Prof Anisuzzaman says claims Rabindranath opposed Dhaka University are baseless

Prof Anisuzzaman says claims that Rabindranath Tagore opposed the formation of Dhaka University are baseless.

“Former Maj Gen (and later adviser to the caretaker government) Mohammad Abdul Matin wrote that Rabindranath Tagore expressed his opposition to the formation of Dhaka University at an event in Kolkata,” the professor said at a seminar in Dhaka on Friday.

 

“But Rabindranath was not in Kolkata on that date so the claim is a bit shaky.”

 

Dhaka University, formed in 1921, awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Literature, to the Nobel Prize-winning poet in 1926.

 

“Is it likely that the university would give such an honour to someone so soon after he opposed its formation?” asked Prof Anisuzzaman. “The claim is baseless.”

 

Visva Bharati University Bangla Department Prof Abhra Bose presented the keynote paper at the Shilpakala Academy seminar titled ‘Rabindranath in the Curriculum: Bangladesh and India’. West Bengal’s Tagore Research Institute Director Manjula Bose and Dhaka University Rabindra Chair Prof Mahua Mukherjee also participated in the discussion.

 

Prof Anisuzzaman said the increase in the number of English Medium schools had led to some neglect in the teaching of Bangla language. 

 

“The number of English medium schools is increasing in both India and Bangladesh. Despite this, the works of Rabindranath Tagore are studied equally in the Bangla language curricula of the two countries.”

 

“Rabindranath Tagore changed the speed at which the Bangla language developed,” said Manjula Bose. 

 

“The language he used at the start of his career was not the one that he would use later. He wanted to demonstrate the standing of the language. As such, the teaching of Rabindranath is extremely important in the curricula of both countries.”

 

West Bengal made the Rapid Reader teaching mandatory in 1967, Prof Abhra said in his paper. But, in 1980 there was talk of removing the requirement.

 

“An intellectual movement sprang up in response to that discussion like nothing seen since,” he said. “The West Bengal government was not only forced to withdraw their plan, but ended up releasing a new textbook as well.”