the last century when Santiniketan was far less connected to the outer world, it should be possible

for practitioners of art and craft as well as teachers of art history to come to KB in our era of good

roads and fast trains. The fact that Satyajit Ray studied at KB is not to be lost by prospective

visitors. What KB would require is the identification of such persons, beginning with our owncountry, and then the countries in Asia from which students have been coming to KB and

arranging for them to reside and work at KB.

3. KB itself proposed to the HLC that KB should be accorded a status of a deemeduniversity so as to give it greater chances of enhancing the standards of teaching and creative

output. The Committee would not recommend such a change of status because the experience of

organizations becoming deemed universities in our country is not uniform and because VBs

special status can provide for additional support including funding even without a change in KBs


17/68

formal status. What KB requires is not recognition and deeming but self-restoration and a new

self-definition.

4. The HLC recommends that the Upacharya should also suggest to the Kala Bhavana and

Rabindra Bhavana that their two museums be studied with a view to integrating KBs compatible

art holdings with those at Rabindra Bhavana. It appears to the HLC that while the KB museum

has its own history and dynamics, it still holds items which would more logically be in theRabindra Bhavana museum. This aggregation should, however, be done by the VB authorities

with the best curatorial advice, judiciously, and after the recommendations on the TagoreMemorial Institute and the upgrading of the RB Museum have been implemented.

5. The HLC would also like to invite VBs attention to the fact that NRIs with a Bengal

origin can be asked to contribute to the study of the art improvements in the two museums. NRIs

who are showing an increasing interest in Indian art should not find it difficult to do so.

d) Sangita Bhavana

When I first started my school my boys had no evident love for music. The consequence is that atthe beginning I did not employ a music teacher and did not force the boys to take music lessons. Imerely created opportunities when those of us who had the gift could exercise their musicalculture. It had the effect of unconsciously training the ears of the boys. And when gradually most

of them showed a strong inclination and love for music I saw that they would be willing to subjectthemselves to formal teaching, and it was then that I secured a music teacher. That was the

beginning of my music department.Rabindranath Tagore, 1917.

In the proposed centre of our culture, music and art must have their seats of honour, and notmerely a tolerant nod of recognition. The different systems of music and different schools of art,which lie scattered in the different ages and provinces of India, and in the different strata ofsociety, have to be brought there together and studied.


Just as all the students of the Ashram have to study English, Bengali, Geography, History etc soalso must take training in music. Those boys who have the ability to sing or are musically-

inclined must study music daily at an appointed hour.Rabindranath Tagore, 1919

The Basic Facts :

The HLC regrets it could not visit the Sangita Bhavana. But its studies and discussions

elicited the following relevant information :


18/68

The Sangita Bhavana, VBs Institute of Music, Dance and Drama, was initiated along

with KB, in 1919, and housed with it in the same building Dwarik. Rabindra Sangit was taughtthere by Dinendranath Tagore, grandson of Dwijendranath Tagore, eldest brother of

Rabindranath.

The Bhavana acquired its own bhavana twenty years later, in 1939 by which time it had

become a centre for the teaching of classical instrumental music and dance with Buddhimantahaving come from Agartala to teach Manipuri dance and Velu Nair from the Kerala

Kalamandalam to teach Kathakali. In the years it acquired its own building. SB was able to stagethree dance-drama of Tagore Shyama, Taser Desh and Chandalika.

When one speaks of music at Santiniketan, the Comprehensive Prospective Plan says quite

frankly, it invariably means the music of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and not classical or

instrumental or vocal music, although that too is taught here by competent teachers.

The SB, today, has two academic departments :

Rabindra Sangit, Dance and Drama and the Theatre Arts

Hindustani Classical Music (Vocal and Instrumental)

The three years Bachelors in Music (Hons.Course), which is the mainstay of the

Department, has 90 students at the time of writing the Report with 24 of them in the Rabindra

Sangit section. The number of seats for each section is predetermined, e.g., the Kathakali Dance

and the Drama and the Theatre Arts sections. Kathakali Dance has 8 seats and Drama and

Theatre Arts section has 6 seats. In the Masters in Music course, the number of seats are identical

with a provision for 10 more students that can be added, making the total 100.

