Source: The post is based on the article “Express View on Santiniketan’s world heritage status: At home in the world” published in The Indian Express on 19th September 2023.
Syllabus: GS 1 – Indian History – Modern Indian History
News: Santiniketan, the home of late Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage sites list. It is India’s 41st world heritage site and the third in West Bengal. The move is a significant achievement.
About Santiniketan
Read Here: Tagore’s home Santiniketan added to UNESCO World Heritage List
What were the views of Rabindranath Tagore regarding Santiniketan?
Rabindranath Tagore’s educational experiment in Santiniketan was rooted in his belief that diversity was crucial to overcome the constraints of parochiality.
In 1901, he established Patha Bhavan, a residential school, and in 1921, during Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement, he founded Visva-Bharati as a global gurukul.
The vision of establishing Visva-Bharati aimed to unite people beyond nationalism, focusing on the vision of shared humanity.
Tagore expressed his discontent with nationalism, which he saw as limiting and eventually leading to arrogance. His university vision aimed to connect people to nature and others worldwide, going beyond borders, unlike the Western model.
Santiniketan was meant to be a place of empathy, where teachers, students, colleagues, and neighbors built close relationships.
It was like a global village, with a motto “Yatra visvam bhavatieka nidam,” – unhindered by the territorial imagination of the nation-state.
What is the significance of listing Santiniketan in UNESCO World Heritage sites list?
Visva-Bharati is facing difficulties due to internal problems and the wider political changes affecting most of the higher education in the state.
The Tagorean vision for Visva-Bharati has also faced challenges in recent years, both in practice and philosophy. For instance, in 2017, the education wing of the RSS advocated for the removal of Tagore’s nationalist ideas from NCERT textbooks.
Further, in 2020, the university’s decision to build a wall around the campus, which was originally open, symbolized the growing disconnect between the university’s administration and its original vision.
Therefore, the World Heritage tag for Santiniketan is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of its tangible and intangible heritage, and how it can serve as a model for all universities.
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