Losing the essence of Tagore
Dattagupta also deserves the honour for hosting the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) during his tenure. Visva-Bharati, which applied for NAAC grading for the first time last year (for fear of losing University Grants Commission grants after 2017) was given a ‘B’ grade — a first for a major central university. Apparently the university fared the worst in academic evaluation, research and library facilities. The NAAC team was apparently surprised that the library had not acquired any new books for the last few years (though strangely, an annexe to the library building had been built in the same period). Although no official version of the university is available in the public domain, some Visva-Bharati officials have been quoted as saying that library books could not be bought due to lack of funds.
ButforthoseofuswhostayinSantiniketan, buthavenothingtodowiththeuniversityand knowlittleaboutitsworkings,itseemsexactly the opposite. Because it is in the last five or six years that the university has seen the construction of many new buildings, much beautificationofoldbuildingsandparks,erectionof miles and miles of boundary walls apparently topreventencroachment(itis,ofcourse,another matter that these walls were broken within a year of their construction). The only conclusion that observers like us can come to is that buying books for the library offers fewer kickbacks than construction. So while the NAAC may be cribbing, bank managers are not.
But amongst the spruced-up buildings, tiled pathways, over-lit roads and other aspirational accoutrements it is apparent that education and its quality have been casualties. The university, which attracted students from all over India and much of the Far East, is now almost filled with students from the district. Academicians from across the world, who were visiting Santiniketan even a decade ago (when I first shifted base to Santiniketan), would always do the rounds of the university. Now they give it a miss. The ‘B’ grade can only make it worse.
Besides its academic duties, the VisvaBharati, unfortunately, fulfils another duty. That of making Santiniketan a tourist attraction for Bengali devotees of Tagore. And it’s probably this love for Tagore, which Mamata Banerjee has been known to display, that makes Santiniketan an ideal target for her serial announcements of many “development” projects for the area. Needless to say, almost all of them to ‘develop’ promoters.
So, in the midst of all this construction of high-rise buildings by the university authorities(completelyagainsttheheritageofTagore) and their air-conditioning to keep nature at bay, it is the poor students of the school, Patha Bhavana, which historically is under the administration of the university, who have to be the only torchbearers of Tagore. They still havetheirclassesunderthetrees(fortheviewingpleasureofthetourists)whiletheirB-grade administrators soak in the coolth.