In News: Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore wanted to take the Indian culture to the global platform through the formation of Visva-Bharati University, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.
About Visva-Bharati University History
- A study of the evolution of Visva-Bharati during the lifetime of its founder, Rabindranath Tagore, offers an insight into what this institution was intended to achieve.
- Rabindranath founded a school for children at Santiniketan and it was around this nucleus that the structure of an unconventional university developed through careful planning.
- In 1863, on a seven-acre plot at the site of the present institution, Debendranath Tagore, the poet’s father, had built a small retreat for meditation, and in 1888 he dedicated, the land and buildings, towards establishment of a Brahmavidyalaya and a library.
- Rabindranath’s school Brahmacharyasrama which started functioning formally from December 22, 1901 with no more than five students on the roll, was, in part, a fulfilment of the wishes of his father who was a considerable figure of his time in the field of educational reforms. From 1925 this school came to be known as Patha-Bhavana.
- The school was a conscious repudiation of the system introduced in India by the British rulers and Rabindranath initially sought to realize the intrinsic values of the ancient education in India.
- The school and its curriculum, therefore, signified a departure from the way the rest of the country viewed education and teaching. Simplicity was a cardinal principle.
- Classes were held in open air in the shade of trees where man and nature entered into an immediate harmonious relationship. Teachers and students shared the single integral socio-cultural life.
- The curriculum had music, painting, dramatic performances and other performative practices.
- Beyond the accepted limits of intellectual and academic pursuits, opportunities were created for invigorating and sustaining the manifold faculties of the human personality.
About Visva-Bharati
- Founded by the first non-European Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Thākur(popularly known as Tagore) in 1921, Visva-Bharati was declared to be a central university and an institution of national importance by an Act of Parliament in 1951.
- The President of India is the Paridarsaka (Visitor) of the University, the Governor of West Bengal is the Pradhana (Rector), and the Prime Minister of India acts as the Acharya (Chancellor).
- The President of India appoints the Upacharya (Vice-chancellor) of the University.
A Central University
- In May 1951, Visva-Bharati was declared to be a Central University and “An Institution of National Importance” by an Act of Parliament.
- It was granted the status of a unitary, teaching and residential university.
- The status and function of all the major institutions have been redefined in successive Amendments.
Source: visvabharati.ac.in
