The Trinamool Congress-run Bolpur municipality has called off an event to unveil a statue of Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan, which was scheduled for Sunday, amid questions on whether the installation of such a sculpture within the vicinity of the Unesco World Heritage site was justified.
“There were some unavoidable reasons behind postponing the statue’s unveiling ceremony. We called off the event for an indefinite period,” said Parna Ghosh, chairperson of the municipality.
Although Ghosh did not officially disclose the reason behind the decision to call off the event ahead of the bard’s death anniversary, Baishe Shrabon (August 7 this year), multiple TMC leaders, including councillors of the civic body, said that the decision was to stay away from any controversy related to Tagore.
A section of Visva-Bharati officials pointed out that Tagore was against installing any busts or statues in Santiniketan, and that is why there are no such sculptures of any Tagore family members on the campus. They also flagged that parts of Santiniketan have already been announced as World Heritage sites by Unesco, and it is better to stay away from installing any new structure or statue within the vicinity.
Unesco announced a part of Santiniketan as a World Heritage Site last year.
“There is no bust or statue of Rabindranath Tagore or any other member who contributed to Visva-Bharati and Santiniketan. It means the founder and those who run the prestigious institution were against such a practice. So, no one should install a statue that goes against Tagore’s ideology in the vicinity of campus,” said Sudripta Tagore, a descendant of the bard’s family.
A source said following a request from traders of Kabiguru Handicrafts Market, located near the first gate of the Visva-Bharati campus, the Bolpur municipality agreed to install a 15-foot statue of Tagore.
According to the plan, the statue was installed five days ago, and the municipality’s cultural committee announced the unveiling of the statue on Sunday by Bolpur MLA and minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, Chandranath Sinha. A plaque with Sinha’s name was also installed.
“As soon as the unveiling event was announced, varsity authorities raised the issue at different levels. We have also heard that the varsity communicated with Delhi about the issue. We postponed the event to stay away from any controversy involving Rabindranath Tagore,” said a councillor.
A source said that the municipality has been contemplating shifting the statue from the vicinity of the campus as soon as possible and installing it at a different location.
“We can’t leave the statue covered because of the unveiling programme. The bard’s death anniversary is on August 7. We are thinking of shifting the statue and trying to finalise a particular location,” said the source.
In a statement issued by Visva-Bharati’s acting public relations officer Atig Ghosh, the authorities welcomed any move to shift the statue from the vicinity of Santiniketan to any other place.
“We want to thank Bolpur municipality if they decide to install Tagore’s statue in any other place away from the entrance of Visva-Bharati. We want to request the civic body to ensure that there are no stalls or markets in the vicinity of the campus,” the statement reads.
“All the stakeholders should ensure that the character of the core area and buffer zone (of the UNESCO World Heritage site) remains intact,” it added.
Aminul Huda, the secretary of Kabiguru Handicrafts Market, however, claimed that there was a bust of Tagore from 2020 and the new statue was sculpted to replace it.
“The place where the statue was installed does not fall under the buffer zone of the Heritage site,” Huda said.
