Rabindranath Tagore:

An enduring literary legacy

In this series on the life and times of Rabindranath Tagore whose 150th birth anniversary was recently celebrated, we would, briefly, explore his increasing relevance in today’s world, his enduring literary legacy as well as his artistic and cultural vision which has effectively formed not only the contours of Indian cultural modernity but also the defining characteristics of the Asian culture. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) known in Bengali as Robindronath Thakur was born in Calcutta, India, into a wealthy Brahmin family. Although Tagore was a genius in his motherland India, he came into universal prominence with the awarding of Nobel Prize for literature for Gitanjali (Song Offerings) on November 13, 1913.

Gitanjali, the universally acclaimed literary masterpiece of the Gurudev was first published by the Indian Society London on November 1, 1912. The next edition of Gitanjali was published by Macmillan and Company in 1913. Apart from its literary value, Gitanjali encapsulates the quintessential vision and the philosophy of life of Gurudev Tagore.

Although the initial proposal for Gitanjali was made by Sir Thomas Sturge Moore, a Fellow of Royal Society, the Nobel Committee was not satisfied with the selection. “The Chairman of the Committee was, however, doubtful as to how much of Gitanjali was Tagore’s own creation as ‘as opposed to being an imitation of classical Indian Poetry’ ”. However, a Swedish Verner von Heidenstam made a decisive contribution clearing the doubts about the masterpiece.

Verner states, “Just as a selection of Goethe’s poems could well convince us of Goethe’s greatness, even if we were unfamiliar with his other writings, so we can say quite definitely of these poems by Tagore, which we have in our hands this summer, that through them we have come to know one of the very greatest poets of our age.”

Utmost seclusion

Tagore’s early days of life was spent in ‘utmost seclusion’ which rekindled his peerless imagination and led to the formation of his universal and extremely humanist philosophy which was later turned into practice through the establishment of Santiniketan or Visva-Bharati University.

In the acceptance speech of the Nobel Prize for Gitanjali, Gurudev Tagore spoke about his early life; “I remember how my life’s work developed from the time when I was very young. When I was about 25 years I used to live in utmost seclusion in an obscure Bengal village by the river Ganges in a boathouse.

The wild ducks which came during the time of autumn from the Himalayan lakes were my only living companions, and in that solitude I seem to have drunk in the open space like wine overflowing with sunshine, and the murmur of the river used to speak to me and tell me the secrets of nature. And I passed my days in the solitude dreaming and giving shape to my dreams in poems and studies, and sending out my thoughts to the Calcutta public through the magazines and other papers.

And then came time when my heartfelt a longing to come out of that solitude and to do some work for my fellow human beings, and not merely give shapes to my dreams and meditate deeply on the problems of life, but try to give expression to my ideas through some definitive work, some definitive service for my fellow beings.”

Vision for humanity

A significant aspect of awarding Nobel Prize to Gitanjali was that it was recognition of the East by the West as a major part of the humanity. Rabindranath Tagore was well aware of this aspect of the Nobel Prize.

In enunciating his philosophy and vision for India, Asia and humanity in the acceptance speech he states, “I know that I must not accept that praise as my individual share. It is the East in me, which gave to the West. For is not the East the mother of spiritual Humanity and does not the West , do not the children of the West amidst their games and plays when they get hurt, when they get famished and hungry, turn their face to that serene mother, the East? Do they not expect their food to come from her, and their rest for the night when they are tired? And are they to be disappointed?

I can remind you of a day when had her great university in the glorious days of her civilisation. When a light is lighted it cannot he held within a short range. And India had her civilisation with all its splendours and wisdom and wealth. It could not use it for its own children only. It had to open its gates in hospitality to all races of men. Chinese, Japanese, Persian and all different races. I do not think that it is the spirit of India to reject any race, reject any culture. The spirit of India has always proclaimed the ideal of unity. This idea of unity never rejects anything, any race, or any culture.

It comprehends all, and it has been the highest aim of our spiritual exertion to be able to penetrate all things with one soul, to comprehend all things as they are, and not to keep out anything in the whole universe-to comprehend all things with sympathy and love. This is the spirit of India.

We have inherited immortal works of our ancestors, those great writers who proclaimed the religion of unity and sympathy, and say: He who sees all beings as himself, who realises all beings as himself, knows truth. Man is not to fight with other human races, other human individuals, but his work is to bring about reconciliation and peace and to restore the bonds of friendship and love. We are not like fighting beasts. It is the life of self which is predominating in our life, the self which is creating the seclusion, giving rise to sufferings, to jealousy and hatred, to political and commercial competition. All these illations will vanish, if we go down to the heart of shrine, to the love and unity of all races. ”