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U.S. varsity wants chair in Bengali studies
Monday, 10 November 2003, 20:30 IST
The U.S. university has written to Visva Bharati University, seeking its cooperation to start a full-time Bengali language course beginning in fall 2004.
The UCB authorities want to invite Bengali professors from Visva Bharati University to head it on a rotational basis, Visva Bharati vice chancellor Sujit Kumar Basu has said.
He said the UC Berkeley authorities considered starting a Bengali programme because of the language's growing acceptance as a major global tongue.
Bengali is the fifth most widely spoken language in the world.
The U.S. university's official website says it plans to "raise an endowment to ensure full-time Bengali language instruction on a permanent basis at UC Berkeley."
The university plans to "teach Bengali at the introduction, intermediate and advanced levels for three years" and start a summer study abroad programme for Bengali language and culture at Visva Bharati University".
"The endowment will also support the study of Bengali society and culture at Berkeley," the website says.
Berkeley is the oldest of the UC campuses and serves as the flagship of California's public university system.
Visva Bharati, an idyllic educational centre at Shantiniketan, some 200 km west of here, was founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1921.
It is considered one of the leading centres for study of Bengali language and literature.
Tagore had visited UC Berkley in 1929.
Source: IANS
Source: IANS
