India, Nov. 15 -- When Rabindranath Tagore founded Visva-Bharati University, he envisioned it as a place "where the world makes a home in a single nest". His dream was not to Westernise Indian education, but to universalise it - to let the winds of the world blow freely through India's corridors of learning without uprooting the Indian tree. A century later, that vision appears to be taking root once again. The decision to allow foreign universities to establish campuses in India marks a defining moment in the nation's educational journey. India's civilisation has always been broad, inclusive, and intellectually open.

The ancient universities of Takshashila and Nalanda remind us of our rich tradition of cosmopolitan scholarship. History ...