National treasure

The immortal bard

Sir — Bengalis’ relationship with Rabindranath Tagore has always had a touch of the absurd (“Why Tagore?”, July 7). For most of us, he is no more than a date — Panchishe Baisakh — on the Bengali calendar, when his birthday is celebrated with song and dance every year. The festivities on this day are distinctly at odds with the general amnesia about the poet for the rest of the year. One suspects that the sudden burst of euphoria has more to do with the Bengalis’ love for fêtes rather than with any genuine effort to commemorate the poet. However, Tagore, or rather, his songs, has earned a fabled status so far as matrimonial alliances are concerned. A prospective bride well-trained in Rabindrasangeet is highly valued in the marriage market.

However, the lackadaisical attitude towards Tagore disappeared when the copyright for his writings expired. At that time, Bengalis came out in anxious protests to make sure that the Tagore corpus stayed with Visva-Bharati, as if copyright alone could safeguard the sanctity and durability of Tagore’s works. The misplaced sense of ownership and paranoia of this kind probably explains Ramachandra Guha’s charge that the “intellectuals of Bengal have sold him short”. Instead of trying to grant Tagore the status of a world-poet, Bengalis have always tried to appropriate him by making him a cult poet of a particular linguistic group.

Yours faithfully,
Susobhan Sarkar, Calcutta

Sir — I am fogged by Ramachandra Guha’s charge of Bengali parochialism, as also by the remedy he proposes. I do not absolve Bengalis of Tagore worship, which has become an empty ritual. But why must it be the task of Bengalis alone to analyse Tagore’s contribution to the forging of Indian nationhood? Surely, it does not need a Gujarati to write on Mahatma Gandhi or a Kashmiri Brahmin to write on Nehru? The cause of India’s ignorance about Tagore is not the reluctant Bengali alone. It has partly to do with the annoyance of most Indians with a historical accident. Bengal reaped the benefits of Western culture first and, consequently, claimed plum posts in the British government. The rest of the blame lies with the self-importance of the present-day Bengali, who continues to pride himself on his supposed cultural superiority. There is a general consensus among Indians that the bragging Bengali should be cut down to size. Hence the faint praise for Bengal in Indian political histories and even in histories of Indian literature. The Bengali intellectual is sneered at if he reminds the world of Tagore and damned if he doesn’t.

Yours faithfully,
Sandhya Sen, Calcutta

Sir — While most Bengalis would proudly decorate their drawing rooms with the Rabindra Rachanavali, their actual knowledge of Tagore’s works is usually limited to those pieces which form a part of their school or college syllabi. Many do not know that Tagore also wrote poetry, novels, short stories, and essays on social, political and philosophical subjects. Rabindrasangeet and Rabindra nritya-natya, by which the majority swear, form two of the weaker contributions of Tagore.

Yours faithfully,
A. Roy Mukherjee, Calcutta

Sir — It is ironic that the poet who emphatically stressed the need to come out of the narrow boundaries of nationalism, should now be closeted within cultural binds. Ramachandra Guha’s observation about the parochialism of the so-called Bengali intellectuals is indeed true. However, every Indian, and not Bengalis alone, has the responsibility to espouse Tagore’s thoughts and visions. The younger generation, which seems to have absorbed the worst of Western culture, needs to read Tagore to learn about the finer points of the European tradition.

Yours faithfully,
Samrat Banik, Siliguri

Sir — Ramachandra Guha has delivered a rallying call to shift Rabindranath Tagore from the regional to the national pedestal. Guha could not have been more right at a time when India seems to be so fascinated by everything Western. In his address at the inauguration ceremony of Cheena-Bhavan in Visva-Bharati on April 14 1937, Tagore said, “We had, for over a century, been so successfully hypnotised and dragged by the prosperous West behind its chariot that, though choked by the dust, deafened by the noise, humbled by our helplessness, overwhelmed by speed, we yet agreed to acknowledge that this chariot-drive was progress, and that progress was civilization. If we ever ventured to ask, however humbly: Progress towards what, and progress for whom? It was considered to be peculiarly and ridiculously oriental to entertain such doubts about the absoluteness of progress. It is only of late that a voice has been heeded by us, bidding us take account not only of the scientific perfection of the chariot, but of the depth of ditches lying across its path.”

Fortunately for Tagore, he found Gandhi, who did question the speed and direction of the chariot’s progress. Since we have neither Gandhi nor Tagore today, we must look up to their words to avoid those ditches.

Yours faithfully,
Aruni Mukherjee, Calcutta

Sir — Contrary to what Ramachandra Guha says, Tagore’s reach beyond the perimeters of the Bengali-speaking world is evident everywhere, even in the Erratum that appeared in the same page as that of Guha’s “Why Tagore?” on July 7. The title of the book on the Taj Mahal is A Teardrop on the Cheek of Time. This is a translation of Tagore’s famous line, “Kaler kapottale subhra samujjal”, from his poem, “Shahjahan”. There is no escaping Tagore.

Yours faithfully,
Kushal K. Gupta, Calcutta

Sir — Rabindranath Tagore’s nationalism is not as “unique” as Ramachandra Guha would have us believe. The French Revolution saw the birth of the notions of liberty, equality, fraternity way back in the 18th century. Tagore’s greatness perhaps lay in assimilating and applying the best of Western ideas to an Indian context.

Yours faithfully,
Pratyush Das Kanungo, Leipzig, Germany

A correction

Sir — The article, “A caution against bombs and other demons” (July 3), refers to the author, Bikash Sinha, as “the former director, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Calcutta”. This is to inform that Sinha continues to be the director of the institute.

Yours faithfully,
V.V. Mallikarjuna Rao, Registrar, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Calcutta