Rabindranath in the line of his ancestors for wealth but failed

Sudhindranath, the fourth son of Dwijendranath and ex-editor of Sadhana, was married to Charubala Devi, on 25 May 1894. Rabindranath wrote on that day the song, 'Bajilo Kaharo Bina'. After passing B.L. Exam. Sudhindranath began to practice in Court. Rabindranath wrote to Pramatha Choudhury, in England at that time, informing him that Sudhi had been practicing literature for some time, now he was practicing law.
Surendranath (1872-1940), son of Satyendranath, and Balendranath (1870-1899), son of Birendranath, attained adulthood. They wanted to go into business. Rabindranath also joined their adventurous path. Rabindranath wrote in a letter  that he had read only in books the greatness of work, but now he understood that only in work a man could find satisfaction in his life.
In the previous year, Surendranath drew a cartoon picture , titled 'Ekannabarti Bipul Paribar' and explained that in such a family none took any initiative of earning one's livelihood. But it was found that some amongst them were trying to find their own job. Balendranath followed in this trajectory. From the cash book of Debendranath it was known that Rs 1000.00 only was given to Balendranath for his business ,which marked the beginning of Tagore & amp; Comp;  Surendranath, son of Satyendranath, also joined the project. Rabindranath  became one of the partners. The Tagore &Company started several businesses, such as buying and selling the husk of cereals, forward trading in jute, installing a machine for making juice of sugar cane. But the company made huge losses. The burden of the loss fell on the shoulder of Rabindranath.
He went to Simla where Satyendranath was taking rest for one year.

Rabindranath was a good promoter of folk songs

In September, 1994, Rabindranath went to Ranaghat as a guest of Nabinchandra Sen and wrote a story, titled "Megh O Roudra". In Chaitanya Library, he read an essay "Chele Bhulano Chara". He was a good promoter of folk songs of Bengal.
He went to Bolpur stayed there for sometime and wrote a poetry "Antarjami". On the fourth year Rabindranath took the responsibility of editing the magazine, "Sadhana". from Sudhindranath.
As usual Rabindranath took the responsibility seriously. He began to write short stories, essays, on current issues etc. He wrote a number of critical essays on literature.  The  were Criticisms of Books was started by Bankimchandra in "Bangadarshan". Book reviews??  Rabindranath started his career writing essays criticising Books in the magazine, 'Gnanankur'. This time the standard of criticism should be at par with the standard of western literature.
Within these four years, as part of his busy routine, Rabindranath wrote so many articles, essays, poems, Short Stories etc that the collection could take the form of a book. The short stories, Panchabhuter Diary written by him in this period becale classics.
He wrote 3 volumes of books containing 87 short stories, of this 36 short stories were published in Sadhana.
But the task of fulfilling the duty of editor of Sadhana  was gradually becoming difficult.

Rabindranath against the behavior of Englishman towards Indians

When Rabindranath was studying in the class of Henry Morle in London University, he wrote an essay in English supporting the article written by Satyendranath Tagore titled, "Bharatbarshiya Ingraj".  When he went to England for the second time he wrote a diary where he discussed the attitude of the English towards Indians and when he went to Cuttak and Puri in Orissa, he expressed his sentiment in a letter written to Indira, protesting  the behavior of the Principal Mr. Haloard  and Magistrate of Puri about Indians. He also criticised severely the Bengalees who were flatterers of English man. All these stray thoughts took shape in his article titled,  'Ingrej and Indians'. This article he read in a meeting organised by Chaitanya Library and Beadon Square Literary Club in the hall of General Assembly Institution, presided by Bankimchandra.
He wrote in a letter to Pramatha Choudhury that he had wanted to present the essay to them before entering the hall. But it was his bad luck that none of them were present in Calcutta at that time. It was only Bankimbau to whom he was able to present the essay before reading it in the hall. Moreover, since Bankimbabu was the president of the meeting and he was a Govt.  pensioner, he should be taken into confidence before the essay was going to be read in the meeting. Rabindranath was pleased that Bankimbabu praised the essay. Chandi Charan Bandyopadhyaya, autobiographer of Vidyasagar, described in details the meeting in the packed up hall of the General Assembly. During his deliberation, Rabindranath praised, in the middle of the essay,  the secular nature of Akbar which Bankim Chandra vehemently contested. Chandi Charan in his article criticised Bankimchandra's response.  

