Shortly after becoming vice-chancellor of Visva-Bharati, Bidyut Chakraborty spoke about his appointment in a television interview. His idiom was something like this. He had been informed about the Centre’s decision at a time when he had already taken up an assignment with Germany's Hamburg University. Nevertheless, he had decided to take up the offer as it was a “challenge”. He kept repeating that he had the government’s samarthan and that made him “strong”, “majboot”, “shaktishaali”. In his own words, by accepting this offer he was obeying the government's aadesh or order.

The Calling

In 1908-1909, when Tagore was still building the ashram of his dreams, he was seeking out those who could lend him a hand in the effort. That is when he wrote a letter to Kshitimohan Sen. At the time, Sen was pradhan shikshak in the Himalayan kingdom of Chamba. Tagore wrote to Kshitimohan requesting him to join him at Shantiniketan. In one of his early letters, Tagore said: "I am in search of someone who will embrace this institution as his own. And though we have never met, my mind knows you are the one… God willing, some day you shall overcome all doubts and concerns and descend here. From the mountains like a steady stream you shall swim naturally to this haunt of mine." When Kshitimohan finally accepted the offer he wrote to Tagore: "I am no river. Rivers gush down to cleanse all with their being; I am waiting to reach and attain purity myself. In your call I have heard God’s own bidding."

VCs and VCs

Arriving as he did with all that battle imagery, Chakraborty let it become the trope of his vice-chancellorship. Five years is time enough to do substantial work, constructive work, wittingly or unwittingly. Chakraborty has himself said that he had a role to play in Visva-Bharati getting the Unesco heritage tag. But the overriding impression of his tenure, rightly or wrongly, is of a cluster of discordant notes. Wall. Land. Road. Ban. Expel. Plaque. In the course of five years, his pitch changed, climbed higher and higher. At one point he argued that Amartya Sen was no Nobel awardee. To what effect? Days before his tenure ended, he sent a letter to the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, seething with criticism of the ruling party. For a brief while, Kshitimohan had taken on the task of vice-chancellor. The first vice-chancellor of the institution, Rathindranath Tagore’s health was failing and he had to step down. In his first address, the 72-year-old sounded sombre. He spoke about Rathindranath’s health, his work for Visva-Bharati as seba, he spoke about how the institution itself was a treasure trove of Tagore’s values and therein so dear to him. He talked of his own advanced years and the heavy responsibility, and the seba required of him, the same that he said was his duty, love and pride. Sen was acting vice-chancellor of Visva-Bharati only from August 1953 to March 1954.