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

(Video) DINANTER PRASHNA (THE QUESTION OF DUSK)

(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.