Saturday, November 13, 2010

Rabindranath and Bharati (contd-1)

The section, named Alochana in 'Sadhana' was renamed as Prasanga Katha in 'Bharati'. Two things were discussed in Bharati. First, Dr. Mahendra Lal Sarker (1833-1904) founded the Indian Association for Cultivation of Science in 1876. Second, that it was created at the cost of  public money.  Mahendralal criticised the indifferent attitude of the people at the Annual General meeting of the Association Presided over by the then Lt. Governor Mackenzie. Rabindranath did not agree and he was of opinion that  self-respect of the people of the country was being wounded at this criticism in front of a foreighner. He wrote in return that it was better to construct the roads for movement without complaining to the higher authorities. He suggested to teach science in mother tongue so that it would be accessible to the ordinary people. He suggested that the Association for Cultivation of Science should work together with the department of Scientific terminology of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad to publish books for science in Bengali.The greatest teacher of Philology, Dr. Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyaya, said about the contribution of Rabindranath to the study of Philology that he was "the first Bengali with a scientific insight to the problems of the language; and it was flattering to the votaries of Philology to find in one who was the greatest writer in the language, and a great poet and seer for all time, a keen philologist as well, distinguished alike by an assiduous enquiry into the facts of the language and by a scholarly appreciation of the methods and findings of the modern western philologist."