Politics and Rabindranath

(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 :

1. Mr. George Yule, 2. Mr. A.O.Hume, 3. Mr. Adam, 4. Mr. Yardly Narton, 4. Mr.J.E. Haward, 5. Mr. feroz Shaha Mehta, 6. Mr.Saraf ud din, 7. Mr.N.Mudalkar, 8. Mr. Surendranath Bandyopadhaya, 9. Mana mohan Ghosh, 10. W.C.Banerjee, and 11. Surendranath.

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.     

(video)Pochishe Boishakh by Bishnu Dey, Rcitation: Shambhu Mitra

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(Video) BISARJAAN

In Solapur Rabindranath wrote Raja O Rani, a full length drama like that of Shakespeare. In Shahzadpur he wrote 'Bisarjan' depending on the plot of  the novel, 'Rajarshi', written by him a few days ago.
Abanindranath Thakur narrated a short background of the situation leading to the creation of this drama.

It was rainy season. They (Dada,Aruda, etc some of them) were planning to stage one drama. In the mean time Rabikaka entered the room suddenly. He came here from Shahzadpur for two days and asked what they were planning. On hearing their plan he immediately took the charge of writing the drama and left for Shahzadpur. There he wrote Bisarjan which was staged in Thakurbadi and Rabindranath took the role of Raghunath, the priest.

The book was dedicated to Surendranath who gave him a soft bound book for copying it.

Shahzadpur O Rabindranath (contd-1)

Rabindranath came to Shahzadpur in 1890. Shahzadpur was situared in Isarshahi or Yusuphshahi pargana of Pabna District. From there he wrote a letter to his wife, Mrinalini. This was the first letter written by him to Mrinalini. He wrote that sometimes he missed his son and daughter. He asked his wife to offer two sweets to Beli (nick name of Bela) to remember him and show his picture to Khoka (son) so that he didnot forget him. One pleader and a teacher of Pilot High School came to him. They agreed to enlist his book in the book list of the school and wanted to purchase 25 copies of Rajarshi. They invited him to act as president in the meeting of Sunity Sancharini , an organisation of the school students. On 20 January 1890, he visited the school and wrote a few lines in the visitors book of the school.
Rabindranath also informed his wife that he went to the then magistrate, an Englishman, to invite him to come to his place for dinner.  On his arrival, the Englishman had declared a closure of the court to show respect to the Zamindar. In a letter written to Indira Devi, Rabindranath described how he went to the Magistrate riding a palanquin with a 'Pagri' on his head. On receiving the invitation, the Magistrate asked to change the date. The date was changed accordingly.

Shahzadpur O Rabindranath

Auditorium at Kuthibadi,Shahzadpur

Shahzadpur, Sirajganj, Bangladesh

Visit note Pilot High School by Tagore, 1890Patisar,Rangpur, Bangladesh

Bangladesh authorities have recovered several missing memorabilia of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore from different parts of the country after they were misplaced 13 years ago. Assistant commissioner for land, Dewan Mahamudal Haque, handed over 54 Tagore memorabilia to the archaeology department, said Nahid Sultana, custodian of the Rabindranath Kacharibadi museum at Shahzadpur, Sirajganj, the Daily Star reported today. Shahzadpur is where Tagore's erstwhile family estate is located, where Tagore lived for some time and wrote some of his famous works. The objects were misplaced 13 years ago when the AC land office shifted from the Rabindranath's Kacharibadi premises to its own building nearby. Archaeological department sources said the memorabilia include 19 monograms of Dihikashipur Pargana Zamindar, in charge of the property of the Tagore's family estate, inlcuded a large brass dish, metal glasses, a measuring chain, and a bell. Most of the monograms bear Bengali and English inscriptions and punch marks on them. Sources said that rust has eaten away the beauty of almost all the metal relics because of lack of maintenance. An official of the archaeological department said, 'all the recovered objects will be displayed at the Rabindranath Kacharibadi Museum soon.' Local sources said many such antiquities were lost or misplaced from the Kacharibadi just after the 1971 Liberation War. Earlier, a number of Tagore memorabilia including a wall clock, mirrors and a cot were recovered from the houses of locals in Atrai Upazila Naogaon and have been put on display at Potishar Kacharibari, in the only estate of Rabindranath looked after himself. Archaeology department officials said they do not have the required funds to turn the historical place into a museum so that the objects used by Tagore could be preserved better. Authorities in India and Bangladesh, South Asian nations that share the Tagore legacy, are coordinating their efforts to recover Tagore's Nobel medallion and other memorabilia stolen from Vishwabharati, the University that Tagore set up at Santiniketan in India. They were stolen four years ago.       

