Visva Bharatis'Institution

VISVA-BHARATI’S INSTITUTIONS
a) Patha Bhavana
I am trying hard to start a school in Santiniketan. I want it to be like the ancient hermitages we
know about. There will be no luxuries, the rich and poor alike will live like ascetics. But I
cannot find the right teachers. It is proving impossible to combine today’s practices with
yesterday’s ideals. Simplicity and hard work are not tempting enough…We are becoming spoilt
by wasteful pleasure and the lack of self-control. Not being able to accept poverty is at the root
of our defeat.
Rabindranath Tagore, 1901.
Our regular type of school follows an imaginary straight line of the average in digging its
channel of education. But life's line is fond of playing the seesaw with the line of the average.
There are men who think that by the simplicity of living introduced in my school I preach the
idealization of poverty which prevailed in the medieval age. The full discussion of this subject is
outside the scope of this paper, but seen from the point of view of education, should we not admit
that poverty is the school in which man had his first lessons and his best training?...Poverty
brings us into complete touch with life and the world, for living richly is living mostly by proxy,
thus living in a lesser world of reality. This may be good for one’s pleasure and pride, but not for
one’s education. Wealth is a cage in which the children of the rich are bred into artificial
deadening of their powers. Therefore, in my school, much to the disgust of the people of
expensive habits, I had to provide for this great teacher – this bareness of furniture and materials
– not because it is poverty, but because it leads to personal experience of the world.
The Basic Facts :
The school in Santiniketan, Patha Bhavana is, literally, VB’s nursery. As has been stated
earlier, Tagore founded it in 1901 within the Ashrama which his father had set up in 1863 on 20
bighas of land purchased by him from the Raipur Estates in the District of Birbhum.
The school started in 1901 with 5 boys and 5 teachers and was called ‘Brahmacharya
Ashram’. Tagore invited Brahmabandhob Upadhyay, the distinguished convert to the Roman
Catholic faith, to take charge of organizing the Brahmacharya Ashram along with his Sindhi
disciple, another Catholic convert, Revachand. These two set up the school with rudimentary
features, investing the enterprise with the character of a monastery for the very young. The name
was changed the following year to Brahmavidyalaya, as did several features of its functioning,
especially in emphasizing the minimalism of its curriculum and the maximalism of its varied
forms of activity with the ‘idea of happiness’ pervading the students. As Tagore put it, “The
mind is greater than education, vigour greater than information; under the weight of the printed
word no energy is left in us to make use of our minds”. Having started as a school for boys it
admitted girls in 1908 but the experiment was discontinued soon thereafter to be revived not
before 1922.
Tagore had to sell many of his possessions including his wife’s jewellery, his gold watch
and chain, (a wedding gift) and his seaside bungalow at Puri, to start the school. The students
were not charged tuition fees and financial difficulties beset the school as well as Tagore who had
to borrow money for the upkeep of the school.
Later, Rabindranath took to touring the country with his dance-dramas to raise funds.
Today, funds are not a problem for Patha Bhavana. If it is still austere in some respects –
as it should be – it is not for lack of funds or potential funding.
The School has 1036 students (resident 238, day scholars 798) in the ‘secondary school’
mode from Class I to X. Patha Bhavana (PB) admits students every year in these two categories,
viz., residential and day scholars, through admission tests conducted in each category. The
admissions for residents, subject to reservation rules for SC, ST and other categories, are based on
a test. For day scholars admissions follow a reservation of 50% for the wards of the staff
members. PB’s classes begin with Class II for which the feeder channel is the Mrinalini Ananda
Pathasala (kindergarten) where 50% of the children are wards of VB employees with the balance
50% open to all.
The PB enjoys a student-staff ratio of 16:1. Apart from customary subjects, the students
are taught co-curricular subjects like – Dance and Music, in regular routine. Moreover, they are
taught Fine Arts subjects like – modelling, painting, artistic handicrafts, weaving, woodwork,
metal work. In addition to that they are taught physical education in a regular routine. In the
lower classes of the school stress is given not on particular printed books, rather emphasis is laid
on direct teacher-student interaction. Knowledge acquisition through this method is rewarding in
subjects like nature study and story-telling which serve as an introduction to Science and History
respectively for Classes II to IV and Tagore studies for Classes VI – VIII. Regular co-curricular
activities like drama, recitation, creative writing, cleaning class rooms etc (as part of
environmental awareness) are regarded and taught as an integral part of the curriculum.
The medium of instruction is Bengali, with a provision for students from other regions to
appear in their assessment examination in English.
PB has introduced computer education from 2005 but there is no internet connection.
Observations:
The HLC members visited the core Ashrama area on which Patha Bhavana stands, on 23
June, 2006. The premises have an agreeable simplicity to them. And there was also a refreshing
‘naturalness’ to the surroundings.
Winding their way through the pathways, led by the Principal and Vice-Principal, the
HLC members noted the discipline and dedication of the teachers and the taught in the classes in
the open, under the shade of trees. They wondered if their presence would disturb the classes.
The Principal said what was so obviously true : ‘They do not seem to mind.’
First on the agenda was a visit to the PB’s Library (total books – 32,600). The books had
been arranged as per the model given by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay; thematically, but the
stacks, shelves and books were covered with dust and there was a lack of neatness and
cleanliness. Expenditure of the Library is met out of VB’s revenue allocations. Rs. 85,000/- is
sanctioned every year and Rs. 7,000/- is received from the Central Library – a modest sum even
by Tagore’s standards of 1922!
After a visit to the Library, the HLC proceeded to a meeting where apart from the
Principal and teachers, retired teachers were also present.
The Principal, speaking on behalf of teachers, expressed the view that the residential
character of the school needed to be restored fully, even by curtailing the student-intake. She felt
that the Patha Bhavana system could work fully and better only if the students were all
residential, so that teachers could devote more time with them and a common curriculum could be
formulated and followed. At present, due to the preponderance of non-residential students in
Patha Bhavana, a common curriculum could not be followed fully and the envisaged and
mandated imparting of quality education to students was hampered.
One of the teachers said that since the non-residential students attend classes only up to
12.30 or 1.00 p.m. at the most, they avail private tuitions at home and hence their performance
was better than that of residential students, creating an anomalouos situation. The overall
performance of the PB students in the state and national arena was satisfactory. The only point of
concern was the dilution of the distinct vision of Tagore for the school due to the preponderance
of non-residential students.
The Principal felt that there should be some restrictions imposed in admissions at the
Mrinalini Ananda Pathasala itself. She also felt that including +2 in Patha Bhavana would be
better from the point of view of introducing the students to Tagore’s ideology (towards Nature
and Society) as they would remain for two more years under the tutelage of the teachers.
At Patha Bhavana, although teachers take students to various places in and around
Santiniketan to give them a feel of nature and foster interest in it, an informed scientific
explanation, to the students, of various phenomena was not happening.
The major concerns for Patha Bhavana, therefore, were (a) the student-teacher ratio, (b)
the present admission policy and (c) the Scales of Pay which the teachers felt needed revising.
The HLC learnt that some of the teachers, especially the recently recruited ones resorted
occasionally to corporal punishment. We also gathered that the school was chronically short of
the full complement of teachers, to the detriment of teaching and learning – again reminding it of
Tagore’s 1901 lament.
Though originally conceived as a residential institution, PB is now only partially so. This
makes the school a stereotype of other schools for day scholars in which the interaction between
the teacher and child is confined to the limited school hours. The absence of a residential stake
in the school is also telling on the atmosphere of cleanliness in the area, which is part of the
Ashrama area.
Some of the original and unique features of PB, however, remain and maintain its
distinctness. These include open-air classes and the mobility of the students moving from class to
class, the additional classes every week, in music, dance, painting and handicrafts as also training
in wood work, metal work and weaving. The Ashram Sammilani is another feature of PB which
gives the students a sense of responsibility in collective work and it is a matter of pride for the
school that a group of PB students can be entrusted with the organizing of a cultural programme
quite spontaneously within a short period of 10 - 15 minutes.
The HLC’s consultations saw importance being attached to PB as central to Tagore’s

vision and also reflected an almost total unanimity that the PB should be strengthened. Everyone
consulted – teachers, parents, Santiniketan residents, alumni and others – were of the view that
PB’s student strength, which is now nearly 5 times of what it was in the early phases of VB was
its chief problem. Sheer numbers placed the PB’s teaching and other resources under great strain.
This apart, the students’ principal sourcing – VB in-house – was also seen as a problem.
Our respondents described the concomitant situation and problems as being:
1. PB is becoming increasingly insular, since the student body now overwhelmingly

comprises children of staff and alumni. The few residential scholars from outside come from a
background that is different from that of the day scholars who come from the homes of staff.
2. The attitudes and expectations of the parents and guardians reflect current concerns,
namely, marks-based academic performance geared to prospects for higher education – the
‘straight line’ Tagore did not want. Parents and guardians of PB students do not want their wards
to play ‘the seesaw with the line of the average’; they want the average, the conventional and the
predictable. So, they organize private tuitions by the PB teachers who have to respond to these
pressures for examination-cramming, at the cost of paying less attention to the resident scholars.
3. Day scholars come to school only when classes start and go back when teaching is
over. They are disconnected with the extracurricular and community activities that take place
after school hours for the residential scholars in a manner integral to the original PB principles.
4. By the principle of opposites, residential scholars who have the advantage of being
rooted in the Ashrama have a much longer routine from dawn to dusk and, as a result, their
academic performance suffers.
5. Professor Indranarayan Basu Mallick drew the attention of the HLC to the fact that
the PB was perhaps the only eco-friendly school of its kind in the country (a debatable
observation). He also drew attention to the fact that girls comprised a good 50% of the school’s
student strength – a highly commendable feature.
6. Professor Basu Mallick however drew the HLC’s attention to the fact that the school
had only two urinals for the day scholars which were more often than not, ill maintained and
dirty.
Recommendations :
1. PB is probably the only institution in our country where a school that teaches the very
young (from class II to class VII) is integral to a university system. PB has been and will
continue to be the seedbed for the VB University, although the open-system being recommended
by the HLC will bring other post plus-2 candidates to the colleges as well. PB will always
continue to influence the shape of the university’s student profile. The good in PB is, by
definition, therefore the future good of VB. Equally, the weak and the defective in PB must grow
into the weaknesses and defects in the university. To state the obvious, the good in PB needs to
be preserved and developed, while the defective needs to be rectified. One traditional area of
PB’s strength has been the informal ease of equation between teacher and taught in which
students enjoyed a sense of freedom and responsibility, with regular evening meetings in which
students read from their contributions on general subjects, beyond the confines of the curriculum,
playing an important part.
2. The HLC regards the major strength of PB as being its residential character. The school,
therefore, needs to be made entirely residential, without loss of time, in order to be a good school
with a difference, rather than a routine one. The new hostel buildings must be designed to be
simple without being primitive, austere without being ‘monastically’ so.
3. Prior to it being made entirely residential, PB’s size has to be optimized. What would be
the ideal student strength for the PB? We believe it should be around 600, with all the students
drawn through an open system accessible to the entire country, that can be introduced gradually
over a three-year programme. This will, of course, modify the students composition and will also
call for a concomitant modification in the medium of instruction.
At present, the bulk of the admissions are from the Mrinalini Ananda Pathasala, the pre-
school nursery establishments to which all the small children of VB staff go. These children are
admitted en masse to Class II of the PB, well-nigh saturating the PB strength. The HLC
commends the decision, by no means an easy one, taken by the then Upacharya, Professor Sujit
Basu, in restricting admissions from within the VB system to 50%. The HLC would recommend
that over a period of three years, from admissions in the year 2007, this “internal quota” be scaled
out with VB children being free to compete for admission through an open test along with others,
but not admitted automatically. The Ananda Pathashala should therefore not be regarded as the
pre-school ‘feeder’ of the PB after the three year period.
4. The future residential facility for PB should, therefore, be planned for the optimal number
of students who will be then able to return with the advantages of right-sizing to the original
concepts of PB. The hostels should be sensitively designed so as to retain a simplicity which is
not impractical in an age where electricity and plumbing are not what they were in 1901.
5. Meanwhile, PB should arrange for all day scholars remain in school and participate in all
activities through the day in the same manner as residential students.
6. The examination and evaluation systems for grading student performance need to be
tightened and imaginatively reformed so as to test what students learn from actively exploring
their natural and human surroundings and not simply what they pick up from tutors at home. The
students should be given the opportunity to be innovative and to develop awareness of the huge
world outside India and outside also Britain and Europe. Each class of students can be divided
into groups (by the lottery method) and be honoured on the basis of collective achievement. An
attempt should be made to get Vinaya Bhavana involved in these experiments, by way of
participation, periodic review and research. Reliance on Bangla as the medium of instruction in
PB and SS is understandable and is not to be undermined. But greater attention to the pupils’
ease of communication in English is clearly called for in both schools.
PB, at present, stops before the +2 course. This has more disadvantages than advantages.
VB must integrate the +2 course in PB with a wider option of electives in areas like music, fine
arts and crafts in which the institution is strong. In other words, the Uttar Siksha Sadan (USS)
should, in a given time-frame, wither away. For this the Siksha Satra (SS) in Sriniketan will have
to do likewise, viz., add +2 to its structure. The HLC strongly feels that the two schools should
develop closer links, holding joint classes wherever possible and extra-curriculars, sharing faculty
and infrastructure. If for historical reasons the two, viz., the PB and the SS are to remain distinct,
they should nonetheless come to function as two wings of the same institution rather than as
separate bodies.
For this, the classrooms of the PB in the +2 Classes will have to take in the Siksha Satra
students of the same classes. This will call for a concomitant investment. Getting a PB Class XII
public examination recognized as equivalent to Government HS exams should not be difficult
because PB is even now independent of the National Boards for its class 10 exam.
7. HLC would recommend bringing in the Kala Bhavana and Sangita Bhavana talents to
enrich teaching in PB. Here, the HLC would stress the need for Vinaya Bhavana and Patha
Bhavana also to interact closely, PB giving to the teacher-trainees the ‘feel’ of PB’s personalized
traditional teacher-student closeness and VnB giving PB the benefit of advancing techniques in
teacher-training.
8. Right-sizing the PB cannot be done without an alternative being provided for those
children of the VB staff and alumni who may not be able to get into the restructured PB through
an open competitive examination. This would require the creation of one or more Kendriya
Vidyalayas or a Navodaya School in the vicinity which will offer quality day-school education.
But those institutions should be outside the VB system.
9. The HLC would recommend that the PB library be made a model library handled entirely
by the school in the spirit of the PB Sammilani with a student committee advised by the Principal,
in-charge of the library. The cleaning and preserving of the shelves should be done by the day
scholars and residential students together and should come for some form of credit in the inter-
sessional grading. The library did not appear to have a well-thought out inflow of school-level
journals and periodicals.
b) Siksha Satra
The Basic Facts :
Siksha Satra (SS) is a non-residential school and the student composition is essentially
semi-urban and rural, coming from areas surrounding Sriniketan. The curriculum of Siksha Satra
is the same as that of Patha Bhavana; the difference is in core subjects, namely, Horticulture and
Electrical Services-cum-maintenance. Its total student strength is 600, an optimum strength.
Siksha Satra was originally conceived as a place where students would be given
vocational training in addition to academic training so that they could learn creative work, that
would help them to be of service to the villages and rural areas they hail from, causing a
regeneration in the villages and forming a new rural society. The school was to cater to students
who hail from villages in the area. Siksha Satra was one of the many steps which the founding
fathers of VB felt would be imperative to make a wholesome human being out of a student as also
to make Santiniketan self-sustaining.
The Horticulture option has the following objectives:
i) To teach the children how to make profitable use of all the available land by growing
vegetables.
ii) To give a scientific knowledge and practical experience to the village students in growing
different kinds and variety of vegetables and fruits for their own use and marketing.
iii) To teach them about the different seasons and the conditions in which the different crops
are grown and the prices of the vegetables at different times of the year so that they may know
what crops they ought to grow at what time of the year.
iv) To provide for a study of nature in its various aspects.
v) To provide for farmyard discipline which is very necessary for a gardener.
vi) To provide for team work and healthy competition.
vii) To provide for a study of drawing, arithmetic, geography and any other subject which
may have a bearing upon the gardener’s vocation.
The Electrical Services-cum-Maintenance course has the following objectives:

i) To enable the students to learn the elementary aspects of electricity.
ii) To let them acquire the basics of different types of wiring through practical experiences.
iii) To make them able to repair the faults in the wiring systems.
iv) To enable them to repair simple faults of commonly used electric gadgets like irons,
stoves, etc.
v) To prepare students to take this discipline as a vocation in the future.
Even as the Ananda Pathasala is the kindergarten school which funnels into the PB, the
Santosh Pathasala is the kindergarten for the age group 4-5 years, which funnels into the SS
secondary school. The kindergarten products of the Santosh Pathasala enter the SS in Class II as
internal candidates. Outside students, namely, students from outside the VB system, are admitted
in Class V and VI.
The Student-Teacher ratio at the SS is 14:1.
SS has entered in the computer world with a computer laboratory installed in April 2006.
SS takes part in the National Service Programme, its students attending NSS camps at nearby
villages and performing social duties like campus and hospital cleaning and hygiene and literacy
campaigns in the local villages.
The SS, like the PB, is a co-educational school with reservations for SC/ST candidates as
per rules and has a special additional weightage of 15% of the marks obtained for candidates
coming from villages within the ‘Command Area’ of the Palli Sangathana Vibhaga.
Observations :
Currently about 60% of the student profile is urban. The Principal and teachers
interacting with the HLC said that the emphasis of the School, over the decades, has changed to
make it a more conventional school. Organising camps for students (in villages) was mandatory
earlier. Now, however, due to various constraints that has been restricted to one of two classes
occasionally.
Book-binding which was a Siksha Satra specialization is now stopped as students are not
interested in it.
A teacher drew the attention of the HLC to the high dropout rate among SS’ tribal
students (both girls and boys) – a major concern for Siksha Satra.
The Adhyaksha of SS, in a written comment, dated 1.6.2006, told the HLC that VB was
not paying the attention it deserved to PB and SS, although these two were meant by Tagore to be
the “seedbeds” of VB. The Adhyaksha said “We believe attaching more importance to higher
institutions ignoring the junior sections is the main cause of the deterioration of VB”. He also
lamented the inadequacy of infrastructure facilities like laboratory, library and proper rooms for
vocational courses. He also referred to the deleterious impact of the present ‘internal quota
system’ in admission to the SS.
The Adhyaksha of the SS informed the HLC that there was no denying the fact that many
of the former activities of the SS had to be discontinued in course of time consequent upon the
changed social ambience and pressing demands for conformity to the prevailing system of
education and examination. The Adhyaksha made the significant observation that if SS was to
retain its distinct identity, it would have to undertake some “characteristic activities” as envisaged
by Tagore and suggested the following:
1) Many activities associated with the collective life of a residential institution can be
introduced if SS’ hostel facility was to be restored.
2) Workshops should be held for the students of the neighbouring schools where the scope
of learning such subjects as wood-work, weaving, electrical servicing and maintenance, batik,
bandhni (tie and dye), toy-making etc are not available. This opportunity will enable the students
of the neighbouring villages to learn crafts which besides being immensely useful in life, will
inculcate an aesthetic sense in them. Reciprocal arrangements will have to be made in other
institutions too. Village craftsmen and artisans may be involved in such programmes.
3) SS students may share the cultural heritage of VB with the surrounding villages’ unique
cultural life. The students may occasionally organize cultural programmes in the neighbouring
villages in collaboration with the students there. These interactions will enrich them make them
aware of their social responsibilities and above all forge a harmonious relation with the people
and nature around them.
4) Besides the activities mentioned in sub-paras 2) and 3), SS can play a significant role in
conduction of various programmes undertaken by the Palli Sangathan Vibhaga of Sriniketan.
5) Some new courses/programmes such as tailoring, computer-literacy, language lab (for

English), scientific model-making may be added to the current curricular or co-curricular
activities.
When asked if they felt that Siksha Satra was making a contribution of its own in our
modern times or not, the Principal and teachers said it was.
Siksha Satra, they said, was the model school that could envision a new type of village.
For this, choosing the subjects, quality of teaching, involvement of teachers and curtailing the
number of students would be essential.
It was, however, essential that if the SS was to be a model school which can envision a
new type of village, it should have a quality of leadership imbued with a vision on its faculty.
Without this, SS cannot but degenerate into a conventional school.
Recommendations :
1. An important allied issue is the connection of PB to the Siksha Satra set up in 1924
initially in Santiniketan and subsequently moved to Sriniketan to cater to children from the
villages in the vicinity of Santiniketan. The Siksha Satra provides all round education to village
children with a view to equipping them with training to earn a livelihood and also contribute to
rural regeneration. The syllabus, modes of teaching and activities in the Siksha Satra are
broadly along the lines adopted in PB but with a greater emphasis on work-related education.
Students from the Siksha Satra join those from PB in the 10+2 Uttar Siksha Sadan segment of
schooling.
While not recommending a merger of PB and Siksha Satra (except in +2), HLC
recommends a greater interaction between the two so as to strengthen the PB’s exposure to rural
life and provide the resident students of PB with an opportunity to develop an interest in affairs
beyond their own future career prospects. With the changes in the rural and suburban setting, it is
also important that creative ways be looked at regarding the vocational training and the
handicrafts and introduce aspects of job-oriented activities. This would mean a new emphasis in
areas like the use, servicing and repair, of solar energy and gadgets which employ kerosene oil,
petrol, apart from basic electricity.
2. The dropout rate among the Santhal students referred to by a teacher needs to be studied
and corrected. An assessment should be made as to why this dropout rate is high and why the
concerned group feels neglected or marginalized.
3. The book-binding course should be revived and the money that the Central Library pays
to private parties for binding their books could flow into Siksha Satra making it self-sustaining to
some extent, after CL’s clearance of the proposal. Once this arrangement is introduced, the CL
should keep watch on the quality of the binding and send quarterly reports to the Adhyaksha of
SS and the Upacharya of VB.
4. The HLC would recommend a revising of the admission procedures on the same lines as
it has recommended for the PB so as to make admissions open for students without being
monopolized by the VB community.
5. The HLC would be cautious about introducing computerized education in SS before

identifying the specific uses to which computer technology could be put in the overall programme
of the SS.
6. Locating faculty with the kind of vision SS needs would require clarity on the vision
itself, namely, on the vision of a village which, while sited in the 21st century, is yet able to think
non-stereotypically. Even as Tagore could be passionately proud of his country, but not belong
to its orthodoxies, it should be possible for SS to be aware and even appreciative of modern
transformations in India’s rural life without being enslaved by theories of urbanizing rural India.
The HLC would recommend that VB engages, for the benefit of PB and SS, in a discussion with
schools with an ‘alternative’ approach to non-urban education such as Rishi Valley School,
outside Madanapalle, in Andhra Pradesh; guided by the thought of J. Krishnamurti. The work of
David Horsborough in Karnataka which is geared to primary schools and is very successful
should also be looked at along with other pedagogical systems.
The HLC would recommend that just as Patha Bhavana should not become a clone of
conventional schools, SS should not become a clone of PB as it is today. Both SS and PB have a
role to play in partnership and the HLC would hope that the day would not be far when students
of PB and SS could actually become one entity in two venues, maintaining at the same time, their
relative diversities on a footing of complete equality.
7. Taking note of the Adhyaksha’s recommendation that a hostel be built for the SS
students, the HLC would recommend that the hostel be built in no way less congenial than the one
proposed for the PB, with greater emphasis on the setting up of work spaces for the vocational
courses that are offered at the SS.
8. The HLC notes the following shggestions made by the Adhyaksha for the improvement
in the physical infrastructure of the school:
a) Open air classrooms for the students as it gives the students an opportunity to interact in
the “lap of nature” and derive the source of learning directly from nature. However, the need
exists for well equipped classrooms for some specific classes as well. If a few rooms are built
with appropriate facilities of teaching it could immensely facilitate the teaching-learning of
different subjects
b) Subjects like artistic handicrafts, weaving and woodwork, are of paramount importance in
the institution and SS needs the infrastructure and equipment to accommodate talented and eager
students in the workshops of those subjects. SS needs a Science Museum in order to facilitate the
learning of science for application in everyday rural activities.
c) In order to develop physical fitness norms among the students SS needs a proper
playground and a gymnasium within the periphery of SS.
d) SS needs to introduce new courses on environmental science and agriculture for the
students of the school.
e) In order to develop skills of SS students in English listening, speaking, reading and

writing, SS has set up a language lab with modern equipment and appropriate numbers of
academic and non academic hands to facilitate teaching and learning. It also needs to promote
cognitive learning, error analysis, remedial courses, creative skill development in the school. A
unit to encourage and train SS students in creative writing would be good.
f) While SS has no dearth of books because of regular book-grants, the stack-rooms are
stuffy, with more than the optimum number of stacks accommodated in insufficient space. Many
books do not get proper care and are in poor condition. So the library needs more rooms, stacks
and book-cases with glass shutters.
g) In another section of this report, the HLC will be commenting on and recommending
modifications in the administrative structures of VB with specific reference to Sriniketan. Part of
that modification should be the identification of a ‘locomotive person’, who would not displace
the present SS hierarchy, but would play a pioneering role in making SS not just a school with a
vocational edge but a school with a visionary programme for Birbhum, rural West Bengal and
indeed, rural India.
h) The HLC would, however, like to point out that the ‘lap of nature’ thesis is not
applicable, in our present times, across the board of pedagogy. Science Classes, for instance,
cannot be taught under trees because equipment is required. The “Open Air” classes, which are
quite admirable at the primary school level, rather fade out at levels above that. But SS can
pioneer a new balance, ending the divisions between classrooms and the physical environment
outside.
The HLC is also of the view that the SS Adhyaksha’s observation at 7(b) overlaps with
the work of Kala Bhavana (KB) and could see an integrative initiative with Kala Bhavana.
Likewise, the proposal at 7 (c) should be connected with the work of the Department of Physical
Education (DPE) in Vinaya Bhavana. The HLC’s concern is that many small bits and pieces of
activities in VB repeat each other and the possibility of synergy is lost. The recommendations
above for connecting the work of the SS with that of KB and the DPE is intended to avoid
scattering and unconnected repetititon.
c) Kala Bhavana
I consider the three years I spent in Santiniketan as the most fruitful of my life. This was not so
much because of the proximity of [Rabindranath]…It was just that Santiniketan opened my eyes
for the first time to the splendours of Indian and Far Eastern art. Until then I was completely
under the sway of western art, music and literature. Santiniketan made me the combined product
of East and West that I am. As a film maker I owe as much to Santiniketan as I do to American
and European cinema.
- Satyajit Ray in his last piece of English writing published just before his death in
1992 – Quoted by Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson in Rabindranath Tagore – The Myriad-
Minded Man (1996).
The Basic Facts :
The Kala Bhavana (KB), VB’s Institute of Fine Arts was founded in 1919, two years
prior to the founding of the VB University. It is significant that among the various faculties in
VB, only Patha Bhavana is older chronologically. KB is, today, regarded as one of India’s
premier institutes of visual art and design.
And yet it is not generally appreciated today that KB, with its remarkable faculty led by
Acharya Nandalal Bose, had become an institution within an institution, recognized as the centre
for an art movement in pre-Independence India, Benodebehari Mukherji, Asit Kumar Haldar and
Ram Kinkar Baij becoming inspirational figures for the country as a whole.
The Kala Bhavana has 5 academic departments in which it offers undergraduate and
postgraduate courses:
Sculpture
Painting
Design
Graphic Art
History of Art
KB also offers Ph.D and research programmes in all the 5 departments.
The KB also runs a 2-year certificate course in Design for which admissions are made
directly after practical tests and a viva. There are 18 students pursuing this course at the time of
writing, all of who are from outside the VB-Santiniketan community. KB runs, besides, a 1-year
casual course for foreign students in graphic art, painting, sculpture, history of art and design
(ceramic and textiles). At the time of the writing of this Report there are 14 foreign students
pursuing this course who gained admission as per norms of admission applicable to foreigners
studying at VB.
There is a similar 1-year casual course for Indian nationals in the same subjects. At the
time of writing, there are 8 such students.
The more mainstream courses are a 4-year Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA-Hons.) course for
which 30 seats are earmarked, with no reservations for VB-Santiniketan students. Admissions are
by way of practical tests. The 2-year Master’s (MFA – Advanced Diploma) is in the same
subjects. Currently, there are 57 students pursuing this course. 50% of the total seats in each
Department are reserved for an internal quota subject to first class according to merit. KB also
runs a 1-year bridge course which connects to the MFA in Art History. Currently there are 6
students pursuing this course from outside VB-Santiniketan. It should be recorded that several
hundred applications for admission are received by KB every year, though it can take in only its
small designated number.
The KB has a museum and a library. The museum, now called Nandan Museum, started
functioning around the same time as the inception of the Bhavana by Acharya Nandalal Bose. It
arose as a result of the students and teachers of the KB gathering and bringing from surrounding
villages whatever local specimens of craft that attracted them. The region at that time abounded
in terracotta structures. Casts were made of these terracotta designs and brought to serve as
archival material. Visitors to Santiniketan and friends of Tagore from places outside India also
contributed gifts to the museum. Though small, the museum has a valuable collection of works
by master craftsmen from the region as well as abroad, fully justifying the name of the University
– VB. There is in its holdings a priceless Ming Dynasty scroll by Shen Chou and several Noh
theatre masks from Japan. Specifically deserving of notice are the original works of Tagore, his
nephews Abanindranath and Gaganendranath and Nandalal Bose, Benodebehari Mukherjee and
Ram Kinkar Baij.
The KB has a library with a professional assistant who is also designated as Library In-
Charge, a Semi Professional Assistant and a Senior Library Attendant.
Observations :
1. General
The HLC visited Kala Bhavana on 24 June, 2006. The time spent by it on the KB
campus showed a certain international touch, so important for VB. The students form outside
India seemed to be enjoying their stay and finding their experience creative as well as pleasant.
The refreshing absence of inwardness, because of KB’s admission policy being open and
welcoming, too was noticeable.
Nonetheless, the precincts looked quite run-down and although the students were seen
working on their practicals, the buildings and their environment seemed to lack another aspect of
‘practicality’ – the attentive eye and the active hand that keeps the precincts tidy. A work-place
has to be busy and in the process of work it can have the look of operational disorder. But the KB
premises seemed to be in a form of disorderliness not dissimilar to what the Committee found in
the Central Library. The lack of maintenance had also crept onto the works of art on display.
2. Courses of Study
Not surprisingly the majority of KB’s Indian students are from the state of West Bengal,
followed by Assam. The profile of students’ states of origin as in 2005 is given below :
Name of the State B.F.A M.F.A.

Andhra Pradesh 01 02
Arunachal Pradesh 01 -
Assam 04 03
Bihar - -
Gujarat - 01
Haryana - 01
Himachal Pradesh - 01
Jammu and Kashmir - 02
Jharkhand - 01
Karnataka - 01
Kerala - 03
Nagaland - 01
Orissa - 02
Punjab - 01
Rajasthan - 01
Sikkim - 01
Tripura 01 -
Uttar Pradesh 01 -
West Bengal 13 24
KB has had the following pattern of admissions of non-Indians : Over the last 10 years,
Thailand’s has been the most consistent presence, particularly in the MFA/Advanced Diploma
Course, followed by Bangladesh, Korea and Japan. But at no time has any country had more than
3 students pursuing any of the courses offered by KB. Over the last 10 years no course has had
more than 6 non-nationals, except in the year 1999 when the MFA/Advanced Diploma Course
had 8 non-nationals.
Despite the single digit number of the foreign students at KB, the HLC observed that the
KB was one department at VB, which had a clear and sustained international dimension to it. It
was also observed that within this modest feature of internationalism, the KB has a strong Asian
and East-Asian identity.
3. Museum
The Curator of the KB Museum informed the Committee, in a valuable Note, that in May
2006, of the 19400 items physically verified, 9535 articles had been accessioned textually and in
photo images. No comprehensive catalogue of the collection has yet been published although two
small catalogues have been produced on the Museum’s Tagore and Kalighat holdings. The last
physical verification of the collection was done in 1993 by a group of teachers from KB. The
museum has an annual budget of Rs. 2,40,000 covering all heads of expenditure including
maintenance contracts for the air-conditioning machines.
The following observations of the Curator drew our notice :
“There are many areas in which development is necessary on an urgent basis. Some of which,
like the setting up of a centralized Conservation Lab for the maintenance and restoration of the
invaluable articles housed in Rabindra Bhavana and Kala Bhavana museums as well as the
smaller museums in other departments of this Unviersity, have already been jointly put forth in an
earlier proposal by Rabindra Bhavana and Kala Bhavana. But there are some other areas which
also require urgent action. These are :-
a) Increasing the capacity of the strong-rooms,

b) Professional digitization of the museum articles,
c) Ensuring the maintenance of stable conditions of relative humidity and temperature by
purchasing our own generator and a Barigo thermo-hygrograph.”
She clarified further :
“a) …Though most of the works of important artists in the Kala Bhavana Museum collection
are housed fairly well in steel drawers and cabinets, there are many articles like textiles and
sculptures, masks etc, which due to lack of space have been stacked together in ordinary almirahs,
instead of being properly rolled/stretched and kept in custom made cases. Many terracotta and
other such delicate articles are also kept lying around on the floors of the strong-room due to
scarcity of space. There are two large rooms of 600 sq.ft area each on the 1st floor of the museum
extension. The Kala Bhavana Museum and faculty staff all feel that these rooms can be
developed into full-fledged strong-rooms or even visual storage-rooms for the articles in clay
stone, metal, leather, etc. Subsequently the textiles and other more delicate articles will have
more breathing space in the ground floor strong-rooms. For this purpose the 1st floor rooms need
to be damp-proofed before being air-conditioned and appropriately furnished and secured. This
will be an expensive project and Kala Bhavana doesn’t have the necessary funds for it.
Intervention from the Higher Authorities is therefore requested.
b) The Deputy Curator (Exhibitions) of the Kala Bhavana Museum is at present engaged in
taking digital images of the articles, beginning with the more important ones. But since he is not
professionally trained for such purpose, the matter of photo-documenting our collection is not
being fully accomplished. Therefore digitization of the holdings needs to be professionally
handled to ensure their security with regard to their exact appearance from all sides and angles.
c) The present contractor who provides ‘generator services’ to the Kala Bhavana Museum is
also responsible for providing the same services to Madhavi, Karabi girls’ hostels and the
Natyaghar during powercuts. But the AC plant at the Kala Bhavana museum, Nandan, does not
operate in low or high voltage conditions which are often the case during summer and winter
evenings. During these times the AC plant reportedly does not get any generator service. Also
for the last 1-1 ½ years, the AC plants were forced to be shut down for hours, sometimes days
together during prolonged power-cuts or voltage fluctuations. Under the circumstances it would
be far more appropriate for the Nandan complex to have its own generator of a minimum capacity
of 50 kv, along with a voltage-stabilizer., The relative humidity of the strong-rooms has so far
been maintained by the AC plant. Despite that, however, a thermo-hygrograph (preferably of
Barigo make) should be installed for foolproof readings of temperature and relative humidity
inside the strong-rooms and the museum display galleries on the 1st floor.”
The departments of sculpture and painting, we noted, were working on developing a

digital archive and a multi-media facility. This was for the good.
Recommendations :
The Premises
1. The upkeep of the KB’s compound must involve the students and the staff for, unlike
institutions of scholastic learning, this Bhavana is a workplace apart from being a venue of
learning and students in it are required to use their physical energy in their craftwork. Also,
unlike in other departments the students at KB generate a certain amount of craft-related debris
clearing which should really be part of completing work on a creative project.
2. That said, KB should have its own conservancy staff, independent of the cleaners
employed under VB’s central arrangements.
3. As Shri Jogen Chowdhury pointed out to the Committee, the KB’s classrooms were
originally planned with small-sized sitting desks where students could do small
tempera/watercolour works. Now a larger number of students work on far bigger scales, whether
foundries or canvases that need larger studio space, particularly in the Sculpture and Painting
Departments. The Committee could see that KB needed larger classrooms for the Painting
Department in particular. But these classrooms, we recommend, should be built with inputs from
the KB’s own faculty and students as regards the nature and quality of materials to be used and
the architectural design to be adopted.
4. The artworks in the museum, many of them of great value, have been housed rather than
displayed. KB can hardly be faulted for this since it does not have a sufficient display area. It is
important that the KB museum, bearing as it also does, the name of Nandalal Bose, be given the
best possible museological attention, invoking the new and innovative programmes of the
Department of Culture for museum upgradings in the country.
5. The HLC recommends follow-up on the points made by the Curator (summarized under
‘Observations’). The HLC agrees that while the KB museum merits a new display area, it also
needs a restoration and preservation laboratory. We would recommend that while KB seeks the
assistance of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, for an ‘upgradation’, it also adds to its
museum facilities a restoration and preservation laboratory with one or two specially qualified
personnel. This laboratory could in fact also become a centre for a course in art conservation and
restoration which is missing from the KB’s syllabus at present. Such a laboratory could also
undertake responsibilities for the upkeep of art objects scattered all over Santiniketan outside of
Vichitra and Sriniketan, including murals and sculptures that dot the campus including the
extraordinary one by Nandalal Bose at Santiniketan.
6. Students at KB mentioned to the Committee the absence of computerized networking at

KB. Given the fact that an institute for the teaching of the fine arts must remain well-connected
to similar institutions all over the world, we would recommend that KB’s needs for computerized
networking to facilitate multimedia support for its work be gone into by a specialist in the field,
perhaps from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
Seclusion is desirable for creativity; isolation is not. KB seems to have the advantages of
seclusion but also the disadvantages of isolation. This can be and should be remedied urgently.
To strengthen KB’s national character, the HLC recommends that its national tests be
made better known in different Centres so that more students from outside West Bengal can come
into it.
Teaching Courses
1. We have already recommended that a course on restoration and preservation of art works
be linked to the proposed restoration and preservation laboratory at the KB museum. We would
also endorse a suggestion made by Shri Jogen Chowdhury that KB’s Department of Design be
extended with more modern, technological equipments and facilities. KB would be the
appropriate venue for certain courses which are not available in art colleges elsewhere, such as
courses in : (a) interior designing using rural craft, (b) apparel designing and personal
ornamentation with non-urban, organic and traditional materials.
2. KB having been one of VB’s most international Bhavanas, it must strengthen its teaching
by a strong stream of visiting faculty. The Committee would recommend that one of the beautiful
but sadly neglected Panchavati Cottages be specifically restored and reserved for an artist in
residence invited by KB. It is to be recalled that if the painter Andree Karpeles from Paris and the
then young art historian Stella Kramrisch from Vienna, could have visited VB in the early part of
the last century when Santiniketan was far less connected to the outer world, it should be possible
for practitioners of art and craft as well as teachers of art history to come to KB in our era of good
roads and fast trains. The fact that Satyajit Ray studied at KB is not to be lost by prospective
visitors. What KB would require is the identification of such persons, beginning with our own
country, and then the countries in Asia from which students have been coming to KB and
arranging for them to reside and work at KB.
3. KB itself proposed to the HLC that KB should be accorded a status of a deemed

university so as to give it “greater chances of enhancing the standards of teaching and creative
output”. The Committee would not recommend such a change of status because the experience of
organizations becoming deemed universities in our country is not uniform and because VB’s
special status can provide for additional support including funding even without a change in KB’s
formal status. What KB requires is not recognition and ‘deeming’ but self-restoration and a new
self-definition.
4. The HLC recommends that the Upacharya should also suggest to the Kala Bhavana and
Rabindra Bhavana that their two museums be studied with a view to integrating KB’s compatible
art holdings with those at Rabindra Bhavana. It appears to the HLC that while the KB museum
has its own history and dynamics, it still holds items which would more logically be in the
Rabindra Bhavana museum. This aggregation should, however, be done by the VB authorities
with the best curatorial advice, judiciously, and after the recommendations on the Tagore
Memorial Institute and the upgrading of the RB Museum have been implemented.
5. The HLC would also like to invite VB’s attention to the fact that NRIs with a Bengal
origin can be asked to contribute to the study of the art improvements in the two museums. NRIs
who are showing an increasing interest in Indian art should not find it difficult to do so.
d) Sangita Bhavana
When I first started my school my boys had no evident love for music. The consequence is that at
the beginning I did not employ a music teacher and did not force the boys to take music lessons. I
merely created opportunities when those of us who had the gift could exercise their musical
culture. It had the effect of unconsciously training the ears of the boys. And when gradually most
of them showed a strong inclination and love for music I saw that they would be willing to subject
themselves to formal teaching, and it was then that I secured a music teacher. That was the
beginning of my music department.
In the proposed centre of our culture, music and art must have their seats of honour, and not
merely a tolerant nod of recognition. The different systems of music and different schools of art,
which lie scattered in the different ages and provinces of India, and in the different strata of
society, have to be brought there together and studied.
Just as all the students of the Ashram have to study English, Bengali, Geography, History etc so
also must take training in music. Those boys who have the ability to sing or are musically-
inclined must study music daily at an appointed hour.
Rabindranath Tagore, 1919
The Basic Facts :
The HLC regrets it could not visit the Sangita Bhavana. But its studies and discussions
elicited the following relevant information :
The Sangita Bhavana, VB’s Institute of Music, Dance and Drama, was initiated along
with KB, in 1919, and housed with it in the same building Dwarik. Rabindra Sangit was taught
there by Dinendranath Tagore, grandson of Dwijendranath Tagore, eldest brother of
Rabindranath.
The Bhavana acquired its own ‘bhavana’ twenty years later, in 1939 by which time it had
become a centre for the teaching of classical instrumental music and dance – with Buddhimanta
having come from Agartala to teach Manipuri dance and Velu Nair from the Kerala
Kalamandalam to teach Kathakali. In the years it acquired its own building. SB was able to stage
three dance-drama of Tagore – Shyama, Taser Desh and Chandalika.
‘When one speaks of music at Santiniketan’, the Comprehensive Prospective Plan says quite
frankly, ‘it invariably means the music of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and not classical or
instrumental or vocal music, although that too is taught here by competent teachers.’
The SB, today, has two academic departments :
Rabindra Sangit, Dance and Drama and the Theatre Arts