Birth of Youngest daughter, Mira

(L to R) Mira, Rathindra,Rabindranath,Daughter-in-law, Bela.
Youngest daughter Mira (sitting left) was born on 13 January 1894. The poems written for the last two years were collected in "Sonar Tari" and he started to write Chitra Kabyagrantha.

He again went to Rajshahi, North Bengal. In the mean time the Zulu war was started in Africa. Remembering that war he wrote "Ebar Phirao More".  Apart from this, he wrote two essays, 'Rajneetir Dwidha' and 'Apamaner Pratikar'. These essays were published in 'Sadhana' .

Bankimchandra and Biharilal, were his ideal at the beginning of his life. But both died one and half month's apart. Bankimchandra died on 8 April 1894. Rabindranath read an essay at the condolence meeting. Gurudas Bandyopadhyaya presided over the meeting. Rabindranath paid his deepest respects to Bankimchandra in this essay.
Bangiya Sahitya Parishad was formed this year. Nabin Chandra Sen and Rabindranath Tagore were elected vice-president for the first year. Rabindranath wrote the introduction of 'Thakurmar Jhuli' written by Dakshinaranjan. Nabinchandra Sen in his autobiography described the youthful vigour of Rabindranath.

Rabindranath himself began to collect 'Chara' for the Sahitya Parishad.

Sometimes Rabindranath went to see his zamindari, sometimes he had to come to Calcutta. he found it difficult to make time for his creative work. Ultimately he went to Shantiniketan, Bolpur, and stayed there on the first floor of the two storied building constructed by his father. In this solitary place, he began to think about himself and made a short analysis about himself which he wrote in a letter.

Engrej O Bharatbasi

After the Great Revolution in 1857, the British authority passed in their parliament, the Indian Council Act,1861. This was reconstituted after 30 years, in 1892.  The Indian people placed a demand for  a representative Government. In response to their demand the British Government amended the above act to introduce community-wise reservation for some seats, imposing conditions for Indians to enter Government services and fixing the exchange value of Indian currency with British currency in such a fashion that India would lose crores of rupees. All these factors influenced the minds of the learned people of India including the Government pension holder, Bankim Chandra . A meeting was convened in the hall of Chaitanya Library presided by Bankimchandra. Rabindranath wrote an essay to be read at the meeting. He was asked to  read the essay in front of Bankimchandra prior to the meeting so that Bankimchandra could judge that nothing objectionable was there which might lead to a penal case.
Not only this essay, he wrote 'Engrejer Atanka', an essay explaining the necessity of Hindu Muslim Unity, 'Subicharer Adhikar' , ' Raja O Praja' and 'Rajnitir dwidha'. All these essays bore the testimony of patrotism of Rabindranath.
At the same time Rabindranath was moved at the oppression by the British on the Zulus of South Africa. From this time onwards, communal sentiments were injected amongst the Indians which vitiated the social life of Indians.

This ill feelings between the two communities developed, at first, in Maharashtra where Lokmanya Tilak encouraged Hindu patriotism organising  Shivaji Utsab, Sarbajanin Ganapati Puja etc. An organisation was established in the name of "Save the mother Cow" , as a symbol for Hindu religion. On the other hand slaughtering of cows are necessary rituals for the Muslims. Such disagreements led to communal riots. The Government may have been able to stop the disturbance but they did not.

