Rabindranath Tagore will always be relevant to Bangladesh
The recent vandalism at Rabindranath Tagore's ancestral Kuthi Bari at Sirajganj in Bangladesh has raised justified criticism in both India and Bangladesh. The present interim government, headed by Muhammad Yunus, has condemned it, and two persons have been taken into custody. The government has also clarified that such incidents are unwarranted and undesirable. It also stated that Tagore remains a continuing source of inspiration, and such stray incidents do not, in any way, diminish his towering presence in the historical evolution of Bangladesh.
In erstwhile East Pakistan, there was a concerted effort to denigrate Tagore. The state-approved radio was not allowed to play his songs. But his works had a significant influence on the 1952 Language Movement, which eventually led to the emergence of Bangladesh. Linguistic nationalism triumphed over communalism and challenged the very basis of the two-nation theory.
For Maulana Bhashani, who played a historic role in challenging the government's diktat and helped in creating a firmer basis of Bengali nationalism, Tagore's works were an integral component of Bengali culture and heritage. One of the canards that was perpetrated by a small section of Islamists was that Tagore opposed the establishment of Dacca (now Dhaka) University, for which there is no historical evidence. The Dacca Nawab family also denied any truth in this. In fact, when Tagore visited the University in 1926, he was carried by students from the railway station to the place where he stayed. Similarly, there is a small section among Bangladeshi elites who wish to replace Amar Sonar Bangla, Bangladesh's national anthem.
Qazi Abdul Mannan, a well-known Bangladeshi Tagore scholar, commented on Tagore's respect for medieval Sufi saints. Mannan observed that Tagore placed his faith in those who transcended narrow religious boundaries and hoped that humanists from both communities would be able to cement the gulf. For Tagore, the solution needed to be social rather than merely political. Tagore showed that even during the medieval period, many holy figures — many of them Muslims — attempted to bridge the divide. Tagore acknowledged Kazi Nazrul Islam's literary qualities and encouraged young Muslims in their literary pursuits. The song Amar Sonar Bangla reflected a hope of ushering in a new age.
Tagore's best and most productive period was spent at Kuthi Bari in Shilaidaha on the banks of the Padma in the 1890s. His finest literary writings of this period include one of his most popular poems, Nirjharer Swapna Bhanga, which seemed to contain the rudimentary philosophy of Visva-Bharati. Here, he penned another classic: Dui Bigha Jomi. On January 10, 1972, when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman landed at Delhi airport, his speech included a quote from Tagore: 'Rikta āmi Nishma āmi dēbār kichu nē'I, āchē śudhu bhālōbāsa tā'i diẏē jai' (I am empty, I am free, I have nothing to give, only love, so I give). Hundreds of young Bangladeshis still visit Shilaidaha daily.
Mannan noted that Tagore looked to the Hindu-Muslim riots as a sign of degradation of the contemporary Indian situation and made efforts to find an amicable solution. For instance, to elicit the opinion of intellectuals on the Hindu-Muslim conflict, Tagore initiated the Nizam Lectures in 1936, and Qazi Abdul Wadood delivered three lectures on this subject.
The Tagore family led an autonomous and somewhat isolated existence among the Hindu Bengali elites of the late-nineteenth century. The family was considered 'Pirali' Brahmins – the word comes from the belief that Pir and Ali dined with the ancestors of the Tagores and converted them – who were ostracised socially by their orthodox counterparts. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah had considerable influence on the family. According to Bangladeshi author Ghulam Murshid: 'Bengal has not had a second genius as great and as many-sided as Tagore. But Tagore did not reach such heights by genius alone. The family and environment that he was born into stoked his genius and encouraged it to grow. This is true not just of his literary creativity but also of all other aspects of his genius.'
Among the many stalwarts of modern Bengali literature, including Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Tagore is the most secular, modern, cosmopolitan, and Gladstonian liberal. He not only championed Bengali language and culture, but also minced no words to criticise them when needed. In one of his poems titled Bangamata, he held Bengal's affectionate, motherly culture responsible for its lack of interest in exploring the world beyond the confines of their comfort zone. His words transcend any religion or localism. He was — and will remain — relevant to Bangladesh, India and the world.
The writer taught Political Science at Delhi University
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