Hindustani Classical Music (Vocal and Instrumental)
The three years Bachelors in Music (Hons.Course), which is the mainstay of the
Department, has 90 students at the time of writing the Report with 24 of them in the Rabindra
Sangit section. The number of seats for each section is predetermined, e.g., the Kathakali Dance
and the Drama and the Theatre Arts sections. Kathakali Dance has 8 seats and Drama and
Theatre Arts section has 6 seats. In the Masters in Music course, the number of seats are identical
with a provision for 10 more students that can be added, making the total 100.
In both courses, there is a reservation policy in operation for SC and ST students and for
those with physical disabilities, the latter category not being eligible for the Drama and Dance
courses. The Masters’ degree course excludes the Drama and the Theatre Arts. Candidates
possessing the Bachelors’ Honours degree from the Sangita Bhavana, in VB, can join the
Master’s Course. External candidates possessing 55% marks in an honours course in music can
apply with the selection being based on a practical test and a viva voce being conducted by
Sangita Bhavana. The Sangita Bhavana’s Bachelor in Music Honours course in any of the
sections such as Rabindra Sangit, Kathakali, Manipuri, Drama and Theatre Arts, Hindustani
Classical (Vocal), Sitar, Esraj, Table and Pakhwaj has to include a second subject as a subsidiary.
The basic eligibility for admission to the Bachelors’ course is a Pass in the pre-degree
examination in VB or in an equivalent recognized examination (10+2) conducted by the West
Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education with 45% marks in the aggregate. Sangita
Bhavana also offers the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) to those who have completed a
Masters’ degree with at least a 2nd class preceded by an Honours or a Pass Degree with a
minimum of 50% in the aggregate. The Sangita Bhavana can admit foreign students fulfilling
eligibility conditions and producing a student visa. A 15% of the intake capacity is made
available for international students in supernumerary seats. In the Session 2005-2006 the SB had
only 3 students from outside the State. It had 9 foreign students against supernumerary seats of
which 7 were from Bangladesh, 1 from Sri Lanka and 1 from Hong Kong.
The number of foreign students has been, on an average, fluctuating around 10 over the
last 10 years. In 1996-97 the SB had 17 foreign students, in 1997-98 it had 6 foreign students, in
1998-99 3, 1999-2000 13, 2000-2001 14, 2001-2002 10, 2002-2003 12, 2003-2004 11, 2004-2005
7, mostly from Bangladesh.
The SB has a library with 40,000 books and journals of which 5000 are described by the
Principal of SB as “very rare”.
The library has an assistant librarian (post vacant since February 2005), one senior
professional assistant and one semi-professional assistant.
Observations :
The SB continues to be a success story within VB, with its faculty and students bound
together by an ethos of the Guru-Sishya style. Few universities, not to speak of departments can
claim like SB that some of its faculty have won Padma awards – Santideva Ghosh (Padma
Bhushan), Kanika Bandyopadhyay (Padma Shri) and Suchitra Mitra (Padma Shri).
It is only natural that Rabindra Sangit should predominate over the other sections in the
Sangita Bhavana, both for the Bachelors’ and Masters’ courses. No other centre can provide an
authentic grounding of Rabindra Sangit as the SB in VB with Rabindra Bharati University in
Kolkata following up as a close second. But given SB’s rich heritage in the world of Tagore-
based music and dance, it seems to be lagging behind in widening its reach and improving its
performance quality. SB seems to have shrunk into a small arena of its own.
The Justice Masud Committee Report had pointed out that “the present courses of SB are
more or less limited to Rabindra Sangit, Hindustani Classical Music and Manipuri and Kathakali
Dance.” It went on to add “the programmes could be expanded”. Tagore had said that in VB
music and art must have their prominent seats of honour…the different systems of music and
different schools of art – which lies scattered in the different ages and provinces of India, and in
the different strata of society, have to be brought there and studied. The real challenge before
Sangita Bhavana lies in accepting this broadness of view while maintaining at the same time the
high standard of performance of Tagore songs which people expect from Santiniketan. For
Tagore, this posed no problem as he drew sustenance quite freely from the creative urge at work
in “different ages” and “different strata of society”. For others it can be a demanding ideal.
Recommendations :
1. The SB has, for historical reasons, focused on Rabindra Sangit. While retaining this rich
legacy and strengthening it, it is time that the SB broadens out to other music traditions. If music
is to have more than ‘a tolerant nod of recognition’, Sangita Bhavana should invite senior
musicians and music teachers for extended periods of stay and teaching, as visiting faculty. It is
recommended that SB prepares a list in consultation with the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New
Delhi, and the various state-level equivalent bodies, of senior musicians and music teachers who
are and are not on the active performance stage and who can spare time to reside at Santiniketan
and take special classes for a few weeks or months at a time.
2. The Committee specifically recommends a tie-up with two institutions, namely, the
Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in New Delhi and Kalakshetra in Chennai. The HLC has had
discussions with Dr. Madhavi Mudgal, the distinguished Kathak exponent connected with the
Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and with Ms. Leela Samson, Director of Kalakshetra. Both of them
have expressed a readiness to assist personally and institutionally. Ms. Samson is open to an
early visit to Kalakshetra to discuss the possibilities of collaboration between the two institutions
for mutual benefit. There can be no gain saying that the creative genius of Rukmini Devi
Arundale which permeates Kalakshetra could interact with SB particularly in the teaching of
dance.
3. There is a growing interest in India’s Classical Music traditions abroad, and not just
amongst NRIs. SB should seek a stronger engagement with the Indian Council for Cultural
Relations, New Delhi, to make its courses for foreign students better known abroad, so as to
invite those students interested in the courses being offered. This would be particularly
worthwhile for purposes of research in music, dance and drama, an area where SB’s achievements
have not been proportionate to its direct teaching programmes. It should also be possible for SB,
in time, to include varieties of Indian folk music which will interest foreign students and, if
possible, Western music.
4. An area where SB needs to break new ground is in taking its repertoire of Tagore dance-
dramas outside Santiniketan to other cities of India and abroad, beginning with neighbouring
countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The theatre tours from Santiniketan during
Tagore’s lifetime are well known and form landmarks in the history of VB. There is no reason
why SB should not draw a plan of choreography and productions over a 5-year period and send
its productions abroad through the agency of the ICCR. In this, again, the experience of
Kalakshetra, Chennai, would be worth obtaining and emulating.
5. Inadequately explored scope exists for inviting under a mutual exchange programme
theatre groups from outside which can stage English, French, German and other adaptations of
Tagore’s plays to Santinketan as part of an all-India tour. The music in non-Indian productions of
Tagore would presumably be weak. SB can provide the musical support for stage productions of
Tagore in non-Indian languages, thereby making the production a joint venture. Dak Ghar (The
Post Office) having been translated into several languages, could perhaps be the starting point for
this programme.
6. There is an increasing interest in western world in Baul music. There is good reason for
SB to become a centre for the study of this rare form of music for which an interaction with music
faculties and ethnographic departments in the concerned universities abroad would be fruitful.
7. One altogether new area in which the SB can make a contribution is in associating with
Patha Bhavana to see how music, dance and drama can be interwoven with school syllabi to add a
new dimension to teaching. As Anandarup Ray told the HLC, “Martha Nussbaum, a leading
American philosopher and educationist, has recently presented an analysis of Rabindranath’s
educational approach (“Freedom from dead habit”, Little Magazine, Vol. VI, issue 1 &
2, New Delhi, 2005). She identified three principles : first, the importance of leading an
“examined life”, taking no doctrines for granted; second, the importance of universalism and
multiculturism; and third, the importance of music, drama and other arts as conveyors of
education. The first principle goes back to Socrates, and the inspiration behind the second one
can also be found elsewhere. The third one is unique to Rabindranath. It is clear from
Nussbaum’s article that he can indeed be regarded as one of the great educators of all time.” The
HLC would recommend that SB and Patha Bhavana could collaborate with Professor Martha
Nussbaum and the Pratichi Trust inspired by Professor Amartya Sen to identify methods by which
music, dance and theatre can be better integrated with school education in a manner which would
reflect the uniqueness of Tagore’s vision and energize two major institutions, the SB and the
Patha Bhavana, simultaneously.
8. The HLC would recommend that SB should also move beyond the emphasis on
performance. Where performances are not critically evaluated, they descend into cultural
programmes. The HLC would strongly recommend that the SB should develop a serious section
on the theory of music and composition, an area where some interesting work is going on now in
Hindustani musi, and in areas like western music and mimetic dance, involving the hearing-
impaired.
e) Vidya Bhavana
We are building up our institution upon the ideal of the spiritual unity of all races. I hope it is
going to be a great meeting place for individuals from all countries who believe in the divine
humanity, and who wish to make atonement for the cruel disloyalty displayed against her by men.
I am afraid that the place does not cut much ice now, except as through the elderly and the
theosophic. The educational side of it is too casual.
– E.M. Forster after a visit to Santiniketan in 1945
Quoted by Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson in Rabindranath Tagore – The Myriad-Minded
Man (1996).
The Basic Facts :
Vidya Bhavana started as Visva-Bharati’s intellectual seat. It was to be the centre for its
Indological studies, housing Buddhist literature, Vedic texts in classical Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit
and somewhat later, Tibetan and Chinese material. Foreign scholars were intended to be attached
to Uttara-Vibhaga, as Vidya Bhavana was originally named (the school section being known as
Purva-Vibhaga). This is where the confluence of East and West – Tagore’s great ideal and
aspiration – was to occur. The renowned scholar Pandit Bidhusekhar Sashtri was the first
Adhyaksha of Vidya Bhavana and the preamble of the Bhavana read : “The Vidya Bhavana (the
School of Research) of Visva-Bharati is meant for those advanced scholars who intend to pursue
higher studies and to learn the methods of research in order to carry on investigations into the
domain of Indian literature, thought and culture”. Scholars came from far and near. The list of
that early visiting scholars would do any university proud :
1. Sylvain Levy from France (Indology) –
November 1921-August 1922
2. Sten Konow from Norway (Archaeology) –
November 1924-April 1925
3. Moritz Winternitz from Czechoslovakia (Indology) –
December 1922-1923
4. Fernand Benoit from Switzerland (Linguistics) –
1922
5. Arthur Geddes from France/UK (Sociology) –
1922-1923
6. Andree Karpeles from France (Painting) –
1922-1923
7. Mary van Eeghen (Music) –
January 1922 (2 months)
8. Stella Kramrisch from Vienna (Art History) –
1923
9. Giuseppe Tucci from Italy (Sanskrit) –
1925-1926
10. Carlo Formichi from Italy (Religion) –
November 1925-March 1926
11. Arnold Bake from The Netherlands (Musicology) –
1926-1934
12. Igor Bogdanov from Russia (Persian) –
1929-1930
13. Mark Collins from Ireland (Linguistics) –
1922-1931
14. Tan Yun-shan (Chinese) –
September 1928. Retired from service in 1978.
Died on 12.2.1993 at Bodhgaya
Observations :
These were not ‘casual visits’. As Tagore’s biographer Uma Das Gupta has said,
“Collaborative research between resident and visiting scholars made an important beginning with
editing and compiling the text of the Mahabharata as well as in the areas of Indo-Iranian
Philology and Islamic Culture. Many lectures were given by visiting scholars on subjects like
‘The Vedic Age’, ‘Buddhism’, ‘Poetics and the Culture of Asia’, ‘Indo-Chinese Cultural
Contacts’, ‘Christian Theology’, and ‘Art History of Europe’. Sanskritist Carlo Formichi lectured
on ‘The Dynamic Development of the Indian Religions from the Rig Veda to Buddhism’ and
Sylvain Levy on the ‘Contacts between Ancient India and the West’. This was what
Rabindranath meant by a meeting of minds across the barriers of East and West.”
VdB was, as we have seen, originally conceived as a school of research for advanced
scholars to pursue higher studies and conduct research in literature, thought and culture, serving
as a bridge between East and West.
The HLC noted what has, for long, been well known, that after VB became a Central
University, VdB lost its focus on research and became a conventional Arts College giving BA and
MA degrees in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
The Head of the Department of English and Other Modern European Languages, in a
submission to the HLC referred to the 50% reserved ratio for internal students in the BA Hons.
Course with a follow on into MA and said that the system of direct admission of internal students
at the BA level should be done away with and that +2 students from VB should have to compete
with external students at the admission test. He also suggested a revamping of the examination
evaluation system including the system for internal assessment.
The Department of Philosophy had the same suggestions for admission, namely, making
merit its basis.
It was clear to the HLC that if the oft-repeated suggestion for doing away with the system
of direct admission of internal students was to be implemented, there would have to be a
concomitant strengthening of the network of colleges run by the Universities of West Bengal or
affiliated to them in the vicinity of Visva-Bharati, so as to absorb, in due course, those internal
students who, after clearing their ‘plus 2’ examinations, fail to successfully compete with external
students in the revised admission tests.
The HLC noted that the VdB ran a Centre for Journalism and Mass Communication the
admission criteria for which is an open competitive admission test. This is one department where
the entire strength of 58 comprises of outsiders. Although the Centre informed the HLC that its
curriculum was not designed as a replica of similar faculties in other universities, the Committee
felt that this Department seemed quite out of tune and out of place in VB. The suggestions made
on behalf of this faculty to introduce modules on Tagore and the media, and on Tagore through
the media, lacked conviction. The HLC recommends that this unit be reviewed for its
congruence with Visva-Bharati and a decision taken on its continuance. In any case, the HLC
suggests that it be disconnected with VdB since Journalism and Mass Communication do not fall
within the prevailing definitions of “Humanities” and “Social Sciences”.
After Visva-Bharati became a Central University, VdB became a post-graduate faculty

running programmes for PG and research in Arts and Science, while Siksha Bhavana ran the
undergraduate course. ‘Patha’ (school learning) was to lead to ‘Shiksha’ (education) and
culminate in ‘Vidya’ (knowledge).
In 1972, when all Bhavanas in Visva-Bharati were restructured on the lines of faculties of
studies in other universities, Vidya Bhavana (VdB) was constituted as a Faculty of Humanities of
the Visva-Bharati. In the 1984 Visva-Bharati Act, Vidya Bhavana was redesignated as the
Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Today, VdB is the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, at VB. It is, basically, the
University’s Arts College. It is also VB’s biggest single faculty in terms of the number of
students – 43% of VB’s total student-strength – in it, as the following table would show:
Faculty No. of Students
1. Vidya Bhavana 1550

2. Siksha Bhavana 790
3. Sangita Bhavana 351
4. Vinaya Bhavana 310
5. Kala Bhavana 298
6. Palli Sangathana Vibhaga 275
7. Palli Siksha Bhavana 160
Total 3734
It has 21 Professors out of VB’s total of 50 Professors, 43 Readers out of VB’s total of
112 Readers, 104 Lecturers, out of VB’s total of 324 Lecturers. It has a total of 168 Teachers
(21+43+104) out of VB’s combined total of 486 (50+112+324).
The College runs 7 academic programmes as follows :
a. Undergraduate (Hons. In 16 disciplines and subsidiary in 10 disciplines)

b. Postgraduate in 15 disciplines
c. Doctoral in 14 disciplines
d. Diploma Courses in 16 languages
e. Certificate Courses in 16 languages
f. One year Casual Course for Foreign Students in 11 subjects mainly on language,
literature and culture
g. General English & General Bengali
It has no Pass Course teaching, in the UG level, only Honours teaching – a sign of
academic worth. The College has 15 Departments, plus 4 language units as follows :
a. AIHC & A (Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology)

b. Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Islamic Studies
c. Bengali
d. Chinese Language & Culture
e. Religion
f. Economics
g. English (DEOMEL)
h. Geography
i. History
j. Indo-Tibetan Studies
k. Japanese
l. Oriya
m. Philosophy
n. Sanskrit
o. Centre for Journalism and Mass Communication
Languages Units : Santhali, Tamil, Marathi, Assamese
The College’s maximum number of students (UG and PG combined) is in Geography

(159), followed by Bengali (137), Sanskrit (135), History (134) and Philosophy (130). The
College runs a Mathematics course as well by way of subsidiary teaching.
The College has some foreign students in all its segments, UG, PG and also in the 1 year
‘Casual Course for Foreigners’ that is run to teach languages, mainly Bengali.
The admission criteria at the BA level is well illustrated by the Department of Ancient
Indian History Culture and Archaeology which has a maximum of 50% of the total number of
sanctioned seats reserved for direct admission to internal candidates, namely, those who have
cleared the pre-degree examination of the Uttar Siksha Sadan in the VB system, securing 60%
marks in the aggregate. Other internal candidates who have got less than 60% marks have to sit a
departmental admission test. At the MA level, in the same Ancient Indian History, Culture and
Archaeology course, all the internal candidates who have obtained honours in the BA get
admitted, leaving hardly 3 – 4 seats for outside candidates.
The reservation rules in respect of SC/ST and PH candidates are observed.
By and large, it can be said that VdB is almost entirely an in-house institution with its
students drawn from the VB School stream which is predominantly made up of the children of
VB personnel and alumni.
In line with UGC approved patterns, the College’s language departments do not include
any teaching of linguistics or literature. There is also little interaction, not to speak of
collaboration, in either course design or teaching between VdB the different departments of the
Bhavana.
Broadly speaking, PG level research in the social science departments did not give the
HLC an impression either of stature or vibrancy.
The College’s various departments have clearly borne the brunt of inbreeding. The
restrictive domain of selection has created and sustained a guaranteed progression which the
Seshan Committee Report described as “K.G to P.G”, but without the progression from ‘patha’ to
‘vidya’ being proportionate to expectation.
The Principal of VdB, with the Heads of the College’s different departments, including
the language segments, had a detailed interaction with the HLC on 23 June, 2006. The different
Heads of Departments spoke almost in a refrain of :-
i) inadequate infrastructure
ii) inadequate visiting professors from within the country and abroad
iii) deteriorating student quality
iv) the lack of research work exacerbated by poor research stipends
v) lack of internet connectivity
The Principal of the College has suggested a restructuring of the College into 4 Schools,
namely, the School of Languages, School of Historical Studies, School of Humanities
(Philosophy and Religion) and the School of Social Sciences (Economics and Geography). The
first two of these have already been in existence for the last 2 and half decades. The HLC
suggests that history should be included under Social Sciences, for otherwise it will tend to be
taught as inconsequential Indology.
There was a consensus amongst the HODs that the college had too many departments and
too little infrastructure to support them, with the proposal for Schools and Centres being regarded
as a way out. The major regret voiced by the faculty head was the departure from the original
ideal of the VdB being a centre for serious research. The HLC’s queries elicited the information
that over the last 10 – 12 years, the VdB’s research work was woefully small.
The HLC learnt that a Centre for European Language Studies was envisioned but without
providing for the study of linguistics, literary criticism and some history of the literatures in these
languages, such a centre would be incomplete. The intention is not merely to teach students to
speak a language, but rather to see language as the channel of cultural expression. The
Renaissance would, in itself, have to be a major subject of study and research if such a Centre
were to have meaning. As it stood, the VdB did not seem to have the academic and
infrastructural sinews for starting such a Centre. The faculty Heads also referred to the prevailing
examination system which seemed to be weak in many respects and not worthy of the curricula.
The HLC was constrained to conclude that the VdB, despite having some extremely able teachers
on its faculties, and some earnest work being done by individual scholars, lacked energetic
movement towards focused study, with a shared ideal of goals, towards the kind of research in the
Humanities and Social Sciences, it was meant for.
The institution took the name of Vidya Bhavana in 1926, with a Department of Arabic,
Persian, Urdu and Islamic studies coming to be instituted in 1928. Cheena Bhavana, under the
initiative of Tan Yun-shan was set up in 1937 and Hindi Bhavana, under the guidance of
Hazariprasad Dwivedi in 1938.
Hindi Bhavana
The Hindi Bhavana is today a pale reflection of its past, its once-famous wall-murals’
decay telling a deeper tale.
An institute started by so eminent a person as Hazariprasad Dwivedi cannot be allowed to

