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Rabindranath Tagore:
Nation and the world
Reba Som
Rabindranath Tagore the first Asian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1913, was born in 1861, three years after India came under
the British crown. In the history of India through time immemorial,
people of different races from across its borders have entered India in
waves. Each cultural encounter whether from Central Asian tribes or from
Muslim invaders, had left behind an indelible layer over an ancient
Hindu civilisation in the palimpsest fabric of India. In a song written
in 1910 Tagore celebrated the arrival of streams of people into India
through historical times – Aryans, non-Aryans, Dravidians, Chinese,
Shakas, Huns, Pathans, and Mughals. In waves they had come only to merge
into India’s sea of humanity.
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Tagore’s painting ‘Dancing Girl’,
undated ink-on-paper |
The arrival of the British, first as merchants and then as colonisers
was viewed very differently by Tagore. Unlike in the case of the
previous migrations he felt the British had come to India principally as
a commercial venture and there was little interest in merging with the
cultural ethos of India. He had of course in the same song that I
mentioned, written that to the west which had now opened its doors, his
message was – give and receive, meet and be met and do not return from
the shores of Bharat’s sea of humanity. However Tagore observed that
British imperialism came to India with its territorially-bounded model
of the western Nation-state, which sought to create a homogenised
entity.
To Tagore nations were “organisations of power – organisations for
production.” They were in essence monotonously the same – their
differences being merely differences in degrees of efficiency. However
people were living beings with distinct personalities finding self
expression in literature, art, social symbols and ceremonials. They
could not be regimented into one unit for production. Tagore’s free
spirit cried against such rigours of regimentation. He felt that India,
which was a ‘world in miniature’, had a ‘looseness in its diversity’ and
a ‘feebleness in its unity’, and could not be forced into the mould of a
Nation-state.
Tagore’s thoughts on the Nation crystallised as he lived through the
years of the national struggle for freedom. Although freedom came to
India in 1947 after the Poet had passed away in 1941, he had lived
through the long years of the anti-imperialist struggle and was able to
judge critically the concept of Nation brought by the British and found
it did not measure up to the ethos of a country like India.
It was remarkable that Tagore could make a fine distinction between
the Nation of the West, a straitjacketed British formula of Nation state
which he resisted and the Spirit of the West, with values of liberty and
equality which he welcomed. At a time when the idea of nationalism was
clubbed in the minds of ordinary people with the concepts of patriotism
and anti imperialism Tagore could dissociate his passionate opposition
to imperialism from the project of nationalism which he saw as being
alien to Indian tradition.
Tagore recognised that India had its fair share of racial problems
which it tried to deal through social regulation of differences as well
as spiritual recognition of unity. Although errors were constantly made
there was always an attempt to work out adjustments through experiments.
Tagore feared that the British formula of creating an administrative
unit with a uniform set of regulations and laws would regiment a diverse
people into an artificial entity. Tagore wrote: “In the west the
national machinery of commerce and politics turns out neatly compressed
bales of humanity which have their use and high market value but are
bound in iron hoops.”
Tagore made it clear that he had the highest regard for the British
as a people and treasured his interaction with outstanding intellectuals
and creative minds that he had met in the course of his visits to
Britain. But the British had come to India with narrow self interest
which made them manipulative and coercive without paying heed to the
spiritual core of India’s civilisational identity.
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Tagore dabbled in primitivism: a
pastel-coloured rendition of a Malagan mask from northern
New Ireland |
Nor did Tagore ever discount the immense value of science in human
development which was introduced by the colonisers but he argued that
with the reasoning mind there must also be scope for the creative
imagination. Tagore was wary of the environmental degradation, popular
dislocation and dehumanising impact of mechanisation. In many of his
writings such as his celebrated play Rakta Karabi or the Red Oleanders
he speaks of the soul killing mechanised character of industrialisation
which can take away the simple joy of creativity in a people.
