A cloud of uncertainty looms over the future of students at Visva-Bharati’s Cheena Bhavana, a centre of Sino-Indian cultural studies in Santiniketan, as the authorities have stopped all communication with its three Chinese counterparts because of the worsening of ties between New Delhi and Beijing.

The centre was set up by Rabindranath Tagore in 1937 as part of his vision of the world making its home in a single nest. It has over 200 students enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Chinese language and doctoral research on cultural relationship between the two countries.

As the Cheena Bhavana has Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with three Chinese universities, it is regarded as among the best in the country to pursue Chinese.

“The communication with our counterparts has completely stopped as there are several restrictions. We are not even holding webinars as we need to take permission from Delhi to hold such events,” said a source at Cheena Bhavana.

A section of officials and teachers said given the tension in Sino-Indian relationship since the violent stand-off in Ladakh, they were afraid of carrying on with normal academic exchange with the three Chinese varsities, which used to be a regular affair even six months ago.

“The UGC has already asked details of all the agreements that Indian universities have with foreign institutions by September 15 and it is clear that they want to know the extent of our association with Chinese institutions…We knew that something like this was coming. No one wants to take any risk,” said another source.

In this taut atmosphere, the students are the worst sufferers as academic exchanges between the Cheena Bhavana and the universities have come to a grinding halt.

“The MoUs will be in place till 2022. As part of the MoUs, teams from these universities visit us every year and we send our teams of teachers and students to these varsities… We understand that these exchanges cannot take place because of Covid-19. We could have gained through online exchanges, but even that’s not happening,” said a student.

Every year, the Chinese universities used to send a teacher to Visva-Bharati who used to teach Chinese language to the students. A week ago, the teacher, who came as part of the exchange programme, left Visva-Bharati as his tenure was completed.

“We don’t know when a new teacher would come again,” said a student.

Several students, who spoke to this correspondent on condition of anonymity, said communication — both in physical and online forms — with people of Chinese origin was very important for them as it helped them learn various aspects of the language and Chinese culture.

“We expected we could attend online programmes with the teachers of these varsities during the lockdown. But that’s not happening,” said an undergraduate student.

Some former students of Cheena Bhavana said regular communication with the Chinese varsities helped them rofessionally. “The certificates by Chinese universities helped me a lot to get a job. It is very unfortunate for the present students that they can’t even communicate virtually,” said Ramanuj Baidya, who passed out of Cheena Bhavana in 2018 and is now employed at a multinational company in Bangalore

For the past few years, the Cheena Bhavana has been holding at least a dozen programmes annually with Chinese universities or the Chinese Embassy to promote the language in the country and help students get connected with representatives from China.

“The department is famous for keeping a good relation with China through its range of activities. We always felt that such activities were boosting Sino-India relationship. If all these activities are stopped, the relationship will get further strained,” said a source.

The Chinese government, according to him, was so pleased with the activities of the centre that its embassy in India donated Rs 60 lakh to Cheena Bhavana to renovate two small buildings on the campus.

“Chinese products are not being used, Chinese apps are banned… Everything that has a Chinese connection is seen with suspicion. We don’t know what will happen to this centre,” said an official of Cheena Bhavana.