Visva-Bharati, is a public central university and an Institute of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. The foundation stone was laid on 8 Poush 1325 by Rabindranath Tagore, who called it Visva-Bharati, which means the communion of the world with India. Until independence it was a college. Soon after independence, the institution was given the status of a central university in 1951 by an act of the Parliament.