remain bruised. The HLC recommends that the HB receives a healing touch by means of first aid
and long-term nourishment. The first aid has to be in the form of an appraisal by a team
comprising :
a. Dr. Rupert Snell, the foremost Hindi scholar in the West, currently teaching at Austin,
Texas, USA,
b. Shri Kunwar Narain, the distinguished poet,
c. Smt. Mrinal Pande, the eminent writer and journalist,
d. Professor Namwar Singh, ex-JNU,
e. Professor Alok Rai, Delhi University,
f. Professor Vasudha Dalmia, University of California, Berkeley.
The long-term help it needs will be determined by the recommendations of this panel,
which should also serve as guest faculty for the durations of its stay. (Dr. Snell’s visit to
Santiniketan can be funded by Government of India under its budget for Hindi Department).
The Department of Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Islamic Studies
A perusal of this Department’s activities conveys the distinct impression of debility. The
HLC recommends that Dr. Shahid Mahdi (former VC, Jamia Millia Islamia), Shri Javed Akhtar
and Professor Muzaffar Alam (currently at Chicago University) be invited to assess the
Department and make recommendations for its re-invigoration.
Cheena Bhavana
The Hall of Chinese Studies which is to be opened today will serve both as the nucleus and as a
symbol of that larger understanding that is to grow with time. Here students and scholars will
come from China and live as part of ourselves, sharing our life and letting us share theirs, and by
offering their labours in a common cause, help in slowly re-building that great course of fruitful
contact between our peoples that has been interrupted for ten centuries. For this Visva-Bharati
is, and will, I hope remain a meeting place for individuals from all countries, East or West, who
believe in the unity of mankind and are prepared to suffer for their faith.
- Rabindranath Tagore, 1937.
The HLC noted that at the Cheena Bhavana, established as a research department, where
some earnest work was done by individual scholars under the personal guidance of Tagore in
1937, had striven to establish and promote cultural exchanges between India and China and had,
over time, acquired a well-equipped library to facilitate research. The foundational goal for
Cheena Bhavana was : “To establish and promote culture exchange between China and India for
which purpose it will provide facilities for Chinese scholars to study Indian languages, literature,
history, religion, philosophy, etc as well for Indian scholars to study Chinese language, literature,
religion, philosophy etc – Buddhism being regarded as the nucleus for all such studies.”
The Department, apart from enabling research on Chinese studies, Buddhist studies and
the India-China link, was also attempting to train Chinese language interpreters. The HLC noted
that for its greater effectiveness, the holdings of the Cheena Bhavana would require classification,
indexing and translation exercises and, no less important, their proper socio-cultural and historical
contextualization. It noted that current interactions between VB and the higher education scene in
China was feeble.
Nippon Bhavana
The Department of Japanese Studies at Nippon Bhavana (the first such to have started
anywhere in India), began working in 1954. It has a library self-described as “rich”. But,
language training and some charming cultural interactions with visitors from Japan apart, it has
not made an impact of a serious academic nature.
The distinguished Japanese scholar, Kazuo Azuma, representing the Japan-India Tagore
Association in Japan, and former Professor at Visva-Bharati (1967-71) wrote to the Paridarśaka
on 25 November, 2003 : “In 1934, Tagore expressed his wish to a young Japanese scholar called
Byodo Tsusho to help him establish Nippon-Bhavana at Santiniketan. Long after Tagore died,
Byodo Tsusho, at the age of eighty, founded the “Establishment Committee of Nippon-Bhavana
at Visva-Bharati, and also for the construction of a museum of Japanese culture and a separate
building to house the Department of Japanese Studies at Santiniketan.
In recent years, we have been deeply hurt by Visva-Bharati’s apathy towards Nippon-
Bhavana, and also towards its donors in Japan, who are true admirers of Tagore and India…
We are aware that, even a decade after its inception, Nippon-Bhavana still does not
function for the benefit of the scholars at Visva-Bharati, and nowhere on the premises is it
acknowledged that the Centre was established as a dream project of Tagore, with heartfelt support
from his Japanese admirers. The library is under lock and key; the Japanese garden is in a
miserable state; books and gifts have remained un-catalogued and inaccessible to students over
the years.”
Professor Azuma also referred to “…some peculiar ideas, such as involving software
companies with Nippon-Bhavana as part of an effort to rejuvenate the Centre, which are rather
confusing to us, and far removed from the ideals upon which Nippon-Bhavana was built.” The
HLC recommends that the Nippon Bhavana be nurtured as a Centre for Indo-Japan ties over a
plane much wider than the exchange of modern technological expertise and financial or
managerial enterprise. It is recommended that Shri Deb Mukherjee (Indian Foreign Service,
Retd.) be requested to review the working of the Nippon Bhavana to give it a firm future
direction.
The Medium of Instruction
It is a unique fact in the history of the world today, that the human races have come together as
they have never done before … The mentality of the world has to be changed in order to meet the
new environment of the modern age.
- Rabindranath Tagore, 1921
Parody with vengeance!
The East is East and the West is West,

And ever the twain shall meet;
And each to each will give his best,
Or each himself defeat.
- Rabindranath Tagore, 1921
The HLC recommends that Visva-Bharati’s grounding in Bangla should be protected and
preserved and, at the same time, for instruction in its colleges and Bhavanas of higher instruction
English should be turned to as early as possible. The Central Library should also be attuned to
this transition. This recommendation is guided not just for the benefit of the non-Bangla scholar
at Visva-Bharati but for VB’s connectivity to the wider world of scholarship.
f) Siksha Bhavana
One thing is certain, that the all-embracing poverty which has overwhelmed our country cannot
be removed by working with our hands to the neglect of science.
Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Agriculture and Metereology should be properly studied here. Along
with these Physiology and Hygiene should be studied under the guidance of a physician and
acquaintance made with machinery with the help of a trained mechanic.
The Basic Facts :
The Siksha Bhavana (SB) or the Institute of Science was originally an under-graduate
college for teaching Humanities subject, which during 1961-63 was expanded to include in its
curriculum B.Sc. (Hons.) courses in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology and Botany. The
M.Sc. programme in these subjects was introduced in 1968. In 1972, due to a reorganization of
the course of studies in the Humanities and Science subjects, all the Science Departments
teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses were brought under Siksha Bhavana.
SB consists of seven departments and three Centres, viz., Departments of Chemistry,

Mathematics, Physics, Botany, Zoology, Statistics and Computer & System Sciences, and Centres
for Biotechnology, Environmental Studies and Mathematics Education. SB runs both teaching
and research programmes; and has been awarding B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, for
roughly three decades. To augment its research efforts the Bhavana has signed an MOU with
IICB, Kolkata, for collaborative research. Three departments, Physics, Chemistry and Zoology
have received recognition from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India
in the form of grants, as has the Department of Mathematics and Botany.
The performance of the students of the Bhavana in the National level tests lite GATE and
NET has been described by the SB as “very encouraging”.
The Physics Department in Visva-Bharati was established in 1963 with provision for
teaching at the B.Sc Honours level. The M.Sc. teaching programme was started in 1968. Right
from the beginning, efforts were made to develop research in Physics along with teaching.
Considering the very high cost involved in research in Experimental Physics, the department has
placed more emphasis on research in different branches of Theoretical Physics and the staffing
pattern of the department has followed suit. Some teachers of the department have written and
some are currently engaged in writing standard monographs, text books and books at a relatively
popular level. The Department has recently recruited a number of experimental physicists both at
the senior and junior levels.
The Chemistry Department started its undergraduate programme in 1962 and

postgraduate programme in 1969. The Annual Report for 2004-2005 says, “In spite of
infrastructural and funding problems, the department’s overall performance has been very
satisfactory.”
The Department is actively engaged in research in the fields of Theoretical Chemistry,

Natural Products, Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Coordination Chemistry, Solution Chemistry and
Biochemical Thermodynamics and non-conventional energy sources. The Department intends to
open new courses in the field of applied chemistry and to introduce advanced courses in the
existing fields based on about 650 research papers published so far.
The Department of Mathematics is the oldest department of Siksha Bhavana and was
started in 1961 with the introduction of Three-year B.A/B.Sc (Honours) course in Mathematics.
The post-graduate course in Mathematics was started subsequently in 1963 under the leadership
of the eminent mathematician, Professor B. B. Sen. According to the Annual Report for 2004-
2005, the department has since been actively engaged in research in different front-line areas of
pure and applied mathematics.”
The Department of Zoology is self-described as “one among the few Centres of academic
excellence” in Visva-Bharati, Santinikean. A B.Sc Honours course in Zoology in 1965 led to the
inception of the Department of Zoology as a separate entity and since then it has been teaching
and conducting research. The M.Sc. course in Zoology was introduced in 1968. An
interdisciplinary course of Life Science in collaboration with the Department of Botany was
initiated in 1976. At present, courses are offered in B.Sc Honours in Life Science (Zoology),
M.Sc. in Zoology and M.Sc in Biotechnology under the academic umbrella of the School of Life
Science. In a charming statement, the Department says : “Since its inception the aim of this
department has not been mere production of trained Zoologists but to gradually introduce to the
students the fun of ‘Modern Biology’.”
The Department of Botany started its undergraduate course in Botany in 1965 and post
graduate course in Botany in 1969. Later, as the School of Life Science developed along with
Zoology Department, its curriculum has been modified. In view of current thrust on
biotechnological approaches in various spheres, a post graduate course in Biotechnology has also
been introduced in 1997 under the School of Life Science involving both the Department of
Botany and Zoology and other science departments.
The Centre for Environmental Studies (CES) at Siksha Bhavana was established in 1999
during the IXth Plan period, supported financially by the UGC. The Centre started its academic
curriculum from the session 2000-2001, for all second year undergraduate students of the
university (taught at Santiniketan and Sriniketan). For this session (2004-2005) more than 600
students are taking this course. The Centre has started the M.Sc. Course in Environmental
Science from the session 2003-2004. The faculty members of the Centre are doing research work
on different aspect of environment.
The Centre for Mathematics Education was created in the IXth Five Year Plan after a
recommendation of the UGC’s Visiting team. Presently, research work is being carried over on
“A Study of Major Concepts in Mathematics at Secondary Level”. One research student
registered for Ph.D. degree is working on this topic. The Department says : “He is progressing
satisfactorily and publishing research articles regularly”. Another candidate has submitted
application for Ph.D. registration.
The SB has its own library.
Observations :
As with Vidya Bhavana, SB has also become basically a degree-college of science run on
standard lines and is totally unremarkable both in objectives and accomplishment.
Spokespersons for the Department of Chemistry suggested that its syllabus be revised at
regular intervals and be brought on par with the standard of the syllabus of institutes like the IITs
and the IIS with the question pattern being similar to that of competitive examinations like NET,
GATE, SLET, etc.
More practically, they said that it should be provided with a continuous power supply,
better hostels for the students, better quarters for the staff, better classrooms with audio-visual
system and a better equipped laboratory.
The Department of Physics struck a different chord altogether and its spokespersons
conveyed to the HLC the view that the concept of competition was anathema to the spirit of
Santiniketan and that the Department should refrain from expanding at too fast a rate as that
“causes a dilution of focus and a spreading thin of resources”. He also suggested increase in the
amount of leave and leisure time available to students and the faculty to facilitate independent
study and thought “to improve the quality of collaboration and research”. Interestingly and
surprisingly, the Department of Physics suggested the introduction of ‘concentration’ and
‘relaxation’ techniques like transcendental meditation and martial arts.
Where the Department of Physics agreed with the Department of Chemistry was in the
desire for an improvement in the hostels and guesthouses.
From the Department of Zoology came the following interesting suggestion for
innovative programmes in higher education: “The Department looks forward to the establishment
of an interdisciplinary Centre for Integrative Biology, for teaching and research, with
participation from other Science departments and in collaboration with Biotechnology industries
and Research Institutes of national importance. We already have an MOU with the IICB,
Kolkata, for collaborative research. The objective is to introduce modern aspects of Integrative
Biology to the students. VB set up in the natural environment of Santiniketan is an ideal location
for higher learning in Modern Biology under the umbrella of Natural Sciences.”
The Head of the Department of the Centre of Biotechnology (School of Life Sciences)
suggested a Centre for Integrative Biology and said: “A common course in Integrative Biology in
the post graduate level would be able to harness the human resources in a need-based manner.
VB would be an ideal university to initiate integrative studies in Biology with the facilities
already generated in the Department of Zoology or the School of Life Sciences.
The HLC noted that the Centre for Environmental Studies at SB, established in 1998, also
planned to convert the Centre into a Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Sciences with
many inter-disciplinary subjects. The Head of the Centre said. “We would organize our teaching
and research programmes into the following five specialised areas of studies :
Bio Sciences : Environmental Ecology, Environmental Toxicology, Environmental Biochemistry,

Environmental Biotechnology, Environmental Biophysics, Environmental Biology, Microbial
Ecology, Limnology, Occupational Health Hazards, Forests and Wildlife Ecology, Environmental
Conservation.
Geo Sciences : Earth Resources, Geochemistry, Remote Sensing & GIS, Hydrogeology,
Glaciology, Quaternary Geology and Climate Change, Landscape Ecology, Earth processes &
Geomorphology, Natural Hazards.
Chemical Sciences : Environmental Chemistry, Characterization and Monitoring of Air, Water

and Soil Quality and their Amelioration techniques.
Physical Sciences : Mathematical Modelling, Meteorology, Radiation and Environment,

Ecosystem Dynamics, Energy Resources, Thermodynamics, Noise Pollution
Management : Environmental Management, Environmental Impact Assessment, Environmental

Law.
In each of the above-mentioned areas, the centre will carry out teaching, research and
extension activities.”
At a practical level, a cluster of research scholars at SB suggested :
1. There should be uninterrupted power supply to carry out research work smoothly. The
hotline connection should immediately be started.
2. The University should pay the fellowship timely to the UGC-JRF and CSIR-JRF, out of
the grant paid in lump sum by the Commission to avoid the hardship of the fellow.
3. The University’s fellowship for the PhD programme should be reimplemented.
4. Subscription of important e-journals such as Science Direct, Springer-Link, Oxford

University Press.
5. Official work related to research (purchase of chemicals, instruments) should be given

priority.
6. Official process regarding the degree awarded for PhD must be done expeditiously after
the submission of Ph.D thesis.
They also added that hostel infrastructure needed to be expanded and improved.
Professor Samir Bhattacharya, in a written statement to the HLC, proposed an integrated

Centre for Natural Science at VB and made the following important recommendation :
“VB now has nine Science departments and all of them follow the same pattern of UGC
curriculum and syllabus as other Universities have. It has been expressed at different levels and
times that VB should have a novel approach and should not repeat the same thing as at other
Universities. No doubt this is the University where new experiments can be initiated and pursued
as it has no constituent colleges and enjoys a fairly good teacher-student ratio. This is the place
where a novel centre can be established in science which will primarily deal with a barrier-less
culture of science along with humanities, arts and music …. VB has all these different faculties
in the same complex. What could not be accepted in the system of our country is the integration
of science and other subjects while rest of the world not only accepted this but made it a regular
culture so that a critical question can be looked from various angles which in fact led to
remarkable discoveries… VB is a place where such an experiment can be performed. VB has
two genuine advantages : 1) It is the only Central University among the three Eastern States
(West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa) placed in a rural area and gets bright and meritorious students from
the villages, who could not afford to be admitted in urban Universities. 2) It still bears the air of
Rabindranath’s concept of education in the natural ambience of trees, flowers and quietness
where a mind could do better in an environment of freedom of thought…
Hence, the mindset requires to be changed if we really want progress. The best way to do
it is by showing that this integrated inventive research, as we may call it, has far more
advantages over the conventional type…”
***
Likewise, Professor Partha Ghose gave us the benefit of the following input :
“…(Tagore’s) famous conversation with Einstein on the nature of reality and causality can be
taken as reliable guides to his deep interest in the philosophical implications of modern science,
particularly relativity and quantum mechanics. In view of the fact that (a) the first objective of
VB (incorporated in the 1951 Act) was ‘to study the mind of Man in its realization of different
aspects of truth from diverse points of view’, (b) quantum theory has deep implications regarding
the role of the mind in observations, (c) neuroscience has made rapid strides in the understanding
of the human mind, coupled with the rich tradition that VB has in philosophy, the fine arts,
literature, history and music, VB seems to be ideally placed to develop a unique Centre of
Excellence devoted to a holistic understanding of the physical universe, the emergence of life,
intelligence and consciousness and their philosophical, ethical and socio-cultural implications.”
The HLC observed that, on the subject of science teaching, at SB/VB the position is :
The Siksha Bhavana is involved in too many areas which do not create a core
competence. Ideally it should not venture into those streams of Science teaching which are
technology-intensive and for which noted Universities were already involved in the State because
the Siksha Bhavana at present neither has the necessary infrastructure nor the desired quality of
faculty to achieve any worthwhile results. For the streams already introduced, the Bhavana
should get in touch with well established institutions in the State and other parts of the country for
guidance and support.
Consolidation, and not expansion, should be the main focus of the University. The thrust
areas should concentrate on a few topics.
Recommendations for Integrated Courses encompassing Vidya Bhavana and Siksha Bhavana,
with Sriniketan playing a part:
1. The HLC noted that the main problem of SB was not just the inadequacies of
infrastructure, the quality of learning as conditioned by the restricted domain of admissions or the
lack of adequate numbers of Visiting Professors, but something much deeper. It was the sinking
of the College into routine run-of-the-mill mediocrity. This could not be redeemed by greater
injections of finance, internet connectivity and uninterrupted electric supply, important as these
were. What was needed was a much bigger exercise linking the prospects and purposes of
Siksha Bhavana with a larger goal such as new 5-year integrated Masters Courses offering
exciting prospects for inter-disciplinary flexibility and coordination within physical sciences. In
other words, SB should be able to offer, in addition to and separate from its conventional B.Sc
and M.Sc courses, a new 5-years integrated course or a plurality of courses within the physical
sciences which will enable a student to do a 5-year course ending in a Masters Degree in a
combination of subjects that is not available in the conventional B.Sc and M.Sc formats.
2. To take the integrative process further, the HLC recommends that a similar integrated 5-
years course should be offered to students in Vidya Bhavana as well, in addition to and separate
from the B.A. Hons and M.A. Degrees. In other words, a student, after finishing his/her +2
should be able to join a 5-years course ending in a MA degree in Vidya Bhavana with a
combination of subjects drawn from the humanities and social sciences, which combination
would not be available in the conventional B.A. Hons and Masters courses.
3. SB’s integrated course should include a few courses from the Humanities and Social
Sciences and, likewise, VdB’s integrated course should include selected courses in the Physical
Sciences and Mathematics.
4. In addition to the two new integrated 5-years courses within SB and the VdB
respectively, the HLC recommends a third integration in the shape of a 5-years integrated course
situated within SB ending in a M.Sc Degree which will bring into the fold of the study of the
physical sciences elements drawn from the humanities and the social sciences of VdB. This
would mean that there will be three integrations in two levels, namely, (i) an integration of studies
within multiple combinations of the physical sciences in a 5-year course within SB, ending in a
M.Sc. Degree in the SB, (ii) an integration between multiple combinations of the humanities and
the social sciences in a new 5-years course ending in a MA Degree within VdB and in addition to
these two integrations, third and final integration between the SB and VdB at the second level of
integration in the shape of an integrated 5-year course leading to a M.Sc Degree with elements of
the physical sciences, humanities and the social sciences. These three integrations at two levels
(level 1 = integration within SB and VdB respectively; level 2 = integration between SB and VdB
can take place in two stages, namely the integration at level 1 within the two Bhavanas first and
the integration at level 2 between the two Bhavanas next.
This will require VB to induct new qualified faculty from various disciplines with
appropriate and varied background and create lab infrastructure and other necessary
infrastructures.
5. In this system admissions to the new 5-year integrated courses will not be given
subjectwise. Students will be admitted within the physical sciences/humanities/social sciences
with the same set of courses in each stream with some flexibilities in the first two years and
opting for specializations in the 3rd year when subject specialization will be decided upon, to be
pursued in the 4th year, the 5th and final year being used specialy for research.
6. VB, in the two Bhavanas, namely, the SB and VdB, will be in touch with organizations
that have introduced integrated courses, particularly those in the recent past, such as the Indian
Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER) in Pune and Kolkata for Physical Sciences.
The two Bhavanas should also provide for Honorary Fellows (very distinguished persons from
India and abroad) to impart pedagogical and research guidance of the highest quality.
7. The integrated course to be sited within SB for a coordinated M.Sc degree, including
elements of the humanities and social sciences could, among other subjects, play special emphasis
on sustainability and the current problems of Man and Nature – the human dimensions of global
change – involving all branches of science. The Santiniketan region could provide a test case and
the ‘field of study’ for problems of sustainability (energy, land use, water resources, atmospheric
environment, effects of industrial transformation, concepts of new villages, social transformation,
etc). Sriniketan’s expertise in work in the region would be brought in. The course would be
distinct and yet would draw from different Bhavanas and Departments.
8. The HLC suggests that in the case of the 5-year integrated courses within VdB, certain
objectives and methodologies applied elsewhere, can be studied with advantage. These include
studies of:
The Development Process –
- The growth process is affected by three major elements : Resources, technology and
institutions.
- Resources : Human (numbers and quality). This brings in demographical behaviour and
the role of health and education
- Natural Resources – renewable and non-renewable. The role of trade in access to
resources
- Technology : The development and spread of new products and of new better production
techniques
- Institutions : Organisations forms; rules concerning rights (especially property rights)
contractual and inter-personal generally; and the nature and extent of government intervention.
State Institutions –
It would be useful to distinguish between three “segments” of institutions : private

organizations in production, state and finance; non-Government organization in the public, space
(or civil society) such as cooperatives, religious and charitable organizations; organized interest
groups, community organizations for managing CPRs;
Such a course, while focusing primarily on the State’s role would also bring only
the interaction between the state and non-government institutions.
(1) Evolution of the State’s role, the nature, extent and modalities of state intervention and
involvement in the economy; their rationale and impact in different (selected) countries
(Europe/USA; East Europe and the former Soviet Union; China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and India);
contrasts among these countries.
(2) State intervention in India; evolution of different types of intervention (control of

monopoly, public investment, redistributive measures, poverty alleviation, nationalization, direct
involvement in production).
The circumstances (economic, political and international) that led to the

introduction/modification of particular interventions.
- the effect of state intervention in changing the configurations of interest groups, the space
they have for articulating these demands, and the consequences.
- The effectiveness of different types of intervention, and internal control mechanisms and
watchdog institutions, as well as conflict resolution process.
- The current debate on the factors underlying the performance of the intervention of
different types and their roles (such as the role of NGOs and civil society, decentralization,
electoral reform, measures to enforce greater public accountability)
Consequences and conditions
- impact of development on individuals, family/kin networks.

