BY TTT NEWS NETWORK
KOLKATA, 5 FEBRUARY 2023
Vice Chancellor of Visva Bharati University, Professor Bidyut Chakraborty has informed that the central varsity is set to get the Unesco tag for world’s first living heritage university.
Set up by the first Nobel laureate of Asia, Rabindra Nath Tagore in 1921 upon 1130 acres of land and Rathindra Nath Tagore, son of Rabindra Nath Tagore was the first vice chancellor. In 1951 it was given the status of a central university through a special act passed through the parliament.
“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,” Professor Bidyut Chakraborty said.
In May 1922 it was registered as Visva Bharati Society and rechristened as Visva Bharati University.
“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,” says the website of UNESCO.
A team of representatives from the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the Archaeological Survey of India visited Visva-Bharati during 2021, to assess whether the institute met the parameters for inclusion on the Unesco World Heritage Sites list.
The Poush Mela and the Basanta Utsav are its two of the biggest cultural events which draw large number of visitors from all around the globe.
Some of the notable alumnai of VBU included Indira Gandhi, Satyajit Ray, Amartya Sen, mahasweta Devi, Gayatri Devi, Syed Mujtaba Ali, Ramkinkar Baij, Konika Bandopadhyay, Suchitra Mitra etc.
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