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Santiniketan : A Winter of Contentment

by Zillur Rahman Siddiqui
THIS was the winter of 1984-85. A few months earlier, Professor Amlan Datta. Vice-Chancellor of Visua-Bharatl had written to ask if I would like to spend a term of visiting professorship at Santiniketan 1 replied to say that, as far as I was concerned, the offer was more than welcome. If those were not the exact words I wrote, that was exactly my sentiment. I was about to complete my second term of vice-chancellorship. Full eight years of university administration, uijder the circumstances in Bangladesh, left me ready to accept any assignment of a purely academic nature outside the country. Santiniketan meant an abode of peace. And peace was what my heart yearned after
I had been to Santiniketan before this. It was so short a visit, half a day and a night, that It left me only eager for a longer visit, and a more relaxed one. The university's offer could not be bettered, both In terms of the timing and of terms.
About the timing I have already said something. I only wish to add that though Professor Datta wanted me to be there in July, I postponed It till November. 1 didn’t fancy being there In summer, and winter held many temptations, the famed Paush Mela being one of them.
The day 1 was to have taken the train for Santiniketan. Indira Gandhi was killed Suddenly. In Calcutta, midnight descended in broad day-light. There was no train for anywhere. I left the following day. a lone passenger In my compartment. At Bolepur railway station, there was no body to receive me because there was no message. A rickshaw ride to Santiniketan was a good introduction to the tenor of life waiting for me for the next three months.
Now about the terms. The Vice-Chancellor’s letter had explained what was expected of a visiting professor. He would be formally attached to one of the several Bhabans and the choice would be his. He would prepare his own programme of work during his stay at the university which would impose no requirement on its part. The whole idea was to give, as also to receive from, the academic community whatever one was capable of giving and receiving. Professor
Datta must have put 1t in a more urbane language, and I sm not quoting him verbatim, but 1 believe I have conveyed the essence of the idea
And need I say that it was a most civilized idea, well understood and practised in many universities of Europe and America. Rabindranath, being a supremely civilized man. had a full understanding of the Idea which, unfortunately, many of us In the universities are too dense to appreciate. India, being somewhat more civilized than ourselves, has a University Grants Commission that can sponsor ideas commensurate with universities The visiting professorship was one of them. Incidentally Visua-Bharatl has another concept which ft shares with some distinguished American universities, -- the concept of a writer and an artist-in-residence. During my stsy. I was able to spend a tong evening with the artlst-ln-resldence. but 1 missed the wrlter-in-res-Idence. Sankha Ghose, well-known as a poet and critic was holding the position that year but because of illness, he had left Santiniketan soon after he had arrived.
We were three of us in that complex of rooms. Panchabati, — five units in all. as the name suggests. Each unit consisted of a bed-sitter and a dining room with cooking facilities' It was enough for a single person but not good enough for a couple. One of my neighbours was a Russian, who taught the language The other was an Italian, and he had Interests going beyond language. Both had come much earlier and were going to remain much longer and both had their regular teaching assignment. I stood on an entirely different ground. Wc were good neighbours, that was all
On arrival, I was received by
my good friend. Dr Naresh Guha who had retired from Jadavpur University and had come over to Visua Bharati as the Director of Rablndra Bhaban. Without a moment s hesitation, I got myself attached to Rablndra Bhaban The English Department possibly took note of this and did nt object but quietly they sent a proposal through their emissaries, three or four stu dents. There was a remarkably good looking young lady In the group whom I later found to be a Tagore
They have a coffee break around ten In the morning. At least. in the English Department, that was the ar range men t. The proposal came from the teachers over my first cup of coffee with them. This was their common room, and here they assembled at ten when there was a half an hour s recess The Department was badly tn need of a teacher to do the Chaucer texts for the M A class. Could I? would I? I didn't feel comfortable with the proposal as I was out of touch with this area but I nodded my consent. It was an easy way of earning their, more particularly the students' gratitude.
On my first day. or maybe within the next few days. Dr Naresh Guha — I will call him simply Naresh henceforward — took me out and showed me round the complex of houses that Rabindranath had built for himself over the years. This is usually interpreted as one more expression of the poet s restless spirit. Naresh felt it his duty to find a suitable room for me and he made a very special offer, a room tn the house last occupied by the poet. He assured me that it was the first offer of its kind but I politely declined. I should be too much isolated. Also the room was musty because It had not been in regular use. So I chose a quiet comer for me on
the first floor of Rablndra Bhaban which housed the library II was quiet but It had a short smell of the chemical they used to keep off insects and save the books. SUil I was happy because I wanted to be near the books.