In both courses, there is a reservation policy in operation for SC and ST students and for

those with physical disabilities, the latter category not being eligible for the Drama and Dance

courses. The Masters degree course excludes the Drama and the Theatre Arts. Candidates

possessing the Bachelors Honours degree from the Sangita Bhavana, in VB, can join theMasters Course. External candidates possessing 55% marks in an honours course in music can

apply with the selection being based on a practical test and a viva voce being conducted by

Sangita Bhavana. The Sangita Bhavanas Bachelor in Music Honours course in any of the

sections such as Rabindra Sangit, Kathakali, Manipuri, Drama and Theatre Arts, Hindustani

Classical (Vocal), Sitar, Esraj, Table and Pakhwaj has to include a second subject as a subsidiary.

The basic eligibility for admission to the Bachelors course is a Pass in the pre-degree

examination in VB or in an equivalent recognized examination (10+2) conducted by the West

Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education with 45% marks in the aggregate. Sangita

Bhavana also offers the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) to those who have completed a

Masters degree with at least a 2nd class preceded by an Honours or a Pass Degree with a

minimum of 50% in the aggregate. The Sangita Bhavana can admit foreign students fulfillingeligibility conditions and producing a student visa. A 15% of the intake capacity is made

available for international students in supernumerary seats. In the Session 2005-2006 the SB had

only 3 students from outside the State. It had 9 foreign students against supernumerary seats of

which 7 were from Bangladesh, 1 from Sri Lanka and 1 from Hong Kong.

The number of foreign students has been, on an average, fluctuating around 10 over the

last 10 years. In 1996-97 the SB had 17 foreign students, in 1997-98 it had 6 foreign students, in


19/68

1998-99 3, 1999-2000 13, 2000-2001 14, 2001-2002 10, 2002-2003 12, 2003-2004 11, 2004-2005

7, mostly from Bangladesh.

The SB has a library with 40,000 books and journals of which 5000 are described by the

Principal of SB as very rare.

The library has an assistant librarian (post vacant since February 2005), one seniorprofessional assistant and one semi-professional assistant.

Observations :

The SB continues to be a success story within VB, with its faculty and students bound

together by an ethos of the Guru-Sishya style. Few universities, not to speak of departments can

claim like SB that some of its faculty have won Padma awards Santideva Ghosh (PadmaBhushan), Kanika Bandyopadhyay (Padma Shri) and Suchitra Mitra (Padma Shri).

It is only natural that Rabindra Sangit should predominate over the other sections in the

Sangita Bhavana, both for the Bachelors and Masters courses. No other centre can provide an

authentic grounding of Rabindra Sangit as the SB in VB with Rabindra Bharati University inKolkata following up as a close second. But given SBs rich heritage in the world of Tagore-

based music and dance, it seems to be lagging behind in widening its reach and improving its

performance quality. SB seems to have shrunk into a small arena of its own.

The Justice Masud Committee Report had pointed out that the present courses of SB are

more or less limited to Rabindra Sangit, Hindustani Classical Music and Manipuri and Kathakali

Dance. It went on to add the programmes could be expanded. Tagore had said that in VB

music and art must have their prominent seats of honourthe different systems of music and

different schools of art which lies scattered in the different ages and provinces of India, and in

the different strata of society, have to be brought there and studied. The real challenge before

Sangita Bhavana lies in accepting this broadness of view while maintaining at the same time the

high standard of performance of Tagore songs which people expect from Santiniketan. ForTagore, this posed no problem as he drew sustenance quite freely from the creative urge at work

in different ages and different strata of society. For others it can be a demanding ideal.

