Experts assembled in Shillong to underscore Rabindranath Tagore’s relevance in modern India, says Rajib Roy
HOW RELEVANT is Novel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s works today? This question brought educationists and scholars from far to Shillong more than a week ago.
Experts from North Eastern Hill University, Burdwan University (West Bengal), ICFAI University and many city-based colleges assembled for a national seminar titled ‘Tagore and Contemporary India’.
Sweetymon Rynjah, retired NEHU deputy registrar and member of Khasi Authors’ Society, explained her book ‘Khasi adaptation of Gitanjali’, which as 103 songs Tagore had composed. She said she chose ‘adaptation’ instead of ‘translation’ as Tagore’s thought process needed to be interpreted without distortion after deep study. “Through these songs he searched and thought about the creator to be enlightened,” she said.
Rynjah added: “Khasis who still adhere to the traditional belief regard the supreme being as omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and to whom mankind pays homage as per their own enlightenment and understanding.”
Angshuman Kar, associate professor of English, Burdwan University, gave a contextual representation of Tagore in contemporary India which has its genesis in a speech delivered by author Sunil Gangopadhyay during the Bard’s 150th birth anniversary in West Bengal. “Gangopadhyay’s observation that Tagore’s popularity was waning in the west made me think about the reception of Tagore in India outside West Bengal. I started wondering whether Bengal’s love for Tagore even in the 21st century was merely fanaticism and obsession,” said, adding how Indians beyond Bengal engage with Tagore was worth researching.
Streamlet Dkhar, professor of Khasi at NEHU, dwelt on Tagore’s visit to the Northeast with special reference to Shillong. She underscored Tagore’s first trip to Shillong on 11 October 1919 and his stay at Brookside Mansion, where he prepared his lectures to be delivered in Australian universities. She said the state government had on 13 May 2007 declared Brookside Mansion as Rabindranath Art Gallery.
Dkhar also alluded to the use of Tagore’s works in academic curricula of the state board besides use of Jana Gana Mana in the book ‘Na Mihngi Sepngi’ for Khasi MIL in higher secondary followed by a brief history of the national anthem. Other Khasi writers who translated Gitanjali into Khasi are E Weston Dkhar (‘Tang Ka Jingainguh Thang’ in 1984) followed by Pascal Malngiang (‘Ka Gitanjali U Tagore’ in 1988) and S Norindel Roy in 1992. “Tagore has had as an impact on Khasi literature,” she said.
Monotosh Chakravarty, professor of English at St Edmund’s College, brought out the creative humanist in Tagore. “His humanism focuses on the sense of liberty, belongingness and interpersonal relationships, and is not to be mistaken with the academic polemics of the west,” he said.
Kashinath Chakraborty, who teaches Bengali at Sankardev College, said Tagore’s love for humanity knew no borders and in 1926 he went to Italy as a guest of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. “He praised Mussolini without understanding his dirty, anti-people policy. Tagore realized his error after the great thinker Romain Roland contacted him. He also backed the Russians against the Germans during World War 2 though he was not a communist. The Germans, he felt, needed to lose for humanity to be saved,” he said.
Sunanda Bhattacharya of the department of English, Women’s College, explained how Tagore took up painting in 1924. “Painting was a means of self expression for him. Tagore approached art with a certain kind of freedom that enabled him to develop his own technique and style and hence his pictures stand out as unique. Art to him was an expression of truth and beauty,” she said.
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