Rabindranath's Education abroad (U.K.)(contd-1)

Rabindranath sailed for UK accompanying his second elder brother Stayendranath from Bombay boarding the Ship "Puna" on 20th Sept., 1878. Satyendranath took a long leave to stay in UK where his wife with two children had gone earlier. They first landed in Brindis, Italy, had a journey on land through the tunnel of Alps and went  to Paris. There they visited an art Exhibition, organised after the fall of the monarchy and establishment of  a Republic in France.
After reaching England they went straight to Brighton where Satyendranath's family stayed. Rabindranath saw the two beloved children (Surendranath and Indira) and was delighted. He stayed there and was admitted in a Public School. He made many friends (boys and girls) at the school, and attended a dance party on invitation. Every one loved this young handsome boy. He learnt many English songs also and was passing his time nicely.
One day Tarak Nath Palit, a High Court advocate and a friend of Satyendranath, came and asked Satyendranath to send him to London without further wasting time in a suburban  town.
He arranged everything and Rabindranath was brought to London and began to stay in a house in front of Regent Park. He began learning Latin from a private tutor and then he was taken to a teacher named Barker who used to prepare students for admission to College and University.
Ultimately, Rabindranath was admitted to London University  where he studied English literature from Prof. Henry Morley. He enjoyed this experience. At that time, he stayed as a boarder with the Scott family in London. Dr Scott  had  two girls. Both of them loved Rabindranath . He attended a session of the House of Commons to hear William Gladstone and John Bright who spoke on Irish Home Rule. He wrote a poem "Dui Din" here which was published in his "Sandhya Sangeet. " He wrote many letters "Europe Prabasir Patra" that was published in 1881. Here Rabindranath passed most of his time by writing essays on Western civilization, their attitude, behavior and sent them to be published in "Bharati". Reading all these essays, his guardians asked him to come back to India. He came back to India after about one and half years without obtaining any degree or passing any formal examination.
There was a second attempt at sending him to England. It was settled that this time Satyaprasad, son of his elder sister,  would accompany him. Satyaprasad had been recently married and after reaching Madras they changed their mind and decided to return home.
They went to Mussouri to see Devendranath who accepted their decision without recriminations.

Satyendranath Thakur, (1842-1923)

First Indian ICS :

For a long time, only the British were appointed to administrative posts in India. In 1832, the post of Musif and Sadar amin were created and opened to Indians. In 1833, the post of deputy Magistrate and deputy Collector were created for Indians. The ICS Act of 1861, established the Indian Civil Service. The Act of 1853 already established the practice of recruiting Indian civilians through competitive examinations. It was a daunting task to go to England at that time and compete with the British for securing a position . However, being inspired by a friend, Monomohan Ghose, Satyendranath, along with Monomohan, set sail for England in 1862 to prepare for and compete in the civil service examination. Satyendranath was selected in June 1863 but Monomohan was not. He was called to the bar. Satyendranath was posted to the Bombay Presidency, which then covered western parts of present day Maharashtra, Gujrat and Sindh. He had his first posting at Ahmedabad. Among the regular visitors to his place were his younger brothers,  Jyotirindranath (1849-1825), Rabindranath (1861-1941) and his sister Swarnakumari Devi.