Recommendations :

1. The SB has, for historical reasons, focused on Rabindra Sangit. While retaining this rich

legacy and strengthening it, it is time that the SB broadens out to other music traditions. If music

is to have more than a tolerant nod of recognition, Sangita Bhavana should invite senior

musicians and music teachers for extended periods of stay and teaching, as visiting faculty. It isrecommended that SB prepares a list in consultation with the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New

Delhi, and the various state-level equivalent bodies, of senior musicians and music teachers whoare and are not on the active performance stage and who can spare time to reside at Santiniketan

and take special classes for a few weeks or months at a time.

2. The Committee specifically recommends a tie-up with two institutions, namely, the

Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in New Delhi and Kalakshetra in Chennai. The HLC has had

discussions with Dr. Madhavi Mudgal, the distinguished Kathak exponent connected with the


20/68

Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and with Ms. Leela Samson, Director of Kalakshetra. Both of them

have expressed a readiness to assist personally and institutionally. Ms. Samson is open to an

early visit to Kalakshetra to discuss the possibilities of collaboration between the two institutions

for mutual benefit. There can be no gain saying that the creative genius of Rukmini Devi

Arundale which permeates Kalakshetra could interact with SB particularly in the teaching of

dance.

3. There is a growing interest in Indias Classical Music traditions abroad, and not just

amongst NRIs. SB should seek a stronger engagement with the Indian Council for CulturalRelations, New Delhi, to make its courses for foreign students better known abroad, so as to

invite those students interested in the courses being offered. This would be particularly

worthwhile for purposes of research in music, dance and drama, an area where SBs achievements

have not been proportionate to its direct teaching programmes. It should also be possible for SB,

in time, to include varieties of Indian folk music which will interest foreign students and, ifpossible, Western music.

4. An area where SB needs to break new ground is in taking its repertoire of Tagore dance-

dramas outside Santiniketan to other cities of India and abroad, beginning with neighbouring

countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The theatre tours from Santiniketan duringTagores lifetime are well known and form landmarks in the history of VB. There is no reason

why SB should not draw a plan of choreography and productions over a 5-year period and send

its productions abroad through the agency of the ICCR. In this, again, the experience of

Kalakshetra, Chennai, would be worth obtaining and emulating.

5. Inadequately explored scope exists for inviting under a mutual exchange programme

theatre groups from outside which can stage English, French, German and other adaptations of

Tagores plays to Santinketan as part of an all-India tour. The music in non-Indian productions of

Tagore would presumably be weak. SB can provide the musical support for stage productions of

Tagore in non-Indian languages, thereby making the production a joint venture. Dak Ghar(ThePost Office) having been translated into several languages, could perhaps be the starting point for

this programme.

6. There is an increasing interest in western world in Baul music. There is good reason for

SB to become a centre for the study of this rare form of music for which an interaction with music

faculties and ethnographic departments in the concerned universities abroad would be fruitful.

7. One altogether new area in which the SB can make a contribution is in associating with

Patha Bhavana to see how music, dance and drama can be interwoven with school syllabi to add a

new dimension to teaching. As Anandarup Ray told the HLC, Martha Nussbaum, a leading

American philosopher and educationist, has recently presented an analysis of Rabindranaths

educational approach (Freedom from dead habit, Little Magazine, Vol. VI, issue 1 &2, New Delhi, 2005). She identified three principles : first, the importance of leading an

examined life, taking no doctrines for granted; second, the importance of universalism andmulticulturism; and third, the importance of music, drama and other arts as conveyors of

education. The first principle goes back to Socrates, and the inspiration behind the second one

can also be found elsewhere. The third one is unique to Rabindranath. It is clear from

Nussbaums article that he can indeed be regarded as one of the great educators of all time. TheHLC would recommend that SB and Patha Bhavana could collaborate with Professor Martha

Nussbaum and the Pratichi Trust inspired by Professor Amartya Sen to identify methods by which

music, dance and theatre can be better integrated with school education in a manner which would


21/68

reflect the uniqueness of Tagores vision and energize two major institutions, the SB and the

Patha Bhavana, simultaneously.

