Making India-China Connections: Tagore and Cheena Bhavan

by ​Avijit Banerjee.

China as an ancient civilization had contact with many regions and countries of the world. The cultural relation between India and China can be traced back to more than 2000 years ago. The close contacts between the two countries were extremely fruitful in the dissemination of Indian culture in China. There are numerous references to China in ancient Indian texts like the Mahabharata. Buddhism was a major force in connecting the two countries at that time. When Buddhism declined in India the two became culturally disconnected from each other in many ways.
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Political developments in the nineteenth century further prevented close intercourse between the two countries. The old friendship was not resumed until 1924 when the Indian Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore visited China. Clearly, the award of the Nobel Prize to Rabindranath Tagore in 1913 was not only a turning point in the career of the poet, but it was also a reassertion of dignity for both India as well as Asia. Tagore went to China at the invitation of the Lecturer Association of Peiping (earlier name of Peking). During the visit, many Chinese scholars and intellectuals introduced and welcomed Tagore’s arrival in various forms. Many of Tagore’s works were translated and published during this period.

From April 12 to May 30, 1924, Tagore delivered speeches on Indian culture and civilization in places such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Jinan, Beijing, Taiyuan and Hankou. People from the political, ideological, literary and artistic circles were very much influenced by Tagore and his ideas, and a large number of news items and comments were published in newspapers and periodicals.

Tagore was a visionary, always forward-looking. During his visit, he sought to promote the cause of China–India understanding, envisioning the essence of India and China relations to a higher platform of civilizational leadership and fraternal partnership. He emphasized that together they comprised 40% of humanity. He said:

“My friends, I have come to ask you to re-open the channel of communion which I hope is still there; for though overgrown with weeds of oblivion its lines can still be traced. I shall consider myself fortunate if, through this visit, China comes nearer to India and India to China—for no political or commercial purpose but for disinterested human love and for nothing else”.

Tagore not only wanted India and China to take pride in their rich heritage and draw from their pasts to build their future of friendly contacts, but he was also a forerunner envisioning a globalized world community. His idea of building institutions based on such ideals resulted in the founding of Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan in 1921. The university was truly international in its philosophy, goals and curriculum. As he said in China in 1924:

“Our institution of Visva-Bharati represents this idea of cooperation, of the spiritual unity of man. And I ask you, my brothers and sisters, to take part in building it, you who still have men among you mindful of the bond of love once established between our two peoples of the old”.

In Tagore’s view, the cooperation between Indian and Chinese civilizations was related to the future development of both countries as well as of Asia and the world at large. He thus sought to revive and strengthen historic relationships between the people of both countries. His global vision and sustained endeavour helped establish the Department of Chinese Language and Culture (Cheena Bhavana) in 1937, the only one of its kind in India and the subcontinent during that time.

After his successful tour of China, cultural interaction between the two countries gained substantial development both in dimension and depth. A number of people in China related to art and literature gained interest and Beijing University introduced Indian history, philosophy and language in its curriculum. Later, many Chinese scholars and students started visiting India to pursue research here. These scholars included Tan Yun-Shan, Xu Zhimo, Xu Dishan, Xu Beihong, Tao Xingzhi and Zhang Daqia.

On his return from China Tagore started the programme of Chinese studies in Visva-Bharati in 1926 with the help of the French scholar Sylvain Lévi and a Chinese scholar, Linwo Jiang. When Tan Yun-Shan came to Santiniketan in the year 1928, he worked tirelessly to set up a research programme of Chinese studies. Such efforts crystallized in the Cheena Bhavana in 1937 with the following objectives:
i. To conduct research studies in Indian and Chinese learning
ii. To promote the interchange of Indian and Chinese cultures
iii. To cultivate friendship and fraternity between the two nations of India and China
iv. To join and unite the people of India and China
v. To promote jointly, universal peace and harmony of humanity
vi. To help build up “The Great Unity” of the world

Tagore presided over the inaugural ceremony of the establishment of Cheena Bhavana with great joy because his vision of a cultural renewal between the two nations had been translated into reality, and Cheena Bhavana was the living symbol of this reality. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent his daughter, Indira, to represent him at the opening ceremony of Cheena Bhavana.

Cheena Bhavana in the Initial Phase
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In its initial phase, Cheena Bhavana offered some certificate and diploma courses. It was primarily a research institution providing facilities for Chinese scholars to study Indian culture, philosophy, regional languages, and for Indian scholars to study Chinese culture and history. Cheena Bhavana also paid special attention to Buddhist studies including the study of Buddhist scriptures and translation work. The institution attracted a good number of students and scholars, particularly from China and various parts of India, and also from almost all Asian countries as well as Africa, Europe, and America.