Indigo Revolt and Dwijendranath Tagore

Shahzadpur, in the Pabna District, had been a place for Zamindari of Tagore family. Pabna District is situated in northern part of the river, Padma.
The district of Pabna forms the south-east corner of Rajshahi Division. The Bogra district bound it on the north, while the Padma river in the south separates it from the district of Faridpur and Kushtia. Yamuna river runs along its eastern border separating it from the districts of Mymensingh and Dhaka, and on the west it has a common boundary with district of Rajshahi.
The name probably came from Pundra or Pundrabardan.
In 1859-61 the district was one of the major areas involved in the Indigo Revolt, known as Pabna Disturbances. Beginning in the Yusuf Shahin 1873 the tenant farmers resisted excessive demands of increased rents of the Zamindar landlord class, led by the nouveaux riches Banerjee's and Dwijendranath Tagore, by forming an Agrarian League. This largely peaceful movement found the support of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal George Campbell who antagonizes the absentee landlords. In The following year the district was one of the worst hit by famine. The peasants demands were finally partially met with the Rent Law Act of 1885. 

Shilaidaha and Rabindranath

Maharshi Debendranath decided that Rabindranath should be givem more responsibility in the maintenance of the zamindari as he (Debendranath) was gradually becoming old and  the eldest son Dwijendranath was philosophical in nature. If he went to supervise the work of the zamindari, he would have made gifts of everything or he would exempt all taxes and cause enormous losses. Satyendranath was absorbed in his official work, Jyotirindranath didn't have a child and could not concentrate on worldly affairs. Hemendranath had expired. Birendranath and Somendranath were not physically fit. So except Rabindranath there was no one to look after the zamindari. He was trained for the work at Calcutta and then asked to go to Shilaidaha in north Bengal (present Bangladesh).
Rabindranath went to Silaidaha with his wife, Mrinalini, and her attendant, his daughter, Bela, his son Rathindranath. Balendranath also accompanied them. After reaching Silaidaha, he described the beauty of the place to Indira Devi. He was living there on a boat and not their Kuthi as his predecessors. Rabindranath and other members of Tagore family collected many  Baul and folk songs there. The exact duration of his stay there was not known.
He went to Silaidaha and Berhampore on Zamindari work several times. He had gone also to Shahajadpur in the Pabna district.   

Shilaidaha and Thakurbadi

Shilaidaha Kuthibari, Dt. Kushtia, is a historical place associated with the  Tagore family. It stands on the bank of the river Padma in Kumarkhali upazila in Kushtia district and is five miles north of the district headquarters across the Gadai and opposite to the Pabna town further north across the Padma. Shilaidaha is also  famous for the kachhari of the Birhimpur zamindari. Shilaidaha is relatively a modern name, its old name was Khorshedpur. When the Thakurs of Jorasanko acquired the village in the middle of the 19th century there stood an indigo-kuthi reportedly built by a planter, named Shelly. A deep daha (whirpool) was formed there at the confluence of the Gadai and the Padma, and hence the village came to be known as 'Shelly-daha', which ultimately took the form of Silaidaha. There the poet lived for more than a decade at irregular intervals between 1889 and 1901.

During his stay there, eminent scientists , literateurs, and intelligentia of Bengal such as Sir Jagadish Ch.Bose, Pramatha Choudhury, Mohitlal Majumdar, Lokenath Palit visited him on various occsions. Sitting at his desk in the Kuthibadi or on aboat on Padma, Rabindranath wrote a number of masterpieces: Sonar Tari, Chitra, Chaitali, Katha O Kahini, Kshnaika, most of the poems of Naibedya and Kheya, and the songs of Gitanjali and Gitimalya.

Kuthibadi is a picturesque three-storied terraced bunglow, constructed with bricks, timbers, corrugated tin sheets,and Raniganj tiles. Silaidaha Kuthibadi is nestled within about 11 aces of beautiful orchards of mango, jackfruit, and other evergreen trees, a flower garden and two ponds. Silaidaha has an enchanting natural beauty and rural landscape. The villa, enclosed within a boundary wall, is entered through a simple but attractive gateway on the south. It looks very beautiful from outside.

