(Vide : Prasanta Kumar Pal-Rabijibani) The year 1890 was a very critical year in the history of freedom movement of India against the British Raj. In the 5th Congress session held in Bombay, Dwipendranath, eldest son Dwijendranath, attended. Swarna Kumari Devi also attended as an observer. It was decided that a team of 11 persons will go to England to make the British and their news papers conversant about India. The team included the following members :
In 1890, the government was thinking about, 1. the possibility of increasing the no. of Indian members of in the council of British India, 2. justification of appointing Indians in higher Govt posts.
Rabindranath criticised the attitude of the British Govt. and read an essay , 'Mantri Abhishek', in the Emarald Theatre on 15 May, 1890. His opinion was that it was better to elect rather than to appoint Ministers by the Government. About fifty years after reading this essay, Tagore said that times rolled on, many things had changed. When he wrote the essay, people of India were "parrots in a closed cage" and they were fighting "for increasing the length of the chain of bondage by an inch" so that they would be able to move their wings within the cage. The King did not want to sanction even that one inch.