During this period, the department started the publication of the Sino-Indian Journal. Many distinguished personalities and patrons such as Wu Xiaoling, Shi Zhen, Chiang Kai-shek, Soong Mei-Ling, and Zhou Enlai greatly enriched the institution with their donations for financial support. During his stay at Santiniketan, Xu Zhimo forged a profound friendship with Tagore.

Wu Xiaoling, an expert in Chinese classical literature and Sanskrit, came to India in 1942 and joined Cheena Bhavan as a professor. His wife, Shi Zhen, was a Chinese translator and well-versed in Bengali language. In 1942, she enrolled in Rabindra Bhavan as a graduate student and studied the works of Rabindranath Tagore and other Bengali literature.

In 1942, Chiang Kai-shek and his wife, Soong Mei-Ling, visited India. During this visit, they visited Visva-Bharati and donated Rs 50,000 to the university and Rs 30,000 and many rare and precious texts to Cheena Bhavan.

When in 1957, the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Zhou Enlai, visited India, he visited Cheena Bhavan. Here, he presented several books on Chinese literature and donated 60,000 rupees for Tagore’s memorial. Other notable personalities such as Wu Bei-Hui, Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Chang Renxia were associated with Cheena Bhavan. Their support and contribution in the development of the institution were remarkable.

To be sure, the period between 1937 and 1970 is regarded as the golden period for academic activities in Cheena Bhavana. Various language courses besides Chinese, such as Tibetan and Sanskrit, thrived. Significant publications, lectures and many scholarships provided for students to study and pursue research on China followed the academic ideals of Cheena Bhavana. Buddhism, India–China relations, history of China, Chinese art and comparative studies constituted some of the important research areas. Such studies became the nucleus of China studies research in India.

Contribution of Some Renowned Scholars of Cheena Bhavana in the India–China Academic and Cultural Interaction

Besides the above, a scholar who made a significant contribution to Sino-Indian studies was P. C. Bagchi. He was associated with Cheena Bhavana for two years, from 1945 to 1947, as professor and as Director of Research Centre in Visva-Bharati. He was engaged in the study of Buddhism and also went to teach Indology in China. He knew ancient Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Nepalese and Central Asian languages. He was also the earliest author to write a special historical survey of India–China contacts. The book titled India and China: A Thousand Years of Cultural Relations provides information about India and China’s ageless affinity. He gave a very scholarly and comprehensive survey of this phase of India–China relations. Undoubtedly P. C. Bagchi’s contributions lent zeal to understand the legacy of the multifaceted Chinese heritage and its importance to Indian history.

Some of the other renowned scholars associated with Cheena Bhavana were Pandit Vidusekhara Sastri, P. V. Bapat, V. V. Gokhale, Sujit Kumar Mukhopadhyaya, Santi Bhikksu Sastri, N. Aiyaswami Sastri, and Prahlad Pradhan. Younger scholars included Krishna Kinker Sinha, Amitendranath Tagore, Satiranjan Sen, K. Venkataramanan and V. G. Nair.

Translation of a number of Jataka stories from the Chinese Tripitaka by Amitendranath Tagore, a chapter of the Vinaya of the Dharmaguptaka school from its Chinese translation by Prahlad Pradhan, translation of the Chinese version of a Dhyana text attributed to Kumarajiva by Sujit Mukherjea, translation from Chinese of a lost Sanskrit work called Arthavargiya-sutra by P. V. Bapat and a comparative study of the different versions of the Sigalovadasuttanta, a Buddhist text, by Rev. Pannasiri were some of the notable works.

Pa Chow, a Chinese scholar at Cheena Bhavana, made a comparative study of the existing Sanskrit version of the Avadanasataka and its ancient Chinese translation and collected important materials which shed light on the original version of the text.

Krishna Kinker Sinha, a scholar of Chinese studies, joined Cheena Bhavana in 1942. He learned the Chinese language and studied Chinese classical texts under Tan Yun-Shan. Sinha was later appointed as the first Indian Professor of Hindi and Indian Culture at the Oriental College in Yunnan, China, and became the first Indian professor to teach Hindi in China before India’s independence. Sinha also did a number of translation works from Chinese into Hindi such as the translation of Gandhi and China by Tan Yun-Shan, San-Min-Chu-I by Sun Yat-sen, and China’s Destiny by Marshal Chiang.