Tagore observed that the West could never understand the East as it
had not sent to her its humanity but only its machine. If the East had
to learn from the West it could not merely be the sum total of legal
codes and systems of civil and military services. The East and West had
to meet in the fullness of truth – the right hand wielding the sword had
need of the left which held the shield of safety.
Tagore’s views on the Nation were expressed in a series of lectures
delivered in Japan in 1916 and the United States in 1916-17. While
appreciating the artistic and aesthetic contributions of Japan, he did
not hesitate to critique militant Japanese imperialism against China in
his celebrated talk on Nationalism. Equally in his American tour that
followed, he launched on a sharp critique of the western state which he
felt was driven by the self-interest of a whole people which lacked
human and spiritual qualities – the lecture series, a major fund raiser
for Tagore’s university, was very successful but there was inescapable
irony in the fact that money had been earned in America while attacking
materialism.
Tagore’s main quarrel with the nationalism project was that he felt
that in the zeal to make money by exploitation of human and natural
resources the finer qualities of life – compassion, creativity and moral
and ethical values were being sacrificed. The strength of India he
repeatedly pointed out was in its spiritual tradition, where the wise
men of ancient times had reiterated the importance of keeping the focus
on the inner self. Tagore explained in his Sadhana lecture: “India put
all her emphasis on the harmony that exists between the individual and
the universal…the fundamental unity of creation was not simply a
philosophical speculation for India; it was her life-object to realise
this great harmony in feeling and in action. With meditation and
service, with a regulation of her life, she cultivated her consciousness
in such a way that everything had a spiritual meaning to her. The earth,
water and light, fruits and flowers were not merely physical phenomena
but necessary in the attainment of her idea of perfection. India was not
merely impelled by scientific curiosity or greed of material advantage
but with a larger feeling of joy and peace…This is not mere knowledge,
as science is, but it is a perception of the soul by the soul. This does
not lead us to power, as knowledge does, but it gives us joy.”
Tagore’s described his personal religion as the religion of Man. The
creativity of the human mind, its ability to face challenges and
transcend day to day obstacles to reach a state of equilibrium made man
God’s unique creation. The creative impulse in man made him the “dreamer
of dreams, the music-makers.”
Tagore believed that in each individual there was a consciousness of
the divine which was for him to discover and fathom. This god-within,
which he called jivan devata was in close communication with the larger
cosmic energy without. There was no hierarchy in this relationship but
mutual dependence. He elaborated by saying that the divinity in man and
the humanity in divinity together resulted in a creative unity which
made the universe pulsate with life.
Tagore sought to find this universal man in the world. He wrote: “I
do not put my faith in any new institution but in individuals all over
the world, who think clearly, feel nobly and act rightly, thus becoming
the channels of moral truth.”
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Bauls in
Santiniketan during Holi |
In the days immediately preceding the First World War Tagore felt
that the west was going through a period of spiritual vacuum. It seemed
that there was a hand of destiny behind an overseas visit that took him
to England in 1912. The poem collection called Song-offerings or
Gitanjali that he brought with him to England on this visit was a
manuscript of translations of some of his own poems in Bengali, made
during a period of recuperation after an illness. These song/poems
seemed to soothe the minds of his international readers. He felt that as
a poet from the east he had been destined to carry to the west his poems
of cosmic beauty. This collection – Gitanjali – went on to win the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1913.
Like Gandhi, Tagore was an ‘enlightened anarchist’, who believed in
the right of the individual to be the arbiter of his own destiny. The
strength of India lay in a loose universalism necessary because its
fabric was textured with many races and influences. Both Gandhi and
Tagore were reinforced in this belief from their respective overseas
experiences.
Gandhi’s South Africa experience – the satyagraha campaign in 1913-14
which knit Indians from multiple backgrounds into a mass movement
despite their vast differences was a universalism fashioned because of a
migration of peoples across the ocean, against all odds all in search of
livelihood – what Amitabha Ghosh calls in his Sea of Poppies the
solidarity of jahaj bhais.
