Bolpur (West Bengal): President Ramnath Kovind on Monday presided over the convocation ceremony of Visva Bharati University here and described his visit to the campus no less than a “pilgrimage”.
Key takeaways from the President’s address at the convocation:
1. I call this a pilgrimage, because the two greatest visionaries of modern India, Rabindranath Tagore (founder of the varsity), and Mahatma Gandhi, frequently met here. It is here that we all pick the threads of life and lessons of these great sages and learn from them.
2. Tagore had thought of an alternative model of education which advocates for intimate communion with nature and Visva Bharati, to this date, follows that tradition.
3. Its illustrious alumni covering a diverse range of personalities, from Indira Gandhi and Satyajit Ray, have not only fulfilled its founder’s vision to a great extent but also contributed in taking independent India to new heights.
4. In an age where machine and wealth are considered benchmarks of progress, Visva Bharati has emerged as a unique blend of tradition and modernity, the president observed.
5. Tagore was too great to be inhibited by man-made barriers of gender, caste, community or race. Open-air for open minds. He wanted to remove walls, literally and metaphorically, when the world was raising walls
A total of 4,750 students received their PhD, post-graduate and other degrees at the ceremony