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Rabindranath Tagore: A Legacy Past Borders and Time

Emran Emon

Rabindra Jayanti, noticed on the twenty fifth of Boishakh within the Bengali calendar, stands as probably the most vital cultural celebrations in Bengali historical past. Yearly, on this present day, we commemorate the beginning anniversary of the polymath poet Rabindranath Tagore. This 12 months, we’re celebrating the 164rd Rabindra Jayanti.

The pageant is well known with immense enthusiasm throughout West Bengal, different Indian states, Bangladesh, and Bengali-speaking communities world wide. Even the diaspora participates in these festivities. In West Bengal, the day is marked as a public vacation.

The essence of the celebration contains Rabindra Sangeet performances, dance, dramatizations of his performs, recitations of his writings, seminars, and varied cultural occasions. Places related to Tagore, comparable to Jorasanko Thakur Bari, Rabindra Sadan in Kolkata and Santiniketan, draw massive crowds throughout this time.

In Bangladesh, Rabindra Jayanti is well known extensively in each cities and rural areas. A serious occasion can also be organized at Shilaidaha Rabindra Kuthibari. Academic establishments throughout the nation host particular applications.

Even throughout Tagore’s lifetime, Rabindra Jayanti was noticed. Via this ceremonious celebration, Bengalis acknowledge Tagore’s unparalleled contribution to the language, literature, training, and tradition of Bengal. However the origins of Rabindra Jayanti maintain an interesting historical past, largely unknown to many. Allow us to discover that historical past and the way Tagore seen his personal birthday.

In a letter dated twenty fifth Boishakh 1293 (1886) to Shirish Chandra Majumdar, Rabindranath Tagore wrote: “Right this moment is my birthday. Twenty-five years in the past, on this very day, I descended upon this earth to bless it. Might many extra such days are available my life. Life is stuffed with pleasure.”

Studying this may lead one to suppose Tagore was fairly acutely aware of his birthday. Nonetheless, that assumption is shortly challenged by one other letter he wrote to Jadunath Sarkar: “The extent of discomfort I really feel in all these elaborate outward celebrations is understood solely to the omniscient.”

Tagore was, in truth, by no means enthusiastic concerning the celebration of his personal birthday. His first birthday celebration passed off when he was 26 years outdated. But, for the subsequent 22 years, his birthday remained largely a personal affair, restricted to the inside circles of the Thakur household. Finally, he couldn’t deny the heartfelt appeals of his admirers internationally and gave in to their needs.

The very first celebration of Rabindra Jayanti occurred in 1887 when Tagore was 26. In her autobiography “Jiboner Jharapata”, his niece Sarala Devi Chaudhurani recalled: “I used to be the one who organized Rabimama’s first birthday celebration. On the time, he lived with Mejomama and Notunmama at 89 Park Avenue. Early within the morning, I quietly entered his room with garlands I created from Bokul flowers from our home in Ulto Dinga’s Kashiabagan and added Bel flowers purchased from the market. I laid the garlands and a pair of dhoti and chadar at his ft and gently woke him. Quickly, everybody in the home stirred—it was Rabi’s birthday, and pleasure unfold. From that 12 months, his birthday started to be celebrated amongst household.”

The primary public celebration of Rabindra Jayanti occurred in 1910 at Santiniketan, as he transitioned from 49 to 50 years of age. It was celebrated with nice enthusiasm by the Ashramites and was termed the “Pageant of the Intimate.”

The primary grand public celebration was in 1912, marking his 51st birthday. Together with the Ashram group, a number of distinguished personalities from Kolkata, together with Satyen Dutta, Sukumar Ray and Ramananda Chattopadhyay, joined the trouble beneath the management of Prasanta Mahalanobis.

Tagore was welcomed with Vedic chants, flower garlands, and rituals. Although the poet remained silent that day, his sentiments had been echoed in Nepal Chandra Ray’s speech, who mentioned: “You all revere Gurudev, however by no means place him within the seat of God.” Certainly, Tagore by no means wished to be deified. He wrote:

The place the bottom of the low reside,

Much more destitute than the destitute—

There lies Your sacred path.