8. The HLC would recommend that SB should also move beyond the emphasis on

performance. Where performances are not critically evaluated, they descend into cultural

programmes. The HLC would strongly recommend that the SB should develop a serious section

on the theory of music and composition, an area where some interesting work is going on now inHindustani musi, and in areas like western music and mimetic dance, involving the hearing-

impaired.

e) Vidya Bhavana

We are building up our institution upon the ideal of the spiritual unity of all races. I hope it isgoing to be a great meeting place for individuals from all countries who believe in the divine

humanity, and who wish to make atonement for the cruel disloyalty displayed against her by men.Rabindranath Tagore, 1931

I am afraid that the place does not cut much ice now, except as through the elderly and thetheosophic. The educational side of it is too casual.

E.M. Forster after a visit to Santiniketan in 1945Quoted by Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson inRabindranath Tagore The Myriad-Minded

Man (1996).

The Basic Facts :

Vidya Bhavana started as Visva-Bharatis intellectual seat. It was to be the centre for its

Indological studies, housing Buddhist literature, Vedic texts in classical Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit

and somewhat later, Tibetan and Chinese material. Foreign scholars were intended to be attached

to Uttara-Vibhaga, as Vidya Bhavana was originally named (the school section being known as

Purva-Vibhaga). This is where the confluence of East and West Tagores great ideal and

aspiration was to occur. The renowned scholar Pandit Bidhusekhar Sashtri was the first

Adhyaksha of Vidya Bhavana and the preamble of the Bhavana read : The Vidya Bhavana (the

School of Research) of Visva-Bharati is meant for those advanced scholars who intend to pursue

higher studies and to learn the methods of research in order to carry on investigations into the

domain of Indian literature, thought and culture. Scholars came from far and near. The list of

that early visiting scholars would do any university proud :

1. Sylvain Levy from France (Indology) November 1921-August 1922

2. Sten Konow from Norway (Archaeology)


22/68

November 1924-April 1925

3. Moritz Winternitz from Czechoslovakia (Indology) December 1922-1923

4. Fernand Benoit from Switzerland (Linguistics) 1922

5. Arthur Geddes from France/UK (Sociology) 1922-1923

6. Andree Karpeles from France (Painting) 1922-1923

7. Mary van Eeghen (Music) January 1922 (2 months)

8. Stella Kramrisch from Vienna (Art History) 1923

9. Giuseppe Tucci from Italy (Sanskrit) 1925-1926

10. Carlo Formichi from Italy (Religion) November 1925-March 1926

11. Arnold Bake from The Netherlands (Musicology) 1926-1934

12. Igor Bogdanov from Russia (Persian) 1929-1930

13. Mark Collins from Ireland (Linguistics) 1922-1931

14. Tan Yun-shan (Chinese) September 1928. Retired from service in 1978.

Died on 12.2.1993 at Bodhgaya

Observations :

These were not casual visits. As Tagores biographer Uma Das Gupta has said,

Collaborative research between resident and visiting scholars made an important beginning withediting and compiling the text of the Mahabharata as well as in the areas of Indo-IranianPhilology and Islamic Culture. Many lectures were given by visiting scholars on subjects like

The Vedic Age, Buddhism, Poetics and the Culture of Asia, Indo-Chinese Cultural

Contacts, Christian Theology, and Art History of Europe. Sanskritist Carlo Formichi lectured

on The Dynamic Development of the Indian Religions from the Rig Veda to Buddhism and

Sylvain Levy on the Contacts between Ancient India and the West. This was what

Rabindranath meant by a meeting of minds across the barriers of East and West.

VdB was, as we have seen, originally conceived as a school of research for advancedscholars to pursue higher studies and conduct research in literature, thought and culture, serving

as a bridge between East and West.

The HLC noted what has, for long, been well known, that after VB became a Central

University, VdB lost its focus on research and became a conventional Arts College giving BA and

MA degrees in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

The Head of the Department of English and Other Modern European Languages, in a

submission to the HLC referred to the 50% reserved ratio for internal students in the BA Hons.

Course with a follow on into MA and said that the system of direct admission of internal students

at the BA level should be done away with and that +2 students from VB should have to compete


23/68

with external students at the admission test. He also suggested a revamping of the examination

evaluation system including the system for internal assessment.

