Kolkata: On Monday morning, the Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal’s Shantiniketan saw a mob of over 1,000 people enter the campus and bulldoze parts of a newly constructed boundary wall.
The wall had come up around the venue where the Poush Mela – the famed annual winter cultural festival – is held.
Shantiniketan is located around 180 kilometres from the state capital of Kolkata, in Birbhum district.
By all accounts, Trinamool MLA from Dubrajpur, Naresh Bauri, had led the rampaging mob. “There is nothing political. I am here as a former university student. People of Bolpur, former and present students of the university and teachers all are against the construction of a boundary wall. People were angry with the authority’s move and they protested. It was a spontaneous move,” Bauri told local media from the site.
Following Monday’s violence, Visva-Bharati has been shut indefinitely except for admissions, exams and emergency services. The university administration has registered an FIR against Naresh Bauri and other local TMC leaders for entering the campus and razing the gates of the Poush Mela grounds.
Am distressed at rampant vandalism at Viswa Bharati with administration @MamataOfficial failing to take timely pre-emptive steps.
Have shared with CM the hoary scenes of violence and police and administration being no where around.
Appeal for peace to all. pic.twitter.com/9TtFBFe0Th
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) August 17, 2020
Shyam Singh, Superintendent of Police, Birbhum confirmed that eight people were arrested in connection with Monday’s vandalism at the campus.
Visva-Bharati is Bengal’s only central university. This makes Prime Minister Narendra Modi its chancellor. The university authorities have held a meeting with various heads of departments and other dignitaries and has reportedly apprised Modi of the incident. The authorities have also requested the Union education ministry to arrange for security forces so that further damage to university assets can be avoided.
Also read: ‘Not What Tagore Would’ve Wanted,’ Says Mamata as Row Erupts Over Visva-Bharati University Wall
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the people of Bolpur and university students did not like the steps taken by the university authorities. “I have requested the SP to organise a meeting with the DM and all stakeholders and resolve the issue peacefully. I don’t want any construction there which will spoil nature’s beauty. There should not be such things in Bengal which will destroy the culture and heritage of Bengal,” Banerjee said.
Boundary wall construction
As is well known, Rabindranath Tagore founded Visva-Bharati in 1921. Tagore believed that classrooms were similar to prisons and the closer students were to nature, the more they would learn of the environment around them. He himself took classes in the open air, a practice that is followed to the day.
Accordingly, there is no boundary wall at Visva-Bharati. The grounds where the Poush Mela is held each year is thus as much a part of the university as it is of the town.
A 1971 stamp dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Visva-Bharati University, featuring Rabindranath Tagore and the university building. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Students, locals and the teaching staff were initially irked with the varsity’s plan to construct a boundary wall to delineate the campus. For three days before the Monday showdown, the university campus had been witnessing milder protests against the unilateral move by Bidyut Chakrabarty, the vice-chancellor, to build a wall around the Poush Mela grounds.
According to some locals, the protesters had attempted to open talks with the vice-chancellor and seek his appointment, but the professor had reportedly turned them down.
“The vice-chancellor is trying to change the traditions of our university. First, he decided to cancel this year’s Poush Mela. Now he has ordered construction of a boundary wall. We believe that these are preparations that aim to permanently cancel Poush Utsav and later, Basanta Utsav. The vice-chancellor has taken orders from the RSS,” a Visva-Bharati student told The Wire, requesting to remain anonymous.
Last month, breaking 125-year-old tradition, the Executive Council of Visva-Bharati decided to cancel the Poush Mela event slated for December. The decision, it was stated, was not because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Vice-chancellor Chakrabarty had then said that the university was “ill-equipped” to organise such an event.
Several calls to the VC by The Wire, for a response, went unanswered. The Wire has sent an email with queries to the VC, pro VC and registrar. The copy will be updated if and when they respond.
Stakeholders of the event were not even consulted, they allege. Shantiniketan Trust, the highest decision-making body of the Poush Mela, was not taken into confidence before the Poush Mela was cancelled.
Lawyer Aurobindo Ghose, in a column in The Indian Express, called the decision to scrap the festivals “disturbing”. “There seems to be a concerted move to strip the centenary celebrations of Tagore’s spirit of inclusiveness. Hence, the decision to ban the Poush Mela and Basanta Utsav,” Ghose noted. Visva-Bharati’s ‘centenary celebrations’ would have begun in December this year.
The construction of the wall has come as the latest example of the steady allegation by Shantiniketan residents that the vice-chancellor and his activities are in contrast with Tagore’s ideas.
“The university was always open and it has a strong connection with the local population. By putting up a wall, the VC is killing the idea of Shantiniketan,” said Falguni Pan, a member of the Visva-Bharati Student Unity, the largest student forum of the varsity.
Students at the Visva-Bharati campus. Photo: www.visvabharati.ac.in
NGT order
In 2015, the eastern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had pulled up Visva-Bharati authorities and said that the year’s Poush Mela had violated its directions.
In 2019, the NGT had further stated that festivities at the fair would have to be completed in three or four days.
In a press release, the university authorities have cited an NGT verdict dated November 1, 2017, to justify the wall.
However, locals say that while the NGT had asked the university to “demarcate” the area of the Poush Mela, there was no mention of a permanent construction to do so.
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Bolpur resident, 69-year-old Sailen Mishra said, “The VC is acting like a BJP agent and has been trying to do away with Tagore’s idea of education. The court has asked to demarcate the Poush Mela, we request the college authority to do that by planting trees. Nearly 25-30 years ago, the grounds did have a line of trees along its periphery. But the VC wants tall walls. He wants to make Visva-Bharati a prison.”
Notably, the debate comes at a time when the Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, the education wing of the RSS headed by Dinanath Batra, has publicly demanded that Tagore’s thoughts—especially those related to nationalism be removed from NCERT textbooks.