Visva-Bharati 1st vice-chancellor Rathindranath Tagore to finally get his due

SANTINIKETAN: For years, people spoke in hushed tones about the first vice-chancellor of Visva-Bharati, Rathindranath Tagore, the eldest son of Rabindranath. Controversies dogged him during the first years of transition when the VB was taken over by the Centre. On the one hand, there were charges of a financial mess and on the other, an extra-marital relationship, both of which forced Rathindranath to resign. Finally, VB has shown a change in attitude and has decided to celebrate Rathindranath by publishing a multi-volume collection that will provide a glimpse into the man.
That he was a creative and technologically skilled man, who laid the foundations on which the university soared, was deliberately forgotten. This despite the fact that much of the financial charges against him were eventu-ally disproved.
The collection that the university has planned to publish has been christened ‘Rathindranath Samagra’, featuring a complete collection of Rathindranath’s work.
The first volume will have his never-seen-before essays, short stories and poems, the second volume will be a dossier on the most unusual technological innovations he made in architectural design, sculptures, carpentry and woodwork, leather and textile technology — famous as Santiniketan leatherwork that has received the GI tag and Santiniketan batik, as well as perfumes he designed. The third volume will include his letters to Meera, the woman he loved despite his wife Pratima being on campus. The final volume will contain his memoirs.
“He was a rare talent and much ahead of his time, which is why he was misunderstood. An agricultural scientist, he came back from the US with advanced ideas that gave birth to Sriniketan, which remains unique in the university system to this day. We believe that he was wronged and hence we have decided to pay our tribute to him by bringing out this edition,” said vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty.
Almost everything that Rathi Thakur, as he was lovingly called, created during his days at Santiniketan remains in the coffers of Rabindra Bhavan, the VB museum.
“These have been restored and the details of each of these items have been documented for the edition. We are in the last stages of bringing it out,” said special officer of Rabindra Bhavan Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay.