For Tagore lovers, pocheshe boishakh, his beginning anniversary in Might, is a vital day within the Bengali calendar, one other being his dying anniversary in August, baishe srabon.
A famend humanitarian, Tagore’s work may be thought-about fashionable, even cosmopolitan; in the present day some may name him a citizen of the world. His novels and brief tales launched totally different cultures and peoples to various audiences, bringing various characters collectively to create dialogue and mutual understanding each on the extent of the plot and for readers. This was virtually 100 years earlier than the time period “literary diplomacy” can be coined as part of “cultural diplomacy,” and with it a rising understanding that literature can play a diplomatic function in rendering “the international” culturally intelligible, even pleasant.
This engagement with influences from all over the world may be seen in his musical compositions too. Thus, his in-depth data of Hindustani classical music however, a few of his compositions additionally drew from Western tunes, akin to purano shei diner kotha which was primarily based on Robert Burns’ Scots’ poem Auld lang Syne and phoole phoole dhole dhole on Ye Banks and Braes (The Banks of Doon).
Given his humanistic perception in dignity and equality for all, it was unsurprising that he rejected spiritual extremisms, inflexible ritual orthodoxies, and caste discrimination, as an alternative advocating for amity between spiritual communities and social reform. A lot of his writing demonstrates a exceptional openness to different faiths. His highly effective poem ‘The place the Thoughts is With out Concern’ says ‘into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my nation awake’. ‘Our Father who Artwork in Heaven’ is a Christian concept. However he didn’t convert to Christianity, regardless of missionary and evangelical strain. Artistic engagements with mythology, non secular philosophies like vedanta, and the pantheistic jeebon-devata infused his huge, eclectic corpus of labor. His cosmopolitanism continued to be culturally rooted.
Equally, his democratic temperament and internationalism was undergirded by a deep love for his nation. Tagore’s want was to see India, the Bharat he invoked in his poems, assume political and moral management on the planet, as expressed in songs akin to He Bharat aji tomar shobhay. His writing additionally shone with the cultural idioms of Bengal; he liked Bengal as he liked India, mirrored in songs akin to Banglar mati Banglar jol. Elsewhere he and different Bengali poets like Dwijendralal Roy categorical the hope that irrespective of the place his travels take him, he wished to die within the land of his beginning:
O Maa tomar charan duti bokkhe aami dhori,
Ei deshetei jonmo jyeno ei deshe-tei mori
Tagore’s love for his nation led to a faceoff with the then-British Viceroy Lord George Nathaniel Curzon, an ardent imperialist recognized for his or her snide racism and retaliation. Curzon was punishing these opposing the 1905 partition of Bengal; and Tagore protested together with others, resulting in a reversal of the partition. In 1919, to protest the Jallianwalabagh bloodbath wherein many harmless, unarmed civilians died after being fired at by the British Indian military underneath the command of Common Reginald Dyer, who was handled like a hero for his crime, Tagore renounced the knighthood conferred upon him, which might have given him the title of ‘Sir,’ poignantly penning “Ei monihar aamay nahi shaaje, ere porte gele laage, ere chhirte gele baaje.” (This bejewelled necklace doesn’t change into me, it hurts to put on it, it mocks if I tear it.’) By refusing this reward from the highly effective West, he made his moral, anticolonial stance clear. His self was not separate from his nation, and his real friendship and goodwill in the direction of others shouldn’t be pitted in opposition to India’s well-being.
As many an idealist has discovered, trusting a robust different to not trigger hurt can typically end in catastrophe. As for people, so for nations: there’s good purpose to emphasise self-reliance, atmanirbharta, within the face of intractable enemies and unreliable allies. However because the heir of an enormous zamindari, Tagore was privileged sufficient to not must pay a horrible value for his idealism. Therefore his delicate, poetic universe may afford to refuse an engagement with the truth of struggle and necessity for defence preparedness. This was lengthy earlier than worldwide relations as a discipline would broaden to incorporate the research of friendship between nations, and the moral and sensible significance of diplomacy as a device to forestall struggle.
In struggle there are sometimes no winners, and Rabindranath Tagore offers us a peaceable, hopeful imaginative and prescient of a world the place enemies could but change into buddies. At present there are Indian cultural facilities from New Delhi to New York to London to Tashkent to Sydney, sharing the language of affection, friendship, and India’s function in international diplomacy as viswa-mitra. His dedication to gender justice, as explored in my earlier piece, additionally assumes relevance within the context of gendered types of struggling in struggle.
Tagore’s curiosity in imparting moral, inclusive training resulted within the founding of Viswa-Bharati College (the place as soon as throughout a go to, I used to be delighted to discover a peacock feather on my path, given its affiliation with Lord Krishna who is claimed to put on a peacock feather in his crown, and Tagore’s many poems invoking Krishna.) In occasions of acrimonious political relations, his love for Bengal and the nation offers a constructive template for communication, cooperation and mutually respectful centre-state power-sharing. And whereas his privilege insulated him from many worldly challenges, his will to protect his personal sense of self and identification regardless of myriad pressures makes him an everlasting determine of inspiration and resilience for a lot of.
Rabindranath Tagore died on August 7, 1941, within the land of his beginning.
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Views expressed above are the creator’s personal.
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