His posting outside Bengal helped him to learn several Indian languages other than Bengali. While in Maharashtra he had close contact with many of the leading reformers, such as, Govinda Ranade, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar and Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar.
He retired as a Judge of Satara in Maharashtra in 1897.
Ram Mohan Roy found Hindu Indian women "uneducated and illiterate, deprived of property rights, married before puberty, imprisoned in purdah, and murdered at widowhood by a barbaric custom of immolation known as SATI". By the time Satyendranath was born, SATI had been baned in 1829, and the process of reformation had begun. Satyendranath began thinking that purdah system had come from Muslim practices. After his marriage (1859), he found that Jnanadanandini was the ideal partner for his social experiments. In-spite of the opposition from Devendranath,  he sent her along with her two children, Surendranath and Indira Devi, to England to learn from the behavior of women in an advanced society. In Calcutta, breaking from all the previous practices, he took her to a party at the Government House (now Raj Bhavan).  Prasanna Coomar Tagore of Pathuriaghata branch of Tagore family, who was also present on the occasion, became astonished to see a Bengali woman in such an open place among the hundreds of English women and left the place immediately 'in shame and anger'. In 1877, he sent Jnanadanandini Devi with two children to England with an English couple. They, initially stayed with the family of Prasanna Coomar Tagore's son, Gnanendramohan Tagore, who had converted to Christianity and was the first Indian to qualify for the English  bar. Later Jnanadanandini with her children shifted to Brighton and lived on their own there.
This was the attempt of Satyendranath to remove the upper and middle class women from purdah.
Patriotism;
The Tagore family was deeply patriotic.  It was a fashion to wear foreign clothes and use foreign language (without having sound knowledge) at that time. The members of Tagore family stuck to wearing Indian dress and did a lot to improve Bengali language. Satyendranath was one of the persons to organize Hindu Mela to arouse patriotism in people. In the second session, he composed the pariotic song "mile sabe Bharat santan, ektan gaho gaan" ( unite India's Children, sing in unision). The song was hailed as the first national anthem of India.
After retirement, he lived in Park Street and Ballygunge in Kolkata. His house was the meeting place of his friends and relatives. Persons who visited regularly, outside his family members, were Taraknath Palit, Monomohan Ghose, Satyendraprasanna Sinha, W.C.Banerjee, Krishna Govinda Gupta, and Bihari Lal Gupta and others.
His house at Park Street was the centre of a literary majlis.
He was president of Bangiya Sahitya Parishad from 1900-1901and presided over the 10th session of the Bengal Provincial Conference held at Natore in 1897.
Satyendranath was the author of :
1. Sushila o Birsingha (play, 1867)
2. Bombay Chitra (1888)
3. Nabarathna mala
4. Stree swadhinata
5. Baudhafharmma
6. Amar Balyakatha
7. Bharatbarshiya Ingrej
8.Raja Ram Mohan Roy.
He translated works of Tilak's Bhagabat Gita Bhasya, Kalidas's Meghduta,and Tukaram's Abhanga. He also composed few patriotic songs and Brahmo Sangeet and sometimes edited Tattwabodhini.

Rabindranath's Education in Ahmedabad

About five years had elapsed since Rabindranath returned from the Himalayas and there was no sign of improvement in his formal education. The anxious guardians were wondering whether he might be sent to England for studying law but before that he was sent to Ahmedabad to his second elder brother, Satyendranath, to improve his English vocabulary.
Satyendranath stayed in a big house meant for the Judge at Shahibag, on the bank of Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad.  During the day, Satyendranath used to remain in the court and his wife and children were in London at that time. Rabindranath usually passed his time in the library reading books, specially in English with the help of a dictionary and using his imagination.
Simultaneously, he was writing articles for "Bharati" on various famous Eurpean writers. He roamed about the house from top to bottom and sang to himself.  His first music composition in music of a set of songs was created here- "Nirab rajani dyakho mogna jochanaya", "Boli o amar golap bala" and others.  He wrote poetry also which were simply translations of English poems.
But he could not develop  his vocabulary in English alone. He was removed to the house of a friend of Styendranath, Atmaram Panduranga, whose daughter, Anna, was well versed in English. Rabindranath was a poet and used to recite poems several times which the girl would commit to memory. One day, she asked Rabindranath to give her a name. Rabindranath gave her a name and wrote a poem using the word. Anna used to listen songs of Rabindranath almost everyday and they became closely acquainted. Rabindranath remembered her even in his old age.  In the "Shaishab Sangeet Kabya,"  there are references to  his close relationship with Anna.

Rabindranath's School Education (1868-1874)

Rabindranath's attendance at Bengal Academy did not improve. He was frequently absent on one lame excuse or another, even after returning from the Himalayas.  He was then admitted to St.Xevier's school along with his other brothers. But the result was the same. In the meantime, Sarada Devi, wife of Devendranath, died in 1875,  when Ranindranath was fourteen years old. At the death of such a well organised housewife of the family, every thing became disorderly. The elder sisters and sisters-in-law of Rabindranath, being sympathetic to him,  also did not press him to go to school.

At home, Rabindranath began to study Bengali books, Bengali magazines and anything which he could lay his hands on. Specially, he began to study Baishnab Padabali. As a result, he was not promoted to the next class after the end of the year. This led to the discontinuation of his going to school and that  was the end of his school education at the age of 14+ when he was reading fifth standard, i.e., class VI.  The summary of his School education was as follows :

  1. At the age of 5 - in 1866 - Rituals for first lesson was done along with Somendranath.

  2. At the age of 7- in 1868- he was admitted to Oriental Seminary and then to Normal School.

                                                         3. At the age of 10- in 1871- he was transferred to Bengal Academy, an Anglo-Indian School with the intention of  acquiring a better vocabulary in English.

                                                         4. At the age of 13- in 1874- he was admitted to St. Xavier's School. The last Indian School where he was admitted.

(Video) Hiland Park Observes 150th

( Video) Hiland Park observes 150th Birth anniversay of Tagore

Essay written and read by Prof.R.Samadder, 15A1 Brook Tower.

(Video)Hiland Park Observes 150th birth Anniversary of Tagore