A bronze bust of social reformer and educationist, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was today unveiled at the Women’s College here today.
The bust was sculpted by Amiya Nimai Dhara was virtually unveiled by Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs, Harvard University during the 12th Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Endowment lecture organised by the college.
Incidentally the large bust of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar is the first of its kind in North East India. It was in 2009 that the endowment lecture was started in Women’s College Shillong by the Internal Quality Assessment Cell (IQAC) as a mark of tribute to Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the great patron of women’s education.
During the lecture, Prof Bose highlighted the great role of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and also mentioned that the great noble laureate, Rabindranath Tagore had realized Vidyasagar as an emblem of education whose tireless efforts heralded a new age in education for the country in general and Bengal in particular.
Prof Bose mentioned that Vidyasagar broke the inertia that plagued the Bengali language and filled it with progressive momentum. Vidyasagar believed in the blending of eastern and western concepts of education and he in that manner was rightfully a reformist who broke the rigid code of Bengali society by inculcating the essential elements of western learning. Vidyasagar eventually opened his own college for women, and its doors not only for classical Indian learning but also for the progressive western learning.
The programme coinciding with bi-centenary of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s birth anniversary was organised in a hybrid mode in the college auditorium as well and on virtual platform. A number of academicians, researchers’, dignitaries and other participants were also present on the occasion.
