Sudip Sarkar
Rabindranath Tagore nurtured a unique but definitive idea about education and his vision of a place of learning- where narrowness of religious and regional boundaries was never allowed to make any inroads, where the concept of a universal man flourished, where education was not restricted to narrow confines of a classroom, where mankind would learn to live in perfect harmony with Nature, where the East and the West would meet in a spirit of co-operativeness and sharing of knowledge and experience- blossomed in Santiniketan, a place far removed from the hustle-bustle of city life and tucked away in the midst of red earth, greenery of swaying paddy fields, where the soft melody of a murmuring river will echo into the ears, where the red-robed bauls, ektara in hand, would sing in exburance with and in the buoyancy of life's rhythms, where Nature would majestically come alive in an array of splendid manifestations across the cycle of seasons.
Rabindranath's father Maharshi Debendranath Thakur, taking on permanent lease 20 acres of land in Bolpur of Birbhum, located some 160 kms from Calcutta, established thereon a guesthouse named Santiniketan in 1863, which was later expanded by Rabindranath into a unique place of learning which ultimately gave birth to Visva-Bharati. The entire area around Maharshi's guesthouse gradually came to be known as Santiniketan. Rabindranath first visited Santiniketan in 1878, when he was only seventeen.
Rabindranath was one of the earliest educators in our country to think in terms of a global village, which is now-a-days a cherished buzz word in the present digital era. He felt that education must be rooted in one's own immediate surroundings but it must not be confined there but has to expand to establish a connect with the wider world. With this objective in view, Tagore established an experimental school on December 22, 1901 with just five students of whom his eldest son was one. He first named it Brahmacharya Ashram conforming to the age-old tradition of ancient forest hermitages (Tapoban). The Brahmacharya Ashram later came to be known as Patha Bhavan from 1925. With this small journey, Tagore's institute at a later stage developed into a university, Visva-Bharati, a central university and an institute of national importance in 1951, ten years after Tagore's death in a sprawling area of more than 1000 acres in Santiniketan meaning 'the abode of peace'.
While establishing the school in Santiniketan, Rabindranath wrote: " Because I underwent this process ( meaning machine-made learning forced upon students ) when I was young, and remember the torture of it, I tried to establish a a school where boys must be free in spite of the school. Knowing something of the natural school which Nature supplies to all her creatures, I established my institution in a beautiful spot, far away from town, where the children had the greatest freedom possible........" L.K.Elmhirst, an Englishman, a personal friend of Tagore and an agricultural scientist took charge of this school, as he was greatly impressed by Tagore's unique and innovative idea of education.
When Maria Montessori visited the school in 1939, she was greatly touched by Tagore's approach and declared that she was in complete sympathy and agreement with the founder-poet's philosophy of education. Rabindranath believed in experimental learning and active engagement of the student with the world aimed at fostering a spirit of oneness amongst them and inculcating a feel of international understanding and universal brotherhood because of the absence of which the present-day world is riddled with so many conflicts, tensions and bloody clashes which once again points to Tagore's sagacity and far-sightedness.
In short, Santiniketan stands for living experiment of Tagore's philosophy and idea of education. Tagore sincerely believed that only true edcation can impart right values which act as the stepping stone to creating a world of brotherhood, fraternity and friendliness. It is not without reason that Tagore's Santiniketan has gifted India outstanding personalities like Satyajit Roy, Amartya Sen, Indira Gandhi excelling in fields as diverse as films, economics, poliics with highest international recognition.
About Writer
Sudip Sarkar is a member of Rabindramela Berhampore
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