Tagore’s Santiniketan is now on UNESCO World Heritage List
“Santiniketan represents approaches toward a pan-Asian modernity, drawing on ancient, medieval and folk traditions from across the region,” says UNESCO site
Santiniketan, the famed cultural site in West Bengal where poet Rabindranath Tagore built Visva-Bharati over a century ago, has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The United Nations body made the announcement in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday (September 17): “New inscription on the @UNESCO #WorldHeritage List: Santiniketan, #India. Congratulations!”
India had been striving for long to get a UNESCO tag for this site located in Bolpur town in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.
A few months ago, the landmark site was recommended for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List by international advisory body International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
“Established in rural West Bengal in 1901 by the renowned poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, Santiniketan was a residential school and centre for art based on ancient Indian traditions and a vision of the unity of humanity transcending religious and cultural boundaries,” the description on the UNESCO World Heritage Convention website now reads.
“A ‘world university’ was established at Santiniketan in 1921, recognizing the unity of humanity or “Visva Bharati”. Distinct from the prevailing British colonial architectural orientations of the early 20th century and of European modernism, Santiniketan represents approaches toward a pan-Asian modernity, drawing on ancient, medieval and folk traditions from across the region,” the UNESCO description concludes.
Santiniketan was originally an ashram built by Tagore’s father Debendranath Tagore. Later, the Nobel laureate went on to spend much of his life in Santiniketan and built Visva-Bharati, which is now Bengal’s only central university.
(With agency inputs)
