| Activity | University. Divided over two campuses at:
Santiniketan, a centre of culture where research into and study of the religion, literature, history, science and art of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Islamic, Sikh, Christian and other civilisations is pursued along with the culture of the West.
Sriniketan, concerned with life and welfare of villagers and cultivators, and to initiate a dialogue between academic study and research of rural economy / culture and on-field experience. The Institute of Rural Reconstruction was founded in 1922 at Surul at a distance of about three kilometres from Santiniketan. It was formally inaugurated on February 6, 1922 with Leonard Elmhirst as its first Director. The chief object was to help villagers and people solve their own problems instead of a solution being imposed on them from outside.
Founded by Rabindranath Tagore, initially in 1901 as a school for children called Brahmacharyasrama, then from 1925 became known as Patha-Bhavana. Classes held in open air, curriculum included the study of music, painting, drama and other performance arts. On 23 December 1921 Visva-Bharati became a registered public body which adopted a constitution of its own. Vidya-Bhavana or the Institution of Higher Studies and Research was the manifestation of the ideal of the proposed centre of comprehensive studies in the cultures of the East and the West. The centre was viewed principally as a community of scholars, Indian as well as foreign, who would be engaged in creation & dissemination of systematised and philanthropic reasoning. In line with the ideas about reconstruction of village life, a new type of school, meant mainly for the children of neighbouring villages who would eventually bring the offering of their acquired knowledge for the welfare of the village community, was also conceived. This school, Siksha-Satra, was started in Santiniketan in 1924 but was shifted to Sriniketan in 1927. The Lok-Siksha Samsad, an organization for the propagation of non-formal education amongst those who had no access to usual educational opportunities, was started in 1936. Siksha-Charcha for training village school teachers followed next year. In 1937 Cheena-Bhavana, the department of Sino-Indian studies was established. In 1939, the Hindi-Bhavana with certain distinct projects of studies was founded. Kala-Bhavana which was originally the institute for both Fine Arts and Music came into existence in 1921 but in 1934 it divided into two independent institutions, Kala-Bhavana and Sangit-Bhavana. In May 1951, Visva-Bharati was declared to be a Central University and "An Institution of National Importance" by an Act of Parliament. It was granted the status of a unitary, teaching and residential university. |