Thursday, March 22, 2012

Hindu-Muslim riot and Rabindranath

Rabindranath was writing an  essay in English  to read   in the Congress Session. He also determined to write an essay on Hindu-Muslim riot. In this context he informed Ramananda Chattopadhyay on 28th Oct,1917,
" The days of autumn in Santiniketan created the hymn in my mind which made me understand firmly that I am a poet. The only problem of this conception  is  to remain aloof from any work is not unloyal to me   becomes deep rooted in my mind. "
But he could not help keeping himself idly. He added to Ramananda in the previous letter,
" The most draw back of Rabindranath is that he is like a date-palm tree. Juice will not come out without being poked.He wrote a long essay titled "Choto O Baro" on the subject of the conflict Hindu and Muslim. He started writing the essay with the riots of Hindu and Muslims occurred during the incident of  immolation of cows ceremony in Bihar, a few days ago. He discussed many things . He identified the roots of the problems of conflict of Hindu and Muslim that indicates his deep insight ;
" One must believe that there is a severe conflict between the Hindus and Muslims of our country. If there is a deviation from the path of truth, there lies the crime and if there is a crime,there is a punishment. If the religion becomes a doctrine of treatise inspite  of being a feeling of heart, which makes rituals as the main object, it becomes the cause of displeasure. Nothing can super cedes it."
There were some causes and we thought that partition is the solution.But it was found that the problems remained even  we got our divided  freedom. It prevailed because of politicization of communalism. Rabindranath's method of solving the solution was not accepted at that time.
There were other things also in this essay.