Behind all, beneath all, among the many forsaken—

There I search Your ft.

Tagore sought divinity among the many downtrodden, the forgotten, and the damaged. However individuals, of their admiration, wouldn’t let him stay simply human. For he belonged to all. He was the Vishwakavi—the Poet of the World.

In 1931, Tagore’s seventieth birthday was celebrated with grand grandeur, which celebration nonetheless remembered in Bengali historical past. The first organizer was Amal Residence. The celebration committee included an array of luminaries. Presided over by Jagadish Chandra Bose, its members included Haraprasad Shastri, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Prafulla Chandra Ray, Subhas Chandra Bose, Prasanta Mahalanobis, C.V. Raman, Rajshekhar Bose, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Indira Devi, Kalidas Nag, and Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, amongst others.

On the event of the poet’s felicitation, two commemorative books had been revealed—one in Bengali and the opposite in English. The English quantity was titled The Golden E-book of Tagore, a reputation given by Romain Rolland. This e-book featured tributes to Rabindranath from a number of the most illustrious admirers of his time, together with Albert Einstein, Knut Hamsun and Harold Laski.

The celebration prolonged past Boishakh. From December 25 to 31, 1931, Kolkata noticed “Tagore Week.” A number of occasions had been held on the College of Calcutta and the City Corridor. An exhibition of Tagore’s work and manuscript works was organized on the City Corridor. At Eden Gardens, conventional performances comparable to jatra, kirtan, jari, kathakata, raybenshe, and indigenous video games had been organized.

The final Rabindra Jayanti in the course of the poet’s lifetime was on twenty fifth Boishakh 1348 (Might 8, 1941). It was noticed quietly at Santiniketan. Sitting in “Udayan,” Tagore penned just a few reflective traces—his last birthday message—a philosophical distillation of his life:

On this present day of my beginning,

I dissolve into the second—

I search the contact of associates,

The mortal essence of affection—

So I could carry with me

Life’s last reward,

Mankind’s final blessing.

Even throughout his lifetime, the Rabindranath Tagore endured humiliation over the celebration of Rabindra Jayanti. In 1911, when the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad organized an occasion in his honor, a strong faction in Kolkata rose in opposition. They went as far as to print and distribute leaflets denouncing the celebration—and even despatched one on to the poet himself.

Grief-stricken, the poet wrote a letter to Ramendra Sundar Tribedi on Might 4, 1911. In it, Rabindranath wrote: “As I stand on the edge of finishing fifty years of my life, I’ve obtained one more insult as a birthday reward—the accusation that I’m grasping for self-glory. I settle for this slander with bowed head and start the fifty-first 12 months of my life. Might you bless me so that each humiliation I endure could also be made significant.”

One might fill volumes writing about Rabindranath Tagore, and nonetheless, it could be inadequate. The scope of his thought, work and affect is huge—filled with turns and transformations.

Ever since I started studying literature, Rabindranath has turn out to be inseparably intertwined with my being. From that very second, he has turn out to be part of my ideas. I feel, this isn’t distinctive to me—any Bengali is certain to really feel the identical. I imagine that amongst all of the realms of a Bengali’s consciousness, Rabindranath Tagore occupies a good portion. I say this not solely contemplating his literary works but additionally his lifestyle. That’s the reason, to think about Bengali id with out Rabindranath is totally inconceivable.

Rabindranath Tagore holds many identities—poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, lyricist, and social reformer. However what’s his foremost id? At occasions, he seems to be the good poet; at others, a grasp prose author or lyricist. But one can’t deny that via his poems, tales, and essays, he has portrayed the whole thing of human life. Due to this fact, reasonably than confining his greatness to a specific style, it appears extra applicable to say that the essence of his writing itself is what units him aside.

In 1913, Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, turning into the primary Bengali to obtain this prestigious honor for his excellent contribution to the literary world. This landmark achievement introduced world consideration to the richness of the Bengali language and its literary custom.

