Cheena Bhavan and the Building of a New Human Civilization | Nandita Chaturvedi

Cheena Bhavan in Shantiniketan has the rare quality of being an institution that is both historic and futuristic. It is futuristic not because of buildings of glass and metal, or an endowment, but because of the content of its project, its students and members and the vision of Rabindranath Tagore and Tan Yun Shan that forms its foundation. Cheena Bhavana is one of the oldest Bhavanas on the campus, and was established a year before even Hindi Bhavana. Founded by the work of Tan Yun Shan in 1937, it stands today as a testament to the far-sightedness of Rabindranath Tagore’s vision. This year marks 75 years of India-China diplomatic ties. Yet the relationship of our nations, even in modern times, must be traced back to Rabindranath Tagore, Tan Yun Shan and Cheena Bhavan.

Rabindranath Tagore met Tan Yun Shan in Singapore, a Chinese man unhappy in exile from his country. Tagore invited him to join him at Shantiniketan to take part in a collective that was engaged in a study of the Asian spirit and culture. Tan would write of Tagore: "I met Gurudev for the first time at Singapore in 1927...When I saw him for the first time, I immediately learnt to love him. But my admiration for him had begun long since." Tan came to Shantiniketan and devoted his life to the project. He would go back to China in 1931 and would set up the Sino-Indian Cultural Society in Nanjing in 1933. In 1934, the society was established in India with Tagore as the first president. He subsequently worked to collect funds that would allow the construction of Cheena Bhavan, the first centre of Chinese studies in India. His life became a deep endeavour in India-China friendship and understanding.

Tagore would say on the founding of Cheena Bhavan, “This is, indeed, a great day for me, a day long looked for, when I should be able to redeem, on behalf of our people, an ancient pledge implicit in our past, the pledge to maintain the intercourse of culture and friendship between our people and the people of China, an intercourse whose foundation were laid eighteen hundred years back by our ancestors with infinite patience and sacrifice. (...) As the early bird, even while the dawn is yet dark, sings out and proclaims the rising of the sun, so my heart sings to proclaim the coming of a great future which is already close upon me.” Tan became a disciple of Gandhi and a participant in the Indian freedom struggle. The people of Hunan call him to this day the "modern Xuanzang of Hunan". Tan also attended India’s first Republic Day celebrations as a representative of China on the invitation of Rajendra Prasad.

When you first see Cheena Bhavan, you are struck by the unusual pink colour of its humble two-story building. Then you begin to notice its beauty — the East-Asian geometric details of its architecture, the Chinese characters in black that announce its name, the simple metal gate that once Nehru and Zhou Enlai walked through, the earthen flat sculpture on the outside of its walls, murals that cover the upper alcoves of its open corridor, the lamps and paper cutouts of Chinese characters that sway in the wind that students have put up for the Lunar new year. The murals depict themes from the life of the Buddha, a theme that unites Indian and Chinese civilisation, and perhaps all of Asia. They were painted by Nandlal Bose and other artists who trained under him. The figures in the murals are Ajanta-like, delicate and lyrical, and humanist messages accompany the scenes, “The human that I am, so are you”.

These are not the only murals in the building. An expansive mural, ‘Life on Campus’ by Benode Behari Mukherjee covers the wall of the staircase to the second floor. It is said that Benode Behari Mukherjee was close to blindness when he painted this, and could only paint a small square at a time, which explains the exquisite detail of the work. Lines from Tagore are scattered through the mural, “the right to possess boasts foolishly of its right to enjoy.” Another grand mural frames the main hall — ‘The Temptations of Mara’. Painted by Gouri Bhanja, daughter of Nandlal Bose, it shows the Buddha as he faces the temptations of the world. It warns us of straying from the path of peace and knowledge in our times. This main hall is humble too, there are no swivel chairs or large conference room-like tables, just an Indian style rug on the floor. This is the room in which Tan Yun Shan would once teach his classes on Chinese language and civilisation. All of this magnificent artwork by the visionary founders of the Bengal school is not closed off behind glass cases, but a living part of the students’ lives at Cheena Bhavan, as is the other sculpture and artwork throughout Shantiniketan.