It accomodates about 15 apartments of various sizes with a large central hall on the ground floor and the first floor is partly covered with with sloping roof of Raniganj tiles, while the central part over the ground floor has a pitched roof with gable ends.A short pyramidal crest farther variegates the roof over the second storey.            

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Rabindranath in a responsible position in the family

Returning from Solapur Rabindranath had to take some responsible position in the Tagore family.  Maharshi Debendranath was becoming old. He (born in 1817) was now 72 years.  He asked Rabindranath in a letter, just two days before his marriage in 1883, to be ready to take responsiblities of supervising zaminadari work and gave him a chart of his duties.  First of all he should remain present in the office of Zamindari on all days and see the income and expenditure of the accounts book and prepare a notesheet of all the papers of the imports and exports that came to the office. But it was not known how far he had responded to that letter. There were some mishaps, at that time, in the Tagore family and everything became disorderly. Previously Jyotirindranath used to do all these duties. Since 1884, Dwijendranath looked after the accounts of the Zamindari. Though he was good in mathematics still his performance in checking the cash book of the family was not satisfactory. Then the responsibility went to Dwipendranath, the eldest son of Dwijendranath and Rabindranath was made, at that time, the Secretary of the Brahmo Samaj. At the very begining Rabindranath took his duties very seriously. But his service was not satisfactory and at the end of 1887 Ramanimohan Chattopadhyaya was appointed as an assisstant secretary. Even at that time, Rabindranath was not recommended as a Trustee of Santiniketan. Dwipendranath was not suitable for Zamindari work since he was given to luxury. He was more interested in becoming close to his grandfather (Debendranath) rather than to go through the accounts of the zamindari. It was found, on scruitiny, that there were some discrepencies in the accounts during his time, though as a member he got his monthly emoluments from the revenue. Rabindranath, though a talented and respected person, could not be spared from the Zamindari. As a result he was entrusted with the job of supervising  the accounts of the zamindari. From the cash book, it is revealed that since 15 January 1887 it was signed by Rabindranath as R.T. After some time he was also nominated as a member of the Trustee of Shantiniketan in lieu of Ramanimohan Chattopadhyaya who resigned at that time.    

Solapur, Rabindranath with family

In the summer vacation of 1889, Jnanadanandini Devi  went to her husband in Solapur with her children and Rabindranath with his family ( i.e, his wife, daughter, Bela, and 4 months old son) accompanied them.  He had no establishment of his own and it was not possible for his wife to do  any work  with two small children, so they had to live with Satyendranath. They stayed there for one month. Rabindranath wrote here a full length, 5 Ankas, lyric-drama, 'Raja O Rani'. Later he said that it came to him in a flood of lyrics, thereby reducing the drama. He wanted to rectify it after some time but that became another creation 'Tapati'. In Park Street it was staged during Puja Holidays when Rabindranath took the role of Raja (King) and Jnanadanandini and Mrinalini took some of the female roles. From Solapur they went to Khadki, Pune, as a guest of Prof Govinda Bittle Kadkad. Khadki was a very famous historical place where the battle of Khadki took place on Nov. 5, 1817 between the forces of the British East India Company and those of Bajirao II, the Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. Here Rabindranath went to hear, one day, the lecture delivered by   the famous Pandit Ramabai on the 'rights and powers of woman'. The audience was packed with Maharashtrian heros who didn't like the lecture and disrupted it. Rabindranath criticized the attitudes of the 'male members' attending the lecture.

Raja O Rani  was staged regularly in the stage of Emarald Public Stage. Dwijendranath, the eldest brother of Rabindranath, after reading the book wrote to Rabi that he had just finished the book and he had not found in his life time such a good book, even in English literatue.
Pulin Behari Sen requested readers to read the book.

Haraprasad Shastri, the then Librarian of Bengal Library, said in his annual report, that  Raja O Rani had more flesh and blood, more circumstance and detail, than the previous works of Babu Rabindranath ....

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Gazipur, Rabindranath

At this time Rabindranath wanted to go to Gazipur, Uttarpradesh. He wanted to go there because  from his very childhood, he was attracted to western India for its histories and traditions.  He also wanted to see the big field of roses.  He had a distant relative there who was an officer in the department of opium, Govt. of India, who made all arrangements for their stay in a bungalow, situated by the side of the Ganges overlooking beautiful sceneries and it inspired  his imagination. Rabindranath went there with his wife and one year old daughter, Bela. But he was disheartened to see the place to be completely under the control of the traders. Neither 'Bulbul' nor the poet was welcome there. Still he wrote some of the poems of 'Manasi'. He could use mixed words in new methods.  One day an Englishman, an ICS, came and asked him what he wrote every day. This was the first time that Rabindranath  translated a poem, "Unfulfilled desire", into English, from Manasi, and recited it in front of him. Rabindranath came back to Calcutta when the rains started in Gazipur. Here, in Calcutta, he stayed sometimes in Jorasanko, sometimes in Wood Street with Jnanadanandini or in 'Birjitala'. This time he had a request from the women's organisation, "Sakhisamity", (the name given by him) to write a drama, exclusively meant for ladies. He wrote 'Mayar Khela' which was staged in Bethune College Hall, where ladies were actresses and  spectators. It was a novel thing at that time.

In a handwritten magazine, namely "Paribarik Smriti", Rabindranath wrote many essays. His son Rathindranath was born in this year, 1888, 27th Nov.  

Revivalism of Hinduism during Rabindranath

The Brahmo Samaj inspired similar or parallel movement in other parts of India. The most important of these is the Arya Samaj founded by Swami Dayananda Saraswati in 1875. He was born in 1824, in an orthodox Brahmin family of Morvi State in the Kathiawar Peninsula. He lost his faith in traditional religion while a boy of 14, took to an ascetic life, and wandered all over India. In 1875 he established Arya Samaj in Bombay. His mission proved very successful in U.P., Rajputana, Punjab, and Gujarat. The truth of the theoretical speculations of Bankim Chandra were demonstrated by Ramkrishna Paramhangsa, the greatest saint of the 19th century.
The 'Prarthana Samaj' which was inaugurated in Bombay in 1867 as the counter part of Brahmo Samaj, followed a more moderate policy in social reforms under the leadership of Mahadev Govinda Ranade.   In Bengal, Hinduism was changing due to the progress of Brahmoism. The old and rotten rituals was gradually changing. Though there were some who wanted to keep up the old system with only marginal changes. The interaction between the old and the new was expressed in the letters written by Rabindranath as exchanges of letters issued between a grandson and a grand father. These letters were collected in a book, namely 'Samaj'.








In 1887, Krshnaprsanna Sen began worshipping Siva and gave it a name Krishnananda. It was heard that he delared himself as Kalki-Avtar and got many disciples. Rabindranath began to write against all such fanaticism.

Govinda Ranade

Rabindranath's first child

On 25 October 1886, Rabindranath's first child Bela or Madhurilata was born in Kolkata.
The magazine Balaka was closed after running for one year and was amalgamated with Bharati . From that date it began to publish in the name 'Bharati O Balaka'.
In 1987, the Prayer of Adi-Brahmosamaj was held in Maharshi Bhaban, Kolkata. Rabindranath's recently written many songs were sung there. At that time Maharshi was in Chinsura and Rabindranath sung in front of him the song written by him - "Nayane tomare pai na dekhite, rayecho nayane nayane". On hearing this song Maharshi was pleased and offered him a cheque of Rs. 500.00.
The poet was invited to present  songs and he sung there two songs, 'Age chal (bhai), age chal', 'Tabuo parina sanpite'.
This year he started his famous Kabya Grantha- Manasi.
Criticising child marriage he read an essay, namely 'Hindu Bibaha'  in Science Association Hall of Bowbazar Street. As a result he had some heated exchanges in writing with Chandranath Basu.
He went on a family tour to Darjeeling with his wife, daughter, sister and nephew. There he read Tennison, Browning with them.
He came back to their house in Park Street where he went on writing poetry for 'Manasi'.

Rabindranath and Nasik

In July 1886, Rabindranath went to Nasik to the residence of Satyendranath Tagore.
Prativa, the daughter of Hemendranath, was married to Ashutosh Chaudhury (Cambridge 1884-1885, High Court 1886) who edited 'Kadi O Komal'.
In the 2nd Conference of Indian National Congress held at Kolkata where Rabindranath sung a song written by him-'Amra milechi Aaj Mayer dake'.

