Gustavo Canzobre during his visit to Visva-Bharati. Picture by Snehamoy Chakraborty

Santiniketan, May 23: An Argentinian foundation has approached Visva-Bharati with a proposal to spread Tagore’s ideals and the varsity’s style of teaching in the South American country.

Gustavo Canzobre, one of the directors of the Hastinapura Foundation and researcher of prominent personalities across the world, had visited Santiniketan for two days on May 16 to learn about Tagore’s ideals and how well Visva-Bharati was implementing them in providing education.

Visva-Bharati had established links with Argentina in 1925 when Tagore had gone there to meet writer Victoria Ocampo.

But after Tagore’s death, the varsity’s cultural ties with the country snapped, officials said.

According to the foundation’s website, the centre is “an educational institution whose main objective is to spread faith and the love of God”.

Argentina’s Hastinapura is 50km from Buenos Aires. The foundation has a study centre in the town where it intends to impart Visva-Bharati’s way of teaching with Tagore’s ideals.

Gustavo had said in Santiniketan last week: “We want to follow Tagore’s ideology at our Hastinapura Foundation. So, I have come to Santiniketan. I went to several Visva-Bharati departments, such as Patha Bhavana, Sangeet Bhavana and Kala Bhavana. We want a cultural exchange soon.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Asked what attracted him to Visva-Bharati and Tagore, Gustavo said: “The education system is interesting in Santiniketan. A person whose idea was to bring the universe under one umbrella is worth following. I am surprised that the university has arrangements for nursery and post-graduate students to study on the same campus. This is unique.”

Rabindrasangeet has also impressed the Argentinian research scholar.

“Rabindrasangeet has inspiring tunes. We will play such songs for our students at our foundation. I visited Kala Bhavana, where I saw several sculptures made by many sculptors of Visva-Bharati,” he added.

Varsity officials said the proposal to spread Tagore’s ideals in Argentina would help build a relation between the two centres of education.

On February 27 this year, a professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Shyama Prasad Ganguly, handed over to Visva-Bharati 11 memorabilia of Tagore that had been in the possession of Ocampo.

Gustavo met Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Sushanta Duttagupta and requested him to visit Argentina. He also urged that a team of students visit the country.

“As part of a cultural exchange, a group from the foundation will visit Santiniketan and vice-versa. The vice-chancellor has accepted the proposal,” Gustavo said.

Visva-Bharati spokesperson Amrit Sen told The Telegraph: “After Tagore’s death, we had hardly any relation with Argentina. This foundation could become the bridge to renew the cultural ties between Visva-Bharati and Hastinapura.”