Biday Abhishap

Tobu jete dite hoi, Florida 2010

Rabindranath settled his family life at Jorasanko when Mrinalini came back from Solapur with her children.This time Rabindranath went to Orissa and took Balendranath along with him. At Cuttak he remained as guest in the house of Biharilal Gupta who was district judge at that time. He went to Puri on horseback from Cuttak. This was his first visit to Puri. From Puri they went to Konarak. For his zamindari work he went to different places in and around Cuttak such as Pandua, Balia, Tiran etc He wrote "Panchabhuter Diary" and returned to Calcutta by steamer. In Orissa he wrote many poems.  He also wrote "Biday Abhishap", a drama in verse- about Kach O Debjani.
It was learnt from the book of Prasanta Kr. Paul that the manuscript of 'Biday-Abhishap' was just a note-book of 34 pages of which the first two pages were blank  On the 2nd page there was a sketch of a male turned back and head hidden behind the knees drawn by a pencil. The  rest of the pages were  ruled in light blue-color of which there were 22 rules.The right hand pages only were used for writing and left side pages were kept for subsequent corrections and additions. The full text of the subject was written by pencil and at the end of the essay the date was written by ink written in Payar rhymes in 328 lines with many

corrections. But after completion.he didn't change any of its lines- no change was found in the first publication in 'Sadhana' and the later publication in his collection of writings. After its publication in 'Sadhana', the poet Nitai Krishna Basu wrote in his diary that Rabibabu had began to write mixing up Mitrakshar with Amitraksar, which gave the poetry a lovely appearence. 

(Video)Part 1 of CHITRANGADA, 1892

Rabindranath had to go frequently to Shelaidah for looking after his zamindari. He had deep interaction with the farmers and villagers. He started writing poems for one of his greatest creation "Sonar Tari" (Golden Boat). In the middle of the year he went to Bolpur with his wife and three children- Bela (6), Rathindra (4), and Renuka (2). He again came back to the River, Padma and his Zamindari.
In 1892, an organisation was formed in the name 'Indian Musical Society'. This organisation would serve to fulfil the desire of upper middle-class people interested in music. Jyotirindranath and Rabindranath were associated with this organisation from the very beginning. For staging a drama of the society, he wrote a satire drama 'Goraay Galad'. He himself took the responsibilty of conducting the rehearsal.
Chitrangada, a Kabya Natya,  was published in this year (1892) and it was staged at Emarald Theatre after 'Krishnakanter Will'. Chitrangada is an excellent creation by Rabindranath based on a plot of a skeleton of a story taken from the epic Mahabharata, written in the style of blank verse.When Rabindranath translated his drama, written in his early days,  in prose (Sanyasi, King and Queen , Sacrifice etc), he changed many of his original work but  Chitrangada, (translated form being Chitra), was an exception. In Chitra he only dropped the para 7 and combined para 6 and para 8 to one, and changed some of the dialogues of Madan and Chitrangada.

Krishna Kripalani commented on Chitrangada saying that this was a lyrical drama par excellence... which was one of Rabindranah's best, and perhaps the only one that was flawless, if anything made by man could be called flawles. Not a line would one like to take from it ...where every utterence quivers with lyrical passion held in masterly restraint. But Dwijendralal complained that the Kabya Natya was vulgar and immoral.  Prasanta Pal mentioned all such remarks in his book "Rabi-Jibani".
At the end of the year Rabindranath went again to Solapur with his wife and children.
He came back to Rajshahi and remained as a guest of Loken Palit who was District Judge at that time. Akshay Kumar Moitra was there. He wrote 'Sirajuddaulah' and 'Mir Kasim' to great acclaim. In the Association of Rajshahi, he read an essay 'Shikshar Herpher' at their request. When Indians were busy chasing the English language he spoke in favor Benagali and placed a demand to the Authorities of Calcutta University to teach in the Bengali medium, which was supported by the then  vice-chancellor, Sir Justice Gurudas Bandyopadhaya, and Barristar, Anada Mohan Basu.

