PRESIDENT OF INDIA ADDRESSES THE ANNUAL CONVOCATION OF VISVA-BHARATI

Rashtrapati Bhavan : 11.11.2019

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, graced and addressed the annual convocation of Visva-Bharati at Santiniketan today (November 11, 2019).

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that Visva-Bharati is the realisation of Gurudev’s vision of India in dialogue with the world. He developed it as a place for "incubation of ideas”. The place welcomed cultural influences from across the world while remaining grounded in the Indian ethos. This uniqueness of Visva-Bharati is something that we need to prize and hold up with pride before the entire world. It was in this place that Tagore lived, worked and gave concrete shape to his dreams. He said that Visva-Bharati’s illustrious alumni covering a diverse range of personalities from Indira Gandhi and Satyajit Ray to Amartya Sen have not only fulfilled its founder’s vision to a great extent, but also contributed in taking independent India to new heights in various walks of life.

The President said that when it was founded, Visva-Bharati was like an oasis in the vast desert of pedagogies that, more often than not, saw learners as robots to be programmed. In this oasis, Tagore had taught us to live in a manner that would fulfil the inner urges of the human self. For this purpose, he felt it necessary not only to train the minds of the students through disciplines like philosophy, literature or history, but also to engage their souls with music and painting and fine arts. Given the pragmatic needs, there was space for agricultural studies too. This is why alongside Santiniketan, the Abode of Peace, he gave so much importance to rural reconstruction and village welfare at Sriniketan, the Abode of Prosperity.