Basanta Utsav, — the festival of colour coinciding with Holi introduced by Rabindranath Tagore in the late 1920s and observed by Visva-Bharati till 2019 — will not take place on campus for the third consecutive year this time.
However, the halt in campus celebrations has led to the decentralisation of the event this year. The local unit of Trinamul, cultural outfits, students, educational institutions and residents of Santiniketan will host at least 50 small-scale programmes to celebrate Basanta Utsav in the traditional manner on Friday.
Sources said Trinamul in Bolpur asked its councillors to organise “small-scale Basanta Utsavs” following the Tagorean tradition in their wards on Friday.
“Visva-Bharati authorities led by its vice-chancellor made an effort from his first day here to put a bar on Tagore’s tradition (of Basanta Utsav). Over the past two years, the event has not been organised by the varsity on the plea of the pandemic. But the vice-chancellor's intentions were made clear when he did not organise it this year too. We don’t want this culture of Santiniketan be stopped. Councillors of all 22 wards of the town have been asked to organise the event,” said Chandranath Sinha, minister and Bolpur Trinamul MLA.
Trinamul leaders said Basanta Utsav was an event where thousands visited the varsity town, boosting its economy. The closure of the event is a direct dent on the local economy. To counter it, several hotels, resorts and cultural outfits will host Basanta Utsav events on a smaller scale.
“The event is directly related to the economy of Bolpur and Santiniketan. Hundreds of traders, hoteliers and artisans hope to get a good income during this time. So, the numbers of such events have increased,” said minister Sinha.
Biswa-Bangla University— a dream project of chief minister Mamata Banerjee aimed at promoting Tagorean heritage — on Thursday held Basanta Utsav celebrations on its own campus. Students of the newly-formed varsity, 6km away from Visva-Bharati, on Thursday organised a traditional Basanta Utsav.
“The chief minister wants Biswa-Bangla University to carry on the traditions of Rabindranath Tagore. We observed Basanta Utsav for the first time this year and will continue to uphold the tradition related to Santiniketan and Rabindranath,” said Swapan Kumar Datta, vice-chancellor of Biswa-Bangla University.
A group of Visva-Bharati alumni on Thursday organised Baitalik (a traditional procession) that used to be held ahead of the varsity’s Basanta Utsav. The procession was held on Ratan Pally grounds.
At a recent online meeting with senior teachers and officials, Visva-Bharati VC Bidyut Chakrabarty stated the varsity would not organise the event on Basanta Utsav in order to avoid crowds, citing apprehensions of lack of help from the state government. However, a few officials close to Chakrabarty later cited the ongoing protest by students to reopen hostels as the reason for not holding the event.
Protesting students said they would organise Basanta Utsav on campus on Friday to “keep alive” Visva-Bharati's traditions, which present-day authorities “want to ruin”.
Resignation sequel
Visva-Bharati authorities on Thursday claimed Mukteshwar Tiwari, one of the principals who resigned on Wednesday, wrote to VC Bidyut Chakrabarty saying he was forced to do so under “threat to life” by students. Students denied Tiwari’s allegations and said he had willingly resigned on their appeal, and was now blaming students under duress from the VC.
Visva-Bharati registrar Ashish Agrawal on Thursday evening left the campus allegedly after being “humiliated” by Chakrabarty over a few issues related to the student protest. A varsity source said that on Thursday the registrar, a former Lieutenant-Colonel of the Indian Army, went to the local NCC office to seek help to leave the campus as the VC did not accept his resignation letter. Agrawal could not be contacted as his phone was out of reach.
