Visva-Bharati authorities on Friday sealed the office of a women’s socio-cultural organisation set up on the campus on Rabindranath Tagore’s instructions, prompting its outraged and elderly members to demonstrate for several hours.

The action against the Alapini Mahila Samity comes days after economist Amartya Sen’s assertion about a big gap between the Santiniketan culture and that of Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty, “empowered as he is by the central government in Delhi”.

Visva-Bharati’s officiating public relations officer did not take calls but a senior university official said: “The decision to vacate the office had been taken by the VC.”

Samity members said the office at Notun Bari, a thatched mud house near the Mrinalini Ananda Pathshala, was given to the organisation in 1956 when Indira Devi Chaudhurani, daughter of Tagore’s elder brother Satyendranath, was Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor.

Visva-Bharati’s estate department had on December 10 written to the president and secretary of the Samity, asking them to vacate the office by the end of the month on the ground that the university wanted it for academic activities.

“We wrote back to the varsity authorities asking for a discussion but they did not respond,” said Samity member Sharmila Roy Pommot.

“As we did not adhere to their wish, the authorities sealed the office today (Friday). The organisation has a historical background and we want to keep it intact. We want the office to be returned to us.”

Sources said Rabindranath had over a century ago advised women of the Tagore family to set up the Alapini Mahila Samity so they could get involved with Santiniketan’s culture.

Since its inception in 1916 under the stewardship of the poet’s eldest brother Dwijendranath Tagore, the organisation has been helmed by stalwarts such as Rabindranath’s daughter-in-law Pratima Devi, niece Indira Devi Chaudhurani and Amita Sen, mother of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

Samity president Aparna Das Mahapatra, 86, said the organisation represented the Tagorean tradition and the university authorities had in a way dishonoured the poet by sealing its office.

Manisha Banerjee, Samity executive member and a varsity alumna, said: “Aparnadi’s maternal grandmother was Nanibala Roy, who learnt midwifery on Tagore’s instructions and helped women in Santiniketan deliver babies in a scientific way.”

The 60-strong Samity members now carry out social activities, publish the cultural magazine Shreyashi, and interact with Patha Bhavana students when the school remains closed during holidays.

Many among the Samity members who protested for hours outside one of Visva-Bharati’s gates around noon were aged in their 70s and 80s. Among them was Mahapatra.

“We had no choice but to protest against the authorities as the present vice-chancellor is trying to create a disconnect between the varsity and the more-than-a century-old organisation,” she said.

Shortly after the protest, the varsity authorities sent a fresh letter to the Samity extending the deadline to vacate the office by three days and offering to unseal it for that period.

“We are not ready to accept any fresh deadline; we want our office back,” a Samity member said.

She added: “We use one room at Notun Bari twice a month to hold meetings. (After the December 10 letter), we even offered to pay a monthly rent of Rs 1,000 to the university. But the authorities did not respond.”