UNESCO to soon declare Visva-Bharati world’s first living heritage university
Until Independence, it was a college and the institution was given the status of Central University in 1951 through a central Act. Its first vice-chancellor was Rathindranath Tagore, the son of Rabindranath Tagore, and the second vice-chancellor was grandfather of another Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen.
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Until Independence, it was a college and the institution was given the status of Central University in 1951 through a central Act. Its first vice-chancellor was Rathindranath Tagore, the son of Rabindranath Tagore, and the second vice-chancellor was grandfather of another Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen. File
Founded by Rabindranath Tagore in 1921, Visva-Bharati University will soon get the ‘heritage’ tag from UNESCO to take the distinction of world’s first living heritage university.
Visva-Bharati University Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty said, “The university is going to be declared a heritage university… it will be world’s first heritage university.” Chakraborty said, “Everything has been done except the formal meeting that will take place either in April or May. Normally heritage tag is given to a dead monument. For the first time in the world, a living university which is functioning is going to get the heritage tag from UNESCO.”
When founded in 1921 on 1,130 acres of land, it was named after Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore until Visva-Bharati Society was registered as an organisation in May 1922. Rabindranath donated some of his property, including land and a bungalow, to the society.
Until Independence, it was a college and the institution was given the status of Central University in 1951 through a central Act. Its first vice-chancellor was Rathindranath Tagore, the son of Rabindranath Tagore, and the second vice-chancellor was grandfather of another Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen.
Rabindranath believed in open-air education and introduced that system at the university, which prevails to date. Chakraborty said, “There is no other university in the world where cultural experiments were done continuously.”
According to UNESCO website: “In 1922, Visva-Bharati was inaugurated as a Centre for Culture with exploration into the arts, language, humanities, music and these are reflected in diverse institutes that continue in their educational programmes, which are based on the founding principles of excellence in culture and culture studies. As originally intended, these serve as institutes for Hindi studies (Hindi Bhavan), Sino-Asian studies (Cheena Bhavan), centre for humanities (Vidya Bhavan), institute of fine arts (Kala Bhavan), and music (Sangit Bhavan).” It was further written, “The structures in these institutes constitute a myriad of architectural expressions which are as diverse as the Kalo Bari, a mud structure with coal tar finish and sculpture panels; Mastermoshai studio, a single storied structure built for the first principal of Kala Bhavan, Nandalal Bose; murals and paintings on Cheena and Hindi Bhavan, created by the illustrious artists like Benodebehari Mukhopadhyay, Nandalal Bose, Surendranath Kar, Somnath Hore with active involvement of students.”
The development comes 11 years after the Union Culture Ministry appealed for the second time to secure the status of UNESCO heritage site for Santiniketan [Visva Bharati] to get recognition for Tagore’s cultural ark in the run-up to his 150th birth anniversary in 2010.
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