The Department of Philosophy had the same suggestions for admission, namely, making

merit its basis.

It was clear to the HLC that if the oft-repeated suggestion for doing away with the systemof direct admission of internal students was to be implemented, there would have to be a

concomitant strengthening of the network of colleges run by the Universities of West Bengal oraffiliated to them in the vicinity of Visva-Bharati, so as to absorb, in due course, those internal

students who, after clearing their plus 2 examinations, fail to successfully compete with external

students in the revised admission tests.

The HLC noted that the VdB ran a Centre for Journalism and Mass Communication theadmission criteria for which is an open competitive admission test. This is one department where

the entire strength of 58 comprises of outsiders. Although the Centre informed the HLC that its

curriculum was not designed as a replica of similar faculties in other universities, the Committee

felt that this Department seemed quite out of tune and out of place in VB. The suggestions made

on behalf of this faculty to introduce modules on Tagore and the media, and on Tagore throughthe media, lacked conviction. The HLC recommends that this unit be reviewed for its

congruence with Visva-Bharati and a decision taken on its continuance. In any case, the HLC

suggests that it be disconnected with VdB since Journalism and Mass Communication do not fall

within the prevailing definitions of Humanities and Social Sciences.

After Visva-Bharati became a Central University, VdB became a post-graduate faculty

running programmes for PG and research in Arts and Science, while Siksha Bhavana ran the

undergraduate course. Patha (school learning) was to lead to Shiksha (education) and

culminate in Vidya (knowledge).

In 1972, when all Bhavanas in Visva-Bharati were restructured on the lines of faculties of

studies in other universities, Vidya Bhavana (VdB) was constituted as a Faculty of Humanities ofthe Visva-Bharati. In the 1984 Visva-Bharati Act, Vidya Bhavana was redesignated as the

Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Today, VdB is the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, at VB. It is, basically, the

Universitys Arts College. It is also VBs biggest single faculty in terms of the number of

students 43% of VBs total student-strength in it, as the following table would show:

Faculty No. of Students

1. Vidya Bhavana 1550

2. Siksha Bhavana 790

3. Sangita Bhavana 351

4. Vinaya Bhavana 3105. Kala Bhavana 298

6. Palli Sangathana Vibhaga 275

7. Palli Siksha Bhavana 160


24/68

Total 3734

It has 21 Professors out of VBs total of 50 Professors, 43 Readers out of VBs total of

112 Readers, 104 Lecturers, out of VBs total of 324 Lecturers. It has a total of 168 Teachers

(21+43+104) out of VBs combined total of 486 (50+112+324).

The College runs 7 academic programmes as follows :

a. Undergraduate (Hons. In 16 disciplines and subsidiary in 10 disciplines)b. Postgraduate in 15 disciplinesc. Doctoral in 14 disciplinesd. Diploma Courses in 16 languagese. Certificate Courses in 16 languagesf. One year Casual Course for Foreign Students in 11 subjects mainly on language,

literature and cultureg. General English & General Bengali

It has no Pass Course teaching, in the UG level, only Honours teaching a sign of

academic worth. The College has 15 Departments, plus 4 language units as follows :

a. AIHC & A (Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology)b. Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Islamic Studiesc. Bengalid. Chinese Language & Culturee. Religionf. Economicsg. English (DEOMEL)h. Geographyi. Historyj. Indo-Tibetan Studiesk. Japanesel. Oriyam. Philosophyn. Sanskrito. Centre for Journalism and Mass CommunicationLanguages Units : Santhali, Tamil, Marathi, Assamese

The Colleges maximum number of students (UG and PG combined) is in Geography

(159), followed by Bengali (137), Sanskrit (135), History (134) and Philosophy (130). The

College runs a Mathematics course as well by way of subsidiary teaching.

The College has some foreign students in all its segments, UG, PG and also in the 1 year

Casual Course for Foreigners that is run to teach languages, mainly Bengali.

The admission criteria at the BA level is well illustrated by the Department of Ancient

Indian History Culture and Archaeology which has a maximum of 50% of the total number of

sanctioned seats reserved for direct admission to internal candidates, namely, those who havecleared the pre-degree examination of the Uttar Siksha Sadan in the VB system, securing 60%

marks in the aggregate. Other internal candidates who have got less than 60% marks have to sit a

departmental admission test. At the MA level, in the same Ancient Indian History, Culture and


25/68

Archaeology course, all the internal candidates who have obtained honours in the BA get

admitted, leaving hardly 3 4 seats for outside candidates.

The reservation rules in respect of SC/ST and PH candidates are observed.

By and large, it can be said that VdB is almost entirely an in-house institution with its

students drawn from the VB School stream which is predominantly made up of the children ofVB personnel and alumni.

In line with UGC approved patterns, the Colleges language departments do not include

any teaching of linguistics or literature. There is also little interaction, not to speak of

collaboration, in either course design or teaching between VdB the different departments of the

Bhavana.

Broadly speaking, PG level research in the social science departments did not give the

HLC an impression either of stature or vibrancy.

The Colleges various departments have clearly borne the brunt of inbreeding. The

restrictive domain of selection has created and sustained a guaranteed progression which theSeshan Committee Report described as K.G to P.G, but without the progression from patha to

vidya being proportionate to expectation.

The Principal of VdB, with the Heads of the Colleges different departments, including

the language segments, had a detailed interaction with the HLC on 23 June, 2006. The different

Heads of Departments spoke almost in a refrain of :-

i) inadequate infrastructureii) inadequate visiting professors from within the country and abroadiii) deteriorating student qualityiv) the lack of research work exacerbated by poor research stipendsv) lack of internet connectivity

The Principal of the College has suggested a restructuring of the College into 4 Schools,

namely, the School of Languages, School of Historical Studies, School of Humanities

(Philosophy and Religion) and the School of Social Sciences (Economics and Geography). The

first two of these have already been in existence for the last 2 and half decades. The HLC

suggests that history should be included under Social Sciences, for otherwise it will tend to be

taught as inconsequential Indology.

There was a consensus amongst the HODs that the college had too many departments and

too little infrastructure to support them, with the proposal for Schools and Centres being regarded

as a way out. The major regret voiced by the faculty head was the departure from the original

ideal of the VdB being a centre for serious research. The HLCs queries elicited the informationthat over the last 10 12 years, the VdBs research work was woefully small.

The HLC learnt that a Centre for European Language Studies was envisioned but without

providing for the study of linguistics, literary criticism and some history of the literatures in these


26/68

languages, such a centre would be incomplete. The intention is not merely to teach students to

speak a language, but rather to see language as the channel of cultural expression. The

Renaissance would, in itself, have to be a major subject of study and research if such a Centre

were to have meaning. As it stood, the VdB did not seem to have the academic and

infrastructural sinews for starting such a Centre. The faculty Heads also referred to the prevailing

examination system which seemed to be weak in many respects and not worthy of the curricula.

The HLC was constrained to conclude that the VdB, despite having some extremely able teacherson its faculties, and some earnest work being done by individual scholars, lacked energetic

movement towards focused study, with a shared ideal of goals, towards the kind of research in theHumanities and Social Sciences, it was meant for.

The institution took the name of Vidya Bhavana in 1926, with a Department of Arabic,

Persian, Urdu and Islamic studies coming to be instituted in 1928. Cheena Bhavana, under the

initiative of Tan Yun-shan was set up in 1937 and Hindi Bhavana, under the guidance ofHazariprasad Dwivedi in 1938.

Hindi Bhavana

The Hindi Bhavana is today a pale reflection of its past, its once-famous wall-muralsdecay telling a deeper tale.

