Shofiqur Rahman Chowdhury :
The question itself – why Tagore is still memorable–may sound irrelevant. There is no deliberate attempt right now to deny the poet, the peer, the epitome of creativity. But there are all the signs of neglect, of sidetracking. Despite his abundant availability, we are not reaching out to him as often as we should, or in the manner we should.
Let us take Rabindranath, the teacher, the poet and his educational thoughts and practices. These were both pragmatic and insightful. And let us not forget, that these grew out of his personal experience as a school-going boy and from his acute observation of the educational scene.
Tagore, as an educationist, was not content with preaching, which many of us are, but went ahead at the earliest opportunity, to put his ideas into practice. His first concern was the education of children, and the result was his school for children. The school developed, and grew, vertically, over years and finally there developed the super-structure of a university under the name of ViswaBharati. The important thing to note is that despite this continuous growth, the school, in a growing educational complex, never lost its identity, was never threatened by the stronger presence of a higher instution.Not only the school is very much there, it is there with all its original qualities, the open air classes in the morning hours of the day, the Ashrama-setting that the poet had devised for it. Viswa-Bharati as a University, is unique in so far as the school is statutorily represented in the highest governing body. This is a confirmation and a vindication of Tagore’s belief that education is one continuous process, and the first phase is the most vital. First, but not the least.
It is the supremacy of the first phase of education. So important for Tagore, and guarded so zealously in his Santiniketan, that has been lost sight of in Bangladesh. Here, in this over depraved culture our distorted sense of priorities, the nation’s excess money could easily be utilized in founding more schools, in supporting the existing ones, in improving their conditions. The depressed look of most of our schools would have shocked Tagore. Tagore believed in two things, as far as education of the young is concerned, freedom and joy, and these in close contact with nature. He would have been shocked by the weight of books and vibrant subjects like a foreign tongue and of all things, religion, that characterize our system of primary education. In fact, the present system, both heavy-footed and dull-headed, is a denial of his lucid ideas and his sensible plans.
As and when the university grew and took shape, Tagore’s chief concern was again to assemble a teaching faculty, every individual member of which would take teaching as a ‘broto’ – a mission. Teaching was not for everybody and any body. He would personally satisfy himself about the quality and commitment of those he would seek scholars from all parts of the world, and offer them the hospitality of his Santiniketan. A university, for him, would be a misnomer unless the world, the cultures of the peoples of the world.
Tagore, we know, did not have the abundant resoures of a western university like Oxford or Harvard at his disposal. But it is amazing when we recall the number of scholars and artist, he was able to draw to his university. Because it was his idea of a university, it could not be a carbon copy of any other university, or one bearing a close resemblance with another.
In February 1926, Tagore visited Dhaka, and was a guest of the university. Vice-Chancellor Dr Ramesh Chandra Majumdar was instrumental in extending the invitation to him. This visit gave him an opportunity, of viewing new university at work, university terms, where the halls of residence were astir with cultural pursuits. I have heard an old Dhaka student, and later a teacher, Dr Amiya Das Gupta recall with great feeling, as Santiniketan, the University of those days, and claiming a kinship of the two universities, the Dhaka University of his times, and Viswa-Bharati as Tagore made it.
It is not important for a university to be large in size, what is important is for it to be large in spirit. Viswa-Bharati under the guidance of Tagore was not large in size, but was large and universal in spirit. Institutions change, but legacies remain. We could very well be heirs to this legacy of tagore’s , but are we?
Tagore often made a distinction between state and society. The state, as it was in his days, a British colony aspiring after Independence, remained for him an alien concept, an idea still to be realised. He did not live to see the Indian state being shaped by Jawharlal Nehru or Subhas Bose, the future leaders on whom he put his trust. Contrarily, he viewed society, the historic Indian society comprising many communities, as the real fabric of the Indian nation, the living force he could put his trust on. Not that he was not aware of the flaws, weaknesses, contention within the society. But despite all these, the society was a living organism, and it could be renovated, revamped and energised to make life meaningful and self-fulfilling.
In building his Santiniketan, and later his Sriniketan, he sought no help from the government, and received none.He was a great believer in self-help, and help coming from the society. His appeal was to the civil society, as it was then, and the appeal did not go in vain.
