Rabindranath revisited

[asahabur Rahman]

Dear Friends,

I could not respond earlier due to my preoccupation with office work. This is in response to Taj Hashmi’s article "Tagore-Mania"  and some of your reactions to it:

·      Shivagi Utsav

       The poem Shivaji Utsav was written in 1905 in response to a request from Marathi  nationalist Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar (1869-1912),  who was domiciled in Kolkata and wrote in Bengali.  Sakharam organized a  “Shivaji Festival” in Kolkata in that year. On this occasion Sakharam wrote a booklet  titled Shivaji Diksha wherein Rabi’s poem was included. The festival was held on Sept 16, 2005 presided over by Surendranath Bannerjea (1848-1925), veteran nationalist leader and Congress president in 1895 and 1902. But Rabi did not attend the event. The poem was published in Bangadarshan (ed. Rabindranath) and Bharati (ed. Swarnakumari, Rabi’s elder sister). The words ek dharmarajyapashe in the poem no doubt meant  one Hindu state. In addition to Shivaji Utsav Rabi wrote several  poems on the same theme extolling  Maratha nationalist reawakening started by Shivaji which were included in his anthology Katha O Kahini. But in  later years in numerous essays and lectures  Rabi explained  Dharma as something else. Though derived from Upanishadic concept it was not the ideology of Hinduttva  as formulated by  Marathi  nationalist  Savarkar (1883-1966) and his  successors Hedgewar (1889-1940) and Thakrey (1926-2012) .  Neither it reflected  the creed of anti-Muslim communal organizations founded by them,- the RSS and Shivaji Sena. Rabi’s idea of Dharma was presented in his Hibbert Lectures at Oxford university (May 1930) later published under the title  The Religion of Man (1931), and  in many articles, lectures, in his talks with Einstein (August 19, 1930). Before his Hibbert lectures he  explained it in his essay Sadhana (1913).

       Rabi’s assessment of Shivaji was expressed in the foreword he wrote for the book   Shivaji O Maratha Jati  published  in 1909 by Sharat Kumar Ray of Natore (1876-1946), founder of Rajshahi  Varendra Research Samity and Museum). In the foreword Rabi said that Shivaji could not succeed in uniting  India because he did not adhere to dharmer udar oikko by defeating dharmer bhedbuddhi, and regretted that Shivaji found his dharmabudhhi in his own bhedbuddhi. He explained how Shivaji failed in his endeavor because of his communal approach to the question of national unity. In Rabi’s views, neither Shivaji nor Guru Govind Sing could advance the unity of Indians due to their narrow sectarian vision and work. Like Shivaji Utsav Rabi also composed some poems eulogizing the rebellion of Sikhs against the Mughal  imperium.

       Hemchandra Sen (1838-1903) author of  verse epic Britrasanghar (1875) and Nabin Chandra Sen (1847-1909) of Palashir Juddha (1875)  fame were two 19^th century poets whose  works were considered as the water shade between medieval and modern Bengali poetic styles and inspired Rabi during  his formative  period.  Both were Hindu nationalists. But Rabi’s infatuation with Hindu nationalist discourse was a temporary phenomenon and Rabi never espoused that ideology afterwards. The Hindu nationalist movement also passed  its mobilization phase of pre-1905 years   due to changed circumstances  after 1905.  It  found new vigor in the  post-Bangabhaanga  period in Swadeshi  movement  led by Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950)  and was transformed  into  violent anti-British terrorist movement during the 1920s and 30s. Rabi was very careful to dissociate himself from the Swadeshiwallahs.

  Bengal preempted the Marathis in launching Hindu nationalist movement which arose simultaneously with Hindu religious revival movement led by Pundit Shashadhar Takachuramoni (1815-1928). Inspired by Marathi  Tilak (1855-1920), leader of Congress party’s radical faction, Nabagopal Mitra (1840-1894) and Rajnarayan Basu (1826-1899), organized Hindu Mela in Kolkata in 1886 to promote Hindu revivalist movement in Bengal. Rabi's Mejodada Jyotindranath recited poems and sung songs at the  Hindu Mela accompanied by  young Rabi. The festive atmosphere of Hindu revivalism might have influenced young Rabi, especially considering his adoration of Mejodada who was a gifted lyricist, musician, actor, painter,  playwright and cultural activist. But that  infatuation did not last long.  His exposure to European and Asian  philosophies, science and  culture from very young age, his inquiring mind,  and their assimilation together with Upanishadic idealism changed  his worldview. As a result, though expressly Hindu, humanist ideals and universalism became his dominant philosophy of life  by 1913.

 In the  surging Hindu nationalist fervor of the last and first decades of respectively 19^th and 20^th century Shivaji,  Marathas and Rajputs were viewed as ideal heroes in the eyes of Bengali Hindu nationalists because of their armed resistance to Mughal hegemony and imperial expansion. Rabi’s paean Shivaji Utsav was a testimony to that. Famous novelist, economic historian, civil servant (ICS), Sanskrit and Vedic scholar Ramesh Dutt (1848-1909) wrote Maharashtra Jibon Prabhat and Rajput Jibon Sandhya to highlight Hindu martial prowess and lamented its decline. It might be  that  ignorance  about  the history of Bengali martial valor  and  armed resistance by  Bengalis against the imperial invasions of Delhi created a sense of inferiority in the first generation of educated Hindu Bengalis who rejoiced in the reflected glory of Maratha military might.

It is ironic that the rise of Shivaji  and  Maratha confederacy in 17^th century was seen as resurgence of  Hindu national reawakening and restoration of Hindu state by the Bengali Hindu nationalists. These learned men failed to see that the rise of militant Maratha nation under Shivaji  had turned out to be a curse for Bengalis in mid-18^th century. Brutal Maratha military raids  into Bengal in search of loot and wealth put the inhabitants of the western districts of Bengal in terrible suffering and misery.  Maratha cavalry formations were called Bargi. The famous Bengali lullaby, “chhele ghumalo para juralo…bargi elo deshe…” originated from the Maratha depredations of western Bengal. Bengal’s  harassed ruler Nawab Alivardi Khan (1740-1756), unable to defeat them decisively in several battles had to buy peace from the marauding Marathas by paying them a huge amount. Even the English of Kolkata who had build a fort  [William] there panicked by the Maratha raids. They dug a huge moat to deter the Maratha cavalry around their warehouse and homes in Kolkata known as Mahratta Ditch (later Tolly’s Nullah, today’s Tullygunj road is reminiscent of that distant Maratha terror. The Marathas were militarily crushed by the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani in the third battle of Panipat in 1761. Bengali poet Syed Kazem Ali Quraishi a.k.a Kaikobad’s (1875-1951)  epic  poem Mahashamshan Kavya (1875) immortalized the historic event.

     The Bengali Hindu nationalists suffered from the illusion that India was  an united nation-state throughout its history and failed to see that all of its nationalities  and tribes had  established their  own independent states and consistently  fought  bloody battles to expand the territorial possession by  waging wars against neighboring  Hindu or Muslim states. There was never a country known as India, that name was the invention of ancient Greeks borrowed from Iranians who called the territories up to north Indian plane as Sindhudesh.The epic Mahabharata, Buddhist chronicles, puranas,  inscriptions, literature and local histories  provided incontrovertible evidence on that. Whenever India was united it was by the power of  sword of a regional state, like Magadha of Asoka and Chandragupta or Harshavardhana of Thaneshwar because religion did not bind the people into a nationhood and these empires were short-lived. With the weakening of the military strength of the imperial clan centripetal forces tore down the empire into fragmented new states. This was the history of south Asia from the time of Mahabharata war (900 BC?)  up to the emergence of British Indian empire in mid-19th century. This last south Asian empire also met with the same fate. But it succeeded in establishing the myth of  India as a single country in the minds of educated Hindus and Muslims by the charmed European Indophiles, the first of whom was William Jones (1746-94), founder of Asiatic Society of Bengal. Like his contemporary Bengali Hindu intellectuals Rabi also believed in this mythical country renamed Bharatvarsha and nation Bharatyia.

In late medieval period Bengalis also rose up in arms against the Mughal invasion of Bengal and fierce resistance were led by the famed 12 Bhuiyans (zamindars) of Bengal who emerged after the fall of independent Bengal sultanate and the death of its last Sultan Daud Khan Karrani by the hand of Akbar's general  Hussain Kuli Beg in 1576. Bengal came fully under Mughal control in early 17th century when Jahangir's general Islam Khan Chishti eliminated all pockets of resistance by 1612.  But this annexation lasted only for 100 years when it became again independent with the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 under Murshid Quli Khan (1665-1727). Except Pratapaditya (1561-1611), one of 12 Bhuiyans of Jessore-Magura region none received praise from the Hindu nationalists.  Only  Bankim wrote a historical fiction titled Sitaram (1887), which narrated  the story of  a  virtuous zamindar of  Bhushna ( Faridpur region) who led a rebellion against the Nawab of Murshidabad and was killed in battle with Nawab’s army.  Lack of authentic historical knowledge about the 12 Bhuiyans was the main reason for this misplaced focus. The existence and struggles of the 12  Bhuiyans of Bengal against  Mughal invasion could be known definitively for the first time  when renowned historian Jadunath Sarkar(1870-1958) discovered the 17^th century  Farsi manuscript of Baharistan-i-Gayebi by Mughal imperial officer  Mirza Nathan in Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and published some excerpts of the manuscript  in famous Bengali literary magazine Probashi  in  its October-November 1920  number. Later professor M I Bohra of Dhaka university translated the full text and the book was published by Assam government in 1936. Before  that  some sketchy history on the Bhuiyans was found in contemporary Portuguese  records and later in the writings of  English  colonial administrators. Although a historian of repute Sarkar downplayed the role of the Bhuiyans in resisting the Mughal invasion of Bengal and did not say nice words for them. He also hailed the English conquest of Bengal at Plassey  (1757) as the end of  dark ages and dawn of new civilization  in his History of Bengal vol. II (1943).

But the above picture is not the whole story. Akhshay Kumar Maitreya (1861-1930) in his  two books Sirajuddawla (1898) and Mir Kasim (1906)  presented  for the first time a  Bengali nationalist discourse that placed the two Bengal Nawabs as the tragic  heroes who fought to preserve the independence of Bengal from the greedy Faranjis and fell due to conspiracy hatched by the English Company which machinated the vile treachery of court nobles. He also debunked the myth of “black hole tragedy” concocted by the Company’s English soldier John Zephaniah Holwel. The same nationalist viewpoint was upheld by Nikhilnath Roy (1865-1942) in his well researched  Murshidabad Kahini (1899) wherein he presented the Bengal Nawabs as virtuous patriots and lamented the lost glory of capital Murshidabad.

Rabi expressed his admiration for Mughal-i-Azam Akbar in many of his writings for Akbar’s  religious policy of tolerance, syncretism and humanism. In his evaluation of  the long history of India only two of India’s rulers were great, Asoka and Akbar.

During the 30s when Nazism and Japanese militarism were on the rise  Rabi strongly  condemned the ideology of nationalism in all of its forms and explained it as the main cause of evil in modern world. He considered the rise of  Nazism in Europe and Japanese militarism (he expressed his horror in  a long poem on Rape of Nanjing by Japanese army in December 1937) as the natural culmination of nationalism. But even here he had lapses. After visiting Italy in 1926 at the invitation of Mussolini and meeting him twice Rabi praised the social changes brought by the Fascist dictator. This resulted in an uproar in liberal European press and after Romain Rolland (French, winner of Nobel prize for literature in 1915) and his friends  debriefed Rabi about the true nature of Mussolini’s rule he reluctantly modified his opinion about Il Duce.

·         Rabi’s Relations with Muslims

Bengali literary magazine Saogat (1918-1952) was renowned for its role to bring enlightenment to Bengali Muslims, especially its efforts for encouraging  aspirant women writers. Its founder-editor Mohammad Nasiruddin  (1884-1994) started the publication of  first illustrated weekly  magazine  for Muslim women Begum  from Kolkata in 1947. Poet Begum Sufia Kamal (1911-1999) was its editor. When Nasiruddin  went to meet Rabi for his blessings and a poem the latter praised the magazine’s naming.  The meeting was followed by a poem from Rabi  titled Pather Sathi which was printed in the second issue of the magazine. The poem is included in Rabi’s book of verse Lipika.

No other prominent Bengali Muslim writers at that time such as Kaikobad, Shahadat Hossian, Talim Hossain, Farrukh Ahmed and Golam Mostafa spoke of Rabi's anti-Muslim  attitude or activities and all aspirant Bengali Muslim poets and writers sought Rabi's encouragement and inspiration.  Golam Mostafa (1894-1964) was the first Bengali Muslim poet who dedicated a book of verse  to Rabi. Even the great Maulana Akram Khan (1886-1969),  one of the founding- members of Muslim League in 1906  and founder-editor of League’s  Bengali mouthpiece Daily Azad and monthly literary magazine Mohammadi, member of All India Muslim League Central  Working Committee, Islamic scholar, biographer of Prophet Muhammad (SAWM) published a special issue on Rabi after his death. The most prominent of all Bengali Muslim literary  figures was of course “rebel” poet Nazrul (1899-1976). He earned the  sobriquet “rebel”  for his celebrated poem “the rebel” first published in literary magazine Moslem Bharat (October-November, 1921).  Moslem Bharat  printed  the following  message from Rabi on the cover of  its every issue:

“Manab-sangsare jnanaloker diwali-utsab chalitechhe. Pratyek jati apanar alotike boro kariya jalaile tobe sakale miliya ei utsab samadha haibe”

 Rabi contributed his poems and articles to the short-lived  magazine.

Nazrul  wrote  in total eight  poems as obeisance  to Rabi. Nazrul composed a requiem just after Rabi’s death on August 7, 1941. Its playback record was  produced by HMV. Nazrul gave his voice in the song with two others.  Poet Jasimuddin (1903-1976)  described how he received Rabi's affection and support in his autobiography Thakur Barir Anginai (1961). Rabi gave two certificates to Jasimuddin for his appointment in the post of lecturer in Bengali at Dhaka university. Jasimuddin got the job in 1938.

Many  other renowned Bengali Muslim literary figures, researchers, teachers, folklorists, educationists, eminent personalities, e.g., Humayun Kabir (Twice India’s Education Minister  respectively under Nehru and Shastry ), Shahed Suhrawardy (educationist, art critique, Bageshwari professor at Kolkata university, organizer of reception given to Rabi by Indian students organization Indian Majlish at Oxford in 1913), Hassan Suhrawardy (VC Kolkata university, 1930-34), Sir Azizul Huq (Education Minister, 1934-37 and VC Kolkata university, 1938-42), Dr Muhammad Shahidullah, Muhammad Mansuruddin,  Bande Ali Miah, Abul Fazal, Abul Hossain, Kazi  Abdul Wadud, Sufia Kamal, Abdul Qadir,  Jahanara Chowdhury, Begum Shamsunnahar Mahmud, Habibullah Bahar, Benazir Ahmed  acknowledged respectfully Rabi's encouragement to them for pursuing a literary career and developing Bengali literature. Mansuruddin was invited by Rabi to speak on folklore at Shantiniketan  he collected from rural Bengal, published his essays in Bharati and wrote the Introduction of the  first of  Mansuruddin’s 13 volume  Haramoni (1930),a  huge compendium of Bengali folklores.  Many other Muslim poets, editors and writers received Rabi’s encouragement to them in poems and letters. However there were  exceptions too. Nothing is known about Rabi’s correspondence  with the pioneer of Muslim girls’ education, litterateur and feminist Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) and with the discoverer of medieval Bengali manuscripts written by Muslims Abdul Karim Sahityavisharad (1869-1953). His discoveries radically changed the history of Bengali language and literature.

 Syed Muztaba Ali (1904-1974) was a scholar  specialized in  Ismailia  Shia Theology, multi-linguist, educationist and popular  writer. He did his Ph D on Ismailism from Bonn university in 1932. Young Muztaba was inspired to study in Shantineketan by listening to Rabi’s lecture Akhangkhsha  when the latter visited Sylhet in 1919. Muztaba became a faculty at  Vishvabharati  for some time and taught Islamic studies. Syed Muztaba’a elder brother  civil servant Syed Murtaza Ali (1902-1981) described in detail Rabi’s visit and the reception given in his honor in Sylhet in his autobiography Amader Kaler Katha (1968).

 Maulana Ziauddin, a Punjabi,  enrolled  in Shantiniketan when a  boy and later  joined the school as a professor of Islamic History and Culture. He translated Rabi’s 100 poems in Farsi titled Sada-band-e-Tagore  and an Urdu translation of the same titled Kalm-i-Tagore. These two books were published from Vishvabharati  print shop in 1935. Rabi deeply mourned Zia’s sudden death in July 1938 and composed a poem in his memory  titled “Maulana Ziauddin” included in his book of verse Navajatak. A condolence meeting was held at Shantiniketan where Rabi spoke very highly of him.

Shantiniketan  remained closed to mourn the death of Kemal Ataturk on  November 18, 1938. In his  condolence speech on the occasion Rabi praised Kemal as the revolutionary hero  who restored Asians’ pride and symbol of resurgent Asia fighting western domination. Rabi wrote four separate articles on Kemal’s contributions to the emancipation of Turks from  European domination, medieval obscurantism and for establishing the foundations of a modern Turkey. Please recall that Nazrul also did same and his poem Kemal Pasha which was an innovation in the field of Bengali rhyme.

Rabi wrote messages on the occasion of  Prophet Muhammad’s (SAWM) holy birth anniversary  twice which were published in  compilations brought out by Kolkata Muslims. Excerpts from one message:

“ I take this opportunity to offer my homage of veneration to Holy Prophet Mohammad, one of the greatest personalities born in this world, who brought…a vigorous ideal of purity in religion…those who follow his path…will justify their noble faith in life and the sublime teaching…”

 In the first anniversary of Jalianwalla Bagh (Amritsar, Punjab) massacre of April 13, 1919, a memorial meeting was held in Mumbai (then Bombay) on April 20, 1920 presided over by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah was a Congress politician at that time. Rabi sent a speech in English at Jinnah's request which was read in the meeting. Earlier immediately after the massacre Rabi renounced his Knighthood in protest of the genocide by writing a letter to Viceroy Lord Chelmsford. A sentence from the letter,

” …The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part wish to stand, shorn of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen, who, for their so-called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings…”

It may be mentioned here that poet, philosopher, politician and Muslim League ideologue, creator of “Two Nations Theory”, “Dreamer of Pakistan (minus Bengal)”   Sir Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1887-1938) who was a Punjabi (Sialkot, Punjab but of Kashmiri Brahman lineage) did not utter a word of protest against the massacre of fellow Punjabi men, women and children at Jalianwala Bagh.