An institute started by so eminent a person as Hazariprasad Dwivedi cannot be allowed to

remain bruised. The HLC recommends that the HB receives a healing touch by means of first aid

and long-term nourishment. The first aid has to be in the form of an appraisal by a team

comprising :

a. Dr. Rupert Snell, the foremost Hindi scholar in the West, currently teaching at Austin,

Texas, USA,

b. Shri Kunwar Narain, the distinguished poet,

c. Smt. Mrinal Pande, the eminent writer and journalist,

d. Professor Namwar Singh, ex-JNU,e. Professor Alok Rai, Delhi University,

f. Professor Vasudha Dalmia, University of California, Berkeley.

The long-term help it needs will be determined by the recommendations of this panel,

which should also serve as guest faculty for the durations of its stay. (Dr. Snells visit to

Santiniketan can be funded by Government of India under its budget for Hindi Department).

The Department of Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Islamic Studies

A perusal of this Departments activities conveys the distinct impression of debility. The

HLC recommends that Dr. Shahid Mahdi (former VC, Jamia Millia Islamia), Shri Javed Akhtar

and Professor Muzaffar Alam (currently at Chicago University) be invited to assess theDepartment and make recommendations for its re-invigoration.

Cheena Bhavana

The Hall of Chinese Studies which is to be opened today will serve both as the nucleus and as asymbol of that larger understanding that is to grow with time. Here students and scholars willcome from China and live as part of ourselves, sharing our life and letting us share theirs, and byoffering their labours in a common cause, help in slowly re-building that great course of fruitful


27/68

contact between our peoples that has been interrupted for ten centuries. For this Visva-Bharatiis, and will, I hope remain a meeting place for individuals from all countries, East or West, whobelieve in the unity of mankind and are prepared to suffer for their faith.

- Rabindranath Tagore, 1937.

The HLC noted that at the Cheena Bhavana, established as a research department, where

some earnest work was done by individual scholars under the personal guidance of Tagore in1937, had striven to establish and promote cultural exchanges between India and China and had,

over time, acquired a well-equipped library to facilitate research. The foundational goal forCheena Bhavana was : To establish and promote culture exchange between China and India for

which purpose it will provide facilities for Chinese scholars to study Indian languages, literature,

history, religion, philosophy, etc as well for Indian scholars to study Chinese language, literature,

religion, philosophy etc Buddhism being regarded as the nucleus for all such studies.

The Department, apart from enabling research on Chinese studies, Buddhist studies and

the India-China link, was also attempting to train Chinese language interpreters. The HLC noted

that for its greater effectiveness, the holdings of the Cheena Bhavana would require classification,

indexing and translation exercises and, no less important, their proper socio-cultural and historical

contextualization. It noted that current interactions between VB and the higher education scene inChina was feeble.

Nippon Bhavana

The Department of Japanese Studies at Nippon Bhavana (the first such to have started

anywhere in India), began working in 1954. It has a library self-described as rich. But,

language training and some charming cultural interactions with visitors from Japan apart, it has

not made an impact of a serious academic nature.

The distinguished Japanese scholar, Kazuo Azuma, representing the Japan-India Tagore

Association in Japan, and former Professor at Visva-Bharati (1967-71) wrote to the Paridaraka

on 25 November, 2003 : In 1934, Tagore expressed his wish to a young Japanese scholar calledByodo Tsusho to help him establish Nippon-Bhavana at Santiniketan. Long after Tagore died,

Byodo Tsusho, at the age of eighty, founded the Establishment Committee of Nippon-Bhavana

at Visva-Bharati, and also for the construction of a museum of Japanese culture and a separate

building to house the Department of Japanese Studies at Santiniketan.

In recent years, we have been deeply hurt by Visva-Bharatis apathy towards Nippon-

Bhavana, and also towards its donors in Japan, who are true admirers of Tagore and India

We are aware that, even a decade after its inception, Nippon-Bhavana still does not

function for the benefit of the scholars at Visva-Bharati, and nowhere on the premises is it

acknowledged that the Centre was established as a dream project of Tagore, with heartfelt support

from his Japanese admirers. The library is under lock and key; the Japanese garden is in amiserable state; books and gifts have remained un-catalogued and inaccessible to students over

the years.

