Rabindra Bharati University mulls shifting Basanta Utsav venue next year

Rabindra Bharati University vice-chancellor Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury on Friday hinted that the varsity is considering a proposal not to allow Basanta Utsav at the Jorasanko campus from next year owing to security concerns.

Ray Chaudhury said the festival would be held at Markat Kunja on BT Road next year onwards.

Sources at the University said that this year around 50,000 students from different universities and colleges had come to witness Basanta Utsav function.

The massive number of students, however, posed a serious law and order problem in the campus.

Additional police force had to be deployed to maintain peace and order.

In its previous editions, the function used to be restricted only for the students of the University.

The teachers of the Fine Arts and Arts faculty used to attend the function as well.

Soon, however, the function gained prominence among students of other universities who, over the years, started thronging the campus.

Sources said as Jorasanko campus had been declared a heritage site, experts had suggested that a congregation of tens of thousands of people could affect the nearly 200-year-old structure.

"As a result, the University authorities are considering a proposal to shift the venue to Markat Kunja from next year. As Markat Kunja is more spacious, it will be easier to accommodate a larger number of visitors. The number is likely to go up in the forthcoming years," an official of the University said.

Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore had started the Basanta Utsav at Jorasanko several decades ago to propagate the message of communal harmony and peace. Since the inception of the university on May 8, 1962, the Utsav has been an annual affair.

Tagore was born in the Jorasanko house in 1861, where he also breathed his last in 1941.

In Jibansmriti, he wrote about how he was raised by many helping hands in his childhood.

As a child, his favourite pastime was to play the role of a teacher and his students were the railings at his house.

He had also chronicled that during monsoon, there used to be waterlogging in the area and it gave him much relief as the accumulated water prevented Agharbabu – a medical student who was appointed as one of his teachers – from coming to his house in the evening for coaching.

Noted intellectuals from all around the world often visited the Jorasanko house to see him.