( From top ) Prince Charles unveils the Tagore bust in London’s Gordon Square; a close-up of the bust; sculptor Shenda Amery. The bust is a bigger version of one she had made years ago

London, July 7: Prince Charles unveiled a bust of Rabindranath Tagore in Gordon Square in London today to mark the poet’s 150th birth anniversary.

The occasion marked a message of “harmony” from Tagore, said Charles, pointing out that the site for the bust was barely a minute or two away from the spot where a suicide bomber had blown up a London bus in 2005.

Kalyan Kundu, founder member of the Tagore Centre UK, which raised funds for the bust, said he was unsure whether his organisation, strapped of cash, had a secure future, but the Tagore memorial, a symbol of peace, was being left behind as a legacy to future generations.

It was a simple but moving ceremony, set among the greenery of Gordon Square, which recalled a little of the spirit of Santiniketan.

The monsoonal downpour of the morning stopped for an hour or so and the sun emerged briefly as Charles arrived to applause from a large gathering, mostly of expatriate Bengalis “of a certain age”.

After Kundu described the unveiling as a “momentous occasion” — this will apparently be the first Tagore bust installed in the open air — and Charles had listened to a couple of Tagore songs and watched a little dancing, came the unveiling.

In his introduction, Kundu said: “Today, we have gathered here to witness a historic event — the unveiling of a bronze sculpture of Rabindranath Tagore, a poet, philosopher and myriad- minded renaissance man of India. This is indeed the first time a sculpture of Tagore has been installed outdoors in the heart of London and very close to the academic institution where he was a student for a while in 1878.”

He also said: “Today, the 7th of July, marks one of the darkest days in our calendar. Six years ago and on this day and not far from this place London experienced a terrible atrocity where we lost many innocent brothers and sisters due to a mindless act of the extremists. The unveiling of a statue of an apostle of peace here in Gordon Square is a significant and timely reminder that a world of resentment and fear benefits no one and brings with it pain.”

It was a theme taken up by Charles who appeared to have written his own speech for it was an exceptionally emotional one.

He had previously sent a message to a Tagore function at Dartington Hall in Devon that “Tagore has always been regarded as exceptional in the breadth and depth of his work as a philosopher and writer of songs, as poet and playwright, in his interest in education, rural renewal and farming and as a painter crossing the divide between East and West.”

“Of course, today’s date, July 7th, marks a dark anniversary as has already been mentioned in the history of our capital and indeed of our country,” Charles remarked. “The inscriptions on this bust will shine out as a beacon of tolerance, understanding and of unity and diversity.”

A Bengali traditional dance before the unveiling

He went on: “One hundred and fifty years on from his birth, I find Tagore’s work very relevant for our time, particularly his understanding of a principle which is so dear to me, so much so that I have made it the title of a recently published book — Harmony.”

Charles had found a kindred spirit in Tagore, it seemed, for he said: “Not only have we failed to make our lives in harmony with all existence, we have also sought to bend the rest of creation to our will and use it regardless of the cost. In one of his poems he warns us, ‘No, it is not yours to open buds into blossoms, shake the bud, strike it, it is beyond your power to make it blossom. Your touch soils it; you tear its petals to pieces and strew them in the dust.’”

Charles spoke about “the way climate is being disrupted and resources being dangerously depleted, and the skies, rivers and seas being polluted” — issues he felt Tagore had anticipated.

“You cannot deny great teachers like Tagore any longer,” he urged. “And yet we do. I sometimes wonder how long it will be before we quite literally come to our senses and see the damage and the hurt and hear Earth’s cry.

“In all that he did in his songs and his poetry, in his work of education and his rural renewal, Tagore urged us to accept that we must bring to our work not just science and rational thought but also the life of the spirit, that without this we are incomplete and vulnerable to a dangerous hubris.”

Charles ended with a passionate appeal: “Perhaps more than anything else it is this message of Tagore we need to hear, tend to and with great urgency act upon. It now gives me the greatest possible pleasure and privilege to unveil this bust of a great man.”