–[email protected]
The question itself – why Tagore is still memorable–may sound irrelevant. There is no deliberate attempt right now to deny the poet, the peer, the epitome of creativity. But there are all the signs of neglect, of sidetracking. Despite his abundant availability, we are not reaching out to him as often as we should, or in the manner we should.
Let us take Rabindranath, the teacher, the poet and his educational thoughts and practices. These were both pragmatic and insightful. And let us not forget, that these grew out of his personal experience as a school-going boy and from his acute observation of the educational scene.
Tagore, as an educationist, was not content with preaching, which many of us are, but went ahead at the earliest opportunity, to put his ideas into practice. His first concern was the education of children, and the result was his school for children. The school developed, and grew, vertically, over years and finally there developed the super-structure of a university under the name of ViswaBharati. The important thing to note is that despite this continuous growth, the school, in a growing educational complex, never lost its identity, was never threatened by the stronger presence of a higher instution.Not only the school is very much there, it is there with all its original qualities, the open air classes in the morning hours of the day, the Ashrama-setting that the poet had devised for it. Viswa-Bharati as a University, is unique in so far as the school is statutorily represented in the highest governing body. This is a confirmation and a vindication of Tagore’s belief that education is one continuous process, and the first phase is the most vital. First, but not the least.
It is the supremacy of the first phase of education. So important for Tagore, and guarded so zealously in his Santiniketan, that has been lost sight of in Bangladesh. Here, in this over depraved culture our distorted sense of priorities, the nation’s excess money could easily be utilized in founding more schools, in supporting the existing ones, in improving their conditions. The depressed look of most of our schools would have shocked Tagore. Tagore believed in two things, as far as education of the young is concerned, freedom and joy, and these in close contact with nature. He would have been shocked by the weight of books and vibrant subjects like a foreign tongue and of all things, religion, that characterize our system of primary education. In fact, the present system, both heavy-footed and dull-headed, is a denial of his lucid ideas and his sensible plans.
As and when the university grew and took shape, Tagore’s chief concern was again to assemble a teaching faculty, every individual member of which would take teaching as a ‘broto’ – a mission. Teaching was not for everybody and any body. He would personally satisfy himself about the quality and commitment of those he would seek scholars from all parts of the world, and offer them the hospitality of his Santiniketan. A university, for him, would be a misnomer unless the world, the cultures of the peoples of the world.
Tagore, we know, did not have the abundant resoures of a western university like Oxford or Harvard at his disposal. But it is amazing when we recall the number of scholars and artist, he was able to draw to his university. Because it was his idea of a university, it could not be a carbon copy of any other university, or one bearing a close resemblance with another.
In February 1926, Tagore visited Dhaka, and was a guest of the university. Vice-Chancellor Dr Ramesh Chandra Majumdar was instrumental in extending the invitation to him. This visit gave him an opportunity, of viewing new university at work, university terms, where the halls of residence were astir with cultural pursuits. I have heard an old Dhaka student, and later a teacher, Dr Amiya Das Gupta recall with great feeling, as Santiniketan, the University of those days, and claiming a kinship of the two universities, the Dhaka University of his times, and Viswa-Bharati as Tagore made it.
It is not important for a university to be large in size, what is important is for it to be large in spirit. Viswa-Bharati under the guidance of Tagore was not large in size, but was large and universal in spirit. Institutions change, but legacies remain. We could very well be heirs to this legacy of tagore’s , but are we?
Tagore often made a distinction between state and society. The state, as it was in his days, a British colony aspiring after Independence, remained for him an alien concept, an idea still to be realised. He did not live to see the Indian state being shaped by Jawharlal Nehru or Subhas Bose, the future leaders on whom he put his trust. Contrarily, he viewed society, the historic Indian society comprising many communities, as the real fabric of the Indian nation, the living force he could put his trust on. Not that he was not aware of the flaws, weaknesses, contention within the society. But despite all these, the society was a living organism, and it could be renovated, revamped and energised to make life meaningful and self-fulfilling.
In building his Santiniketan, and later his Sriniketan, he sought no help from the government, and received none.He was a great believer in self-help, and help coming from the society. His appeal was to the civil society, as it was then, and the appeal did not go in vain.
–[email protected]
