Visva-Bharati to offer music with science next year

KOLKATA: For nearly a century, Visva-Bharati (V-B) has been known for its focus on humanities with a curriculum that includes music, painting and drama. Now, the university wants to evolve on the lines of Harvard and Princeton where undergraduate students have the flexibility to opt for courses in basic science along with music and art and introduce music along with MSc next year.

Speaking to TOI on the sidelines of Frontiers of Science, a high-profile interdisciplinary scientific meet with participants from CERN in Switzerland, FAIR in Germany, Bose Institute and Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta said the university was keen to roll out the new curriculum in the next academic year.

Though Dattagupta's predecessor Rajat Kanta Roy had started a five-year integrated master's programme at V-B, it is the former who is now set to combine science with humanities and culture as recommended by former rector Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

"In the years ahead, V-B's students will be in the forefront of science and technology as much as it currently is in humanities and art. That was Tagore's vision as well. He was not just a poet, writer and dramatist. He was a man of science too," said Dattagupta, pointing to how Rabindranath had embraced science in his later years.

In 1937, at the ripe old age of 76, Tagore wrote Visva-Parichay, a book on science in which he emphasizes on the need to introduce science to a child to widen his/her outlook on the subject.

"The book didn't happen out of a sudden manifestation of scientific temperament. From his very childhood, Tagore was brought up in an atmosphere of scientific knowledge and enquiry. He had an intuitive understanding of science," the V-C said, referring to how Tagore and Einstein had discussed quantum mechanics during their meeting in Berlin in 1930.

Tagore had also appointed Prasanta Mahalanobis as the first secretary of V-B and sent son Rathindranath to University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. In 1920, Tagore invited agricultural scientist Leonard Elmhurst from Cornell University in the US to develop Santiniketan. He realized that correlation between science and agriculture and wanted it to be made accessible to farmers.

"Today, there are huge debates on genetic modification of food crop, environment and climate change. Yet, Tagore had expressed concern over these very issues nearly a century ago. By renewing its focus on science, V-B will once again be a hub of scientific thought," said Dattagupta.

Of Rs 150 crore that V-B has received from the Prime Minister, much will be spent on resurrecting Einstein Bhavan, a concept that has been lying dormant for 20 years. The institute will be set up at the 100-acre Mouldanga campus in Sriniketan. At Einstein Bhavan, there will be visitors' programme and lectures on foundation and philosophy of science, quantum mechanics and Vedanta.

A Tagore museum of natural history will also be set up to showcase evolution and ecology of the world
Visva-Bharati to offer music with science next year
Subhro Niyogi

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Visva-Bharati-to-of...