Viswa Bharati to celebrate Tagore’s Bangladesh connection

In a short span of two weeks, Tarik Sujat created a slice of Bangladesh in Santiniketan by curating a museum that will showcase original leaflets, posters and documents highlighting that country’s fight for independence in 1971. The museum is housed in Bangladesh Bhawan, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Friday.

“All this material come from the Bangladesh National Museum. They were brought to Visva Bharati by road, packed in three container trucks,” Mr. Sujat said.

Apart from photographs, letters and documents tracing the political developments, right from the Bhasa Andolan of 1952 to the birth of Bangladesh in 1971, the 4500-sq ft museum also houses archaeological specimens, mostly from Buddhist archaeological sites dating from the 6th to 15th century AD.

Built by the government of Bangladesh to highlight the links between the country and Rabindranath Tagore, the two-storied structure, including the museum and a library with over 3,000 books, has been built at a cost of ₹25 crore.

This is the third building built with foreign contribution on the campus of Visva Bharati, the other two being Cheena Bhawan by the Chinese and Nippon Bhawan by the Japanese government.

On Friday, after its inauguration, the Bangladesh Bhawan may turn out to be the venue of bilateral discussion between the two Prime Ministers. Vice-Chancellor Sabujkali Sen said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will also be present at the venue after the University’s convocation.

Bangladesh culture minister Asaduzzaman Noor said that within months his government would organise Bangladesh Utsav at the newly-constructed centre. “It was Rabindranath Tagore who was inspiration for the people of Bangladesh when they were fighting for their language,” he said.

Among the different sections of the museum, one is dedicated to Tagore’s Bangladesh connection. Stamps issued by Bangladesh during the 150th birth anniversary of the poet and articles used by the him, like lamps, have also been put on display at the museum.