(Vol III) Indian Legislative Council and Rabindranath

After 'Sepoy Mutiny'(as the Britisher's called it) in 1857 Lord Canning came India as Governor General. Parliament of Great Britain passed a bill to constitute Indian Legislative Council in 1861.  Governor General of India could nominate 6 to 12 members in this Council,  at least half of the members should be private individuals. Similarly, the Provincial Councils were also formed by Govt. and non-Government members. But all the members were nominated. Democratic rights were not given to the people of India at that time to send representatives. In 1876 Municipal act was passed to form local self govt. of which the voters were the tax payers. Indian Association was formed by the Indians in 1878 and a demand was placed to the govt. to send members in all the Councils by way of election. After the formation of Indian National Congress in 1885 demands were placed to increase the number of members in all the Councils and to send them by way of elections.

 Lord Cross ( 1823-1914) was the Secretary of State for India under the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, of the Conservative Party, who placed in the House of Lords an Indian Councils' Bill to supress the demand for elected representatives in the Council of Ministers. In the Bill, the Indian peoples' demand of the  increase of number of members in Indian Legislative Council, discussion on Budget, and  rights for participation in the question and answer session were approved. But the representation of elected members to the Council was tactfully bypassed. In the discussion of the bill Lord Salisbury said that the method of sending the representatives by election was not suitable for India. The news papers run by the Anglo-Indians echoed this opinion. In contrast to this, Indian newspapers began to create public opinion against the bill by criticising it.The newspaper, The Bengalee,  published on 1 March 1890 (pp. 99-100) wrote an editorial, "Lord Cross's bill on the reform of the Councils" and criticised it. On 26 April three protest meetings were held in three places, north, south and central Calcutta. In the 3rd May issue, The Bengalee reported  from two meetings, one presided over by Babu Dwijendranath Tagore at the Emarald Theatre and the other chaired by Babu Narendranath Sen. The proceeings throughout were carried on in a very orderly manner and amidst great enthuaism. Speeches were delivered both in Bengali and in English. Amongst the speakers, Rabindranath was one. Rabindranath in his speech supported the proposal that this meeting views with apprehension and alarm the introduction of Lord Cross's India Council's Bill in the British Parliament and desires to record its firm conviction that if this measure be passed into law in its present shape, it will create deep and widespread discontent and injure the vital interests of the Indian nation.         

Rabindranath in 1891

In 1891 Rabindranath was 30 years old and he became a full fledged family member with two of his children - a daughter, Madhurilata, and a son, Rathindranath. Rabindranath was married in 1883, his first child, Madhurilata was born on 25th Oct 1886 and his second child Rathindranath was born on 27 Nov 1888. Around 1890 Rabindranath was asked by his father to take charge of the family's Zamindari in East Bengal (now in Bangladesh) and Orissa. He, therefore, came to be stationed at the headquarters in Shelaidah for about 10 years. Shelaidah was situated on the mighty river Padma, a local name for the Ganga. Rabindranath had come to Shelaidah  earlier, as a very young boy, accompanying his brother Jyotirindranath who had been the previous manager of the estate of Tagore family. But it was a different experience when he came to see the countryside as a mature young man. He wrote, "a little later, when I was more mature, it was in Shelidah that my nature developed." Chinnapatra, or the series of letters that he wrote from there, mainly, to his niece Indira Devi, daughter of Satyendranath, bore testimony to the sensibilities he developed at the time. Recalling how he felt, he wrote, 'My work as zaminder took me to long distances from one village to another, from Shelidah to Patisar, through large and small rivers, and across beels. ( a beel is an inlet of the river, like a bay).   

Rabindranath wrote three years earlier, before he attended the age of thirty, about the nature of the age of thirty. At this age people became more conscious about his attainment and not about his sentiment (RASER CHEYE SHASHYER PRATYASA KORE). He began to go to the zamindari estate as and when he felt to go.He didn't stay there permanently. At this time he heard that his friend Shashichandra was writing a weekly news paper, 'Hitabadi'. Rabindranath was given the charge of the dept. of Literature. Rabindranath again became full of vigour and energy. His pen became flooded like anything. By this time he had many experiences about the village life, life of the ordinary people.In 'Bharati' he wrote two 'short stories', 'Ghather Katha' and 'Rajpather Katha'. Now he started to write 'short stories'. he wrote, Dena Paona, Ginni, Postmaster, Taraprasanner Kirti, Byabadhan, Ramkanaier Nirbudhita and so many. Sometimes earlier he said that the economic condition of the country was gradually changing from a maxi-family to a mini-family. At the same time the education amongst the female members also became urgent which gradually converted the society into two races, one literate and the other illiterate.Chandranath Basu said that Rabindranath adopted the path of the European model. Rabindranath commented that there was no difference between the two except the poor mentality of the orthodox nature of the Hindus and the progressive minded of the other section of people.

On 23rd Jan the second daughter named Renuka or Rani of Rabindranath was born.He read an essay on 'Civilisation of East and West' He had only three months involvement with HITABADI. in a meeting held at Chaitanya Library and presided over by Gurudas Bandyopadhyaya.
In the month of Aug he went to Orissa to inspection of his Zamindari in several places such as Cuttak, Balia, Tarpur, Pandua,Tiren etc.In Pandua he prepared the draft of the dance drama 'Chitrangada'.He wrote his first short story 'Khokakababur Pratyabartan,' to be publishe in new magazine "Sadhana" inaugurated recently edited by Sudhindranath Thakur.
On 7th Paush, 22 December, a Temple was established at Shantiniketan. Many important guest came on hat day and Rabindraanath sung the prayer song. After 10 years Rabindranath founded his school there namely Brahmacharyashram Bidalaya..

(Video) Kushtia and Lalon Shah, 1997

Sketch of Lalon Fakir drawn by Jyotirindranath.

(Video) Lalan Fakir Part 14

(Video) Lalan Fakir Part 13

(Video) Lalan Fakir Part 12

(Video) Lalan Fakir Part 11

(Video) Lalan Fakir Part 10

The  famous devotee Lalan Fakir lived in a place named ,Seoria, one mile off from Kushtia Railway Station near Shilaidaha. Many people of Bangladesh living in the east , Chittagong, in the north Rangpur, in the south Jes sore and in the west up to a long distance were his followers.It was heard that he had more than  10,000 followers in Bengal. He usually roamed about many places and went on singing his own songs.He met Jyotirindranath in 5 May, 1889 at his boat in Shilaidaha.This was known from a sketch drawn by him in his drawing book which was inscribed as Lalan Fakir.This was the only picture drawn by a person who had seen him. After some time the famous artist Nandalal Basu had drawn a picture from that sketch. But he did not forget pointing his sharp nose and wide forehead.This picture of Lalan was welknown and was seen in many books. It was not known that he personally met Rabindranath. He died on 17 Oct 1890. Rabindranath was acquainted with the personal life , his religious views, and songs. In a students assembly held in Bangiya Sahity Parishad on 21 Aug 1909, he said that it was his utmost curiosity to collect different new promoter's  religious thoughts which he came across while moving through different villages. Lalan Fakir was one such name. After few years he published 20 songs of lalan in 'Pravasi' magazine in 1322 Bangabda. At the instruction of Rabindranath 298 songs of Lalan was copied and kept in Rabindravaban.  

( Video) Lalan Fakir Part 9

( Video) Lalan Fakir Part 8

( Video) Lalan Fakir Part 7

( Video) Lalan Fakir Part 6

( Video) Lalan Fakir Part 5

(Video) Lalan Fakir Part 4

(Video) Lalan Fakir Part 3

( Video) Lalan Fakir Part 2

(video)Lalan Fakir Part 1

(Video) Lalan, Jyotirindranath and Rabindranath (contd-1)

Lalon drawn by Jotirindranath

The story of Lalan Fakir has always remained an interesting saga of fate and sudden turn of events any mortal may fall prey to. It has been a chosen, all time favorite subject for play, movie, novel and Jatras over the ages. At present apopular TV  serial on his life has been made. Lalan was born, the story goes, in an orthodox Hindu family. When he was still young, he went out to visit some far off places of religious interest with some of his friends and associates from his village. They had completed their pilgrimage and were on their way back. Lalan, when still to cover some more miles to home, contracted small pox, then an almost incurable lethal disease. He became unconsciousness and his fellow pilgrims taking Lalan to be dead, left him on the way, outside a village. An elderly kindhearted, childless woman belonging to the Muslim community found him in that condition when she was approaching a canal to fetch water. Lalan, though almost dead by now, had not really died. One pirbaba living in the village and believed, by the villagers including the woman who was an ardent follower of the god-man, to have supramental powers brought Lalan to his senses and ultimately cured him at the request of the woman.Since the woman and the villagers could not be sure of the religious identity of Lalan who had complteely forgotten his past, though now completely recovered, was adopted as a son by the childless woman and was initiated into Islam by the Pirbaba. Long after, when Lalan had by then acquired sound knowledge of Islam particularly of the mystic faith of Sufism under the tutelage of the Pirbaba and had got back his memory of the past , he went back to his original village where his parents and wife lived. His kindred had by then taken him to be dead and had performed his last rites. Lalan's parents refused to accept him back into their family fearing social boycott and his wife also declined to accompany him and live with him in his new found home.
Lalan got back to his surrogate mother who was almost dead now with grief, missing her god-send child, was only overjoyed, hardly believing her luck for the second time. Lalan continued to live in the village and the prodigious possibilities lying latent in him as a poet and a religious visionary flourished into a full blown genius in time under love, affection and guidance of his parents and the Guru. For the rest of his life he kept alive in his heart his love for the religion he had acquired by birth which he successfully combined with his respect for the religion he adopted later. This magnanimity of his faith and understanding has been very aptly reflected in the following lines of his song, perhaps the most well known  and the most popular among his compositions.                

(Video) Kachar Vitar... Jasim Uddin's favourite Lalon Song, Jyotirindranath and Rabindranath

Fakir (in Arab means poverty), in Islam,usually an intimate in a sufi order. This term along with its Persian equivalent,dervish,was extended in western usage to Indian ascetics and yogis, and incorrectly used traces its ancestry to a mystic teacher and, beyond him, through a chain of transmission (silsila) to the prophet Muhammad and ultimately to God. Sufi orders began to organize in the tumultuous 12th century although their histories claim to emanate from the formative period of Islam, with its ecstatic and literary sufi figures. The oldest attested extant order is probably the Qadiriyya, founded by Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (d.1166) in Bagdad; it is currently one of the most geographically widespread. Other important orders include the Ahmadiyya (notably in Egypt).

Literary activity of Rabindranath

Prasanta Kumar Pal wrote in his book that Rabindranath attended a meeting of literary persons where Pramatha Choudhury, Hirendranath Datta, Jnanandranath Gupta, Anath Nath Basu were present. The function of this 'Sahitya Samity' was to assist  the journal, 'Sahitya' edited by Suresh Chandra Samajpati. The name of the organisation was 'Suhrid Samity'.

Then he went to Bolpur and stayed there in the two storied building, named 'Shantiniketan', constructed two years earlier in the open space as a 'prayer house' (19th oct 1888) by his father. Before this occasion Maharshi made his Trust Deed for Shantiniketan.  It was at that time barren land and there was no construction other than this building. There Rabindranath did some literary work. He wrote some poems for his 'Manasi' Kabyagrantha.

But soon he had to go to his Zamindari Estate where he could not concentrate his mind. He planned for a ground work of another drama. He again went to Solapur to his 2nd elder brother's house and came to know that his brother and one of his friend, Loken Palit, was going to England. He settled to go along with them. He gave us a beautiful essay 'Europe Jatrir Diary' where he described the difference between the cultures of East and West which had been a matter discussion even today. After coming back he published ', 'Manasi', a Kabya Grantha by collecting the poems he wrote a few days back. In Manasi there was a poem named 'Upahar'which was difficult to comment to whom he wanted to refer, might be his wife Mrinalini..