- Accentuation of good quality in resources and opportunity.
- Dislocation and displacement of particular groups (esp. scheduled castes, tribes)
- Globalization – free trade, the intellectual property regime, MNCs
- The articulation of these concerns and the necessary corrective measures, the
responsiveness of the political process and its impact on decision making, and effectiveness.
Such an integrated course could use research methods like:
- Elementary tools of quantitative analysis. Locating and assaying historical

material.
- Structured socio-economical surveys.
- Rapid appraisal (with and/without participation) techniques
- The anthropological method.
This course should provide for classroom lectures and practical work as well as firsthand
field work (at least 25% of the time should be reserved for the latter.)
The course could be used to give students an idea of principal data sources, and exercises
based on these sources.
A conscious effort needs to be made to get economists to take active part in teachings of
historical, sociological and anthropological research; even as non-economists are encouraged to
learn quantitative methods.
The course could take up case studies, the idea is to select perhaps 15-20 specific
sectors/products whose experience can be used to illustrate and explore through the medium of
workshops, the inter-relations between resources, technology and institutions, the process by
which they unravel and get modified; and the insights to be gained by viewing these in an
interdisciplinary perspective. The following are some of the areas for selection of cases:
- Demographic transition
- Public health and healthcare
- Elementary education
- Poverty alleviation
- Projects with strong environmental implications.
9. The VdB and SB joint integrated course will have a wider perspective including and
going beyond human dimensions of the changing earth system, bringing in topics like : a) Science
and Society : Conflicts and Convergence; b) Ethics in Science; c) Science and Religion; d)
Universality of Science; e) Knowledge Society, f) Science and Society through case studies (e.g.,
early 20th century renaissance in India).
10. The HLC has provided the above as a bare outline sketch. It will need serious planning in
order to materialize, providing entry into major national and international programmes
(International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme/Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study
/NATCOM).
11. The HLC recommends that the Upacharya sets up a committee of distinguished
representatives of the sciences, humanities and social sciences to workout the modalities of such
integrated courses. These individuals should have experience in designing the integrated courses.
The course content’s details will be determined by the proposed committee but, broadly, it will
include elements from the VdB and the SB, with those two institutions retaining their distinct
identities and their present UG/PG courses with Ph.D facilities. To run the three integrated
courses at two levels mentioned, there would have to be an exchange and mutuality of faculty and
a strengthening of infrastructure especially in appropriately qualified faculty and lab and other
allied facilities.
12. Admissions to the integrated course will continue with internal quotas progressively
reduced as contemplated by VB authorities, but SC/ST reservations followed scrupulously.
13. This 5-year course will be offered to students from all over India who have done their +2
in the sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology) and admissions will be by means of
an entrance test.
14. The three new integrated courses will be an additionality in which one focus could be on
the Science and the Environment, with the Santiniketan sub-region within Bolpur and Birbhum
being its special ‘field’. The Committee will identify the courses in VdB and SB which will be
drawn from and integrated for this new programme which will also permit a student to drop off
after 3 years with a Bachelor’s Degree, if he/she so desires.
15. The HLC is aware that 5-year integrated courses, wherever they have been introduced,
have come about as new centres/institutions of excellence from scratch. They have, in other
words, not been re-fashioned from existing structures. These 5-year courses in VB, will be
different from the others in that they will be integrating existing sections within the two
Bhavanas, namely the SB and VdB and between the two Bhavanas.
16. It can be expected that the two structures will have their respective difficulties in
adaptation and should have a blend of combining existing faculty with inducted brand new faculty
of tested talent apart from the mint-fresh first batch of +2 students in their respective courses. For
this, the preliminary work in terms of working out the course, methods of recruitment of faculty,
assessing infrastructural needs should start next year itself, viz., 2007. The HLC stresses the
importance of attracting and retaining high-quality teachers by being able to assuring them that
Santiniketan has a congenial campus with good living conditions including medicare and
children’s education, subject, of course, to admission procedures.
17. Sriniketan would feature in the integrated system as a restructuring of its course of
teaching agriculture in the Palli Siksha Bhavana (PSB) and also research in the re-organised Palli
Charcha Kendra, is also being recommended. Intensive mapping, collection of data on villages,
economy, population, environment, behaviour pattern, anthropology, etc, which are being
proposed for Sriniketan would be useful for this Course. The integration, therefore, would be of
relevant elements in VdB, SB and PSB.
18. The HLC believes that the new integrated course would stand to benefit from a three-way
integration, without disturbing the three institutions’ separate identities.
19. The HLC has also borne in mind the fact that Tagore was keenly interested in the
teaching of the Sciences in Visva-Bharati, even authoring a book on science-teaching. Tagore’s
interest in the teaching of science subjects stemmed from two reasons, one is ‘physical’ reason,
viz., to get ‘science-mindedness’ to the villages. The second was a ‘metaphysical’ reason viz.,
recognizing the link between the laws of human reason and the laws of the universe. He
therefore saw the promotion and cultivation of science as a great unifying force between the
continents and the people of the earth. In trying to be “different” and “special” VB must not lose
out on the importance of the general quality and up-to-dateness of education, both at School and
University levels because of its “special features”. ‘Modern’ teaching was not excluded by
Tagore in the curriculum but it was turned into the Visva-Bharati vision. There were certain
things – Medicine, Law and Engineering – which had stood excluded from Tagore’s conception
of Visva-Bharati. These were excluded not because Tagore considered them unimportant, but
because he felt Visva-Bharati was not the right vehicle for them.
20. The HLC believes that with these integrations, VB will cease to think in terms of divided
areas of study, e.g., Humanities/Social Sciences and Physical Sciences. There should be a
balanced interplay, with its own uniqueness along Tagore’s vision. Visva-Bharati must exclude
what it cannot do best. It should find its optimum size, its special area of science teaching and
even in other faculties it should attain ‘critical mass’. Visva-Bharati is, at the moment, trying to
do almost everything. It is doing things which every university does but is not excelling, really,
in any area. It is placing itself at the lower end of achievements. Almost everybody talks today
of nano-technology, bio-technology, etc. Replicating work is one thing, excelling in it is another.
It has to be seen whether an institution has the expertise and the infrastructure, that can produce
nationally and internationally-acclaimed research or scholarship. It is important to get quality
faculty members for science in Visva-Bharati if science teaching is to be specialized. This new
initiative towards the three-way integrated courses at two levels should lead, in time, to a phasing
out of the conventional degree and PG courses.
21. This process of offering three integrated courses at two levels, in addition to and separate
from the conventional courses, will embody the essence of the famous Tagore-Einstein
conversation of 1926 :
Einstein : There are two different conceptions about the nature of the universe – the world as a
unity dependent on humanity, and the world as reality independent of the human factor…
Tagore : The world is a human world – the scientific view of it is also that of the scientific man.
Therefore, the world apart from us does not exist; it is a relative world, depending for its reality
upon our consciousness.
Einstein : Truth, then, or beauty, is not independent of man?
Tagore : No.
Einstein : If there were no human beings any more, the Apollo Belvedere no longer would be
beautiful?
Tagore :No.
Einstein : I agree with regard to this conception of beauty, but not with regard to truth.
Tagore : Why not? Truth is realized through men.
22. The HLC believes that this process will play its part in investing the VB with a new
opportunity for excellence which could, if successfully implemented, receive not only national,
but international recognition. This proposal for three integrations are a step towards a major
integrative reorganization to correct the existing splintering in the present system.
23. As implementation of the recommendations (encompassing infrastructure development
and pedagogic recasting) proceeds in a phased manner, internal quotas in admissions would need
to be brought down simultaneously, in calibrated phases. The State Government may need to
think of strengthening its college network in the vicinity, to absorb in due course, those local
applicants for admission to colleges in Visva-Bharati, who are unable to clear its revised
admission procedures. This would need to be done in an orderly and phased manner with due
notice so that the appropriate generation of students has sufficient advanced notice of the
proposed change.
24. A course coordinator may be appointed and authorized to run the new integrated course
with such modifications of the statutes as may be necessary.
g) Vinaya Bhavana
Education can flourish in an environment where scholarship can grow and spread its wings. That
is the purpose of a university. To fulfil this purpose, it is essential to invite intellectuals and
scholars who are contributing to the world of learning and creativity. A meeting of minds makes a
university true. This cannot happen by mere imitating.
The world of learning must be illuminated by a festival of lights, a festival to which every race
brings its own light. The whole world suffers if even a single race is left out of it.
The Basic Facts :
Vinaya Bhavana (VnB), VB’s Institute of Education, is a post-Tagore institution. It was

established in 1948 as a craft-based teachers’ training centre. But apart from preparing teachers
for schools VnB was also tasked to impact the larger arena of school-education. VnB offers the
following degree courses in education :
i) B.A (Edn)
ii) M.A (Edn)
iii) Ph.D
Apart from regular faculty, VnB strives to get guest teachers and has a library for itself,
as also an audio-visual unit to develop ‘teaching-learning’ methods. These enable it to also
conduct the following programmes and activities :
M.Phil (Education)
Major and minor research projects
Consultancies
Seminars/Workshops
VnB also undertakes teacher-education through programmes and activities as follows :
1) Nursery Teachers’ Training

2) B.Ed
3) B.Ed – 2 years’ innovative course
4) M.Ed
5) Short term training programme
6) Orientation and Refresher Course
‘Learning to teach’ in VnB includes ‘work education’ as a compulsory component of its

B.Ed programme.
VnB also has departments of Rural Development and Extension Education and Distance
Education and Open Learning with an IGNOU study-centre.
VnB has also set up a ‘Centre for Culture and Work Education’ with the following
programmes:
1. Cultural & Co-curricular activities and events

2. Artistic Handicraft
3. Music
4. Horticulture
5. Weaving
6. Woodwork
7. Enterpreneurship & Occupational Exploration
The VnB has a Placement Cell as also a Cell for Guidance and Counseling, Career
Counseling and a Certificate course in Early Childhood Care.
The HLC appreciated the frank comment in the VnB’s annual report for 2005 : ‘Quite a
good number of students have joined the teaching profession through the ‘West Bengal Central
School Service Commission’.
VnB is also the VB’s vehicle for imparting physical education through 2 courses:
B.P.Ed
M.P.Ed
Observations :
The HLC thought that in some ways VnB seemed better organized, more systematic
about admission procedures and serious about ‘widening the catchment’ than some of the other
Bhavanas. It also seemed better funded and equipped with motivated faculty – though drawn
rather constrictingly from within West Bengal.
It was clear that VnB, despite its ‘research’ attributes was really more interested in
‘currently fashionable’ areas assured of job prospects.
The HLC was informed by the Bhavana’s Head that notwithstanding all its infrastructure
and facilities, the VnB suffered from certain deficiencies. He listed them as :
Pedagogical –
1) Without a B.A. Honours Course in Education, the VnB was ‘incomplete’.
2) The present system of sending Ph.D. theses to external examiners was wrong when
evaluating talent was available internally. He felt that finding and selecting, foreign examiners
was time-consuming and counter-productive.
3) The curriculum of the VnB is set by the UGC taking into account the nature and teacher-
requirements of VB. This has its advantages but also its disadvantages. The products of VnB
should be available to a larger field.
Administrative –
1) The regular post of Director, VnB has been vacant due to a variety of reasons, one of
which was an insufficient Pay Scale. This needed correction.
2) Five posts in the regular faculty are also vacant, while the VnB had 8 part-time
teachers – not a healthy situation.
Infrastructural –
1) The VnB library, as a member of the UGC, has access to the e-journal network but its
usage by the students at VnB is limited, this should be stimulated.
2) VnB needs a full-fledged computer centre of its own with internet connectivity.
General –
1) VB authorities do not give to VnB the understanding and support it needed.
2) The Head of the Physical Education Department of VnB said that the DPE was “in a
phase of development.”
3) The HLC could see that, in effect, the Department of Physical Education was virtually
non-functional. The Head of the Department wanted it to be given a ‘Bhavana’ status for a
“trilateral pursuit for degree programmes – Sports, Research in Physical Education, and Sports
Science.” She also referred to the fact that while the VB Act mentioned the post of a Director of
Physical Education – thereby making that position statutory – the post had not been filled up.
Despite this, she said that the sports performance of VB students had reached a good level, with
VnB students winning several championships in the Eastern Zone and within the State and being
in a good position even at the all-India level. She said that while the Department was receiving
support and facilities from VB, yet its infrastructure was inadequate, the staffing pattern needed a
change and technical personnel and equipment were needed even to sustain present levels, not to
mention further improvement.
4) The HLC observed that VnB, basically, trains its students through its undergraduate and
graduate courses in the principles of education and teaching and while doing so, attempts to
introduce elements of Tagore’s thoughts into its curriculum. This is done to equip the VnB
graduates to take up teaching assignments within the Santiniketan system of schools. During the
course of learning, the VnB students are sent to Siksha Satra in Sriniketan and Patha Bhavana in
Santiniketan to impart teaching to the pupils there in the course of their mandatory two and half
to three months teacher-training field experience. VnB students must interact closely with PB
and SS to learn from the personalized touch that has marked the teacher-student equation in those
schools, particularly PB.
5) The HLC recognizes the empirical reality that VnB is training teachers from West Bengal
for jobs within the State and, more particularly, within Birbhum and Santiniketan. The HLC also
values the importance of the Bangla medium and has no exaggerated notions about the place of
English in the scheme of teaching and learning. But it notes with some dismay the strikingly low
standards of proficiency in English in the teaching programmes and activities of VnB, which
cannot but be transmitted to the regular teaching activities by the products of VnB, in the schools,
be they in Santiniketan or elsewhere, which they join as teachers.
Recommendations :
1. The HLC recommends that VnB be evaluated urgently for the status and calibre of its
courses with a view to bringing Bengali and English proficiencies to a position of reasonable
parity. This would be in the interest of the quality of teaching in the schools where VnB’s
products are to be placed.
2. The HLC would specifically recommend that it seeks advice and evaluation of the VnB to
upgrade its effectiveness. This opening out of a fresh window would be essential as VnB
organizes in-service programmes for training teachers of secondary schools. These programmes
are a big responsibility and VnB must know how qualified or not it is to shoulder it.
3. The VnB’s ‘work education’ programmes reaches out to vocational pedagogy through
handicrafts, weaving and woodwork. This function can be synergized with the activities of Shilpa
Sadan at Sriniketan, even as its segment on horticulture can have a linkage with similar work
done by the Palli Siksha Bhavana at Sriniketan. There seems to be inadequate sharing of
experience between these institutions, leading to an avoidable non-utilisation of in-house
expertise.
4. VnB has a Centre for ‘Human Values and World Peace’. This ‘Centre’ seemed to the
HLC to be an expensive house-guest in a dwelling of modest means. The Committee could not
quite see the relevance of the esoteric fields of ‘human values’ and ‘world peace’ to the practical
work and mandate of VnB. The HLC would recommend the discontinuing of these programmes
and the dismantling of the Centre for Human Values and World Peace in VnB. Or, if that
snapping of funding lines is not feasible, the Centre should confine itself to promoting an active
discourse on how to relate education to ethical questions in contemporary society and evaluate
Tagore’s ideas and Gandhi’s experiments in that context. VnB should not hesitate to also bring
within its area of study outstanding pedagogues like Paulo Frere and those who may even have an
approach different from that of Tagore and Gandhi. This would result in a worthwhile debate.
5. As to the DPE, the HLC does not feel a case exists for the DPE to be given a ‘Bhavana’
status. The imparting of such a status is no guarantee for a fulfilment of the DPE’s objectives.
The HLC would recommend, instead, that the DPE should have a system of outreach with each
Bhavana to ascertain the sports- and-fitness-related requirements and preferences of the student
community in those institutions, appropriate to age, and the creation of a complex for sports and
gymnasium facilities, run by Physical Instructors, (both men and women) to cater to those
requirements and preferences. In other words, what VB needs is not a Bhavana for Physical
Education, but a venue with multiple grounds, courts, multi-stationed gymnasia and a team of
sport professionals to impart instruction and training. For this, the Government of India’s
Ministry in charge of Sports should be asked to prepare a scheme with corresponding financial
estimates to place VB on the sports-and-fitness map of Indian universities.
6. More than a Director of Physical Education, what will give a fillip to VB’s physical
education scheme is the creation of a modern sports-and-fitness complex where there can also be
facilities for an academic degree programme including a programme where senior and retired
sports persons are invited in emeritus capacities to supervise short term courses within the
academic programmes for physical education.
7. The HLC would also recommend that the DPE should look beyond conventional
programmes and also include new programmes which have recently gained importance, such as
the orthopaedic and medical responses to sports-related injury (Sports Medicine), the psycho-
emotional supplementation of physical education through the practices of Zen and yogic teaching
as also certain new forms of health-sports such as Taekwondo, Judo, Karate, each of which now
has teachers-trainers who are respectfully designated as ‘Grandmasters’ and ‘Masters’.
Taekwondo, in particular, has a salience for Santiniketan in so far as it is an amalgamation of
Chinese, Japanese and traditional Korean fighting styles without the use of weapons. Tagore
himself was interested in Wrestling and Judo and Karate and in the early years of Santiniketan
invited Japanese Masters to impart necessary training.
8. VB’s traditional equation with China (including Tibet), Japan and Korea, would make
VnB’s DPE an ideal meeting place for instructors in Physical Education, health-sports and martial
arts from those venues outside India. The HLC would recommend that enquiries be made by
VnB in these directions beginning with the vast opportunities available, as a preliminary step,
through the health-sport and martial arts traditions of nearby North East India and of Manipur, in
particular. Santiniketan could become a meeting ground for physical fitness institutions from
those lands and their counterparts from India – a Tagorean objective.
9. The HLC notes that VnB has in its programme a touch of music. This leads it to propose
that the multi-cultural and inter-disciplinary vision proposed for VB can find a new and
contemporary resonance in VnB if it invites from Kerala practitioners of the music-cum-martial
traditions of kalari-payattu and, similarly, at the other geographical extreme of India, from
Manipur. VnB and Sangita Bhavana could collaborate in a new inter-Bhavana synergy for this
purpose and even think realistically of a joint programme culminating annually in a Sangita-
Vinaya Mela.
h) Sriniketan
The object of Sriniketan is to bring back life in its completeness into the villages, making them
self-reliant and self-respectful, acquainted with the cultural tradition of their own country, and
competent to make an efficient use of the modern resources for the improvement of their physical,
intellectual and economic condition.
If we could free even one village from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance, an ideal for the
whole of India would be established. That is what occurred to me then and that is what I now still
think. Let a few villages be rebuilt in this way, and I shall say they are my India. That is the way
to rediscover the true India.
The Basic Facts :
Poet of Poets that he was, Tagore wanted to be connected intimately and transformingly,
to his surroundings. This impulse of his can be traced to the time when his father, Maharshi
Debendranath asked Rabindranath to become the manager of the family’s agricultural estates in
Eastern Bengal. The future Gurudev, author of Gitanjali, the cultivator of language and of
literature, of education and of culture – was, in 1890, quite simply, an estates manager. There,
amongst Hindu and Muslim tenants in his family’s estates, seeing and attending hands-on to the
issues relating to land management, he could see the importance of giving a new direction to rural
life.
His experience with the family estate tenants was to get strengthened by his observations
of the peasantry in Birbhum on the lands which his father had acquired for personal meditation.
The idea of redeeming the neglected lives of villages evolved slowly but surely into a philosophy
which brought the life of the intellect into intimate contact with the life of the peasantry. Even as
his mind moved towards wider and ever wider areas, communicating with cultures and
civilizations beyond his own, his feet remained firmly on the soil of his native Bengal. The
‘Palli’ and the ‘Visva’ had to exist together.
It is an extraordinary coincidence that as Tagore bought in 1912, twenty bighas of land

with a house on it two miles west of Santiniketan which was, afterwards, to become ‘Sriniketan’,
Gandhi bought, around the same time, a hundred acres of land outside Johannesburg in South
Africa, which he was to name ‘Tolstoy Farm’. Both Sriniketan and Tolstoy Farm, had trees, and
some water, but no active cultivation. And in both places was to commence an extraordinary
experiment by two essentially urban visionaries working on a rural programme.
Even as Santiniketan grew into Visva-Bharati to refine the humanist sensibilities,