Hungarian scholar of Islam  Gyula Germanus  (1884-1979) was a faculty at Shantiniketan on Rabi's invitation for establishing the school of Islamic studies. His wife Rosza Hajnoczy (1894-1944) wrote a memoir  in Magyar on their three year (1929-31)  sojourn at Bolpur titled Bengali Tuz.   The book became a best seller in Hungary in the  mid-40s. After half a century it was translated in English for the first time and published from Dhaka in 1993 (UPL). Rosza was very critical of the Hindu religious beliefs, purity and pollution rites, unhygienic lifestyle, dirty streets and kitchen, dehumanizing practices and frankly ridiculed them. Her  book will be considered  now as a statement  on Orientalism and  compared to American protestant evangelist miss Katherine Mayo’s (1867-1940)  Hinduphobic book Mother India (1927), which Gandhi described as a “sewage inspector’s report”. Not surprisingly Rosza was roundly condemned  as a racist and Hinduphobe by Kolkata intellectuals when the English translation became available there.  Rosza described  Rabi as a Renaissance man but also a fallible mortal. She narrated how Rabi was very careful to prevent the intrusion of Swadeshi  terrorist politics into Shantiniketan . Nevertheless  the fire of Bengal reached Shantiniketan.  Rosza  described  several incidents on this subject in the book. A review of the book is attached (please ignore the typos).

 

·         Marriage with a pubescent girl

Tagore family was Pirali Brahmans, a sub-sect of Bengal Brahmans who fell from ritually pure high status due to association with Muslims. The word Pirali derived from Farsi  word Pir and the  Pir  who was responsible for Tagore lineage’s fall from grace was  Ulugh Khan Jahan Ali  (died 1459 AD) of Bagerhat  which was Tagore's ancestral home. The legend is Rabi's ancestor from paternal side  had  smelled the aroma of cooked beef which floated from the kitchen of Ulugh Khan Jahan and thus lost  pure Brahman Jati status. Because of very complex and strict rules of commensality and consanguinity coded by Smarta Raghunandan (15-16^th century) of Nadia  and rigorously followed by  three dozens of Jatis (sub-castes) of  Bengali Hindus, the Tagores could marry only in other Pirali  gotras  because no other Brahman clan would give their daughter to Tagore family in marriage risking loss of Jati status. It was considered doubly polluting because the Tagore family  had  converted to Brahmoism since 1843. So frantic search started for a bride when Rabi reached the marriageable age of 22 in the places where Piralis lived and only one was found eligible at Fultala in Khulna. The bride was 11 years old Bhabotarini, renamed Mrinalini by Rabi after marriage.  Incidentally his two elder brothers' wives also came from Khulna region where some Pirali households lived. In this respect Rabi was a bit advanced than his Mejodada Jyotindranath whose wife was nine year old Kadambori Devi when  the marriage took place.  But as was the custom of Hindu marriage at that period (prescribed by Raghunandan)  girls were married off before their first menstruation. It seems outrageous to our sensibilities now but that was the deeply ingrained traditional Hindu practice  coded by Raghunandan which held sway over the Hindus of  Bengal. The British tried to end it through a legislation called "Age of Consent Act" (Sahabas Sammati Ain) in1891 which proposed to raise the age of consent  of   girls  for sex  from 10 to 12. It caused terrible uproar and fierce opposition from the orthodox Hindus led by their venerable leader Pundit Shashadhar Tarkachuramoni but nevertheless was passed in the legislative council of the Governor-General. It may be mentioned that same  practice of child-bride marriage was equally prevalent among the Muslims of that period. Poet Begum Sufia Kamal (1911-1999) was married at the age of 12. The provisions of the Act was not enforced (like the Abolition of Suttee Regulation of 1829) and it did not help to prevent the marriage of  Hindu pre-pubescent girls with older men.

 In his late middle age Rabi was strongly  attracted  to  another  young girl. His relationship with Ranu Adhikary (1906-2000), a girl 45 years younger than him can be described as a passionate love affair. Rabi was 66 when he first met 11 year old Ranu in 1927. His wife Mrinalini had died in 1900 so an emotionally lonely Rabi  might have fallen for this young girl. But it was reciprocal. Teen aged Ranu wrote fervid love letters to Rabi like a girl possessed. Then there was another girl Indira (1873-1960), his  talented niece  (eldest brother Satyandranath’s daughter) with whom he was very intimate. Nandini, the protagonist in his famous symbolic drama Rakto Korobi (1925) was created in Indira’s image.  It is noteworthy that violating  the rules and custom of  child marriage in Tagore family  Indira remained unmarried until 1899 to the age of 26!!!  The story of Rabi’s relationship with Victoria Ocampo (1890-1979), his distant Muse is widely known and presented beautifully by Ketaki Kushari Dyson in her well researched book In Your Blossoming Flower-Garden: Rabindranath Tagore and Victoria Ocampo, Sahitya Academy, New Delhi, 1988.

In spite of being a genius in the field of arts and literature  and a promoter of reformist ideas for removing superstitions from the Hindu society, Rabi was very conservative when it came to marrying off his own daughters. All giants have feet of clay and Rabi was no exception. Ignoring strong opposition from his wife, well wishers and friends he arranged the marriage of his daughters Madhurilata (Bela) at 15, Renuka (Rani) at 10 and Meera (Atosi)  at 13 with greedy, selfish, parasitic and arrogant men. The marriage of his daughters ended in terrible disasters and the tragic fate of his loved children haunted him for the rest of his life.

·    First partition of Bengal (Bangabhanga, 1905)  

His opposition to 1905 partition of Bengal was a move from the perspective of a Bengali nationalist who considered division of the country  into  two  will be catastrophic for the country and destroy the unity of the Bengalis. Anti-partition movement  was mainly a Hindu Bhadralok led agitation  though several prominent Bengali Muslim personalities opposed the partition too. The Bangabhanga  agitation gave birth to a violent  anti-British  movement called Swadeshi. But after initial enthusiasm Rabi  became disillusioned with Swadeshi movement when it turned fierce and gave birth to "terrorist" acts like assassination of Englishmen in Bengal. He completely dissociated himself with Swadeshi but was secretly sympathetic to the patriotism of those  young men and women who sacrificed their lives in their attempts to assassinate  English civil servants. He was also empathic to  Subhas Bose (1897-1945 ?) the anti-Gandhi Congress leader of Bengal who openly expressed his disregard  for Gandhian  Ahimsa and Satyagraha and espoused armed rebellion against the Raj for achieving independence of India.   

·   Opposition to Dhaka University  

The story of Rabi's opposition to the establishment of Dhaka university is not supported by documentation. Rabi is the most researched person in Bangladesh and India. But there is not a shred of evidence on this in any archive on Rabi. Neither there is any record of any  meeting held at Garer Math on March 28, 1912 in the  archives  of Calcutta Municipal Corporation.  Persons or organizations have to get  prior approval of the Corporation for holding meeting at Garer Math by  placing an advance booking for the place. Following typical British fanatical attention to preserve documentation  the  Calcutta Corporation archives recorded  every meeting  held within its jurisdiction from the year of its establishment in1876. But there is no record in its archives that  a booking was  made for holding a meeting on March 28, 1912 at Garer Math. 

Major General (Retd.) M A Matin in his book titled, Amader Svadhinata Sangramer Dharabahikata ebong Prasangik Kicchu Katha, (Ahmad Publishing House, Dhaka 2000)  presented  the story as follows:

 

Hindu leaders organized protest meetings-mobilizations all over Bengal against establishment of Dhaka university. A huge meeting was organized at Garer Math in Kolkata on March 28, 1912  to protest the establishment of Dhaka university  presided over by poet Rabindranath Thakur. It should be mentioned here that a personality like poet Rabindranath Thakur also opposed the establishment of Dhaka university.  Because Rabindranath was a Hindu swabhab kobi steeped in Hindu mentality, Hindu thought-consciousness and indoctrinated in Hindu ideas. For this reason he could not accept the proposal for establishment of Dhaka university by remaining above  narrow communalism at that time. Moreover  many of the erstwhile directors of Kolkata university were Hindu including poet Rabindranath  were zamindars who contributed financially to establish Kolkata university. Their zamindaries were extended over to east Bengal and they thought that a new university in east Bengal would reduce the importance of Kolkata university and they will lose their influence at Dhaka university which  they exercise  at Kolkata university…they argued that majority of population of east Bengal are Muslim peasants, therefore, there was no need to establish a university for the higher education of their children…Further a high level delegation of Hindu leaders met Viceroy Lord Hardinge and expressed  the opinion that establishment of Dhaka university would be comparable to internal partition of Bengal because this would divide the Bengali nation and fuel the animosity between the Hindus and Muslims.(my translation)  

Interestingly the Tagore archives present a different fact. On March 28, 2012 Rabi was at Shilaidaha in Kushtia. He left Kolkata on March 24 and stayed at Shilaidaha  up to April 12  recuperating from illness for which he had cancelled his journey by ship to England scheduled on March 19. Rabi used to date his poems along with the places of  composition  and the 18  poems and songs composed during those days have place-name Shilaidaha. One specific poem (number 4 in the anthology Gitimalya) was  dated March 28, 2012. So he could not be present at Garer Math, Kolkata on the day the  protest meeting (which did not happen) when he was actually staying at Shilaidaha.   

Major General (Retd.) Matin did not cite the source of information he narrated nor gave any reference in his book. But the book is a fine example of history of Bangladesh written from the position of  Bengali Muslim nationalist ideology. There are  many other authors and publications which present Bangladesh as the culmination of the Islamic transformation began by Tuko-Afghan military commander Bakhtyar Khilji through his conquest of  Hindu-Buddhist  Bengal in 1206. Former Army chief of staff Lt. General Moyeenuddin in one of his articles published in the Daily Star in 2007 presented this outline of Bangladesh’s historical journey to independence. It is noteworthy that according to the General Matin’s  logic, “ since Rabi was a Hindu, he was by nature anti-Muslim, because Hindus can never be sympathetic to Muslims, and would always conspire to harm them. For this reason Rabi opposed the establishment of Dhaka university”. Needless to say that Dhaka university was viewed as a purely Muslim establishment by the learned General though how an institution of higher education could take the identity  of a religious community was not explained. Dhaka university was open to Hindu students and teachers  and had no special quota or reserved seats for Muslim students.  It remains to be seen how the General would explain the establishment of the school of Islamic History & Culture at Shantiniketan by this anti-Muslim Hindu poet with the generous financial assistance of a Muslim ruler of an Indian  state,-the Nizam-ul-Mulk Mir Osman Ali Khan of Hyderabad. Obviously the Nizam did not consider Rabi as an anti-Muslim poet, otherwise he’d have refused. If General Matin’s treatise is any guide to understand the thinking pattern of our officer corps, then it  must be a matter of deep concern for the top brass of the Bangladesh Army  that a sizable population of the country are harboring anti-Muslim sentiment and might be engaged in anti-state activities because they are Hindus !!!  

The fact is opposition  to the proposal for establishment of DU  came from Ashutosh Mukherjee, VC of Kolkata University (1921-1923). He thought that a new university would cut down his vast constituency and authority and prospect of a rival institution within the same country was uncomfortable to him. The argument  that “DU would benefit the Muslims”  is not based on hard facts because Kolkata university (and Presidency college)  were equally open to Muslims and several districts in west Bengal had  large Muslim population or were almost at parity with Hindu population. Many famous Bengali Muslims were  native to west Bengal and educated at Kolkata university and Presidency College. The secretary general of Bengal Muslim League (1944-1947)  Abul Hashim (1905-1974) was from Burdwan.  Huseyn Suhrawardy ((1892-1963)  the Prime Minister of Bengal in 1946-47  and later Pakistan (1956-57) was from Medinipur. Maulana Akram Khan, Dr Muhammad Shahidullah, Dr Muhammad Kudrat-e-Khuda (Head of Chemistry, 1936 and Principal, Presidency College, 1946)  were from 24 pargana, Sir Azizul Huque (1892-1947) was from Nadia, Syed Mahbub Morshed (1911-1979) from Murshidabad in west Bengal to name a few. Similarly many brilliant and famous east Bengali Muslims also found no problem in studying at Kolkata university and Presidency college. Examples are Humayun Kabir (1898-1969),  Qazi Motahar Husain (1897-1981) and poet Jasimuddin (1903-1976) of Faridpur, Dr Mohammad Enamul Haq (1902-1982) of Chittagong, Principal Ibrahim Khan (1894-1978) of Tangail to name a few.   Moreover  population in all urban centers in pre-1947  Bengal  was predominantly  Hindu due to their dominant socio-economic position in society. Overall Bengal had 56% Muslim and 44% Hindu population in 1946 but this was not evenly distributed across the districts. Some east Bengal districts  were predominantly  Muslim majority and some had  large Hindu population.  

It is possible that another event has been deliberately used to concoct this “opposition to Dhaka university” story. Rabi  supported  the  movement against the “Communal Award” of August 16, 1932 that established separate electorates for the minority communities of India. Congress vehemently opposed the Award but Muslim League accepted it with some reservations. Rabi participated in the meetings held in Kolkata to protest the award and was a signatory on the appeal to Viceroy Lord Willington  for its repeal. This whole thing may be described as an example of intellectual fraudulence with a purpose.  

In his visit to Dhaka from February 7-14,1926 Rabi was the guest of Nawab of Dhaka Khwaja Habibullah for the first three days and lived on Nawab’s  house-boat on Buriganga  and spent  the  last three days in Jagannath Hall provost RC Majumdar’s residence. Rabi was given three receptions at Dhaka university. First two were organized by DUCSU  and held at Curzon Hall and the third one at Salimullah Muslim Hall organized by Muslim students. Dhaka university VC prof G H Langley presided over in all three events. Rabi was made a life-member of Salimullah Muslim Hall students union. If Rabi had opposed the establishment of Dhaka university, it was unlikely that the Nawab of Dhaka and Muslim students  of the university would extended  warm hospitality and accorded the rousing reception to him.  Dhaka university also honored him with a D Lit.  in 1936 convocation but  though invited he could not attend the ceremony due to illness.  

·      National anthem dedicated to George V

National anthem Jana Gana Mana was composed and sung for the first time in the Kolkata session of Congress on December 27, 1911. King George V was to arrive at Kolkata on December 30. So Kolkata Anglo-Indian English press reported that it was sung as a homage to the King-Emperor. This  labeling of  Rabi as English loyalist  was taken up  by a large section of Rabi’s detractors at that period and  later by the  cultural front  activists  of the Communist Party of India and recently by some Bangladeshi intellectuals. The CPI like all other countries’ communist parties of  that period was Stalinist.  The main theoretician of Stalinist dogma of  proletarian culture was the man next to Stalin in rank in the party and government,- Andrei Zhdanov (1896-1948). CPI’s  cultural  front theoreticians parroted Zhdanovian  formulation of culture which divided the entire arts and literature of mankind into two opposing camps,-bourgeois and proletarian.  They  argued that Rabi was a  member of parasitic feudal class and lackey of the British imperial power, that his literature and songs reflect  anti-people idealist philosophy, bourgeois decadence and  were against the spirit of class consciousness and class struggle, therefore, should be rejected by working class revolutionaries. The intellectual doyen of Stalinist cultural dogma from 1930s  through 60s was prominent leader and party’s secretary-general for Bengal Bhavani Sen (1909-1972). He dished out the theory of proletarian culture in his many books and articles and urged the party followers to discard the reactionary literature created by Rabi and his ilk.

This Zhdanovian  line of arguments were again taken up later by professors Ahmad Sharif and Sirajul Islam Chowdhury (SIC). While professor Sharif was a renowned scholar  and  authority on medieval Bengali literature and religion, the latter is a prominent left-leaning intellectual of Bangladesh. In their talks, books, articles  and reviews of Rabindra-Sahitya  both evaluated Rabi as a feudal-bourgeois reactionary artist. Prof Sharif though a secular man  described Rabi as communal and ant-Muslim Hindu. Rabindranath was a romantic in his literary form and style  and Romanticism as an art form has been strongly condemned by the  orthodox communists  of Stalinist  school as decadent and declared it  as against the ideal of proletarian culture. Once I wrote a rejoinder to  prof Ahmed Sharif’s such statement printed in the now defunct  weekly Bichitra (attached, please ignore the typos). I also critiqued   Prof SIC’s ideological position in a  review of  his  book Kumur Bondhon, a literary assessment of Rabi’s novel Jogajog.

Rabi’s  own statement on Jana Gana Mana is found in a letter dated September 29, 1939 written to one Sudharani  Sen of Kandir Par, Comilla, who requested Rabi to clear the confusion.  Sudharani and Rabi’s letters are  attached.

·                     Rabindranath’s  religion

 Rabi was a theist in his religious belief. It was derived from the Upanishadic philosophy of Advaitaism and a legacy of his father’s Brahmo theology.  His God  Brahma was permeated with the existence of universe  and humans  with other creatures and nature were  part of it. But he also stated that humans have separate existence  apart from this all pervading cosmic spirit so he also believed in  Creator’s  binary form. He was a humanist and materialist at the same time and never approved  self-mortifying  asceticism that characterizes Hindu sadhana in order to attain Mokhsha nor he supported  Brahmo  puritanism.  Actually he was very sensual and erotic when it came to describe his yearning for union with the supreme being. Many of his devotional songs that expressed the urge for Beatific Vision  can be read as love song sung to his fiancée. He was condemned by some Hindu purists as obscene  who  alleged that he was corrupting young men and women with his pornographic writings (ref: his song, Milon Raati Pohalo). His devotional songs express the belief that his s ability to compose songs was a divine gift  or epiphany   and it was bestowed  to him by God so that he can experience the transcendental  bliss  of  union with him/her.  In his last poem written before his death he described his God the Creator as a woman, a chhalonamoyi (deceptor) and the creation as a wonderful web of deception (bichitro chhalonajal).

·                     Rabindranath bashing

Rabindranath bashing started before 1900 when his poetic fame just started to flourish and it was initiated by contemporary Hindu critics of his literature and literary rivals. It continued until he died.  On many occasions Rabi expressed his despair at such unkind criticism of his work.  Attempts to eradicate Tagore-mania from Bengali Muslims  and  demonize Rabi as an anti-Muslim bad guy was began  by  Pakistani establishment, Muslim League ideologues and by Bengali Muslim  intellectuals  and litterateurs who believed in Muslim nationalism.  Islamist political party like Jamaat-e-Islami also wages a campaign for elimination of Hindu Rabi’s presence  from Bangladeshi culture. All of them realized that Rabi was the main obstacle to fully Islamize  Bengali Muslims  in the mould of Pakistani Muslims as was successfully accomplished by General Ziaul Huq. His ardent disciple General Ershad succeeded to a great extent to Pakistanize Bangladesh. Their arguments rested on the following simple premise:  that since  Rabi is a Hindu, his literature and songs  are, therefore,  contrary to Islamic beliefs and practices.  For this reason Rabi is not acceptable to Muslims and his oeuvre should be wholeheartedly discarded by patriotic and Allah-fearing Muslims of Bangladesh. This reasoning is  very  correct.  Rabindra-Sahitya and songs are totally steeped in Hindu-Budhhist myths, Upanishadic  philosophy, pagan cultural symbols and idolatry. That’s why the song Amar Sonar Bangla cannot be accepted by orthodox Muslims because it identifies the country Bengal, at the same time,  with the autochthonous mother goddess Durga. For this reason this national anthem is not sung in any Madrasa in Bangladesh. It may be mentioned that Bankim’s famous song Bande-Mataram, classified as the main exhibit on anti-Muslim piece of work by Bengali  Muslim nationalists and Islamists was set to tune by Rabi, sung and broadcast in importance next to Jana Gana Mana by the government of India is also a paean to motherland Bengal and goddess Durga. The Shakta cult or worship of feminine deity Shakti as the manifestation of  procreative power of nature  and earth was developed in medieval Bengal and Bengalis fall easily for its symbolism  in their creative work. However the Bharat Bhagya Bidhata in  Jana Gana Mana is male since he is the Upanishadic Brahma, the God of the universe, similar to Judaic-Christian male God.

However, it is interesting  to note that according to this same group of Islamic cultural propagandists  literature created by other non-Muslims, e.g., Homer, Dante,  Shakespeare, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Goethe or by Muslims whose literary work was based on un-Islamic  and Hindu myths, e.g., Firdousi (Shah Nama), Nawazish Khan (Gul-e-Bakawali) and Nazrul (his Shyama Sangeets and poems like Bidrohi)  were not considered  harmful for the iman of Bengali Muslims. Though many of the European work of literature contain denigrating remarks on Muslims  and Prophet Muhammad (SAWM), e.g., Dante’s Divine Comedy.

But  the Pakisitani  and Bengali Muslim nationalist campaigns to  eradicate Tagore-mania from the Bengali Muslim mind have not succeed, until now.  Their repeated attempts to brand him anti-Muslim did not cut deeply in Bengali Muslim mind. Much earlier there was vigorous attempts by these same group of people who tried to Islamize Bengali language and literature by purging Sanskrit derived Tatsama and Tadbhava Bengali words  and replace them with Urdu, Farsi and  Arabic but it did not succeed either. Since they themselves could not change their own food habit of eating rice with lau-chingri, shutki-chyapa, taki-bhorta, shaak-bhaja and machher jhol by switching over to roti-tarkari- tarka daal, muttur-ponir  and mutton rougan josh their attempts to sanitize Bengali language from polytheistic Hindu association failed.  They met with same failure regarding Rabindranath.

I don’t know if they have undertaken a diagnosis to discover the reasons behind Bengalis’ consistent adoration of Rabi.Their single minded approach and strategy was to brand him as a Hindu. But this was not very intelligent manoeuvre because the Bengali Muslims who admire Rabi do so accepting him as a Hindu and his Hinduness cannot be arased by any means.  Might be Rabi’s literature especially his songs have something which satisfies the Bengali psyche and soul like no other. Though  most of the young generation of Bengalis don’t appreciate Rabindra-Sangeet  these days there are still significant number who does. Just note the widespread popularity of Jatiya Rabindra-Sangeet Sammelan held annually all over Bangladesh districts. This is really surprising. Even the Muslim nationalist party while in power celebrates Rabi’s birth anniversary with great pomp !!!

Rabi was aware that his literature would lose its appeal in future and will be  lost in the ocean of  time (kaal-sindhu), but was conscious about the eternal appeal of his music. He was prescient when he said,

 …Bengalis of future may not read  my literature but they have to sing my songs.

There is something  sublime in his songs that touches the soul of  those Bengalis ( only the initiated) who by some inexplicable magic are transported to a  level of consciousness that enable them to achieve ecstasy  experienced only by the  mystics. I sippose the lover of all forms of classical music experience the same ecstatic feeling.

No wonder Rabi himself marveled by his ability to compose music which he described as  epiphany and valued  his music over his other creations of arts and desired to meet his lover the Creator singing  his own song at the moment of union,

“Tomar Kachhe e bor maagi

Moron hote jeno jagi

Ganer suray…”

 

 To him music  was  a manifestation of God. Like Pythagoras  who felt that its structure (Octave) was designed by God and used it as a medium to communion with Him. This was, however, not Rabi’s original idea because the ancient Rishis also thought that Dhrupad, the classical form of music came from God and sung it to his/her praise. Rabi acknowledges this too in his song,

                   " Je Dhrubapada diyechho bandhi…

 

[mahbubkhan@ieee.org ,]

Dear Asahab,

Your writings in this posting is very impressive, including your attached review article in Bengali. Thank you for posting this. When did you have time to learn all these so well and in so much details?

We have never met. Where are you located, and are you teaching now?

Regards,

Mahbub Khan

California, USA

408-859-3566

mahbu...@ieee.org

---

Date: Thu, 9 May 2013 05:32:19 -0700
From: asahab...@yahoo.com
Subject: Rabindranath revisited
To: pfc-f...@googlegroups.com

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[Wali I. Mondal]

Dear Babu,

Wow! I was aware of your research on Tagore dating back to Jinnah Hall days. On one or two occasions, I was fortunate to be in the company of our good friend Manju (Mozammel Hossain), yourself and perhaps another friend whom I cannot recall now. You guys had a good collection of magazines and books on Tagore at that time. Your essay, which I read in one breath, does depict your research of half a century on an Institution  called Rabindranath Tagore. Thank you for enlightening us. By the way, this past March, I was in Buenos Aires and took the time to visit nearby Ocampo Villa and the house where Tagore had stayed (two blocks from Ocampo Villa). Victoria Ocampo wrote a book on Tagore's visit which I collected; however, I need to gain proficiency in my grade-level Spanish to be able to translate it. I have a goal to do that by this time next year -  one more goal, but this time not to break it!

Your essay is a masterpiece. You have documented facts (such as Tagore's appreciation of Prophet Mohammad SWT) which I read elsewhere without proper reference. As you may expect, there are differing opinions about a couple of facts you have mentioned. One of those relate to the marriage of Tagore's children. I mean to contact you personally about these differing accounts. In the meantime, THANK YOU once again for a scholarly essay.

Best,

Mondal
(Also known by my first name in this forum)

[Ahmed, Mosleh-Uddin (Mosleh)]

Dear Asahab,

 

Very nicely written and well researched article! I was interested to find out if Rabi Thakur indeed signed the letter recommending against the establishment of Dhaka University. That’s what Hashmi claimed but could not produce adequate documentation. One could build a circumstantial evidence based on the so-called Garer Math meeting of March 28, 1912, that you have mentioned. But as you argued, that meeting probably did not take place and, or if it did, Rabi probably did not attend.  

 

It is more difficult to prove a negative proposition such as Rabi did not sign the letter. I think the burden of proof is on the accuser to produce a positive evidence that here is a copy of that letter and here is Rabi’s signature. I read somewhere (don't remember where) that there was such a letter. The question is, did Rabi sign it? If someone could dig out the letter from some archive, that would have settled the issue.

Regards,

 

Mosleh

Mosleh-Uddin Ahmed

New Jersey, USA

[Ahmad, Ahrar]

Thank you Asahabur bhai for a most informed, thoughtful, enlightening article.  Your research is thorough, your insights astute, your conclusions eminently reasonable.

 

Onek, onek dhonnobad.

 

Ahrar 

--

[Matin Ahmed]

Dear Babu,

         I join with Wali and Mahbub in echoing the sentiment that your posting is simply brilliant!

        We, in this Friends’ Group share laughter, a little good/bad news about a loved one and occasionally get involved in some serious discussions.  We talked about Gautama Buddha (Eternal Pilgrimage) and Gandhi (In Defense of M K Gandhi) and of course, Rabindranath Tagore. In all honesty, I can not say that I saw anything as well researched, well written and profound about Tagore than your article. I have learned a thing or two today.

        Right from the beginning of the debate on Tagore some years ago I argued that Tagore should be treated as a human being with all humanly limitations instead of an embodiment of perfection and then reduce him to a marginal value.    No one is above criticism but that criticism should be directed to his work and not against certain standards of arbitrary values about Tagore as a reformer. 

       The year I joined DU Faculty I was elected to DU Teacher’s Assoc. in the same group with Dr. Moniruzzaman Miah, Dr. Shirajul Islam Chowdhury and Dr. Ahmed Shariff.  In 1978 I was at DU for nine months.  After one of Dr. Serajul Islam’s radiant speech on Tagore at TSC in which he called Tagore the last vestige of Feudalism I stood up to offer a rebuttal.  After some discussion on the stage no rebuttal was allowed.  Later, at the Teacher’s Lounge Dr. Shirajul Islam told me that I was brainwashed at a foreign university.  I told him that the washing was not over and that I was going back for more.

       Dr. Ahmed Shariff, as you noted, made significant contributions to the understanding of Medieval Bengali literature particularly the popular puthi shahitya.  One day, he was imparting his old wisdom to a group of younger teachers at the Lounge.  As usual, words came out of his mouth effortlessly almost petrifying the listeners.  An atheist, Dr. Sheriff could not stand what he called Rabindranath’s penpenani about Jivondebota although he had great admiration for Tagore as a poet.  He ended up berating Tagore saying, ‘Jobondebotata kaar baap ta to bujhlam na.’ Every time I saw him at the Lounge after that I would go close to him and whisper to his ears, ‘Sir, sheta Amio bujhlam na kintu oei  luk Rabindranath thik bujhe faleche.’  After a couple of times as I would approach him he would raise his hands and shout, ‘okay, okay.’

      Admittedly, Tagore will remain a controversial figure among the Bengali Muslims because of our loyalty to our religion and our mystified sense of national identity.  For those with language barrier, knowing Tagore and appreciating his writings are more challenging.  Some basic facts and knowledge of the language, certain norms of an alien culture and its literature avoiding any flawed comparisons are critical .  For an example a comparison of Tagore and Byron who belonged to absolutely two different worlds as poets, who stood for the most contrasting philosophy of life and the categorization of Tagore as a romantic poet is to misread both the poets and their literary contributions.  In fact, one constant criticism against Tagore was that he failed to produce a real romantic work as some of the renowned romantic writers until he wrote the Shesher Kobita. 

     You pointed out with your natural eloquence and simplicity of writing how Tagore obtained the mastery of composition that could be recited to a lover as a love poem and also be a prayer seeking unity with the Creator. Your analysis does not end there.  You showed with solid research the social constraints faced by Tagore, his worldly dilemmas with his religion, his relationships in a communal society, the changing political kaleidoscope of Bengal and that of India and above all, the historical evolution of his thoughts and ideology.  Your remarks are enlightened, scholarly and balanced.

     Babu, thank you very much for your contribution to our group.  I hope that we will get more from you in the future.  I am yet to write to you on ‘Two thousand years of brain washing’ which I promised.  I have opened a line of communication with Selim Sarwar.  I would love to revive and resume the exciting talk we used to have at Selim’s room among friends who had similar views on life, philosophy and politics. 

    With the aspirations of better days ahead.

   Matin

 

---

From: Matin [mailto:matin...@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2013 4:25 PM
To: matin...@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Fw: Rabindranath revisited