Students damage artwork, Visva-Bharati on edge again

The famous bas-relief on the walls of Black House at Kala Bhavana (the College of Fine Arts), one of the heritage pieces in Tagore's Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan, was partially damaged as a result of a clash between two groups of students on the eve of Vasanta-Utsava (the festival celebrating the Spring), forcing the authority to cancel the evening programme yesterday. Though the vice chancellor went on record assuring that the damage caused to the bas-relief of Black House would be restored to its original shape, the university community and thousands of visitors who were present there were shocked to disbelief.

 

One old resident of Santiniketan recalled that the bas-relief on the outer walls of Black House, the large one-storey mud house located in the heart of Kala Bhavana campus, was a creation of artists like Ramkinkar and Prabhaas Sen in the late 1930's under the supervision of Nandalal Bose.

The relief depicted Santhal life, Indian mythology, symbols from Mahenjodaro civilsation with all its dexterity.

According to Amitava Chowdhury, the official spokesman and Finance Officer of Visva-Bharati, the Kala Bhavana teachers have already been approached by the university authorities for the repair work of the bas-relief.

The Kala Bhavana teachers have examined the damaged portion and they are expected to take up the restoration work soon.

Till now, the Black House is being used as a hostel for the Kala Bhavana boys. But after this incident the university authority is considering to bring it under heritage category and maintain it as such.

Already, measures have been taken to preserve a number of sculptures done by Ramkinkar and murals by Benodbihari Mukherjee in Santiniketan.

The trouble started when a group of boys from Vidya Bhavana (the College of Humanities) started harassing and teasing a female student of a hostel near the Kala Bhavana campus.

When the Kala Bhavana boys protested, the Vidya Bhavana boys attacked them which sparked off the clash causing the damage.

A number of students were injured. As a mark of protest, the students of Kala Bhavana and Sangeet Bhavana (the College of music) gave a call to boycott the Vasanta Utsava scheduled to be held last morning.

Because of their non-cooperation, the function began half an hour late and the evening programme had to be called off.

Today, the university has formed a six-member committee headed by senior professor Asha Mukherjee to look into the causes and fix the responsibility.

Only a few months back, the university experienced a sustained agitation launched jointly by the associations of the teachers and non-teaching employees forcing the closure of the university for some days. This time the peace on the campus has been disturbed by the students.