Sriniketan grew into a centre for rural reconstruction. Santiniketan utilized the best that scholars,
aesthetes and artistes could offer; Sriniketan utilized the best that could be offered by
experimenters in agricultural science from the USA and the UK treating at the same time, with
respect, the genius and experience of the local peasantry.
This combination of the widest imaginable intellectual outreach, with an intense gaze on
terra firma had probably never been attempted in India before.
Observations :
Today, Sriniketan looks back with a legatee’s gratitude to Tagore, to his son
Rathindranath, who was trained in Illinois, at his father’s behest, in Agricultural and Dairy
Science and to Leonard Elmhirst (1893-1974), the Devon-born agronomist from Cornell
University in America. But it looks back to them with the pang of nostalgia rather than the
confidence of a continuing inspiration.
Leonard Elmhirst met Tagore in New York in March 1921 and was as drawn by the
Poet’s vision that he joined him in establishing Sriniketan and woked there from 1921 to 1925,
during which time he not only laid the foundation for Sriniketan’s field work but also traveled
globally to raise funds for it. He contributed funds directly to it as well, thanks to his future wife.
He later was to set up a rural reconstruction project in Dartington Hall, Devon. Tagore visited it
and helped Elmhirst give it an international profile it still enjoys.
But while Dartington Hall is a going concern, the same cannot quite be claimed for
Sriniketan (SN).
Any consideration of SN has to proceed from Tagore’s thoughts in his essay called
Rayat-er-Katha (1926, About the Peasant). He records with amazing foresight in that essay his
perception that competition for land would lead to a spate of land transfers and sales, leaving
virtually nothing for the peasant and leading inexorably to deprivation, rage and violence. Tagore
writes in that essay that the landlord may be entitled to extract rent but is morally responsible for
the welfare of his tenants and has to protect them from extortionists. Curiously, this was also the
time when the Indian National Congress, under Mahatma Gandhi, was evolving its own
constructive programmes for rural regeneration.
The Committee recognized the central importance of the Sriniketan as the medium for a
creative interaction with the rural environment and population in the region and to facilitate their
“development”. The HLC, however, noted that while the original components of SN, were the
Palli Siksha Bhavana, Shilpa Sadan and PSV, subsequently, a number of other entities have been
added in an ad hoc fashion, quite unrelated to the central objective and working in isolation.
A major internal regrouping of these disaggregated units is necessary to help Sriniketan
realize its manifest objective, including a review on (i) how they are really integral to Sriniketan’s
original concept, (ii) how they are adapting to or are in a position to adapt to the extensive
changes in rural and suburban India, West Bengal, Birbhum; and how they are impacting on the
rural population, local farmers, their specific local problems, social behaviour and environment.
Sriniketan today comprises the following departments within its broad ambit:
(i) Palli Siksha Bhavana (Institute of Agricultural Science)

(ii) Palli Sangathana Vibhaga (Rural Extension Centre)
(iii) Department of Social Work
(vi) Palli Charcha Kendra
(i) Silpa Sadan
(i) Palli Siksha Bhavana (Institute of Agricultural Science)
The PSB, established in 1963 as Palli Siksha Sadana and renamed in 1984, runs a 4-years
B.Sc Agriculture Hons. Course and a 2-years M.Sc Agriculture course in 4 Semesters. The
undergraduate course is generic and the postgraduate, specialized. The College has the following
Departments : Agronomy, Soil Science, Agricultural Engineering, Plant Physiology and Animal
Science (ASEPAN); Department of Crop Improvement, Horticulture and Agricultrual Botany
(CIHAB); Department of Plant Protection, Agricultural Entomology and Plant Pathology (PP)
and Department of Agricultural Extension, Agricultural Economy and Agricultural Statistics
(EES). The academic support units are a Dairy and Poultry Farm, Soil Testing Laboratory, the
Rathindra Krishi Vijnan Kendra and a Seminar Library.
Observations :
PSB has a modest strength of students. At the time of writing the Report, it had 35
students in the BSc course and 22 students in the MSc course. All the students admitted to these
two courses come in through an admission procedure which requires 60% marks in the 10+2 final
exams for the B.Sc course and first class marks in the BSc Agriculture examination at the college
or an equivalent examination for the MSc course.
There is no quota for internal students who pass out from VB.
This means that in the B.Sc course, the overwhelming number of students have come in
from outside VB and even in the M.Sc course, half the number of students are from outside VB.
The courses offered are at par with the institutes of agriculture nationally. The PSB also admits
students for Ph.D courses, the total number of Ph.D students admitted over the last 10 years being
122, of which 54 completed their Ph.D course successfully.
The original agriculture farm at Surul acquired by Tagore is attached to the PSB as the
PSB’s agricultural farm. The whole of it is operated by the PSB for the purpose of
experimentation and training. The PSB is also used for teaching, research and extension activities
in the discipline of animal sciences, including dairy sciences, poultry, piggery and goatery. The
main areas of research done by the faculty are in the major subject fields of agricultural services
leading to M.Sc Agriculture, and Ph.D degrees, adaptive trials and extension research. The
research areas of the Institute are : Weed Science; Soil Science; Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Use;
Water Management; Crop Husbandry; Pest Management of Rice; Seed Pathology; Insect Pest
Management of Rice; Genetics and Plant Breeding; Agricultural Engineering; Agricultural
Economics; Agricultural Land-use Pattern; Sugarcane Development; and Appropriate Technology
in Sub-humid lateritic belts of West Bengal.
The courses, research and lab-to-farm processes at PSB are heartening. At a brief but
most instructive conversation with the under-graduate and post-graduate students of agriculture
and farm-sciences there, in January 2005, the Governor asked them what made them choose
Sriniketan over the other agriculture universities in the State. All of them said ‘the atmosphere
here, which is unique’. They were very happy, they said, about what they had learnt at PSB on
organic farming and looked forward to working in the State Government’s agriculture department
as extension workers. There does not seem to be a formal concordance between the manpower
requirements of the West Bengal Directorates of Agriculture/Animal Husbandry and their field
units on the one hand, and PSB and the other two agricultural universities on the other.
Nor is the mechanism linking Sriniketan’s researches with the Department of

Agriculture’s extension work particularly notable. (This would apply to the other two universities
as well.) A farmstead colloquium between the faculty and students of Sriniketan and the two
other universities organized in rotation in the districts by the Director of Agriculture would be
valuable. There could be a three-way dialogue : (i) PSB/the other 3 universities, (ii) Department
and (iii) Farmers. No VIPs should be invited to it, no formal inauguration ceremonies, no ‘mela’.
Instead, just a practical session in which ‘experts’ and farmers interact for mutual benefit. This
could be an annual affair, like an Agriculture Congress with practical, interactive sessions,in
which farmers can articulate the problems they face in crop and animal husbandry even as faculty
explains to them about new researched agricultural techniques and practices.
The Principal of the PSB, informed the HLC that the Bhavana intends to bring about a
change in its teaching, research and extension activities over a phased programme, to address
emerging problems such as natural resource management, post Production management and value
addition, bio-safety, food and nutritional security, diversification towards high value products and
agri-business management.
a) This will require modifications in teaching, research and extension programmes. The
PSB has identified some ‘thrust areas’ for its future development such as (i) Re-modelling and
re-structuring its academic programme for entrepreneurship development and agri-business
management by opening a Master-Degree programme in Agricultural Economics and Business
Administration and introducing a Semester System at both U.G. and P.G. levels; (ii) Bifurcating
the Department into Agricultural Extension Education and Agricultural Economics and Statistics
with having a separate identity; (iii) Establishing an ‘Agriculture Human Resource Development
Centre’ comprising an agricultural extension centre, agricultural clinics and agricultural business
centre and education satellite facilities; (iv) Developing Infrastructure and Institutional Facilities
such as : Modern classrooms equipped with IT facilities, Department’s office building and
classroom, Media laboratory, Local Area Network facility.
In keeping with current trends in agricultural research and training, PSB also plans to
work on a
1. Germplasm Conservation Centre for the protection and conservation of bio-diversity of

Agri. Horticultural Crops in the Red Lateritic belt
2. Research and Development on Post-harvest Technology of Horticultural Crops
3. Research and Development on dry land Horticulture
4. Setting up of an Agri-Biotechnology Centre to develop GM Crops
5. Hi-Tech Horticulture including protected and off season cultivation of High value
vegetable and ornamental plants
6. Organic cultivation of different horticultural crops
7. Research and Development on household nutritional security through horticulture
8. Entrepreneurship development in horticultural sector
The college’s Rathindra Krishi Vijnan Kendra (RKVK) has been envisioned as
undertaking:
1. An extending of the special coverage to other parts of the district in collaboration with
governmental and non-governmental organizations;
2. Organizing on-and-off campus training for farmers and growers of the locality in crop
science, horticulture, plant protection, home science, animal science etc for dissemination and
refinement of technologies as well as for farm advisory services.
Towards these ambitious plans culminating in the year 2020, the PSB intends to convert
its existing laboratory into a Centre for Soil and Water Studies in Red and Lateritic Soil Zones,
which will provide soil testing facilities to farmers, undertake research activities on the soil
pertaining to local means and disseminate new technologies for enhancing productivity in crops
as well as aquacutural land.
The PSB maintains that its present work which commenced in the year 1963 and which
has been adapting to changing demands in its course curricula along with research and extension,
has broadly followed the guidelines advocated by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research.
It maintains also that this has led to a perceptible impact on the farming practices of the
community around VB particularly in the matter of land use, crop combination and cropping
pattern.
But the PSB says candidly that the institute is “seriously lacking the minimum
infrastructure in the field of teaching, research and extension.”
Recommendations :
1. Everything in the PSB’s plans are geared towards making it an agricultural college that
wants to improve its facilities, both infrastructural and pedagogical, to become a claimant for an
‘agricultural university’ status, eventually becoming one. This aim is entirely understandable but
in the case of Sriniketan, misplaced.
2. The HLC does not propose to deal with agricultural teaching and research in the early
years of Tagore’s experimentations with the subject or even with Elmhirst’s more professional
handling of farm and dairy practices. But the HLC regards the assured stereo-typification and
routinisation which seems to be awaiting the PSB, as most unfortunate. West Bengal already has
two agricultural universities, the BCKV and the UBKV, as well as a West Bengal University of
Animal and Fishery Sciences.
3. The PSB will, if it pursues its present perspective plan for 2020, wind up as no more than
a pale shadow of these three universities. The HLC believes that the PSB should be ambitious in
an altogether different manner. It should not chase after models of contemporary agriculture
teaching and research, which are arising after a set pattern all over India, but be ambitious in a
way in which, apart from fulfilling Tagore’s vision, it will have something distinct to offer, by
way of agriculture teaching and research.
4. It is well-established now that even in the most agriculturally advanced nations, serious
work is being conducted in the matter of finding a balance between a form of agriculture which is
intensely and heavily directed at multiplying and intensifying farm output through chemical
applications on the one hand and alternative methods of farming often simplistically called
organic farming which seek to make agriculture ecologically sustainable.
Instead of becoming yet another routine college of agriculture aspiring to become a

humdrum agriculture university, the PSB can become an altogether new and distinct example of
teaching and research in keeping in view the Paridarśaka’s and Acharya’s mandate about making
Visva-Bharati a centre for excellence. The HLC recommends :
a) The PSB/VB should hold an urgent meeting with Dr. M. S. Swaminathan to

ascertain the broad contours of an academic programme for its UG and graduate students in the
area of ‘Sustainable Agriculture and The Environment’;
b) PSB should (i) retain its undergraduate and graduate teaching format (ii) go ahead with a
modified version of its ‘wish list’ enumerated earlier; and (iii) draw up, under Dr. Swaminathan’s
guidance, a completely revamped syllabi, course-content and direction for the UG course,
refreshing it and gearing it for a graduate course and research in Sustainable Agriculture and The
Environment;
c) The new direction should, broadly, be the study of agriculture’s problems and prospects
in Birbhum, West Bengal, Eastern and North Eastern India and India as a whole, with reference to
:
i) Geo-climatic changes including the effect of incessant soil inundation, erosion,

degeneration and the sinking of groundwater-levels;
ii) Class, caste and gender situations in farming which impact on the social condition of the
farming community, including productivity in the Surul area specifically, then in Birbhum and
West Bengal;
iii) The impact of globalization and the free-market on agriculture;
iv) The future of post ‘Green Revolution’ agriculture in the changed situations of the 21st
century and the modifications needed to make it ecologically sustainable and also sustainable
from the point of view of peasant-incomes – a concern that would have appealed to Tagore.
v) PSB should serve as a medium through which farmers in the region facing problems can
have the benefit of the best available knowledge on appropriate solutions and, where such
knowledge is lacking or is not applicable to the local conditions, it should undertake research to
develop appropriate solutions.
d) Towards the revamping proposed above, the HLC recommends that a Committee headed
by Dr. V. L. Chopra, former Director, ICAR, and currently Member of the Union Planning
Commission be set up to study the present UG syllabi and course-content and recommend its re-
designing which will also serve the larger purpose of linking up with the 5-year integrated course
being proposed for Siksha Bhavana. This Committee can include experts like 1) Dr. Madhav
Gadgil, 2) Dr. Mangala Rai, DG, ICAR and experts on West Bengal like 3) Dr. Vikas Rawal,
Associate Professor at JNU’s Centre for Economic Growth and Planning, 4) Professor V. K.
Ramachandran, Professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, and Chairman of West
Bengal Land Use Board, 5) Professor Rajani Palriwala, of the Delhi School of Economics.
e) This Committee should be able to conclude its work in 2-3 months and make its
recommendations for –
i) Syllabi modification;
ii) Faculty re-structuring including induction of new faculty in new positions for the subject of
‘Sustainable Agriculture and The Environment’
iii) A major revamping of the PSB’s infrastructure in terms of (1) Lecture rooms, Library,
Laboratory; (2) Hostels; (3) Farm Management
f) PSB should on an urgent basis re-establish links with (i) the near-familial Elmhirst’s
Dartington Trust, Devonshire, UK; (ii) the Agriculture University at Wageningen, The
Netherlands, (iii) the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; (iv) The Fukuoka School of
Agriculture in Japan
g) Our own Agricultural Universities, particularly those in South India, e.g., Thanjavur,
Tamil Nadu, and the experiments in organic farming conducted with international distinction in
Karnataka, for this purpose.
Only if PSB gets such a change of direction can it hope to ‘unshackle helplessness and
ignorance’ or ‘bring back lilfe in its completeness’ to our villages. The HLC would recommend a
substantial investment on improving PSB’s infrastructure to make it a truly up-to-date and
modern agricultural college with a difference, rather than just another agricultural college of the
current kind. It should be possible for people to say, ten years from now, that if you are looking
for a place which has specialized in ‘Sustainable Agriculture and The Environment’, Sriniketan’s
PSB is the place to go to.
(ii) Palli Sangathana Vibhaga (PSV)
The PSV has 3 academic departments under it. They are
1. The Department of Social Work

2. The Palli Charcha Kendra
3. Silpa Sadan
All three are headed by one Adhyaksha, at present the senior most Adhyaksha in VB,
namely, Professor Raj Kumar Konar. All the activities of the PSV are traced back to Tagore’s
objectives in commencing his experiment on rural reconstruction in 1922. With the objective of
fostering self-reliance and self-help in the villages around SN and, thereby, to create an example
that could bring about regeneration of village life in India.
The Department of Social Work (DSW)
The Basic Facts :
The DSW runs a three-year course concluding in a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and
a 2-year course concluding in a Master’s degree in Social Work. Admissions to the DSW course
are after the 10+2 level and admissions to the MSW course are after the successful completion of
the DSW course. The department also conducts a Ph.D programme. The Department has a full-
time Principal who controls all the three courses.
The student strength is small, with five seats being reserved for internal students as
stipulated by the VB Central Admission Committee from the merit list of those who secure 60%
and above, while 20 students are admitted from outside of VB on the basis of an admission test
and a viva voce.
In the case of the Masters’ course, the number of seats can vary, being generally filled up
from the internal students passing out from the DSW course, with “left out seats” being filled up
from outside candidates.
The DSW is, effectively, a degree-giving college in Social Work with a focus being
attempted on what the DSW perceives as ‘Tagore’s approaches’ to the subject of rural
regeneration. The DSW attempts to provide experimental learning opportunities to the students
through direct interaction with the rural population in the area. The DSW encourages interactions
with panchayat and block office levels as also the local backward classes office, the local bank
branches, hospitals, schools, sub-divisional courts. It also has linkages with local NGOs. It
prescribes a compulsory paper on ‘Tagore Studies’ and one on the History and Philosophy of
Social Work, both at the BSW and MSW levels.
The Department has plans for ‘establishing formal networking with development and
planning agencies and creating an infrastructure for the physically handicapped’.
Observations :
While the DSW was really meant to offer training and ‘build links with surrounding
villages to motivate them to become aware of and participate in the national agenda for rural
regeneration’, there is little evidence of this having happened.
In the surrounding areas with their Santhal population, the DSW can make a difference.
Ramnagar, in the Ilam Bazar Block, is in DSW’s ‘area’. It is a Santhal-predominating

village. The women assembled there said to the Governor in January 2005, the secondary school-
dropout rate in their village had come down and that the age of marriage was going up. The
problem of balika-vivaha was, however, still a reality. ‘Fourteen, fifteen’, they said when asked
about the general age of the bride at marriage. But one or two said ‘now it is more like seventeen
or eighteen’.
But is DSW probing such issues? Is it quantifying the change, the resistance to it and –
more importantly, doing something to encourage the change?
The DSW is now oriented to training students for UG and PG levels and, even there, the
relevance of some of its PG courses such as on personnel management and industrial relations
started in 1977 are difficult to link to the mandate of Sriniketan. Like the PSB, the DSW has also
basically become a graduate-churning factory.
Recommendations :
1. The HLC would recommend that if the DSW’s courses are to be redeemed from an arid
routinisation, they should, first of all, be reviewed. The review should be done by an expert body
in the field like the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai, which has a distinguished
reputation for Social Work studies.
2. TISS should be requested, simultaneously, to redesign the DSW’s course so as to make
them different from those that are available in standard universities with the following objectives :
a) Both the BSW and MSW courses should be consciously rooted in the indigenous
experiences of the rural population of Birbhum and its responses to the programmes of rural
development that have been introduced to them.
b) The BSW and MSW programmes offered at the DSW should address the question of
social mobilization for collective effort to build and manage common pool resources and
facilities, political consciousness among the poorer and less privileged classes and the functioning
of elected Panchayats and their instruments such as Self-Help Groups on Social Work.
c) The BSW and MSW curricula should be able to critique the features of urbanization in
the countryside, not just from romanticized interpretations of Tagore’s thoughts but from a
practical appraisal of the impact of urbanization and exposure to mass media on attitudes, values
and behaviour of families and youth in different segments of population to wards, traditional as
well as newer, community institutions, family, community, aged and disabled. In other words,
the BSW and MSW programmes emanating from the DSW should be able to ask and answer the
question as to whether the programmes of rural development that are being tried out in the
countryside and are fostering a kind of urbanization are creating an illusion of prosperity or
whether they are actually contributing to rural well-being. This could be a Tagorean and a
Gandhian approach but one that is also rigorously worked out through modern processes of
curricula formation.
3. The point of having a college devoted to social work, located in rural setting would be
lost if its Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees were to miss the chance for a foundational basis in
practical field work round the year. This would mean that the Ph.D programme of the DSW
should also receive the closest attention in terms of the relevance of its content to the realities of
rural India in the early 21st century. The HLC would recommend in conclusion, that if DSW is to
climb out of its routine rigmarole, then it must have a guest faculty which can link its thought-
processes and academic pursuits to the wider field of social work interventions in the rest of the
country and even outside India. The HLC would recommend that the DSW invites field leaders
beginning, for instance, with Indian recipients of the Magsaysay Award to advise it on BSW and
MSW curricula corrections as also on areas of PG field-based research. It is almost trite to give
the Department a ‘dinner list’ of this kind and ask it to invite the great names on it. But the HLC
is aware that Sriniketan being Sriniketan and Tagore being the compelling name that it is, these
eminent people would want to assist, they will value DSW’s desire to improve its goals and help
it move towards them.
4. The DSW, being a graduate generating institution, has its share of concerns on the career
prospects of its alumni. The Head of the DSW has said that it has a Placement Cell through
which a number of reputed organizations recruit students even before they leave the Department.
In a frank statement the Head told us, “So, the tension of such needs is relatively less.”
Nonetheless the DSW has to grapple with another kind of tension-generating question, namely:
Are its products going to become regular job-seekers (for which they cannot be blamed) or are
they going to make a contribution to SN’s broader goals? If even one out of every ten Bachelor or
Master’s degree holder of the DSW was to become a catalyst for rural regeneration, then the
DSW would make a significant contribution to SN’s first principles. This brings us to a specific
recommendation: the DSW needs a board of advisers – no more perhaps than 3 – headed by an
inspirational figure. The HLC would recommend to the Ministry of HRD that it set up such a
Board and think of a distinguished social worker not necessarily from West Bengal who could
head it.
Palli Charcha Kendra (PCK) The Department of Social Studies and Rural Development
The Basic Facts :
The PCK was founded in 1977 as a constituent department of the PSV. Even as the Palli
Siksha Bhavana gives degrees in agriculture, and the DSW gives degrees in Social Work, the
PCK offers courses, but at PG levels, in Anthropology and Rural Development respectively.
As with the DSW, the PCK attempts to design its course curricula along the broad
trajectories of Tagore’s ideas on rural regeneration.
Apart from the teaching of its PG courses, the PCK also conducts field work on different
types of rural and tribal life.
The PCK draws students primarily from within the state of West Bengal but some are
also enrolled from neighbouring Bihar and Orissa as well as the North East. The occasional
foreign student has also been enrolled in the Kendra, e.g., in 2005, 1 from UK, 2 from Japan and
1 from Bangladesh, doubtless drawn by the fact that a PG course in anthropology located in a
region with a tribal community, namely, the Santhals, has a value of its own.
The Department’s two PG courses have now run for the last 14 years with its PG course
on rural development being described as the first of its kind in the Eastern region.
Observations :
The Adhyaksha of the PSV who is in overall charge of the PCK informed the HLC that
‘for the smooth functioning of the PCK’ and to ‘achieve a better output’, it would be desirable to
integrate the PCK’s PG course in Anthropology as a separate department either under the Vidya
Bhavana or under the Siksha Bhavana at VB.
The Adhyaksha did not, however, recommend, disbanding of the PCK and suggested that
it could continue to conduct its PG course in Rural Development and also take over SN’s
extension activities from the platform of the existing Rural Extension Centre, with a separate
research wing carrying out field research in the surrounding villages. He also suggested to the
HLC that the PCK could ‘adopt’ 1 or 2 nearby underprivileged villages.
The Head of the PCK had a somewhat different approach, recommending that the PCK
becomes a UG + PG college, offering UG level courses in Anthropology and Rural Development,
feeding the appropriate PG courses.
Recommendations :
1. The HLC would recommend that the PCK, as it is presently constituted should be
integrated into the VdB.
2. The staff of the two departments would have to be integrated with the VdB, with
corresponding adjustments of teaching space and hostel facilities as also infrastructure facilities,
including electronic support and the library.
3. The PG course for Rural Development requires trips to the field, which in turn, required
vehicular support. The HLC was dismayed to learn that the PCK has only one vehicle which is
some decades old, making it a vintage vehicle. It needs to be replaced with not one but at least
two more vehicles which are designed to carry at least six persons each and of the kind that can
negotiate rural villages of varying quality, so that the nearly 50 villages of the Bolpur-Sriniketan
block as well as the Illam Bazar Block can be continued to be studied with greater intensity.
4. It goes without saying that if the PG courses in Social Work and Anthropology are to be
conducted in their new setting in VB, with greater efficacy, than in the present PCK arrangement,
they will need additional funding.
5. The PCK runs a bulletin of which the HLC was shown Volume II, No. I – a handsome
publication with some excellent contributions by the Readers, Lecturers and part-time Lecturers
of the PCK as also some Ph.D scholars. It was noticed that most of the contributions were from
the Anthropology section of the PCK. It would be desirable and should certainly be possible for
this bulletin to be protected from demise after the proposed integration and should continue to
appear from the Anthropology Department in the VdB.
Shilpa Sadana (SS)
The Basic Facts :
The SS commenced work in 1922. It has aimed at revitalizing decaying crafts as also
innovating craft-related activities to introduce them to local artisans. It has, broadly, a training
aspect, a production arm (marketing) aspect, and a development aspect.
In its training aspect, SS (Crafts Centre) offers a 3-year diploma course in nine
descriptions to about 80 regular students.
i) Textile Technology (handloom)

