Rajat Kanta Ray, the vice chancellor of Visva-Bharati claimed to have stirred the hornet nest in the university. Some of the things he did are worth mentioning here.
He insisted that the students in humanities departments write their examinations mandatorily in English. This would have allowed the university to send the answer scripts to universities outside the state for evaluation.
Also, it would have enabled the university to have a greater pool of teachers from universities throughout the country to involve them in the process of setting question papers as well. In other words, the entire examination process would no longer have been a prisoner to a small group of teachers from handful of universities in the state. But that was resisted by some teachers. Then came the initiative to bring all the ten languages taught in Visva-Bharati under one umbrella called Bhasa Bhavana (school of languages). Visva-Bharati has the unique distinction of teaching in pre-modern Chinese language, Tibetan and honours in Japanese language.
Yet resistance from some teachers can only mean their resistance to change. Another initiative taken during the tenure of the present vice chancellor is cause for more heartburn for the vested interests. To attract students from various parts of the country, the university decided to go for aggressive recruitment campaigns. This year, for the first time, the university advertised in various states and conducted admission tests in
Shillong, Kolkata, Ranchi, Delhi and Hyderabad. G Subbaiya, who was in charge of the admission process, was candid in admitting that the response was less than expected. But he pointed out that since the university started the process very late in the academic year, not many courses could be offered this year. Next year onwards, more courses would be available to the students from other states. With more and more quality students entering Visva-Bharati through competitive tests, demand for quality teaching will grow which in turn might change the atmosphere of the campus.
But to bring about change, the vice chancellor must be able to take the university community with him. Supriyo Tagore, a retired principal of Patha Bhavana, the original school with which Rabindranath started his Santiniketan, sees in Rajat Kanta Ray, a haughty and insensitive person. Some other academics, past and present, share the view.
This has created a distance between the vice chancellor and a large number of people who otherwise could have been strong supporters of the changes he aspires to bring in Visva-Bharati.
Rabindranath’s name still has the strong pull to attract funds from all kind of sources. Somendranath Bandopadhaya points out that some time back a group of former students from Japan raised funds and gave them to Visva-Bharati to set up Nippon Bhavana with the expressed intention that it would act as a Centre for Indo-Japanese Relation and Cultural Exchange.
After the initial years, it is now languishing in neglect. The Agro-Economics Research Centre, which was renowned for its regular field studies and other activities, and which has the long tradition of collaborating with scholars like Amartya Sen, Ashok Rudra, Barbara Harriss and many others, is now gathering dust. With no permanent director for the last 15 years, the Centre lacks direction. The allegation of poor administration sticks to the vice chancellor as he tends to ignore the charge.
Instead of attending these problems, the vice chancellor appears to be vying with the agitating workers for media attention. Santiniketan was recently witness to an absurd drama enacted at Chhatim Tala, a place linked with the sacred memory of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore (father of Rabindranath), when the vice chancellor was seen lying prostrated there.
Later he claimed that he was seeking directions from Debendranath (died in 1905). After that incident, for the first time the agitating employees started using that spot as their meeting place.
