Visva-Bharati Visit & History

LOCATION
Visva-Bharati is ensconced in a rural setting in the district of Birbhum, about 160 km by road from Kolkata. The nearest railway station is Bolpur (Santiniketan) on the Eastern Railway and the air-terminal is Kolkata Airport. The University campus at Santiniketan, about 3 km from the railway station can be reached in a little over two hours from Kolkata by train. By train it is about 146 km. The University has two campuses, one at Santiniketan and the other at Sriniketan, which is about 3 km from Santiniketan. The institutional buildings and departments are distributed among them.

In May 1951 Visva-Bharati was declared to be a central university and an institution of national importance by an act of Parliament. Visva-Bharati has the President of India as the Paridarsaka (Visitor) and the Governor of West Bengal as the Pradhana (Rector). The President of India appoints the Acharya (Chancellor) and the Upacharya (Vice-chancellor) of the University.

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.


SantiniketanWest BengalIndia
Official Website / Institution home page: visva-bharati.ac.in
http://www.visva-bharati.ac.in/Contacts/Contacts.htm