The resounding victory of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) across the border has raised hopes of the resumption of cultural and educational connections with Visva-Bharati and Santiniketan.
Inter-cultural ties had almost come to a halt during the transitional period between former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s fall in August 2024 and the February 2026 elections in Bangladesh.
“After Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, a significant deterioration in Rabindranath’s cultural presence and relations with this side of the border, including with Santiniketan, had been noticed. We are very happy that an established political party like the BNP has finally come to power in Bangladesh with a massive mandate. We hope this new government will preserve the foundations of Bangladesh’s culture, including Rabindranath as an indelible part of it,” said Sudripta Tagore, a descendant of Tagore’s family in Santiniketan.
In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his then Bangladesh counterpart Hasina jointly inaugurated Bangladesh Bhavana, a centre for learning and educational exchanges between Visva-Bharati and educational institutions of Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh government had initially granted funds for the construction of the building, which has several conference halls, a library and a museum. Though the conference hall and library have opened, Visva-Bharati is yet to reopen the museum, which was closed during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020.
A source said that although a group of Bangladesh officials had rearranged the museum in 2023 and 2024, its reopening was not possible due to the unrest against Hasina that began in June 2024.
“The museum had a lot of memorabilia on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and as protests in Bangladesh against the Awami League grew stronger, the varsity administration decided not to open the museum because it could create issues that would hamper relations between the two countries. The subsequent situation in Bangladesh is known to everyone — how fundamentalist forces became anti-India and even anti-Rabindranath,” said a senior official of Visva-Bharati.
“Now we have heard the words of (Bangladesh PM-elect) Tarique Rahman, who conveyed a message of harmony and assured us that the turmoil during the Yunus era will come to an end. We hope the process of reopening the museum can now be discussed, obviously after a nod from the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he added.
Prime Minister Modi is the chancellor of Visva-Bharati.
Since Hasina’s ouster on August 5, 2024, the rise of fundamentalist forces had appeared to be severely opposed to the culture associated with Rabindranath Tagore, as an anti-India mindset had taken upper hand during the interim government run by Muhammad Yunus.
Even Chhayanaut, a cultural institution in Dhaka that has been carrying forward Tagore’s music and culture for years, came under attack. There were also reports of vandalism of Tagore’s statue and attacks on Tagore’s ancestral estate Kachharibari
in Sirajganj.
The attack on Tagore’s philosophy had hurt many, as the poet was not only a figure representing both sides of Bengal, but also revered in Bangladesh, as his poem “Amar Sonar Bangla” was adopted as the national anthem.
There has been a long tradition of students from Bangladesh coming to study in India, particularly at Visva-Bharati and Rabindra Bharati University. During the Yunus-led interim government, one of the issues Bangladeshi students faced was restrictions on the issuance of visas. Some Bangladeshi students said that with the BNP in power now, such curbs would be lifted and they would be able to obtain visas more easily.
“I had to wait a long time before I got my visa a month ago. Many Bangladeshi students studying at Visva-Bharati faced a similar crisis. After the BNP’s victory with an absolute majority, we are very hopeful that the situation will not remain what it was,” said Amrita Sarkar, a PhD scholar at Visva-Bharati’s Sangit Bhavana. Amrita is a resident of Meherpur, Bangladesh.
Long-time varsity officials recalled their experiences working with Bangladesh when the BNP was previously in power in the early 2000s.
“We had a very good experience with the BNP-run government during its earlier tenure. As the party has once again come to power through a democratic process, we are hopeful. There was a very good relationship between the government of Khaleda Zia (Tarique Rahman’s mother) and Visva-Bharati during her tenure as PM in the early 2000s. We are sure that relations will again be cordial,” said Atig Ghosh, Visva-Bharati’s public relations officer.