ii) Furniture technology and interior design
iii) Pottery and Ceramic Technology
It also offers four 2-year certificate courses in
i) Handmade Paper
ii) Book binding
iv) Batik
v) Leatherwork
The SS also contributes in the work of the DSW’s Bachelor’s course in Social Work
through vocational opportunities as also the students of the Uttar Siksha Sadan of the VB.
The SS’ production and marketing section engages with artisans and the resultant
products are attempted to be sold.
The ‘developmental work’ relates to using Plan funds to develop new tools.
The Diploma courses, being of the polytechnic level, are those approved by the All India
Council of Technical Education (AICTE). The admission criterion for the Diploma courses is
simple enough, namely, a 10+ certificate suffices, with the candidates having secured at least 50%
marks on the aggregate and being below 20 years of age. There is a reservation of the seats for
‘insiders’ as per University norms. The intake capacity is modest, being 10 per year in each of
the 3 diploma courses.
Admission criteria for the Certificate courses is even more modest, being a Pass in Class
VIII with the same below 20 year age regulation. For the Certificate courses also there is a
reservation for internal candidates. The SS has 30 places available in the boys’ hostel and 10 in
the girls’ hostel.
Observations :
The Diploma and Certificate holders of the SS manage to get admission in degree-level
technology courses in colleges run by the Government of West Bengal by ‘lateral entry’ and some
of them move on to further training by organizations such as the Small Industries Service Institute
(SISI), Kolkata. Senior PSV faculty are invited to present papers on production aspects of the SS
and the HLC was glad to see the list of papers presented by the faculty in seminars and
conferences arranged within West Bengal and elsewhere in India.
The HLC, however, noted that being one of VB’s older departments, the infrastructural
facilities and amenities of the SS are showing their age. The HLC was told quite candidly “The
buildings and workshops were built in phases and investments were made on a piecemeal basis.
Adequate provisions were not made for its maintenance and sustenance… Different units grew
with the demand of time and that is why the facilities of different training and production units
are not of uniform standard.”
The HLC was not surprised to learn that the SS have “almost no common facility or
amenity area in the premises like canteen facilities… and adequate toilet facilities”.
The SS has basically two sides to its diploma and certificate courses :
1. Technical training activity, and

2. Commercial activity.
Over the decades the SS has concentrated on training. Its production and commercial
(marketing of products) has lagged behind. The SS wants to increase its production activity by
proper planning and upgrading of its facilities in this regard. The HLC was told “of course it
should be in keeping with ideals and objectives of Sriniketan as envisaged by Rabindranath.”
Located as it is in the Surul area, the SS could have played a greater part in the
resuscitation of dying art forms in the region.
Surul village has some fine terracotta work on the walls of the Sorcar family’s chhoto-
bari – a delight to visit. It would be worth SS/PSV/Sriniketan/VB requesting ASI, INTACH or
the Aga Khan Foundation to give the family some advice and assistance in its maintenance. One
hopes the processes of property inheritance and transfers do not lead to this priceless terracotta
relic suffering neglect or damage. But is SS not creatively alive to this problem?
The HLC could not but feel that SS is in decline. It does not fit into a normal university
framework and is something of a pedagogical orphan. As long as Rathindranath Tagore was
present to guide VB on the lines set by his father, the SS’ wheel had a guardian hand. After
Rathindranath’s departure, the SS has become a victim of the fluctuating fortunes of handcrafting
in India. Many artisans who were working in and for the SS on a piece-rated basis, were obliged
to sever their connection with the SS and seek their own fortunes outside it and those artisans
numbering about a 100 who did remain, did so in order to get a permanent employment and,
forming a Union began to agitate for such a job-security. A combination of compassion and
pressure, obliged the SS to give employment on a permanent basis to 50% of the workers in
assorted jobs within the University.
Not surprisingly, the SS’s production has been running on a continuous loss since 1951.
Far from being a centre for encouragement of craft through training, production and marketing,
the SS has become a losing concern with a dissatisfied set of daily-rated workers.
Most of the products of the SS are sold at its Sales Emporium in SN and through counters
put up at the Pous Mela, Magh Mela and the Rathindra Shilpa Mela held once a year.
Predictably, the SS has become the provider of bric-a-brac to VB, in terms of its convocation
scarves, uniforms, dress materials, parchments for certificates, files, bookbinding material, and
some furniture, as per the needs of the University. Apart from this, four traditional village
weavers, enlisted from nearby villages, produce handloom fabrics on a piece-rated basis, upon
receiving raw materials from SS.
The SS, we were told, was neither intended to nor did it try to engage in production work
for the making of profits. Its intention was to impart vocational training and stimulate crafts. But
an organization that is not intended to make profit need not incur losses either. This is what SS
has unfortunately been doing. The motivation to work in the interests of crafts has changed into
the monotonous drudgery of stereotyped production in an official environment. SS has, therefore,
tried to encourage workers to function from their homes, using their leisure hours profitably,
while receiving raw materials, design advise and marketing support.
The SS has tried to produce handcrafted material not of the emporia type but of a kind
that is artistic and yet functional –a commendable ideal but, in marketing terms, a risky
proposition. SS has not been without its administrative difficulties either with its training and
production units being supervised by designated heads, sometimes by two and sometimes by one
and sometimes by none. The SS authorities also told the HLC that its accounting procedures
needed looking into. We felt this was something of an understatement.
Recommendations :
1. The HLC views with understanding and concern the administrative difficulties of the SS.
It recommends that an administrator in the rank of a manager or an assistant registrar should be
appointed to the SS for the regulation of its production activity and a separate individual of equal
rank be appointed to supervise its training activities, both reporting to the Adhyaksha of the PSV.
2. The Finance Officer of VB should conduct a study of the SS’s production procedures and
marketing strategies including the methods of billing and payments in vogue. It would be
essential for SS to receive expert advise on its production lines and also on the methods of
recovering payment dues from the departments of the University so as to cut and eliminate its
losses. SS also requires expert advice on its methods of its raw material purchase so that it gets
quality materials at the right price. The SS’s Head has certain powers (and limitations) in the
matter of purchasing raw materials. These need to be reviewed so as to give the Head the
necessary flexibility for effecting such purchases as would be in the SS’s interest. The Finance
Officer would also be in a position to see some specific areas for concern of the SS such as its
expenditures on the payment of Sales Tax on woodwork articles when, according to SS, craft
organizations receive ST exemption facilities.
3. The SS’s work on wood has been one of its strong points, but its existing shed for
woodwork production is dilapidated. SN needs a special subvention from VB to renovate its
woodwork production shed in order to carry out this line of work effectively.
4. But more important than advice on purchases and marketing is the SS’s self-definition
and future course of direction. SS has to ask itself as to whether it is VB’s resident handcrafting
factory or whether it is a catalyst for the regeneration of handcrafting in Birbhum? We have
referred to Surul terracotta’s fragility earlier.
It would be trite to say that SS needs better marketing design and developmental advice.
It would, again, be a commonplace for the HLC to say that the SS should be helped to explore the
market, develop new products, make new prototypes and introduce new methods of production
with improved technological support. And the HLC would, once again, only be indulging in a
cliché if it were to say that the SS must hire the services of an external expert to collaborate with
other institutions, so as to make its production unit viable.
The HLC’s mandate being what it is, it has a rather different recommendation to make for
the SS. And that is the following :
a) The Shilpa Sadan requires to be taken under the Upacharya’s creative wings to make it
the nucleus for a new energy in handcrafting. For this, the SS should be assisted to conduct a
systematic survey of the status of handcrafting in Birbhum, to assess the extinct decaying,
surviving and thriving craft forms and match those with the status of similar craft forms beyond
Birbhum. And thereafter, seek the advice of Master Craftspersons within and beyond West
Bengal on a future line of growth. The terracotta horse of Bankura has acquired an iconic
presence in the world of Indian handicrafts, even as the Madhubani painting has become world-
renowned. The HLC feels that given the right stimulus, the SS of Rabindranath’s vision and
Rathindranath’s enterprise can stimulate a new resurgence in the handcrafting aspects of rural
regeneration – the aim and purpose of Sriniketan. For the survey, the HLC recommends that the
SS/PSV/Sriniketan turn to the Anthropological Survey of India for advice on survey designing
and for the advice on future growth. The HLC also recommends that the SS asks the Crafts
Council of India for guidance.
5. A National Mission for Creativity in Cultural Industries (NMCCI) has been set up for
implementation during the 11th Plan. This is an autonomous inter-disciplinary and inter-
ministerial Task Force with a decision making executive mechanism involving stakeholders
(Government, NGOs, and cultural industries). Its mandate includes building social and cultural
capital and preventing depletion of cultural assets and improving conditions for productivity and
add value to creative expression and traditional skills with design-led enterprises. This Mission
is the result of the work done by a Task Force on cultural and creative industries under the
Chairpersonship of Dr. Ms. Syeda Hameed, Member of the Planning Commission. The HLC
recommends that SS should contact Shri Rajeev Sethi, Chairman and Founding Trustee of the
Asian Heritage Foundation and Vice-Chairman of the Task Force mentioned above and Advisor
to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and request him to visit the SS for detailed advice on its
strengthening and restructuring. The SS must link with the National Mission for its long-term
objective.
Rural Extension Centre (REC)
The Basic Facts :
The REC is one of the oldest departments in VB, listed in the VB Act, 1951. It has been
actively engaged in improving the condition of villages in its vicinity since its inception through
what is conventionally called ‘extension work’. The idea is that villages should become self-
reliant through their own enterprises. The area of the REC’s work extends to 46 villages under
the 8 Gram Panchayats in two Blocks, namely Bolpur-Sriniketan and Ilam Bazar. A total of 40
Village Development Societies (VDS), 7 Mahila Samitis and 1 health society have come under
the purview of the REC’s rural reconstruction programmes. In the current year, another VDS,
namely of Kamalakantapur has been added. The REC has been able to form 102 Self-Help
groups in its ‘command area’, covering 1025 families and generating a total savings of about Rs.
10 lakhs.
Observations :
The REC used to function under the PSV until recently. But with the manifold expansion
of its activities, it has now become a separate centre. The Chairman and Professor Amlan Datta
visited one of the villages served by the REC on 24 June, 2006. The enthusiasm of the members
was a joy to behold. The handcrafted objects shown by them, each quite beautiful, needed
marketing support, better ‘exposure’.
Recommendations :
1. The REC, like the SS, needs to be reorganized and reoriented. While keeping the self-
reliance and self-help objectives at the core of its activity, the HLC would recommend that REC
should recognize (a) the considerable and often far reaching changes in technology of practically
all rural activities; (b) the fact that villages are no longer isolated entities but have closer
economic, cultural and political connections among themselves and with the urban areas; (c) local
institutions, both traditional ones and new introductions like cooperatives, have changed very
much and in many cases (as for example coops) degraded; (d) there is a heightened political
consciousness among the poorer and less privileged classes (e) substantial and varied government
programmes of rural development, research and extension have now taken root; and (f) elected
Panchayats have become a reality.
2. The REC should be assisted to (a) help people in general, and potential leaders in
particular, develop capacity and skills for effective participation in Panchayats, cooperatives, self
help groups; (b) inform communities of programmes, policies and trends that open up new
opportunities as well as those that adversely affect the quality and productivity of resources; (c)
assess the opportunities for making better and more sustainable use of resources, make prudent
and efficient use of resources; (d) assist communites to articulate the problems they experience in
various productive activities and solve them by providing information on the appropriate
techniques based on available knowledge and, where available knowledge is inadequate, to
undertake research to find appropriate solutions; (e) train local leaders to take more active
interest in the way government programmes are managed, generate pressures to make them
function better, and where appropriate to organize such activities on their own.
How is the REC to do this? It can only do so if it has a ‘guiding’ mechanism heading it.
The HLC would recommend that the Saha-Upacharya proposed separately for VB be made
specially responsible for REC’s policy direction.
3. Besides reorienting its strategy, it is essential that the REC links with other relevant
Sriniketan bodies in (a) serving as a storehouse of readily accessible technical knowledge relevant
to the local rural economy; (b) orienting its outreach programmes to solve problems specific to
the region with the help of the agricultural college and social work departments; and (c)
systematic monitoring trends in the use of land and water resources, the state of forests and other
environmental resources, and to alert the people of the region as well as governments about
potential adverse trends. For this it would be desirable for the REC to form an advisory board
headed by the Pro-VC in which elected leaders of local bodies and officials/experts are members.
Sriniketan In General
1. The HLC would re-iterate that the central importance of Sriniketan lies in its being a
medium for a creative interaction of VB with the rural population around it. For this it must have
a Director for Sriniketan who would consolidate and coordinate all the activities of Sriniketan
including the work of the Palli Siksha Bhavana and the Rural Extension Centre. For this the
office of Director of Studies, Educational Innovations and Rural Reconstruction would need to be
re-designated as ‘Director of Educational Research and Rural Extension Activities at Sriniketan’.
In a letter dated 1 May, 1970, Elmhirst expressed the following important view regarding
Sriniketan : “There has to be one person at the top responsible for working out the budget and for
keeping the whole enterprise alive and on the job”. Elmhirst meant by “the budget” the financial
outlays for research as well as rural extension and cottage industries extension at Sriniketan.
Elmhirst also expressed the view in that letter that Sriniketan had suffered too often in the past
from control being in hands that had “little understanding and often no sympathy at all” with the
aims of Tagore in regard to Sriniketan. The proposed Saha-Upacharya should play a critical role
in the process. This would also require an amendment of the Act.
2. The HLC recommends that the Upacharya and the proposed Saha-Upacharya (Pro-Vice-
Chancellor) should attend an office-room of their own in Sriniketan at least one day in a week,
spending that entire day for Sriniketan work so as to bring to an uncertainty the reassurance of
support. It is noteworthy that a Sriniketan Review Committee (SRC) had submitted a report1 to
the Karma-Samiti of Visva-Bharati in 1970 and the Karma-Samiti discussed the report of the SRC
on 5.12.1970. Among the recommendations of the SRC, one recommendation was that a part of
the Visva-Bharati Registrar’s office should be located at Sriniketan and should be used by the
Upacharya “as a matter of routine during one/two specific days for work”. More than a quarter of
a century later, the HLC feels it worth reiterating this recommendation of the SRC. It is also
noteworthy that the late Dr. S. R. Sen, then Executive Director of the World Bank, along with
other suggestions, had made an important suggestion that a Pro-Vice-Chancellor be nominated by
the VC in the context of activating Sriniketan. Tagore’s words about Sriniketan have to be borne
in mind: It must cultivate land, breed cattle, feed itself and its students; it must produce all
necessaries, devising the best means and using the best materials, calling science to its aid. Such
an institution must group round it all the neighbouring villages, and vitally unite them with itself
in all its economic endeavours.
1
Data from Shri Shivadeva Ghoshal of the Central Administration, Visva-Bharati.
The Upacharya, the Saha-Upacharya and the new Director will have to devise a method
of monitoring Sriniketan’s work against that yardstick and against the other – contemporary one –
of the attitude of the Surul peasant to Sriniketan.
3. We have to face the fact that Sriniketan has been Santiniketan’s ‘poor cousin’ – a
situation that found a brief corrective only when Elmhirst briefly presided over its destinies. The
HLC has no illusions about ‘external talent’. But it strongly recommends that even as
Santiniketan must now pro-actively open its doors to the ‘East and the West’, so must Sriniketan.
And it must do one better. It must be non-geographic about the concept of ‘East and West’
which, after all are not places, only directions. It must bring ‘North and South’ together.
Sriniketan must reach out to the less developed world, to ‘the South’ and, in particular, to Africa
and Latin America. There are Elmhirsts there who need to be reached, for mutual benefit.
Here, the HLC would recommend that the ICSSR and ICCR be asked for advice on
cognate organizations and universities which can give Sriniketan a new and vibrant linkage with
the Dartington Halls of today in the less developed world.
4. A final word : Sriniketan needs its own little mobile medicine unit – not for Sriniketan’s
benefit but through Sriniketan for that of the 46 villages in its ‘care’. This should do health
surveys and offer simple treatment. This would mean initial costs and running costs. But when
has a good idea come without a bill?
It has been observed that Elmhirst and his team ‘learnt directly that it was through
offering healthcare facilities that the affection of the villagers was most readily won’. They
taught themselves to give first-aid and build up a medicine chest for the purpose. It was proving
difficult to get a city-educated doctor who was willing to live in the villages and serve the
villagers. Therefore, Elmhirst arranged through Quaker friends for a paramedic-cum-nurse called
Gretchen Green to come and start a clinic in Sriniketan in 1922. Later, some Quakers also lent
the services of a malaria expert, Dr. Harry Timbres, who came from America with his wife for
three years to set up a programme of malaria control in Sriniketan’s villages. Governmental
organizations like the District Board and the Union Board were even then attending to the
problem of eradicating malaria in the villages. But Dr. Timbres’ work was welcome. In today’s
scene of dengue and chikungunya – who knows? – a mobile medical unit in Sriniketan may well
create a breakthrough.
It is not for the HLC to suggest priorities in medicine. But this the HLC will recommend
: Sriniketan should ask the West Bengal Health Minister for advise on the areas in which it can
offer its ancillary support, as part of the REC’s or DSW’s research arm extension work.
i) The Central Library
The Basic Facts :
The University’s main library, called The Central Library (CL), is a relatively new
construction having been built in the year 1967-69 at a cost of Rs. 6,23,000/- (approx.). It houses
a little over 4 lakh volumes.
The CL has the following staff structure :
Librarian 1
Deputy Librarian 1
Assistant Librarian 5
Information Scientist 1
Professional Assistant 12
Semi Professional Assistant 8
Library Attendant 12
Administrative Staff 6
Book Binder 2
Peon 8
Gateman 1
Sweeper 2
Of these 59 the following six positions are vacant:
Deputy Librarian 1
Professional Assistant 2
Peon 2
Sweeper 1
The CL’s Budget for 2006-7 is Rs 81.10 lakhs for salaries and Rs 54.05 lakhs ‘non-
salary- items; the Xth Plan Book Grant being Rs. 1.32 crores.
The CL works in an open access system.
According to the CL Librarian “most of the books are catalogued”, while some currently
purchased books and gifted books are yet to be catalogued. The CL also has an online cataloguing
exercise in progress, with more than 1 lakh “library documents”covered.
The CL is digitizing its holdings as part of the ‘Mega Digital Library Project of India’
launched in collaboration with the Million Book Universal Digital Library (UDL) Programme of
Mellon University,USA. This activity is being coordinated for the CL by the IISc, Bangalore and
CDAC, Kolkata which has provided two scanners that digitize 3000 pages a day per scanner.
CL has estimated that it has to digitize two crore pages of library documents under a
scheme drawn up of digi-prioritizing books published before 1924, government publications,
Visva-Bharati publications and ‘deceased’ publications.
The CL exercises part-jurisdiction over twelve departmental and Bhavana libraries at VB

including the all-important Rabindra Bhavana library. The total number of books in Visva-Bharati
inclusive of those in the CL and the other venues is about 8.8 lakhs.
The CL subscribes to an impressive list of journals, including several front-ranking

