The texts of these speeches are scattered in the archives and libraries of the university. Some of these may be lost forever unless they are put together and published. In a few rare cases the text could not be found since an oral presentation was made without a text; in the majority of such cases, however, reports published in the Visva-Bharati News are available. For reasons of economy the speeches could not be published in their entirety and hence this selection of excerpts. We would like to thank Ms Supriya Ray and the staff of the Rabindra Bhavana library for their assistance in collecting the texts of the speeches.
Some earlier exponents of this theme have presented this evolution as an undifferentiated continuity leading Up to the creation of Visva-Bharati.1 It may be more accurate to recognise some major changes in Tagore's outlook in various phases and,, at the same time, a continuity in terms of some core ideas. These changes, once they are recognised, do not allow us to interpret Tagore's educational philosophy by compiling at random, without regard to chronology and historical context, extracts from Tagore's writings. What is required is a contextual interpretation of the text, i.e, attention to the chronological sequence as a clue to the stratification. of these writings in relation to contemporary historical circumstances. It is an injustice to Tagore's genius, to his remarkable responsiveness to his own life experiences and to the life around him, if we remain content with an interpretation that he had one set of ideas which he kept on repeating throughout his life, that there was no progress or evolution in his thinking. The historical stratification of Tagore's writings and speeches on education, in the context of his activities and interactions, suggests that broadly we can trace the evolution of his educational philosophy in four different phases.
Apart from resource constraints of financial and other kinds, there was also a problem of lack of definition of functions in changing circum-stances. The change came from the expansion of governmental activity in the areas of health care, schooling, cooperative banking, etc. When Sriniketan was founded the colonial government's policy paid little attention to these activities and hence a great need for social interventions of the kind that Sriniketan and some similar institutions attempted. The planned development and rural programmes undertaken by the government since independence, however short they might have been of expectations, made certain social interventions redundant in some older areas of activity and created the need and opportunity for such activities in other areas. Further, for activities complementary to rural upliftment programmes of the government, the university's conventional manpower employment structure was inappropriate. A redefinition of the role of Sriniketan was called for. Some attempts were made in this direction, in particular in teaching and disseminating Agricultural Science and Social Work, as is evident from reports of the Vice-Chancellors.
THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ROLE
A national and international role was charted out for Visva-Bharati by its founder. In his speech on the occasion of the foundation of the institution in 1921 Rabindranath Tagore outlined this role in the form of two objectives: uniting the diverse cultural streams of India and linking them all with the global civilization of mankind.
The first of these objectives was achieved to a substantial extent. The composition of student population cutting across linguistic and provincial boundaries was a feature of Visva-Bharati in the 'twenties and the thirties.' However, it must be remembered that in those days this was true of universities like Calcutta or Madras as well, since their territorial boundaries were far-flung. What was distinctive about Tagore's effort in Santiniketan was to consciously recognise and promote the, study of language and cultures of different parts of India, and to offer a philosophical framework for the assimilation of cultural diversities. The difference between multingual and multi-cultural student composition in, say, Calcutta and in Santiniketan was the difference between a pile of bricks on the one hand, and on the other a building with an architectonic conception behind it.
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