Students of Shantiniketan, including those at Cheena Bhavan, study Tagore in various forms in the university, in music, theatre, literature and the visual arts. A weekly bulletin of the news on China, Indian-China relations, and world events is gathered from various Chinese language sources and displayed on the bulletin board. The Cheena Bhavan library is perhaps unparalleled in the nation. It contains over forty thousand books in both English and Chinese on the history of India China relations, Chinese history and civilization, Asian history, economy, politics, culture and society. The library is not ostentatious but well-maintained. A bust of Tan Yun Shan greets you at the entrance. Every year tens of students fluent in Chinese language graduate from Cheena Bhavan. Several conferences, events and seminars are organised throughout the year in which Chinese scholars visit and teach. Students have opportunities to visit China and interact with students and academics there. This unbroken tradition of peaceful exchange is no small thing, especially in a modern history fraught with tension since 1962. It is said that when Nehru came to Shantiniketan to speak at the convocation after the war, Tan Yun Shan sat in the front row, tears streaming down his face. Yet, his work had laid the foundation for an institution that has kept contact and friendship alive between our two great civilisations in the worst periods of our history. When other intellectuals have cowered before the forces of war, too scared to speak out for the truth that we are all human, Cheena Bhavan has stood as a shining beacon, showing us that the struggle for peace can never be defeated.

While many claim that the spirit of Shantiniketan has eroded after independence, one can see its lasting character in the spirit of those who work in Cheena Bhavana. Perhaps it appears enhanced when you compare it in character and purpose with the new private universities that have appeared across the country, whose students are trained to be Indian in face, but white Americans in thought. The students of Cheena Bhavana do not relate to China, and indeed the world, mediated by white European and American Universities. By inheriting the legacy of Tan Yun Shan and Rabindranath Tagore, they embody the truth that the white world is not the center of the world. India and China, and indeed the darker world, can relate with one another on terms

set by their thousands of years of peaceful exchange and growth, on terms shaped by the Buddha, Tan Yun Shan and Rabindranath Tagore. Part of what has kept this inheritance intact is that the pedagogy in Shantiniketan is not only dependent on lectures and books, but enriched by art and theatre. It must be stressed again that this is no small feat in a world where intellectual and ideological relationships between nations and civilisations have been dominated by the American University. The most accomplished scholars from Asia and Africa have flocked to Harvard, Princeton and Yale to be a part of Western modernity, and to interact with each other. Yet this interaction is always on white supremacist terms. To be a tenured professor as a dark man or woman at these universities, you must begin by criticising and putting down your own people and their revolutionary traditions.

Cheena Bhavan shows that there is an alternative. By relating to one another on our own terms, we can become so close as to become each other, we can indeed achieve a new human civilisation. This is literally embodied in the life of Tan Yun Shan. Cheena Bhavan shows that it is possible for India and Asia to be modern without being Westernised and white. As Tagore had said in his trip to China, “The revelation of spirit in man is truly modern: I am on its side, for I am modern.” India and China are coming into a new democracy, the question of an emerging Asian modernity has become important for the two nations. What will the institutions, culture and people of these emerging societies look like? I contend they must look like Cheena Bhavan.

India and China are coming closer to a political detente and it is imperative that we continue this dialogue. Cooperation between India and China would not only help India to lift our people out of poverty, but also present an opportunity to study a different model of industrial and political organisation from the West. Our time calls for more people-to-people exchange, closer intellectual and cultural ties. We must work in this time for the people of India and China to understand each other on deeper terms, so our united civilisations can become a force for peace and good in the world. Our times call for a deeper study and discussion of Rabindranath Tagore, his vision of Pan Asian unity. Tagore is known and studied in China. He is the second most translated foreign author and his poetry is taught in schools. We in India must look deeper into the history of Shantiniketan and the project of Vishwabharati. Next, the life and work of Tan Yun Shan must be studied and popularised. It is tragic that the name of this great Chinese man who gave his life to the Indian freedom movement and became an Indian is little known among us. Further, Cheena Bhavan must receive in this time every support from the Indian state and from the Indian people. Its history and trajectory must be studied, and the project should be replicated in other places in the nation. It falls upon our shoulders to fulfil the moving and beautiful vision of Rabindranath Tagore, where the new Indian man and woman, rooted yet modern, could contribute to the making of a new democratic human civilisation.

(Author: Nandita Chaturvedi is fellow at the National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore)