8/10/2019 The Other Side of Rabindranath Tagore (Part 2)

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The other side of Rabindranath Tagore: Part Two

Fierce critic of Nationalism 

Tagore’s antipathy towards the conventional idea of nation and nationalism is legendary.Nationalism, according to Tagore, is not “a spontaneous self -expression of man as social being,”

 but a great menace which is “supremely dangerous to humanity”. In Tagore’s opinion, the general

idea of Nation is a “terrible absurdity” which has aggressively “thriven long upon mutilatedhumanity”. In one of his controversial lectures  Nationalism in the West   delivered in Americaduring 1916-17, Tagore launched his fiercest attack against the ideology of nationalism and openlydenouncing the “fierce self -idolatry of nation worship”. Criticizing the West for keeping their“neatly compressed bales of humanity…..bound in iron hoops, labeled and separated off withscientific care and precision,” he had argued that the Nation with his “magnificent power andsurprising appetite” is nothing but an “organization of politics and commerce” which is“incessantly growing into vast stature, out of proportion to all our needs of society – and the fullreality of man is more and more crushed under its weight.” Power, according to Tagore, is a“scientific product made in the political laboratory of the Nation , through the dissolution ofpersonal humanity.” Comparing the world of the Nation with a hydraulic press which can unleash

an impersonal but effective pressure, Tagore went on to explain that the “amount of its power may vary in different engines,” but its essential features remain the same –  relentlessly lifeless andmonotonously accurate to unleash political and commercial aggressiveness, tyranny and injusticeon the people causing great suffering to them.

Being a true humanitarian, Tagore had noticed that “the spirit of conflict and conquest is at theorigin and in the center of Western nationalism.” He further clarifies that nationalism has enticedthe Western nations to create a “continuous and stupendous dead pressure of this unhuman uponthe living human under which the modern world is groaning”. Through unforgettable words he

 warned the people of the West: “…you who live under the delusion that you are free, are everydaysacrificing your freedom and humanity to this fetich of nationalism, living in the dense poisonous

atmosphere of world- wide suspicion and greed and panic.” Strongly condemning the Westernnations for “fixing its fangs deep into the naked flesh of the world,” Tagore astringently accuses thenations for “systematically petrifying her moral nature in order to lay a solid foundation for hergigantic abstractions of efficiency.” Nations will spread and strengthen its giant power ofmechanical organization in all directions but will “never heed the voice of truth and goodness,” heobserved with dismay. Despite of these scathing criticisms, Tagore has always kept alive his strongfaith that at some point the West has to stand face to face with the tyranny of the Nation it hascreated. He thus hoped for the new morning when “…man will have his new birth, in the freedomof his individuality, from the enveloping vagueness of abstraction.” 

Tagore’s concern about the political and socio-economic problems of India came out in the open

during the Swadeshi movement that broke out in the wake of Bengal’s partition in 1905. Thispredominantly Hindu movement was led by the wealthy, orthodox and reactionary Bengalimiddle-class who had little or no connection with the lower strata of the society which included alarge number of Muslims. The core agenda was to boycott British goods and encourage thecountrymen to buy homemade (swadeshi) substitutes which will make the British to suffereconomically. Being actively involved in the movement, Tagore took part in mass rallies, deliveredspeeches and composed many of his famous songs including Banglar Mati Banglar Jal  which he

 wrote to commemorate the mass event Rakhi Bandhan Day  celebrated as a symbolic gestureagainst the Partition decision. During the day’s event, Hindus tied rakhi  in the hand of Muslims asa symbol of brotherhood and communal harmony, negating the social Hindu tradition to look atthe Muslims as socially inferior aliens. But Tagore’s enthusiasm soon started to fade out when themovement which was conceived to be a non-violent one turned violent and repulsive. An infuriatedTagore wrote condemning the violence perpetrated by extremist groups, “To light the fire and thencomplain that it burns is absolutely childish”. Deeply frustrated by the “perpetual contest of liesand deception, cruelties and hypocrisies” of the egoistic and vindictive nationalist leaders, he

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completely withdrew himself from the movement. Though his withdrawal attracted severecriticism from many of his compatriots, some of whom even ridiculously labeled him as a Britishcollaborator, he was never to be seen associated with any nationalist movement again. Tagore’scritical observation of the Swadeshi   movement, its darker complexities, its crushed aspirationsand also the heart-breaking tragedies are superbly articulated in the pages of his 1915 novel Ghare

 Baire (The Home and the World).

Ghare Baire  is set against the backdrop of the Swadeshi  movement. The protagonist Nikhilesh,

 who obviously represents Tagore, is a magnanimous and progressive Zamindar. He feels deeply forhis people, believes in the value of education and is free from any racial, religious or classprejudices. He deeply loves his country, thinks strongly against the British rule and had practicedself reliance and Swadeshi  well before it became trendy among the partakers. But at the same timehe believes that giving too much emphasis on patriotic pride is morally treacherous and thus donot support the coercive politics of his nationalist hardliner friend Sandip. Rowing against the tideof emotionally charged nationalistic politics of the time, Nikhilesh gets increasingly isolated fromthe situation and also from his wife Bimala who starts getting attracted by Sandip’s charismaticpersonality. Nikhilesh takes exception to Sandip when he forces the poor and innocent villagers to

 buy Swadeshi  goods which are expensive and inferior in quality than the goods manufactured inLancashire and Manchester. However his objection does not prevent Sandip from taking anyextreme and atrocious step to accomplish his reckless mission. Instead, he goes ahead totraumatize the poor villagers whom he has professed to lead and even starts seducing his friend’s

 wife. He does not hesitate to instruct his followers to sink a poor Muslim boatman’s boat since the boatman refused to stop carrying foreign goods from the fear of losing his only source of revenue.Sandip provokes his young followers to accentuate Hindu-Muslim divide and create the conditionsfor a violent communal riot that eventually kills Nikhilesh when he tries to quell the riot. Bycreating the one-dimensional characters and pitting a recklessly manipulative, deceitful, selfishand autocratic Sandip against an idealist, liberal, cogent and humane Nikhilesh, Tagore had madehis intentions clear. In fact, the isolation of Nikhilesh depicted in the novel reflects Tagore’s ownisolation from the upper/middle-class Bengali society. His complete rejection to Sandip’s politicalmethods shows his severe objection to Hindu nationalist politicians who have hard-pressed theirpolitics on the innocent countrymen and completely ignored its corrosive effects on their lives.

Tagore’s experiences in the  Swadeshi movement have indisputably played a critical role in hisutterly critical outlook on radical nationalism. But at the same time it has never deterred him fromprotesting against the colonial rule when it turned oppressive and brutal. On 3 June 1919, The

 Statesman  published a famous letter he wrote to the Viceroy Lord Chelmsford to repudiate hisKnighthood in protest against the massacre of unarmed Indian demonstrators by British troops inJallianwala Bagh. Tagore deplorably wrote in the letter: “Knowing that our appeals have been in

 vain and that the passion of vengeance is building the noble vision of statesmanship in ourGovernment, which could so easily afford to be magnanimous, as befitting its physical strength

and normal tradition, the very least that I can do for my country is to take all consequences uponmyself in giving voice to the protest of the millions of my countrymen, surprised into a dumbanguish of terror. The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in theincongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part, wish to stand, shorn, of all specialdistinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance, areliable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings.” 

Like many of his contemporaries, Tagore’s political vision was by and large shaped by his colonialexperiences. But his intellectual and moral concerns were amazingly free from any parochialsentiments. Instead of acclimatizing the patriotic rhetoric of his time, he had emphasized on thehigher ideals of humanity. In a letter he wrote to Charles F Andrews, Tagore had manifested that,

“…patriotism dissociates itself from the higher ideal of humanity. It becomes the magnification ofself, on a stupendous scale – magnifying our vulgarity, cruelty, greed; dethroning God, to put upthis bloated self in its place.” In another letter to Andrews he acridly writes, “Formalism in religionis like nationalism in politics: it breeds sectarian arrogance, mutual misunderstanding and a spiritof persecution”. Tagore’s criticism have emerged from his conviction that patriotism lea ves no

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space for humanity to expand since it induces people to adopt a narrow and constricted loyaltytowards their country. Revealing his belief he further writes in his essay  Nationalism in India,“…my countrymen will truly gain their India by fighting against the education which teaches themthat a country is greater than the ideals of humanity”. In a letter to Jagadish Chandra Bose’s wife

 Abala Bose, Tagore was more specific. “Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refugeis humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism totriumph over humanity as long as I live,” he had decisively asserted. His disagreement withMohandas Gandhi on issues of nationalism and patriotism, on the use of non-cooperation in the

political struggle and the boycott of British educational institutions had sprouted up from the samedistinctive outlook.

( End of Part Two)