Santiniketan to get UNESCO World Heritage Site status
In something to cheer for in Bengal, and by any lover of Rabindranath Tagore, in fact, UNESCO has decided to bestow its World Heritage Site status on to the town of Santiniketan and its most famous heritage, Visva-Bharati University.
The university spokesperson, Mahua Bandyopadhyay told the news agency PTI that an Archeological Survey of India official informed the university on Tuesday about the recommendation to UNESCO by ICOSMOS (“a non-governmental international organisation dedicated to the conservation of the world’s monuments and sites”, that acts as an advisory body to UNESCO on World Heritage Sites).
She also said that Visva-Bharati “is the first living university in India which will be bestowed with the honour”.
The Union Minister of Culture, G Kishan Reddy tweeted that the World Heritage Site status “will formally be announced in the World Heritage Committee meeting to be held at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in September, 2023”.
The university was created by the great poet and writer Rabindranath Tagore as a seat of open-air learning. It was initially a college, becoming a Centra university after independence in 1947.
This recognition by UNESCO comes 11 years after the Union Culture Ministry appealed for the status, in the run-up to Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary.