My time was divided between this comer and another comer that they had found for me In the Central Library. The stacks of this Centra) Library were In a mess but 1 was used to this sort of disarray back at home.
Did 1 finij a vigorous intellectual life at Santiniketan? No. Visua-Bharatl, as a Central Government university was well off financially. This status It owed to the Initiative of Pandit Nehru, with his great admiration for the poet who had left a request to Mahatma Gandhi to see that Visua-Bharatl survived after the poet s death. Story goes that GandhIJi passed on the message to Nehru, and Nehru found this solution. The university has since then been under the direct care of the central government and as one of the five or six central universities it receives more grants than an average Indian university does. In academic terms, however. I thought Visua-Bharatl suffered because of its geographical situation and its rural setting, which, in its totality does not encourage the best students to come here. This deficiency is compensated by the fact that, as a place and as an institution. Santiniketan Is larger than Visua-Bharatl. As an academic concept. Santiniketan aims at offering the whole gamut of it. — primary through secondary to tertiary. No other university is so Integrated with the two earlier phases of education, and this is the specially of Santiniketan.
What I found much more of
a compensation was the other dimensions of Santiniketan. viz. social and cultural. People, especially foreign visitors in India, usually do not fall to pay a visit to Santiniketan, a name which has still kept a magic about ft. All this is because of Rabindranath. During my stay, one of these visitors was Miss Margery Sykes. Long ago. as a fresh graduate from Cambridge, she had come here, and had taught English Literature. Then she had left, and moved to other parts of India, and became a social worker as a follower of Gandhljl's ideal of service. She was old now. They had arranged a special meeting for her. In which she gave a talk on her association with two great, men. Rabindranath and GandhIJi. Both speaker and Ils teners squatted on the floor. Santiniketan style. The audience consisted mostly of old ashramiks, and an illusion was created as Miss Sykes was reminiscing, as tf wc had gone back to the days of Rabindranath.
But the days are gone, irretrievably lost, as the old ashramiks will tell you. with a half-repressed sign perhaps. There Is a day in Santiniketan calender, a day of remembrance of the dead ashramiks/residents. It starts with a memorial service Time 1s early morning and venue, the Amra Kunja. the mango grove. 1 hope I am right here. In the meeting which 1 attended, the special guest or guest of honour was Professor Amiya Dasgupta, the well-known economist, who had taught at Dhaka University for many years, before he ml grated to India. He spoke of his old university, in glowing terms. I later talked to him. thanking him for his dlgrcs sion which had pleased me as an old student of the place
Next to Naresh whom I met almost every day. I valued the company in Santiniketan of Amlan Datta who was very good at finding occasions, or creat Ing them, so that we could meet and talk Amlan left after a ttouple of months and was succeeded by Prof Nlmat Sadhan Bose, a historian Prof
Bose presided over a func tion In which I read a paper on poetry in Bangladesh For Ulus trating my point. I read verses from Shamsur Rahman. Al Mahmud and myself. At the end of my talk. Bose Insisted that we have a session of poetry reading. entirely devoted to my poetry, and the sole reciter being myself I was flabbergasted, but Naresh went ahead and arranged It. at the suggestion of the Vice Chancellor, in his own drawing room, the V C's lounge being too small!
To my mind, that was the most glorious evening of my life. I am not a bad reciter. I read from my poems for over an hour, and the audience was large enough to fill up the room. I have many fond memories of Santiniketan, the very exclusive Wednesday morning Albola meeting of elders — membership being restricted to men over sixty, — the evenings at Aravinda Nilay. the Ekushey celebrations at Sangeet Bhaban, the Inspired performance of maestro Santideb Ghose, his singing and his dancing. with a number of Bauls Joining him; the evenings of warm friendship tn Slbnarayan Ray's house. RUDRAPALASH. to mention Just a few My Cahucer class, my hours in the library, formed the routine part of my life. But the moments I remember most and I cherish most were outside this routine. Santiniketan Impressed me preeminently as a place of leisured pursuit of culture, a place of repose, of memory. It was a good place for people with a tong past, perhaps not so good a ptace who have along future.