Exploring the world of Tagore
Subrata Kumar Das is enlightened by a new work
It is a sorry saga that the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore could not draw many publishers into bringing out newer books on the works and life of the poet in Bangladesh, though there have been hundreds from West Bengal. It is expected, though, that we will get a good number at the next Ekushey Book Fair in the same way that we got some at the last. Among the recently published works on the Bard, Prof Anisuzzaman's Rabindranath: Ekaler Chokhe (Rabindranath: In the Eyes of the Present Era) is worth mentioning. In the foreword of the book the author, a noted academic and Tagore expert, has noted that the book comprises both light and serious essays. He also asserts that they were written at different times through the decades on many different occasions and so the tone in them may not be of the kind expected in a comprehensive book. If we browse the contents we will find that the essays, both small and large, focus on the varied aspects of Rabindranath's life and creations. The author has given the title of the first essay as 'Rabindranath' in which he illuminates the apparently controversial characteristic features that we find in the life of the poet. Anisuzzaman has pointed at those, not from a harsh critic's view, but from a perspective that is a devotee's. He opens a window before us on how to appreciate Rabindranath through all his shortcomings as a literary figure. The author opens the work with a question which once Rabindranath had to face in England regarding the qualities and faults of a great poet. And the simple answer that Rabindranath gave was 'inconsistency'. Very interestingly we find that Anisuzzaman has presented all inconsistencies of Rabindranath in the first essay. He looks back at the times when Rabindranath was criticising Hinduism but sticking to the Upanishads, again showing interest in Brahmo-ism but yet demonstrating affinity with the Mahabharata and Gita. From this essay we come to know that once Rabindranath wanted to include even Muslims and Christians along with the Brahmos in the category of Hindus --- and that was during the census of 1911. From all these inconsistencies the writer has actually striven to reveal the gradual development of the Tagore personality. The history of the poet's school, Brahmacharya Vidyalaya, suggests that its pupils had to chant from the sacred books of the Hindus; and there was the prevalence of the four classes then a feature of Hindu society. We can therefore surmise that the founder of the school could not come out of conventional religious practices at the outset of his school enterprise but gradually he succeeded and eventually began to observe the birth anniversary of Jesus Christ on the school premises. Muslims and high caste Hindus were served meals in the same rows. Anisuzzaman rightly says that 'Rabindranath changed his ways and ideologies with the passage of time. Breaking all the boundaries of prejudice, he elevated himself to the stature of a global individual.' He has drawn our attention to the fact of how Rabindranath became the greatest master of short stories; how his Chhinopotro became a true literary specimen. We learn that Rabindranath had written much poetry of a higher quality after his Gitanjali era. All these comments and opinions prove the inner light in Anisuzzaman. We get an entertaining presentation from him in lucid and well-knit prose. 'Rabindranath O Bangladesh' is a true documentation of the study of Rabindranath in Bangladesh through the last decades. The author starts off with the time right after the partition of India, when leftist intellectuals negated Rabindranath, considering him a writer fulfilling the needs of bourgeois society. After that, in the East Pakistan era, we found governmental institutions also actively opposing Rabindranath. But the history of Bangladesh says that groups of intellectuals came forward in the face of all odds and published a work under the title Rabindranath comprising articles from thirty writers. It is interesting to learn that a good number of people gathered at the publication ceremony of that book. The event was somewhat epoch-making for Rabindra readers and devotees. A consequence of the publication was the arrival of another one in 1986 on the poet's 125th birth anniversary. All the images that the nation experienced during all these decades have been sketched well in this article. Prof Anisuzzaman notes that there are some light essays in the book too. An example could be 'Rabindranath and Nazrul'. In the connection it is noteworthy to mention that on the relationship of these two Bengali literary figures we have by now one complete book and one book-length essay. The book Rabindranath O Nazrul by Gopalchandra Roy is a valuable addition in this study that has enumerated the poets' intellectual development on the basis of dates and events. The other, by Bishwanath Roy, had the same title and published in a little Kolkata magazine called Korok in 1999. The last but one essay is on the unfathomable qualities of Rabindranath. The author advises us that only by learning can we reach the heights necessary to understand this towering figure. The agricultural experiments that he made, the weaving school that he established, the bank for agriculture that he set up, are a few of his endeavours to note here. Let us not forget that Rabindranath is not only a poet or essayist, not only a novelist or short story writer, but a social activist too. It was Rabindranath who played a vital role in different political crises of India; it was he who introduced a new genre called dance-drama. Let us not forget that it was he who renounced his knighthood when no other Indian figure dared to demonstrate similar courage. Professor Anisuzzaman helps Bengali readers to understand their greatest poet. Rabindranath is such a great writer that his prayer songs are appreciated by even atheists. Rabindranath is the man who dared to enlighten the whole world on the idea of peace. Rabindranath: Ekaler Chokhe shows us how he did that.
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