Santiniketan: The approach road to Bolpur city in West Bengal is a frenzy of construction activity. A new bridge will connect the busy state highway to Santiniketan, which recently entered Unesco’s World Heritage List. Now, all roads lead to the cultural hub that Rabindranath Tagore established more than a century ago. And Santiniketan is bracing for more recognition, restoration, funds, and tourists.
With the Unesco tag, visitors from all over the world are likely to flock to the neighbourhood in Bolpur, where they will have to face civic issues like pollution and garbage disposal in the absence of a municipal body.
But the newly acquired global recognition has raked up the hotly debated issue of protecting Santiniketan and Tagore’s legacy from the march of urbanisation and real estate development.
Ashima Das has no time to nap on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The Santiniketan resident is busy setting up her stall at the Sonajhuri Haat, where she sells handloom saris. It’s a popular weekend flea market where local artisans and residents sell handicraft under the shade of sonajhuri trees and bauls sing Bengali folk music with their ektaras.
“We wait all week to come and sell our handicraft here. We hope our trade increases now that Santiniketan is on the Unesco heritage list,” she says in hope.
But the hope is tempered with regret for what the sleepy neighbourhood has become. The Santiniketan that Tagore envisioned and lived in has changed. The small mud houses have made way for malls, multi-storey buildings, and amusement parks. And old-time residents, whose families have been living here for generations, are fighting through citizen activism and PILs.
“There was a time when no house would ever breach the treetop. But now we see ugly constructions, buildings being sanctioned by the local administration,” said Nilanjan Bandopadhyay, who first came to Santiniketan in 1968. He was inspired by Kabiguru to build a Japanese-style home and weave Indian and Japanese culture in his daily life. But that way of life has more or less faded away.
“Hotels have choked the town. Malls have now made their debut. The essence of Santiniketan is diminishing,” Bandopadhyay said.
Supriyo Tagore, the great grandnephew of Tagore and the last direct bloodline of the family who arrived in Santiniketan in 1946, is more scathing in his criticism. “It is now an urban area. Tagore’s vision has been wiped out. This is impossible to reverse.”
Also read: Santiniketan isn’t an abode of peace anymore. A rot has set in
What will the change do?
At the heart of Santiniketan—and also the debate on preserving what it stands for—is Visva Bharati University, West Bengal’s only central government-run university that Tagore established in 1921. It’s set to become the world’s first Unesco-recognised living heritage university.
And plans are afoot to bring the university up to scratch.
Parts of the Visva Bharati campus, where eminent personalities like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi once stayed, are now just soulless structures with broken window panes and paint peeling off the wall like the dry skin in winter. Drainage pipes covered in moss scar the sidewalls. Wild vegetation has taken over what were once studios.
“We will soon be setting up a heritage committee to oversee the work that needs to be done now that it is a World Heritage site. We haven’t yet received the fine print, but this does entail funds that we will utilise for our campus once we get a detailed note,” said vice chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty.
For the past few years, Visva Bharati has been battling one controversy after another—protests over allegations of sexual and mental harassment, setting up of a gaushala, and land dispute with Amartya Sen. The university and the residents of Santiniketan have a fractious relationship.
Currently, they’re fighting over a road. After the Unesco tag, Chakraborty requested Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to “return” the road she “took back” before the assembly election in 2021. But some residents have requested the CM to not accept the request.
The remains of a legacy
There was a time when Visva Bharati was known around the world for its liberal arts education. Lectures were held under the shade of tall trees.
“When Tagore was a boy travelling with his father Debendranath Tagore, it was in Santiniketan where he took a break and rested under a tree. It was at this moment that Tagore forged his tie with the red soil of Santiniketan. Years later, he chose to come back and set up an Ashram with just five students,” recalled Nilanjan Bandopadhyay, special officer, Rabindra Bhavana.
The school came to be known as Patha Bhavan. Tagore gathered funds from around the world, including Peru, and met MK Gandhi during this period to set up Visva Bharati, whose motto is: ‘Yatra visvam bhavatieka nidam’, which means, ‘Where the whole world meets in a single nest.’
Until Independence, Visva Bharati was a college. In 1951, under a Special Act, it was recognised as a central university with Prime Minister Nehru as its Chancellor. Rabindranath Tagore’s son Rathindranath was its first vice-chancellor and Kshitimohan Sen, the grandfather of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, took charge thereafter.
“The vice-chancellors over the years have taken Visva Bharati down the wrong road. Now, no one comes here anymore. It’s become like any other low-grade university,” said Supriyo Tagore, the 85-year-old president of Shantiniketan Sishutirtha.
He has not entered the university grounds since “a long time” and says he won’t be allowed inside due to the rules imposed by the administration. Visva Bharati allegedly doesn’t allow tourists to enter the home where Tagore lived or the campus due to security reasons. They are, however, allowed inside the museum.
‘No parking’ and ‘No entry’ signs are nailed to the boundary walls. Security guards posted at entry gates are always vigilant to stop any unauthorised entry. Rickshaw drivers in the area are self-designated guides charging anywhere from Rs 250-400 per ride for a glimpse of Visva Bharati from miles away.
“While Tagore kept the campus open for all, the current regime has closed it. It would be rather insulting for me if I go to the campus today because even I won’t be allowed inside,” he said, blaming “petty politics” and “shallow minds in the administration” for its diminishing stature.
But some traditions remain, resistant to the drumbeat of change.
Visva Bharati is the only university in the world where Chatim leaves are given on the convocation day to students by the guest of honour who is usually the Prime Minister.
Visva Bharati always stood out because of its progressive thoughts and became an amalgamation of world ideas as students from other countries would come here to study. “Tagore’s legacy remains in the old architecture, trees, and pupils,” said Das.
Santiniketan still clings to its founder’s legacy. There are no chairs or desks or uniforms. “That was how Tagore wanted the students to learn, under the open sky. We learnt lessons observing nature, saw flowers bloom to identify seasons, yet we imbibed the best. Even today, when I see a bird gather grass from the garden to build a nest, my heart is filled with joy,” said Bandopadhyay.