K.G. Subramanyan (left) chats with enamel painter Amal Ghosh in Calcutta on Monday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

K.G. Subramanyan is the last in the long line of artist-savants ? beginning with Abanindranth and followed by the likes of Nandalal and Benode Behari ? that Santiniketan has produced.

For the past two decades and more, Santiniketan has been his home. But about two months ago, he decided to leave the abode of shattered peace.

Subramanyan returned to Baroda, where he had sojourned earlier during one of the most creative phases of his long and fruitful career.

In the last week of November, when he was back in Santiniketan for the exhibition of the works of Benode Behari, he fell ill and had to be rushed to Calcutta for treatment. Recuperating in the city after going under the knife thrice in 10 days at age 82, Subramanyan characteristically made light of the surgical process that set his ?plumbing? right.

Enamel painter Amal Ghosh, who had introduced Subramanyan to the technique of enamelling, had dropped by to meet the artist on Monday. They chatted for an hour.

Subramanyan admits that in 1980, he had returned to Santiniketan because of a ?sentimental attachment? to what Tagore had conceived of as an alternative institution. He continues to maintain that the concept, even in today?s terms, is quite progressive.

But 24 years ago, Visva-Bharati had already started going downhill. ?We thought there was still some hope,? for, he says, ?even then there were people with dedication and commitment.? But Tagore did not matter to those who came to steward the institution later. Then a former vice-chancellor was arrested, and Visva-Bharati reached its nadir.

The mindless development of Bolpur is of a piece with the institution?s decline. Coming out strongly against the Santiniketan and Sriniketan Development Authority, he stresses that it cannot build in terms of Tagore?s vision.

?They will push it into a carnival site for rich people. They want to start golfing there,? he says with an unhappy chuckle, as if unable to conceive of such an outrage. ?At one point, they talk of Tagore and his great contribution yet violate his spirit.?

Tagore is just a symbol now, comments Amal Ghosh.

Subramanyan says that when he joined Santiniketan, it was ?almost on its last leg?. Till then, the ?general structure had not changed?. In 1945, when Gandhi visited Visva-Bharati, he said that if the authorities did not deviate from Tagore?s ideas, there would be no dearth of resources. On the other hand, if they went to the government for monetary support, those ideals would be eroded. But they sold away their ideas for money.

The then vice-chancellor had said: ?I am not Tagore.?

In an effort ?to put it back on the rails? they planned to invite 50 visiting fellows to Santiniketan, among whom were Shombhu Mitra, Shankha Choudhury and Subramanyan.

But, he says, these individuals were not connected with the day-to-day functioning of the university and could hardly make any impact on it.

Though his experience at Kala Bhaban has been ?fruitful,? one cannot say the same about the rest of the university, which has been ?vitiated and vulgarised?. ?The question of going by Tagore?s tenets is not there. But I still long for the trees. They told me that they will make things easy for me in Baroda,? says Subramanyan.

Do handmade items stand a chance in the face of globalisation?

Subramanyan says, post-Independence, ?there was a lobby of opinion trained in the West?, that made up Jawaharlal Nehru?s thinktank, which was all for mechanised industry because of higher productivity. However, the industrial landscape remained intact owing to the lack of capital, ?which was a godsend for people like us,? he says. ?They always thought of using handicrafts as a means of earning foreign exchange, and not as a cultural asset?.

So, first it was under the industry ministry, then under commerce and foreign trade, and now it is under tourism.

?They want to set up a cultural dinosaur park. But now that foreign funds are easily available, the demise of handicrafts will be hastened. But on the other hand, because of a globalised economy, the world is the market. So Kolhapuri chappals may be made in Italy. But the indigenous quality that gives handicrafts a certain personality will not be there,? he warns.

Why do some highly successful artists copy the West?

?Probably because certain people think modernisation is what the West engages in. We might be open to the whole world but your feet should be planted where you are. Even if somebody uses an international idiom, I have no quarrel with him. It is done all over the world. But if you have something to say from your cultural stratum, you can still say it.?