Rabindranath Tagore is a towering determine in Bengali literature—an immortal spirit whose presence can by no means be erased. Simply as Shakespeare stays ever-present in English literature, so too does Tagore shine as a luminous star in Bengali literature—a star whose mild will proceed to radiate throughout the universe. Rabindranath was, is, and can eternally stay enshrined within the deepest chambers of our hearts.

(Emran Emon is a journalist, columnist and world affairs analyst. Courtesy: Countercurrents.org, an India-based information, views and evaluation web site, that describes itself as non-partisan and taking “the Aspect of the Folks!” It’s edited by Binu Mathew.)

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When Tagore is Treason

Jawhar Sircar

Himanta Biswa Sarma is upto his reprehensible antics as soon as once more. This time, he has picked on a highly regarded Rabindranath Tagore music Amar Shonar Bangla (‘O! My golden Bengal’) to declare its singing as an act of treason.

His ‘offender’ is a small-town Congress chief in Sribhumi district of Assam, a Bengali, who innocently exhibited his Bengali genetic feelings. The Assam chief minister’s logic was that as Bangladesh had picked it up as its nationwide anthem after its liberation in 1971 – one thing which conferred neither proprietary proper nor copyright to that nation – its singing is treasonous. Since PM Modi has used the opening line of the very music/anthem to woo voters in West Bengal, the video proof of which is out there, would he prefer to broach the treason provision right here, too?

Any educated South Asian would remember that the brand new Bangla republic had a staggering vault of Bengali songs to decide on as its anthem. It had these of Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, D.L. Roy, Atul Prasad, Farrukh Ali Qureshi, Rajani Kanta, Jasimuddin and even Farukh Ahmed who was recognized for his anti-colonial and political poems in favour of Bengali Muslims. As a substitute, Bangladesh selected the poet laureate, a Hindu of West Bengal, who was a scion of the landholding gentry that was a lot despised by the Muslim peasantry. There is no such thing as a doubt that Tagore towered over others; that he was deeply in love with the jap a part of Bengal (right now’s Bangladesh) and regarded to be completely inseparable and passionate of the bond that unites the Bengali-speaking individuals throughout.

However details be damned: Himanta Biswa Sarma is making certain that this poor Bengali-speaking Assamese citizen (who represents a major chunk of Assam) be charged with treason, for the temerity of singing this Tagore music. Sarma would require a considerably greater stage or training or a wider worldview, each of which aren’t evident in him at current, to know that the huge treasury of Bengali composition (and tradition) is the frequent property of all Bengalis worldwide, whether or not they be in West Bengal, Bangladesh, Assam, Tripura, Britain, the US or Nigeria. The truth that India selected considered one of Tagore’s songs as its nationwide anthem and Bangladesh selected one other (which is exclusive, as no single poet’s work has been shared thus) didn’t or doesn’t ever preclude these lovely compositions from being sung as a stand-alone songs or recited for the sheer profundity of their lyrics and sentiments.

What precisely are the phrases that CM Assam insists are tantamount to treason? Nicely, the opening verse reads thus:

My glittering golden Bengal I like you.

The atmosphere of your air and sky looks like taking part in a flute in my coronary heart.

The aroma of the mango orchard within the spring time drives me loopy,

O mom pricey.

Autumn time sees smiles all via mature fields of paddy…

It’s an ode to ‘Bengal’, composed in 1905 when the province of Bengal was up in revolt in opposition to Viceroy Curzon’s order that dismembered its jap half and added it to the Chief Commissioner’s province of Assam (arrange in 1874) and made Dhaka the brand new capital. By the way, the very massive and populous Bengali-speaking district of Sylhet of the East was forcibly connected to Assam, manner again in 1874, regardless of protests. Then, in 1905, Lord Curzon ensured that a big part of jap Bengalis had been hopelessly blended with the Assamese, to train rebellious Bengal a lesson. To execute it, the British inspired waves of Bengali peasants to settle within the fertile riverine areas of Assam. This explains why Assamese have been agitating, typically violently, to get a big part (particularly Muslim) of Bengalis out – although lakhs of them know no residence apart from Assam, for one and a half centuries. There are, after all, many Bangladeshis, each Muslims and Hindus, who infiltrated into Assam in current many years. It’s typically (not all the time) troublesome to segregate. With out this detour, we might hardly respect why many Assamese are so alarmed on the fragile demographic steadiness – that Sarma now performs upon, relentlessly. Nor would we realise that the overwhelming majority of a number of generation-old Bengali settlers are an integral a part of Assam and swear by it, come what might. Even the seven-hour deliberate slaughter of some 3,000 Bengali Muslims at Nellie in central Assam in 1983 has not had the specified outcome.

