Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi : 07-12-2013

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee attended the 48th Convocation of Visva-Bharati University at Shantiniketan today (December 7, 2013).

Speaking on the occasion, the President said Visva-Bharati is the culminating product of a radical experiment on education system by its founder, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.

Tagore brought education into the open, and near to the nature. Tagore knew that the cause of misery was the drifting away from nature by mankind. The growing disconnect of man with nature continues to this day. Modern education in India must incorporate the beautiful ideas embedded in Tagore’s ‘natural education’. It must be, as Tagore had envisaged, an education for full development in life.

Quoting Rabindranath Tagore while describing the origin of Visva-Bharati, the President said “it was an incessant lesson to me and the institution grew with the growth of my own mind and life. With the increase of its population and widening of range, elements have constantly been intruding which go against its spirit of freedom and spontaneity. The consequent struggle has been helpful in strengthening and making us realise the fundamental truth which is in the heart of our ashram. But that which keeps up my enthusiasm is the fact that we have not yet come to a conclusion and therefore our task is not a perpetual repetition of a plan perfected once for all. This institution should be a perpetual creation by the cooperative enthusiasm of teachers and students”. His prophetic words continue to encourage and inspire us for the long struggle that institution building involves – a process of ‘perpetual creation’.

Source: The President’s Secretariat