Visva-Bharati: A Vision Betrayed (1921-2021)

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Rabindranath Tagore (6 May 1861-7 August 1941) moved to Santiniketan where Visva-Bharati is situated, when he had completed nearly half his life. The genesis of Visva-Bharati can be traced to the year 1901. Naturally then, this book is concerned with Tagore in the latter half of his life, inseparable from the vision of Visva-Bharati. I propose to take a fresh look at this concept in the backdrop of the chaos and mismanagement in education that we witness today in the country at large. I propose to reach out to an audience that covers West Bengal and Bangladesh, but also spreads beyond, since the issues and problems I raise have a bearing on education in India today. Outside West Bengal and Bangladesh, Rabindranath is known mainly as a Poet-through the translation of Gitanjali-and a lyricist and composer. I attempt to bring out the unusually visionary educationist and institution-builder in Tagore who created a unique and exceptional model of education unparalleled in world history. Hopefully, anyone with interest in education per se would find food for serious thought in the ensuing discourse.

Before getting down to discussing Tagore's vision of education, I would like to divide the last forty years of his life into roughly three phases with no strictly clear lines of demarcation.

(1901-1916, when Tagore remained a spiritually romantic poet and writer. In the first one-third of this period, a personally bereaved poet was deeply immersed in the Upanishadic thoughts, greatly influenced by his father Maharshi Devendranath (1817-1905). After his father's death, Tagore discarded several of the orthodox practices followed in the Brahmacharyashram established in 1901, such as abstinence from non-vegetarian meals; separating dining spaces based on caste; discrimination between Brahman and Non-Brahman teachers, etc.

The year 1905 also witnessed the British machination of dividing Bengal. Naturally, Tagore was drawn into this turmoil and his pen resounded with numerous songs in protest. He led street processions and organized "Raksha-Bandhan' to promote kinship between Hindus and Muslims. Soon however he was disillusioned with the countrywide agitation that took the form of a nationalistic and communally divisive zeal, which Tagore despised. During this time Tagore reached arguably his creative best in writing. Out of the thirteen novels Tagore wrote in his lifetime, six were written in these years, though it is fair to point out that several of his writings date back to the end of the nineteenth century, and were only given finishing touches during this period. He also attained the pinnacle of international fame when Gitanjali (1912) and The Gardener (1913) fetched him the first Nobel Prize for Asia, in 1913.

**Contents and Sample Pages**