Kaalmrigaya the ritual verses with amazing songs (contd-2)

Rabindranath wrote many songs for Magh-Utsab, held Brahmo-Sammilan amalgamating three of its branches and he, himself, took the seat on the 'Bedi'.

Kaalmrigaya by Tagore (contd-1)

In 1886, 2nd Edition of Balmiki Prativa was released and staged on 10th March (27th Phalgun), the day of Sripanchami with addition of some songs from Kaalmrigaya and some new songs.

Kaalmrigaya by Tagore

Kaal Mrygaya was first staged on 23rd December 1882 in the Viddatjana Sabha where Rabindranath took the role of the blind Rishi and Jyotirindranath, the role of Dasharatha.

Rabindranath to see his father

Having returned from Solapur to Kolkata Rabindranath had to go to Bandra, Mumbai, to see his father who was seriously ill at that place. Bandra was said to be the 'Queen of the suburb' as it was a very costly place. He stayed there for two months and wrote 'Mangal Geeti'.
That was the year when Indian National Congress held its 1st session at Mumbai and W.C.Bonerjee was on the chair.

Balaka Era, Indira Devichoudhurani

Rabindranath wrote a bundle of poems for 'Sishu', a Kabyagrantha that is popular even today. He wrote another set of poems for 'Sishu' in the 1903 when he was in Almorah. Both the set of poems were edited and published by Mohit Chandra Sen in that year. This was the first instance when the voice of children got an expression, appealing to children in its taste, colour and rhyme. He transformed the story 'Mukut', suitable for staging by children and gave 'Rajarshi' the form of drama in the name 'Bisarjan'. Simultaneously, he maintained his quota for 'Bharati' and wrote 'Pushpanjali' which he dedicated to 'Bauthan' in her sad memory. Also wrote a satire 'Rasikatar Phalaphal' for Bharati. Then he went to Hazaribagh accompanying Indira Devi and Surendranath (children of Satyendranath). Here he wrote 'Chotonagpur' and 'Misc. Essays'.

Indira Devi wrote an essay describing her journey with Rabikaka. She didn't forget to mention that amongst the large family and its members, Jyotikaka and Rabikaka were very close to them. The relation with Rabikaka became intimate when he came to England to stay in their house.This time Rabikaka took her to Hazribagh Convent. It was at a distance from the station. One had to go there with the help of a 'Push Push' car, some sort of a big palanquin. To move in the night through this forest was dangarous due to bears and tigers. After reaching Hazaribagh they took rest in a 'Dakbanglo'. She could remember that there was a picture of Rabikaka lying on an easychair in that place in 'Balaka' published some days ago. The picture, drawn by an artist, bore some resmblance to Rabindranath.

Balaka, Rabindranath

'Balaka' accomodated different subjects so that it could get different types of readers. The departments were : Novel, Poetry, Story, Essay, and biography, Drama, Music, Editorial, Letters to the Editor and others.
On scrutiny  it was found that during 11 months of publication of the monthly magazine Balaka, 120 articles were published of which Rabindranath, himself, wrote 45 articles, other members of Tagore family wrote 36 articles and known important persons wrote 39 articles. Hence Rabindranath wrote more than 1/3 of the essays published in the magazine.
Only one novel, Rajarshi, published in the magazine was written by Rabindranath. He wtrote stories, drama, poetry etc.    

Balaka, Balendranath Tagore

Balendranath (1870-1899) was the only son of  Birendranath, the 4th son  of Maharshi Debendranath Tagore. He was one of the favourite nephews of Rabindranath Tagore who dedicated to him the book 'Nadi'. He  took active part in the national movement  in the role of marketing goods prepared locally. He began writing in Balaka from a very tender age. He wrote many articles in Bharati O Balaka, Bharati, Sadhana, Pradip etc. The variation in the choice of essays was unique. He wrote many essays on Indian paintings.  Even at that time, it was not in vogue as a medium of expression. Amongst his works were : Chitra O Kabya, Madhabika O Shrabani.The first one was a collection of essays and the second one was collection of poems. These were published in1907. Ramendra Sundar Tribedi wrote its introduction. He died at a very young age from an attack of  TB. Rabindranath commpleted his unfinished writing and published in the magazine 'Pradip' under the title 'Balendranather Asamapta Rachana.'