Visva-Bharati will send Bengali and Hindi teachers regularly to a Chinese university that has opened two departments on the languages there. 

A Visva-Bharati team, led by officiating vice-chancellor Swapan Kumar Datta, went to China and signed an agreement with Yunnan Minzu University to send the teachers from the middle of this year.

Varsity sources said the Chinese university needs Bengali and Hindi teachers and approached Visva-Bharati during their recent visit.

Sources said the Bengali and Hindi departments were opened at Yunnan Minzu a little over a year ago. 
Abhijit Banerjee, head of Cheena Bhavana at Visva-Bharati, who was among those from the varsity who visited China recently, said: “So far Bengali and Hindi are being taught by Chinese teachers who learnt the languages from institutions in India.”

Varsity officials said this is the first time in recent memory when Visva-Bharati would send  teachers to a Chinese university to teach Indian languages.

Datta said: “We went to Yunnan Minzu University where we signed an agreement and assured them of sending Bengali and Hindi teachers by rotation. This is the first time in recent memory when we are sending teachers on a regular basis to a foreign university.”

Reporting by Snehamoy Chakraborty, Picture by Indrajit Roy