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Rabindranath Tagore
The Congress on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "distorting" history and insulting India's founding fathers, including Rabindranath Tagore, while demanding an apology from him after he slammed the opposition party over the dropping of stanzas from "Vande Mataram" in 1937. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh shared pages of Tagore's biography in Bengali, where he suggested that the first two stanzas of "Vande Mataram" be adopted as the national song. "Here are pages 110-112 from vol 4 of the authoritative biography in Bengali of Rabindranath Tagore titled Rabindra-Jeebanee by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay, published by Visva-Bharati in 1994," Ramesh said in a post on X, while sharing the pages. "The Master Distorian of a PM must render an apology. He has insulted our founding fathers and most of all Tagore himself," he added. In an apparent attack on the Congress, the prime minister recently said important stanzas of "Vande Mataram" were dropped in 1937, which sow
Recalling Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's initiatives to bring India and China culturally closer, Chinese envoy Xu Wei on Tuesday stressed further improving bilateral ties between the two nations. Wei, the Consul General of China in Kolkata, was speaking at a programme in Visva-Bharati in Santiniketan to mark the end of the centenary celebration of Tagore's 1924 visit to China. "Tagore had advocated improving cultural ties between the two countries, and had visited China 100 years ago. Relations between our two countries are very good," he said on the inaugural day of the two-day programme titled 'Marking the end of the centenary celebration of Rabindranath Tagore's visit to China in 1924'. Hailing 75 years of India-China diplomatic relations, Wei said, "There is every possibility, potential and great scope in further improving our bilateral ties and we are proceeding along that path." He was speaking at the function organised by 'Cheena Bhavan', the Department of Chinese Stud
The Assam government on Thursday changed the name of Karimganj district in the Barak Valley to Sribhumi, according to an official notification. The district headquarters Karimganj town has also been renamed Sribhumi town. "The Governor of Assam is pleased to rename the Karimganj district as Sribhumi district and Karimganj town as Sribhumi town," General Administration Department Principal Secretary Mukesh Chandra Sahu said in the notification. The changes will be applicable with immediate effect, it said. The Assam cabinet had on Tuesday decided to rename Karimganj district to Sribhumi. "Over 100 years ago, Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore had described modern-day Karimganj district in Assam as Sribhumi - the land of Maa Lakshmi. Today, the Assam cabinet has fulfilled this long-standing demand of our people," Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said after the cabinet meeting. The decision to rename the district will reflect the expectations and aspirations of the people of the ...
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday visited a school named after Rabindranath Tagore in St Petersburg city in Russia and paid homage to the Nobel laureate. Posting a video clip of his visit to the school on X, Jaishankar, currently on a five-day visit to Russia, wrote, "Their passion for India was truly moving. See for yourself." "Delighted to visit the School #653 named after Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in St. Petersburg," he said. In the video, the minister was seen being welcomed by the students dressed in both Indian and Russian traditional attire. He was also offered a traditional delicacy. Jaishankar paid homage to a statue of Tagore installed in the school. A cultural programme was also organised for the event. Tagore had spent a significant amount of time in Russia, where he was influenced by its culture and literary traditions. His book 'Letters on Russia', written during his travels, vividly describes the details of the Soviet Russian scene of that time. I
Visva Bharati University on Monday said a committee has been formed to finalise the new Bengali plaque in place of the earlier one on UNESCO recognition to Santiniketan as a heritage site. The committee will also look through the already prepared Hindi and English texts of the new plaque to see that it is according to the instructions of the union education ministry, spokesperson of the central university, Mahua Banerjee said in an official statement. She said the acting Vice-chancellor Sanjoy Kumar Mallick has been advised that the installation of the official text of the UNESCO statement recognizing Santiniketan as a heritage site is of "immediate priority" and the ministry was assured that the university has no intention for unnecessary delay in carrying out the work. The ministry was informed that soon after the receipt of the draft statement, a committee was formed to finalise the Bengali version of the text of the plaque and to look through the texts for those in Hindi and ...
The Centre has asked Visva Bharati University to replace the controversial plaques commemorating UNESCO's award of World Heritage Site to Santiniketan, a varsity source said on Thursday. The Union education ministry has told the university to remove the plaques and replace them with ones having Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's name, the source added. Visva Bharati spokesperson Mahua Bandyopadhyay told PTI, "We cannot confirm anything about the plaques unless we have a written communique from the Union education ministry." Days after Santiniketan got the UNESCO tag on September 17, three plaques commemorating the honour came up in different parts of the campus having the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former VB vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty but did not mention Tagore's name, the founder of Santiniketan and Visva Bharati. This triggered an uproar from students, faculty and political parties. On October 26, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked Visva ..
Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, whose five-year tenure in the central university was riddled with controversies including the land row with economist Amartya Sen and the UNESCO plaque issue, retired on Wednesday. In a notification, the varsity said that Prof Sanjoy Kumar Mallik, the principal of Kala Bhavana (Institute of Fine Arts), was appointed as the officiating vice-chancellor. Mallik will perform the duties of the vice-chancellor with effect from forenoon of November 9 until a new vice-chancellor assumes office or until further orders of the Ministry of Education, the notification said. The tenure of Chakarborty, who became the university's VC in 2018, was full of controversies that often took political turns and landed in courts. The varsity in April this year directed Amartya Sen to vacate 1.38 acres of land on the Santiniketan campus claiming he is enjoying it unauthorisedly. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took the side of the Nobel Laureate and personall