It may be mentioned that from 1937 till his retirement in 1970, Tan Yun-Shan tirelessly led Cheena Bhavana and during this period the works of the above scholars played a remarkable role in highlighting India–China cultural interaction and Buddhism’s pivotal role in the history of cultural connectivity of the world.

India–China Cultural and Educational Exchange with Cheena Bhavana Leading the Way

After its establishment in 1937, Cheena Bhavana witnessed a significant number of visits by eminent persons besides official and private scholars. Mahatma Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu, Rajendra Prasad, S. Radhakrishnan, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad visited Cheena Bhavana once or more. Jawaharlal Nehru took a special interest in Cheena Bhavana whenever he visited Santiniketan.

The famous Chinese artist Xu Beihong came to Santiniketan in 1939 and was associated with Cheena Bhavana for about a year as Visiting Professor of Chinese Arts. 

Prior to this, in 1940, there was the goodwill mission of Dai Jitao, President of the Examination Yuan of the Nationalist government. He wrote an essay in Chinese tracing the historical and cultural amicable relations between India and China and praying for its renewal. This document, engraved on a plaque, was installed on a wall in Cheena Bhavana.

The first Chinese Buddhist Mission to India, led by Rev. Tai Xu, visited Santiniketan and spent a week as a guest in Cheena Bhavana. His prominent disciple, Grand Master Fa-Fang, joined as a Research Fellow in Indian Buddhism in 1942. During his stay at Santiniketan, she studied Pali, Sanskrit and English. In 1945, she went to Ceylon to study further and returned to Santiniketan in 1946 at the invitation of Tan Yun-Shan and became a Lecturer in Chinese Buddhism.

Master Fa-Fang contributed immensely to strengthening Sino-Indian cultural exchange. Some of the books that he authored were Buddhist Outlook on Life, The Order of a Buddhist and Culture of India. Such a contribution spanning over several decades by scholars and statesmen on both sides was significant in the history of India–China relations in modern times.

After the unfortunate India–China border conflict of 1962, there was a bad phase in India–China educational and cultural exchanges, and Cheena Bhavana was also affected by this turn of events. As a result, many activities were stopped or became slow, and even the number of students and scholars joining Cheena Bhavana dropped.

After the epoch-making visit of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to China in 1988, there was renewed interest in India–China educational and cultural exchanges. In the 1990s, some of the activities resumed.


Recent Development in Cheena Bhavana

Scholars who visited Cheena Bhavana in recent years, though for shorter periods, have contributed greatly to re-fostering academic exchange and friendship between India and China. Among them, Geng Yinzeng, Du Weiming, Zhou Fucheng, Lin Chengjie, Charles Willemen, Dong Youchen and Bai Kaiyuan deserve special mention.

Besides them, Wang Lipin and Wu Ou of the Ancient Archives Study Centre of Beijing University came to Cheena Bhavana in January 2009 for two months to help catalogue ancient books preserved in the library of Cheena Bhavana.

Cheena Bhavana has also sought academic and cultural cooperation between Visva-Bharati and Chinese universities. In July 2011, Visva-Bharati University and Yunnan University signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Under this programme, about 500 students from both universities have already visited each other’s institute.

In November 2014, Xi Jinping conferred upon Cheena Bhavana the “Five Principles of Peaceful Co-Existence Award” for its contribution in upholding the five principles of peaceful coexistence, strengthening people-to-people friendship and promoting world peace and development.

In November 2016, the Cheena Bhavana Library signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Shanghai Library. This agreement between the two libraries possesses important significance for India–China educational exchanges. Visva-Bharati University also signed an agreement with Yunnan Minzu University, Kunming, in December 2016, intended to uphold the academic objectives of each institution and promote better understanding between the faculty and students of each institution.

In 2017, Cheena Bhavana signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Peking University that facilitates five to seven students to pursue a one-semester course in China every year. In addition, regular organization of Teacher’s Training Courses that draw upon eminent faculty from Beijing University to deliver lectures has provided scope for exchange of knowledge and interaction for Indian teachers and researchers.

Conclusion
The establishment of Cheena Bhavana is indeed a significant event in the history of India–China educational and cultural exchange. Since its foundation, Cheena Bhavana has provided a stable platform of knowledge building, which in turn has helped strengthen India–China relations in various fields. It has attracted a wide range of scholars and students. As an integral part of Visva-Bharati, Cheena Bhavana is destined to play a significant role in fostering India–China cultural relations and in promoting peace, harmony, mutual friendship and better understanding through regular scholarly exchanges and cultural and educational interactions.
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Dr. Avijit Banerjee is Professor & Head of the Department of Chinese Language & Culture (Cheena Bhavana) Visva-Bharati University.