Professor Azuma also referred to some peculiar ideas, such as involving softwarecompanies with Nippon-Bhavana as part of an effort to rejuvenate the Centre, which are rather

confusing to us, and far removed from the ideals upon which Nippon-Bhavana was built. The

HLC recommends that the Nippon Bhavana be nurtured as a Centre for Indo-Japan ties over a

plane much wider than the exchange of modern technological expertise and financial or


28/68

managerial enterprise. It is recommended that Shri Deb Mukherjee (Indian Foreign Service,

Retd.) be requested to review the working of the Nippon Bhavana to give it a firm future

direction.

The Medium of Instruction

It is a unique fact in the history of the world today, that the human races have come together asthey have never done before The mentality of the world has to be changed in order to meet the

new environment of the modern age.- Rabindranath Tagore, 1921

Parody with vengeance!

The East is East and the West is West,And ever the twain shall meet;

And each to each will give his best,Or each himself defeat.

- Rabindranath Tagore, 1921

The HLC recommends that Visva-Bharatis grounding in Bangla should be protected and

preserved and, at the same time, for instruction in its colleges and Bhavanas of higher instruction

English should be turned to as early as possible. The Central Library should also be attuned to

this transition. This recommendation is guided not just for the benefit of the non-Bangla scholar

at Visva-Bharati but for VBs connectivity to the wider world of scholarship.

f) Siksha Bhavana

One thing is certain, that the all-embracing poverty which has overwhelmed our country cannotbe removed by working with our hands to the neglect of science.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1925

Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Agriculture and Metereology should be properly studied here. Along

with these Physiology and Hygiene should be studied under the guidance of a physician andacquaintance made with machinery with the help of a trained mechanic.

Rabindranath Tagore, 1935The Basic Facts :

The Siksha Bhavana (SB) or the Institute of Science was originally an under-graduate

college for teaching Humanities subject, which during 1961-63 was expanded to include in its

curriculum B.Sc. (Hons.) courses in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology and Botany. The

M.Sc. programme in these subjects was introduced in 1968. In 1972, due to a reorganization ofthe course of studies in the Humanities and Science subjects, all the Science Departments

teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses were brought under Siksha Bhavana.

SB consists of seven departments and three Centres, viz., Departments of Chemistry,

Mathematics, Physics, Botany, Zoology, Statistics and Computer & System Sciences, and Centres

for Biotechnology, Environmental Studies and Mathematics Education. SB runs both teaching

and research programmes; and has been awarding B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, for

roughly three decades. To augment its research efforts the Bhavana has signed an MOU with


29/68

IICB, Kolkata, for collaborative research. Three departments, Physics, Chemistry and Zoology

have received recognition from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India

in the form of grants, as has the Department of Mathematics and Botany.

The performance of the students of the Bhavana in the National level tests lite GATE and

NET has been described by the SB as very encouraging.

The Physics Department in Visva-Bharati was established in 1963 with provision for

teaching at the B.Sc Honours level. The M.Sc. teaching programme was started in 1968. Rightfrom the beginning, efforts were made to develop research in Physics along with teaching.

Considering the very high cost involved in research in Experimental Physics, the department has

placed more emphasis on research in different branches of Theoretical Physics and the staffing

pattern of the department has followed suit. Some teachers of the department have written and

some are currently engaged in writing standard monographs, text books and books at a relativelypopular level. The Department has recently recruited a number of experimental physicists both at

the senior and junior levels.

The Chemistry Department started its undergraduate programme in 1962 and

postgraduate programme in 1969. The Annual Report for 2004-2005 says, In spite ofinfrastructural and funding problems, the departments overall performance has been very

satisfactory.

The Department is actively engaged in research in the fields of Theoretical Chemistry,

Natural Products, Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Coordination Chemistry, Solution Chemistry and

Biochemical Thermodynamics and non-conventional energy sources. The Department intends to

open new courses in the field of applied chemistry and to introduce advanced courses in the

existing fields based on about 650 research papers published so far.

The Department of Mathematics is the oldest department of Siksha Bhav

Visva Bharatis'Institution

Documents

Transcript of Visva Bharatis'Institution