Professor Sugata Bose speaks in his book A Hundred Horizons, about
the interplay of nationalism and universalism in the normative thought
and political practice among expatriates. The Gandhian satyagraha in
South Africa ended successfully because among the diaspora Indians there
was a “creative accommodation of differences rather than the imposition
of a singular uniformity”. Gandhi learnt much from his South Africa
experience and when he returned to India in 1914 he carried back the
conviction that instead of a narrow nationalism a loose universalism was
more efficacious.
Tagore too in the course of his sea voyages came to the realisation
that world culture flowed beyond the restricting barriers of nations. An
inveterate traveller he was fascinated to see how in south-east Asia
there had taken place the skilful interweaving of Indian and Islamic
cultural patterns on pre-existing local ones. He was fascinated to
discover pronounced Indian influences in the architecture, cuisine,
textiles and folklore in the region which had travelled over centuries
along the oceanic routes. In 1932 he exhorted people across the globe to
awaken from their post-modern slumber and weave together communities and
fragments into a larger and more generous pattern of human history.
Voice of Bengal
T B Ekanayaka - Culture and Arts Minister
In his native Bengal, Tagore was called the voice of Bengal, but he
is indeed a poet of the world. Tagore has touched millions of people
around the world with his novels, short stories, poetry, songs and
paintings. He was the only Indian to win the Nobel Prize for literature.
His contribution to art can stand the comparison with any art in
anywhere in the world. Tagore as a poet was mesmerized by mystery,
beauty and love of nature. It was his song, originally known as ‘Song of
Bengal’ later adopted as the Indian national anthem.
Santiniketan, which has shaped up the spiritual character of many of
the Sri Lankan outstanding personalities such as Professor E R
Sarachchandra, Ananda Samarakoon, Dr W D Amaradeva and Chitrasena,
established by Tagore, stands as a golden monument memorizing this great
artist and teacher.
Tagore visited Sri Lanka thrice. His last visit to Sri Lanka was in
1934 when he came with his troupe to stage some of his plays. It was
during this visit that he laid the foundation stone of Sri Palee College
at Horana, which was modeled on Santiniketan. Many Sri Lankan poets,
writers, dancers and painters were inspired by his works.
Rabindranath Tagore passed away on August 7, 1941. As Mahatma Gandhi
sadly noted, we, on that day lost not only the greatest poet of the age,
but an ardent nationalist who was also a humanitarian.
Programmes to commemorate Tagore anniversary
* Release of Commemorative Postal Stamp and First Day Cover by the
Government of Sri Lanka.
* Publication of a Volume on Tagore in English, Sinhala and Tamil
edited by Sandagomi
Coperahewa, University of Colombo.
* Rabindra Sangeet by Amar- Daya Foundation
* Essay competition in Sinhala, English and Tamil on Tagore for the
undergraduate students in the universities in Sri Lanka.
* A festival of feature films based on novels and stories of Tagore.
The Films include Agantuk, Pather Panchali, Charulatha, Ghare Baire and
Teen Kanya .
In September
* Exhibition of the digital copies of paintings of Tagore
* Photo exhibition on the life and travels of Tagore
In November
* Performance of Troupe from ICCR (Shaap Mochan). Shaap Mochan, the
play that enacted earlier in 1934 by Tagore in Sri Lanka, will be
performed by Manipuri Nartanalaya. Bimbavati Devi and her group of 21
artistes will be having performances in Sri Lanka.
* Visit of a five-member delegation from Sri Palee Campus and Sri
Palee college to Santiniketan
* Presentation of Books to Sri Palee Campus and Sri Palee College
The events are organized with the support of the Ministry of Posts,
Government of Sri Lanka, Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Arts,
Government of Sri Lanka, Universities of Colombo, Sri Jayawardenepura,
Kelaniya, High Commission of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Tagore
Society of Sri Lanka, India Sri Lanka Foundation and Sarvodaya. |
