I am trying hard to start a school in Santiniketan. I want it to be like the ancient hermitages we know about. There will be no luxuries, the rich and poor alike will live like ascetics. But I cannot find the right teachers. It is proving impossible to combine today’s practices with yesterday’s ideals. Simplicity and hard work are not tempting enough…
Rabindranath Tagore,
1901
The recent
case of sexual harassment of a student of Vishwa-Bharati University has
provoked me to write this piece. It is such a shameful thing that the
University authorities are protecting the culprits and denying the allegations.
The statement given by the victim’s father throws light on how best possible
ways were laid to hush-up the matter. I read regarding an inquiry team being
appointed, as usual. As a mark of condemned, the Vishwa-Bharati Vice-Chancellor’s effigy was burned down
in JNU campus. Good that incident of this kind is not taken
insouciantly.
Any
university in India or abroad has commitment to foster campus environment that both promotes and expedites prompt reporting of sexual
misconduct and appropriate and just adjudication of sexual misconduct cases. I
am wondering whether Visva-Bharati as a university has Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH)
which clearly states, ‘any act that falls within the definition of sexual misconduct
constitutes a violation of University policy.’ The universities that has GSCASH
brings about rules and provisions which are designed to protect the rights,
needs, and privacy of the student making a University complaint, as well as the
rights of students accused of sexual misconduct. In
some of the universities, sexual misbehavior might also constitute criminal
activity. In such instances, students are strongly encouraged to bring the
matter to the notice of law enforcement authorities. Students may inform
law enforcement authorities about sexual misconduct and discuss the matter with
a law enforcement officer without making a formal criminal complaint or a
formal University complaint.
In record it shows, the chances of a fruitful criminal investigation are considerably enhanced if proof is collected and maintained immediately by law enforcement officers. Sexual misconduct can be committed by men or women, and it can happen between people of the same or different sex. Readily, the Universities have to make this policy and educational opportunities available to all students and other members of the University community for creating a respectful, safe, and non-threatening environment, which, indeed is the responsibility of all members of the University community.
In record it shows, the chances of a fruitful criminal investigation are considerably enhanced if proof is collected and maintained immediately by law enforcement officers. Sexual misconduct can be committed by men or women, and it can happen between people of the same or different sex. Readily, the Universities have to make this policy and educational opportunities available to all students and other members of the University community for creating a respectful, safe, and non-threatening environment, which, indeed is the responsibility of all members of the University community.
What
surprised me most was the institution where it happened, and sadly, this is not
the first time, it has happened in past too.
No, I am not an alumna of Vishwa-Bharati
University but I know its history, it is different from other university in
many ways. To start with, it was the brain child of Rabindranath Tagore, the
poet I truly respect. Tagore as an internationalist stood for the cooperation
of various nations, he did not believe in the confinement of a nation with
itself. His international experience gave him a new idea, that he must bring
his country into contact with the world at large. He felt that over emphasis on
narrow nationalism led men and countries into paths of conflict. There should
be an institution that emphasized the unity of the world’s culture and streams
of knowledge. He considered Santiniketan (later renamed into
Vishwa-Bharati along with Sriniketan) to be that institution.
Tagore
believed that India might be intensely national and yet, at the same time,
international with her thought and sympathy embracing the world. In the midst
of our national struggle, he created that symbol of internationalism that is
Visa Bharati. During his last stage of life he is supposed to have said to Gandhi
the words below, which in a way shows how deeply he loved the university he
founded,
“Visva-Bharati
is like a vessel which is carrying the cargo of my life’s best treasure, and I hope
it may claim special care from my countrymen for its preservation.”
Apart from the need of education,
Tagore had great respect for ‘woman’ and her position in family and society. If we have to categorize Tagore’s writing then
he was see that his early writing phase (1881-1897) concerns with injustice
against the women. The inner strength of a woman was portrayed through
mythological and female deities. Tagore emphasized that women should not be submissive
under any circumstances. The second phase (1893-1913) of his writings was
considered as the most imaginative phase by many scholars. In this phase, he
depicted Indian woman as an urban and educated woman. In the last phase (1914-1941) of his writing,
women spoke in open the ills of the society, like untouchability, the caste
system and the hypocrisy of religion. Much emphasis was given on education of
women. In his novel, The Home and the
World, he writes, “For me women are
not only the deities of the household fire, but the flame of the soul itself.”
So incidents like these, where the dignity of a woman is questioned could have
make him feel mortified about the very university he has founded, if only he
was alive.
The people who control the University
should not forget its humble beginning and why it was started at the first
place. When an institution fails, specially an institution of learning…who
suffers? Many suffer but what damagingly suffer are the ideals on which the
institution was build.
I pray that justice will be mended out
at the earliest.