foreign journals in the sciences and social sciences. According to the Librarian, the CL gets 254
journals, magazines and newspapers at present. In the Seshan report (2004) the figure of 441 has
been given for this category. Perhaps there has been a pruning of journals being received. The
pruning of journals should not be arbitrary but done systematically. Those that are available on
line need not be subscribed to, e.g. the journals that are avaibale on JSTOR. The University could
easily become a member of JSTOR at no cost. This will release funds for other journals. JSTOR
has a huge number of journals in all fields.
Observations:
The Building
Though only 37 years old, the CL building is already showing its age. This is not so
much owing to the choice of building materials (which do not seem very impressive) as to its
woefully poor maintenance.
There also seems to have been an inadequate, if any, future projection made of stack-area
requirements at the time of designing this nondescript and architecturally unremarkable structure.
A proposal is under consideration for adding another 8000 sq.feet by way of extended stack-area.
It is not clear if this extension proposal has been correlated with scientifically arrived-at
forward plans of volume accessionings and reflects similar projections made by departmental and
Bhavana libraries for their projected increase in holdings.
The HLC was given to understand that it is also planned to air condition the total stack
area.
Shelf Maintenance
The HLC noted with sadness the lack of orderliness, neatness and cleanliness of the
shelves, be it in the arranging of the books or of removing accumulated dust and cobwebs from
them. On the reference (Not To Be Issued) shelf for instance, several volumes stood head-down,
out of sequence, layered over by the dust of months. The Librarian frankly informed the HLC (in
his words), “Due to open access system books are frequently but haphazardly browsed by readers
which cause the damage of documents.” He added “Besides this, the extreme climatic condition,
dust and scanty space deteriorate (sic) the life span of books”. We gathered that the cleanliness of
the shelves was taken care of by the designated staff and as such he sought the help of volunteer
CL users who were paid Rs 250 per month for helping with the cleaning. It seemed, however, that
this imaginative system was not having the desired effect on the health of the shelves and stacks,
while it certainly provided a small but assured monthly remuneration to the ‘volunteers’.
When the HLC’s members demonstrated to some of the users present simple and obvious
methods of replacing volumes in the correct order, dusting off the covers and the ‘head-channels’
of the books and wiping their covers with a soft cloth, the users seemed enthusiastic about
adopting the practice. But this may well have been a form of courtesy to the visiting team.
Cataloguing
To the HLC’s specific query about cataloguing, the nature and stock of journals at the CL
and whether the facility of internet referrals existed there, he was advised that about 1/4th of the
CL’s books had been catalogued but the internet referral system was not in vogue. There was
however an internal computer cell with an internet facility that was used by various departments
of the library for reference on the net. Five computer operators were preparing databases here and
uploading them to the Visva-Bharati website.
The HLC members were told that a digitization of the catalogues had been undertaken in
2000 and was up to date. Accessions were on the basis of recommendations of a Library
Committee comprising, among others, department heads.
Our brief discussion of cataloguing procedures showed a certain familiarity with the
Dewey System and there was among the persons concerned some familiarity with the
Ranganathan Method. And yet we came away with the impression that there was a certain
absence of cataloguing rigour which requires classifications, categorizations, abbreviations, the
placement of dots descriptive of themes and sub-themes, and the like being done with the
meticulousness of one who knows the science of cataloguing as much as the art of thematic
discernment.
Digitization
The CL’s digitization room with its two scanners was manned by qualified ‘locals’ and
they were working with competence and enthusiasm. Digitizing however is not a matter of
placing a document under the scanning glass and getting its image on the vertical screen cleaned
of ‘impurities’ and ‘infirmities’. It is a process whereby a document of value, antiquarian or
otherwise, acquires an alter ego in the shape of a long-lasting digital replica which insulates the
original from the risks of physical handling. It is a surrogate for the original but not a substitution
of the original. The ageing original does not cease to have value once it has been digitized any
more than a nonagenarian does because he or she has been beautifully photographed.
Unfortunately, the digitization process at the CL seemed not to realize this adequately, as the
fragile originals were being shown scant care once they had been ‘through the scanner’. When
some of us wanted to correlate the digitized image with the original, the latter could not be easily
traced – by anyone!
Visva-Bharati is little if it is not age-proud and graceful in its ageing.
Old and Rare Books
The CL has some 3000 old and rare books, 1923 being the cut-off year for designating a
book as ‘old’. While no one really explained the reasons for this dating, it seemed to us likely
that this is because it was in the mid-1920s that the stream of scholars from different parts of the
world like the French Indologist Sylvain Levy from the Sorbonne, Moritz Winternitz of the
Oriental Institute in Prague, the archaeologist Sten Konow from Norway (to name but a few)
began coming to Santiniketan doubtless bringing with them details of leading publications if not
the volumes themselves, and a new group of outstanding young scholars of our own like the
linguist Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyaya began joining its classes as advanced scholars who needed
the best books of the time. That was also when Tagore’s own great journeys abroad took place –
to China (1924), Western and Central Europe (1926), the Malay States, Java, Bali and Siam
(1927) .
Clearly the old ‘old’ books date from those times, travels and transactions. They are not
lent out, which is a good thing. They can only be read in the Reading Room.Our cursory enquiries
showed that the old books now draw few readers. Unsurprisingly, they are today being worked at
by book-boring organisms more than by scholars. In this the CL is hardly alone. Most libraries are
beset with the problem of book-pests.
The CLs ‘rare’ books are stored in steel almirahs, a procedure that bespeaks a certain
concern for their safety. But current archivist wisdom has it that paper needs to ‘breathe’ if it is to
live and that denied oxygen, it decays faster than otherwise. The oldest of the ‘rare’ books in the
steel room, we ascertained, was S. C. Hill’s Bengal in 1756-57 (1905), a priceless work.
De-infesting,Binding and Mending
Currently, about 2000 books and journals, we were told, are ‘treated’ every year. Two
staff members and an outside ‘agency’ has been designated for this assignment. Insecticides and
chemicals are ‘sprayed’ (Pest Control Services) on books and shelves. This is not the best or the
most current method for that can harm users while not necessarily protecting the books. On the
re-binding of volumes where the original binding has weakened or come apart, it was found that
the exercise was in the nature of a ‘cottage industry’ (not a bad thing in itself, if efficacious) that
has been overtaken by better methodologies. Organic (flour) and animal glue is being used as also
some substance that was described as sirish (none could exactly spell the name or give its
linguistic, processual or brand origin) with copper sulphate for binding. It is now fairly well-
known even in non-bibliophile circles that book-pests feast on the adhesives used and are
ravenously partial to all organic and animal substances.
Recommendations:
The Building:
1. Windows in many places have their glass panes broken, their metal-linings corroded, the
walls have serious damp in many places, are weak, blistered and cracked as a result. The building
needs ‘spring-cleaning’ by a professional agency supervised closely by a committee of ‘library
engineers’ the like of whom have been utilized by the National Library, Kolkata in the
construction of its annexe and by the library at the Ramakrishna Mission’s Institute of Culture,
Gol Park, Kolkata, which is a model of a medium-sized and much-used library.
As this will entail parts of the building being temporarily closed, re-located and then after
the cleaning-up, restored to use, it would be best to do this during the longest vacation within an
academic year over two or more years.
2. The proposal for extending the stack-area by 8000 sq.feet needs to be reviewed for a
scientific assessment of the exact additional area needed after consulting all the departments so
that after a couple of years the need for yet another extension is obviated. And in creating such
additional stack areas as are decided upon, again, state-of-the-art library architects should be
asked for designs for ‘double-decking’ of stacks with access-ladders.
3. The proposed air-conditioning of the ‘entire stack-area’ should be put on hold until expert
advice has been obtained from modern libraries on its advisability. And this proposal should also
factor-in the power supply position in Santiniketan as fluctuations of voltage and daytime-‘on’
and nighttime -‘off’ arrangements for the AC plant are most definitely going to affect the
documents adversely.
The Shelves and Stacks:
1. The maintenance of the shelves and stacks in a library is not unlike, in human toiletry, to
the daily – or twice-daily – attention to one’s teeth.
The CL’s shelves and stacks have no reason to be in the condition in which they are when
it has the kind of staff strength it does to set the ‘haphazardly browsed and mislaid’ books in
order. If the 12 library attendants are to do the stack maintenance, there is no getting away from
the fact the higher staff must also put their hands to this task. There is nothing demeaning about
any manual activity, much less in the task of dusting a book, placing it right side up and in its
allotted place.
2. We are constrained to observe that this is an area of work where a hands-on approach by
the senior supervisory staff encouraging the junior designated staff, alone can provide results. If
‘volunteers’ from among users can be asked to help on payment per month, surely, those who are
drawing salaries for precisely this work can do this.
3. It is instructive to recall the terse recommendation made by the 1975 Masud Committee
in this regards under its paragraph on the CL:
“Any practice of deputing untrained office staff to work in the library should be discontinued, and
the professional staff in the library strengthened”.
Thirty years on, with accretions to the CL’s team, there is no strengthening of staff
required now, only a strengthening of the staff’s will to work hands-on on the shelves and stacks.
It is worth noting that the Ramakrishna Mission Library at Golpark which has 2,24,707 books,
has 31 Assistants and 14 attendants who join in and keep the shelves in good order. But
energizing them is a monastic work-ethic (the librarian is a Monk) which cannot be easily
replicated elsewhere. Nonetheless, an attempt has to be made for infusing in the existing staff and
the users an interest in maintaining the integrity of the shelves and a sense of professional pride in
doing so.
The HLC recommends that a small ‘Users’ Committee’ headed by a member of the
Alumni Association be formed to offer to keep the CL’s books and the books in the 12 ‘branch’
libraries clean, the shelves maintained and ‘indisposed’ books identified for de-infesting,
mending.
Cataloguing and Digitization:

1. The cataloguing of books in Visva-Bharati has to be taken to mean the cataloguing of
books, manuscripts, documents and journals in the CL and in the other 12 centres.This has to be a
continuing process and one that needs a measure of technical centralizing, though the library
documents are in 12 places plus the CL.
2. If there is to be such a thing as a periodically updated and published (both online and
conventional) Visva-Bharati catalogue, it has to have a standardized format albeit within the
accepted international standards of cataloguing, with departures made for specialized categories
of holdings. The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi, The
Theosophical Society Library at Adyar and the NMM&L among others must be consulted by an
expert cataloguing committee set up for the purpose by Visva-Bharati.
3. The digitizing of books must be done with simultaneous and maximum care being
bestowed on the upkeep of originals with expert advice being obtained from antiquarian
conservators.The specific issue of using steel almirahs should be gone into again. In this regard,
it would be good if the CL were to seek the expertise used by the Jawaharlal Nehru Museum and
Library, Teen Murti, New Delhi which is constantly in receipt of original papers from donors,
while also maintaining its holdings in modern ways.
4. It would not be out of place here to mention one imperative for maintaining the integrity
of the originals while digitizing them.The great advantage conferred by digital methods of
replication comes with a concomitant risk, namely, that of the accompanying possibility – a
temptation for some – to ‘play’ with the digitized impression either for reasons of aesthetics or
worse. It is of the utmost importance that at any given time it be possible for the archivally
meticulous and historically punctilious to be able to cross-check an ‘improved’ digital impression
with the ‘un-improved’ but authentic original for confirming the digitalization’s
veracity.
Old and Rare Books:
1. The CL and the other 12 repositories would do well to bring out a separate descriptive
catalogue of Visva-Bharati’s ‘O & R’ volumes, documents, manuscripts and journals as a token
of its gratitude to its bibliophile roots, with a technological introduction on the conservation
methods being employed.
2. The Committee heard a proposal to the effect that a bindery unit can be set up at the CL
by the Shiksha Satra of Sriniketan. The Committee, while appreciating the idea of involving
Sriniketan’s institutions with any meaningful activity that benefits Visva-Bharati as a whole,
would caution the university about employing any instrument in this delicate operation only after
satisfying itself about the instrument’s ability.
3. In the matter of restoring and re-binding old and precious works, especially those
containing illustrations, the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Patna, has a proven
expertise.The library at Raj Bhavan, Kolkata, recently ‘discovered’ a 17th century manuscript in
Arabic which was lying in one of its corners, in tatters. KBOPL restored it with great sensitivity.
That Government of India institution can be turned to with great advantage by Visva-Bharati.
Visva-Bharati as a Repository of Books:
1. Textbook based teaching is inappropriate for B.A. Hons. A separate reference section
can be created in the Library where each academic year the books required for teaching and
further reading can be placed. This makes is easier for students to consult these books Since they
cannot be borrowed it enforces a reading habit. For the commonly used books, two or three copies
can be kept there. It also has the advantage that the more enterprising students can then go the
stacks as well to consult related books. As long as there is textbook-based teaching and textbook-
based examining, textbooks will remain crucial, indeed, paramount to a student. But it would be
a sad thing if Visva-Bharati’s libraries were to become primarily a home for textbooks, the
majority of its users textbook thumbers. What is the solution ?
2. It is suggested that the university sets up in each department a Centre for Course Studies
which houses multiple numbers of the prescribed textbooks with its own rules for lending and
borrowing so that the pressures on the CL and the departmental libraries is reduced. This would
have a financial implication to the extent that several numbers of the textbooks will have to be
indented. But it need not entail expenditure on creating new spaces since existing classrooms can
certainly do double-shift for this purpose, the study of textbooks being undertaken outside of class
hours in any case. This will ensure that the CL and its 12 support libraries will be used for the
purpose of scholarship rather than for cramming.
3. An interesting suggestion was made to the Committee in the course of its open
interactions and invitation to communications, by Sri Supriya Mukherjee (an Ashramite since
1921 and ex-Deputy Librarian, Visva-Bharati Central Library). He said : “As Deputy Librarian
of the Central Library, I have seen very few students use the library. Higher studies and research
is not at all possible unless the students know how to use the library.” It would be a good idea if
every Under-Graduate course could begin with a session to be conducted by the Central Library
on how libraries are to be used, with a brief objective-style examination before any student
becomes eligible for a library membership card. It is also for consideration whether students
should be given credits for preparation of bibliographies on selected themes and the proper and
knowledge-increasing use of library books in their inter-sessional examinations. Students do not
get extra credits for reading. This is a requirement for study and teaching. Extra reading will show
up in the quality of the answers. The onus is then on the teachers who have to also read what they
are recommending – which they often neglect to do.
4. Smt. Mandira Dasgupta, a retired IAS officer, made the point that the CL did not allow
residents of Santiniketan who are not connected with VB, to be its member. She felt that people
residing in Santiniketan should also be allowed to use the Library. HLC endorses the suggestion
with the proviso that the non-Visva-Bharati membership of the CL should be approved by the
Upacharya in each case and should carry a distinct membership fee and appropriate rules for
borrowing books.
5. The Open Access system of the library has been a feature of the CL for long. And yet,
today it is described as the cause for the poor condition of the shelves. It can, technically, be
given up for an alternative system under which users are provided books from the library shelves
by assistants who bring them to the users against requisition slips. But the HLC can envision the
very users who are not observing the ‘dharma’ of the Open Access system protesting against such
a change. The HLC would recommend that all those in charge of VB’s books – at the CL and in
the Departments – have a discussion with a cross-section of the users to arrive at a consensus on
whether to retain or scrap the Open Access System.
j) Granthana Vibhaga
The Basic Facts :
The Visva-Bharati Granthana Vibhaga, the Publishing Department, an integral

part of Visva-Bharati was set up in 1923 by Tagore. The objectives of the department (based on
the set of rules laid down by Tagore himself, when Publishing Department set up by Tagore in the
year 1923) are :
1. The Complete Works of Tagore should be easily available at an affordable cost. (‘Sulabh
Rabindranath’).
2. These should be accurately published in respect of spelling, style, presentation and format
(‘Bisuddha Rabindranath’)
3. The Complete Writings of Tagore (‘Samagra Rabindranath’) should be published.
The principal activities of the Department include :
A. Publishing books (Bengali, English, Hindi, Sanskrit) other than text-books :
1. by Rabindranath Tagore
2. on Rabindranath Tagore
3. on Gurudev’s associates, disciples and students
4. on Visva-Bharati and Santiniketan
5. on various other topics (both fiction and non-fiction)
B. Publishing text-books :
1. taught in Visva-Bharati
2. taught by others (including books of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary
Education)
C. Selling books :
1. through its own bookshops at Kolkata and Santiniketan

2. through its agents
3. at different bookfairs and other fairs including Kolkata Bookfair and Santiniketan Poush
Mela.
In the year 2005-2006 a total number of 55 titles consisting of 13 new titles and 42 reprint
of works of Rabindranath Tagore and other authors were brought out. The Vibhaga has a
sanctioned strength of 85.
Observations :
Granthana Vibhaga or the Publishing Department has rendered service consistently for
about seven decades. Tagore’s intention was not only to see his works published properly and to
keep these in print, but also to provide constant financial support to Visva-Bharati out of the
income generated by the Department. The Publishing Department remained a self-sustained unit
of Visva-Bharati until the last decade. With the global slump in book industry as a whole, the rise
of private publishers, the flouting of publication ethics and copyright rules, the apathy of the
public sector (which still happens to be the largest buyer of publications in India) the Granthana
Vibhaga has been in difficulty.
The situation has become worse after the termination of the copyright on 31st December,
2001. All appointments, transfers and promotion orders for the employees are issued by the
Registrar, Visva-Bharati following the Common Seniority Rules and financial control is exercised
by the University’s Finance Officer, ever since Visva-Bharati became a Central University. In
terms of the funding responsibility of VB Granthana Vibhaga should also rest with the UGC, but
this has not happened.
Since the copyright came to an end, the income of this department has drastically
diminished. The staff salaries are paid out of royalties and interest on deposit. UGC does not pay
for the posts in this department. It has been possible so far to pay the salaries of about 50
personnel only because Granthana Vibhaga got a contract for supplying text books of West
Bengal Higher Secondary Board.
Recommendations :
1. The Vibhaga should be headed by a full-time Parichalaka (Manager) and its staff-strength
reduced to a number which may be considered the most essential, in a phased manner;
2. UGC should take over the salaries of reduced staff;
3. Granthana Vibhaga should progressively concentrate on publications of scholarly works
and writings that are of relevance to Visva-Bharati, e.g., texts of lectures given there, and not on
text books after above two arrangements are in place.

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VISVA-BHARATI’S INSTITUTIONS

The Basic Facts :

The HLC’s consultations saw importance being attached to PB as central to Tagore’s

Our respondents described the concomitant situation and problems as being:

1. PB is becoming increasingly insular, since the student body now overwhelmingly

The Basic Facts :

The Horticulture option has the following objectives:

The Electrical Services-cum-Maintenance course has the following objectives:

The Student-Teacher ratio at the SS is 14:1.

5) Some new courses/programmes such as tailoring, computer-literacy, language lab (for

5. The HLC would be cautious about introducing computerized education in SS before

e) In order to develop skills of SS students in English listening, speaking, reading and

The Basic Facts :

Name of the State B.F.A M.F.A.

The following observations of the Curator drew our notice :

a) Increasing the capacity of the strong-rooms,

She clarified further :

The departments of sculpture and painting, we noted, were working on developing a

6. Students at KB mentioned to the Committee the absence of computerized networking at

3. KB itself proposed to the HLC that KB should be accorded a status of a deemed

The Basic Facts :

The SB, today, has two academic departments :

Rabindra Sangit, Dance and Drama and the Theatre Arts

After Visva-Bharati became a Central University, VdB became a post-graduate faculty

Faculty No. of Students

1. Vidya Bhavana 1550

The College runs 7 academic programmes as follows :

a. Undergraduate (Hons. In 16 disciplines and subsidiary in 10 disciplines)

a. AIHC & A (Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology)

Languages Units : Santhali, Tamil, Marathi, Assamese

The College’s maximum number of students (UG and PG combined) is in Geography

The reservation rules in respect of SC/ST and PH candidates are observed.

iii) deteriorating student quality

iv) the lack of research work exacerbated by poor research stipends

v) lack of internet connectivity

An institute started by so eminent a person as Hazariprasad Dwivedi cannot be allowed to

The Department of Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Islamic Studies

The Medium of Instruction

Parody with vengeance!

The East is East and the West is West,

The Basic Facts :

SB consists of seven departments and three Centres, viz., Departments of Chemistry,

The Chemistry Department started its undergraduate programme in 1962 and

The Department is actively engaged in research in the fields of Theoretical Chemistry,

The SB has its own library.

Bio Sciences : Environmental Ecology, Environmental Toxicology, Environmental Biochemistry,

Chemical Sciences : Environmental Chemistry, Characterization and Monitoring of Air, Water

Physical Sciences : Mathematical Modelling, Meteorology, Radiation and Environment,

Management : Environmental Management, Environmental Impact Assessment, Environmental

At a practical level, a cluster of research scholars at SB suggested :

3. The University’s fellowship for the PhD programme should be reimplemented.

4. Subscription of important e-journals such as Science Direct, Springer-Link, Oxford

5. Official work related to research (purchase of chemicals, instruments) should be given

Professor Samir Bhattacharya, in a written statement to the HLC, proposed an integrated

It would be useful to distinguish between three “segments” of institutions : private

(2) State intervention in India; evolution of different types of intervention (control of

The circumstances (economic, political and international) that led to the

Consequences and conditions

- impact of development on individuals, family/kin networks.

Such an integrated course could use research methods like:

- Elementary tools of quantitative analysis. Locating and assaying historical

The Basic Facts :

Vinaya Bhavana (VnB), VB’s Institute of Education, is a post-Tagore institution. It was

Visva Bharatis'Institution

Visva Bharatis'Institution