Tagore’s music, that’s now thought of nearly seditious, was, in truth to protest in opposition to the British taking part in their harmful chess video games with human migration and distress in jap India. By selecting on this music as a treacherous recitation of an annoying neighbour’s nationwide anthem, CM Sarma takes three potshots – first at Bengalis as such, which is kosher contemplating his rabble, then on the neighbouring nation he has all the time thought of hostile, even earlier than Yunus, and eventually, he additionally recharges his loyalty battery with the get together he has defected to.

The most important subject is that the philosophy of non-violence, tolerance, secularism and common brotherhood of Gandhi and Tagore are so antithetical to the very soul of non secular fundamentalism, that nevertheless arduous the RSS-BJP might attempt to cowl it, the more severe it will get.

Although Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and their equally uninformed acolytes within the BJP of West Bengal typically bend backwards to reward Tagore, particularly earlier than elections within the state, nobody takes them severely. Dina Nath Batra, the battering ram of Hindu fundamentalism, was extra trustworthy when his RSS-affiliated ‘Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas’ demanded in 2017 that the Nationwide Council of Academic Analysis and Coaching (NCERT) take away Tagore’s ideas on nationalism from its textbooks. A couple of years in the past it was reported that the Adityanath authorities has truly eliminated a well-known quick story of Tagore from the Class 12 textbooks in UP and included Adityanath’s personal writings and Baba Ramdev’s as a substitute. One remembers how the Hindu Proper retains insisting that our nationwide anthem is anachronistic (in accordance with Kalyan Singh, governor of Rajasthan in 2015) or spreads the canard that Tagore had written it to reward King George V who was visiting India in 1912.

Can anybody in his proper senses match these iconic phrases of Tagore with the constricted ideology of hate of Modi or Savarkar or their unapologetic intolerance as rolled out via the UAPA, CAA, NRC, and varied anti-Muslim campaigns?

The place the thoughts is with out concern and the pinnacle is held excessive;

The place information is free;

The place the world has not been damaged up into fragments by slender home partitions…

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my nation awake.

The actual fact is that when the Hindutva rabble-rousers run out of incendiary missiles to ignite additional hate and divisions in society, they resort to harmful distortion and lies. It applies universally to this tribe, throughout many years and continents, and is predicated on a sound psychological premise referred to as the ‘massive lie’, that Goebbels theorised for Nazis in Germany. Goebbels’s open espousal of ‘massive lies’ to persuade gullible plenty might be traced again to his article ‘Aus Churchills Lügenfabrik’ (‘From Churchill’s Lie Manufacturing unit’) that was revealed in Die Zeit ohne Beispiel on January 12, 1941. This was, by the way, 16 years after Hitler’s first public use of the phrase.

In spite of everything, provocateurs like Sarma, Adityanath (and even Suvendu Adhikari, the hyper-aggressive BJP chief in West Bengal) have all to show and renew their loyalty to the RSS-BJP excessive command each day – as they don’t seem to be from the pure crimson-blooded inventory. ‘Yogi’ is from an extra bigoted political lineage and the opposite two (like many others) defected overtly to the very best bidder, the BJP, from their respective Congress events, for energy and different apparent causes. Sarma’s extra-belligerence is to allay the fears of his new masters about turncoats and this explains why he must maintain his systematic oppression of Muslims and Bengalis, or ideally each.

[Jawhar Sircar was Secretary, Government of India, and CEO of Prasar Bharati. He is a former Rajya Sabha MP of the Trinamool Congress. Courtesy: The Wire, an Indian nonprofit news and opinion website. It was founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M. K. Venu.]