(A working paper on Rabindra Nath Tagore)
Abid Bahar
Rabindranath Tagore died during the 40's and still being criticized as being a communal poet. Why? Unike most chauvinistic Brahmos of the Ram Mohan's Brahmo Samaj, Tagore was only a culturally religious Hindu; evident in his work "Chitrangada" where he glorified Aryan civilization and the Aryan conquest of Monipur by Arjun etc. He had the character Drupati even skillfully demonstrated. In his works however, no similar effort was made for Hindu- Muslim unity. As a poet he could have made parallel efforts to present rare example in Akbar who remained vegetarian to show respect to his Hindu wife Joda. Despite this, as will be seen later, Tagore felt Islam differently than from Ram Mohan, the latter inspired by the British Orientalists in Calcutta identified Muslims as the "invaders" of India, "foreigners," Bankim a civil servant by profession worked with xenophobic Europeans even defamed Muslims; Tagore largely remained silent on these
issues as if they were unintelligible to him, for, the paradigm of Tagore's Bharata at the time was not intended for unity between Hindus and Muslims but to create division. Tagore's time was for Hindu coperation with the British and at home it was the Brahmo idea of a Hindu-Buddhist Aryan civilization. In this understanding of Brahmo's Swadesh, there was no place for Muslims. For this unfortunate communal serge sold as being "secular and "progressive" Tagore is not to be blamed but was his time when Swedeshi movent used this paradigm. The problem however has been the Calcutta promoters of Tagore and the Brahmo model as being universal and humanist. In the following we will examine Tagore's Hindu- Buddhist paradigm exposed in his short story "Dalia."
Tagore's short story Dalia is about the story of Shah Suja's daugher Amina and the king of Arakan. Shah Suja and his family were given the promise of asylum in Arakan by the King and were also promised to be sent to Mecca. Thus, Suja began his unfortunate journey from Chittagong through the now called Shah Suja Road. As they arrived in Arakan, Suja's daughter Amina was asked to give marriage to the King. When refused, the entire family was massacred at the order of the King. All of Suja's children were brutally killed by axe.
Bhattacharya says, "She [Amena] was forced to "eat ngapi, a strong flavored [smelly] fish paste, which she apparently did not like" (Sen, 1930, 504-505). The news of the death of the family and the subsequent "lamentation by the people of Bengal was widely spread among the rural population of present Bangladesh. The omnipresence of words like Magh and Barma and so forth in Chittagong folk poems, and indeed across entire Bengal, may be seen as another indication of the central role of Arakan in the construction of Bengali identity."
The consequence of the event led the Moghul determination to free Chittagong from Mogh piracy. In 1666 Shaista Khan, the Uncle of Shah Suja, defeated the Moghs in Fotee Ga,(the village where a war was won) now known as Potenga in Chittagong. Ironically, Suja's unfortunate death brought the end of Mogh lawlessness in lower Bengal. In 1784 Burma finally occupied the tiny kingdom survived on piracy and made it into a province of Burma.
"Tagore interpreting the usual story of Suja's murder by the Arakanese king, "into a love story of an unprecedented character remained largely incomprehensible." Bhattacharya comments "In Tagore's yet another work Mukut (Crown) the strong message of the Arakanese pride has been upheld." If we see the mind of Tagore, the Brahmo, and his paradigm, we see Tagore's devil in the detail.
After reading Dhalia, I personally wondered why did a Bengali Indian poet known to be "secular", 'humanist" "nonpartisan" and "progressive" also known as a poet of "humanity" turns a brutal murderer into a lover? The King was not even an Indian for him to twist the story. The answer to the Tagore-lovers on this matter could not be hypothetical but apparent. It is all in his paradigm. It was Tagore's Indian Buddhist connection. It is clear, Tagore as a culturally religious Brahmo, was a believer of Hindu- Buddhist civilization. Surprisingly to Tagore, it was as if the Buddhist king was a nonviolent Buddhist not a brutal murderer of the Suja family. "In reality, the King was a Theraveda Buddhist, a follower of the fundamentalist political sect of Buddhism. The ballad Suja Tanayar Vilapa - i.e. lamentations of Suja's daughter – for generations these ballads were sung in the remotest villages of Eastern Bengal." Was Tagore a politician?
Swapna Bhattacharya (Chakraborti) says,"One of the intensions of his [Tagore's] visits to countries like Siam, Burma, Island Southeast Asia, Japan and China was to bind those countries deeper with India where Buddhism could be the torchbearer." The historical reality is that after the Buddhist Emperor Asokh's death, there was the rise of Hindu fundamentalism in India against Buddhism, and Buddhists enmass were expelled from India.
Historically speaking, during the British period, we see the penetration of Hindu influence in Burma for a Hindu-Buddhist alliance against Muslims resulting "from mid 1930s there appeared to be a succinct polarization between Buddhists and Muslims of Burma, ... U Ottama, the leading Pongyi activist and friend of India who led the entire Pongyi movement during 1920s, became twice the President of Hindu Mahasabha in 1930s." Swapna says, We should however restrain ourselves to stamp out this revolutionary monk as orthodox and anti-Muslim. He demanded a"closer cooperation between Hindus and Buddhists." U Ottama was from Arakan." Here also in the pretentions of being "progressive" the Hindu fundamentalist influence is apparent. From here we can see Tagore's Brahmo paradigm is increasingly becoming intelligible. Surprisingly, Aung San Suu ki who studied in Delhi during the 60's has learned to belive in the paradigm of a Hindu-Buddhist
civilization.Today, Muslims in Burma are only 4% of the population but are considered as the #1 enemy. Could it be a result of Brahmo influence in Burma? We know that the Hindu extremist Tilok was exiled in Burma by the British. Further research should be done to find the sources of Hindu fundamentalism and the anti-Muslim influence in Burma.
In British India, in the Hindu conceptualization of a Nehru's, and Patel's Akhanda Bharata, Muslims were uneasily felt and Hindu Mohashova even didn't want not tolerate them. But many Muslim philosophers and leaders like Iqbal even sang the famous song of "Hindustan hamara..were for a Hindu- Muslim civilization. Iqbal remained committed to the idea until the 40th's. The disillusioned poet later on became the dreamer of Pakistan. Tagore by the way wrote "Amer Sonar Bangla..." song during the early 20th century to the tune of Swadeshi's anti-partition movement. The song was adopted in the 70's as the national anthem of Bangladesh. During the 30's Tagore composed the song " Gono Mono Jona..." to be the national anthem of India. His was for a Hindu civilization. Is his paradigm any different from today's so-called "progressive minded" Bangladeshi Hindu-Buddhist- Christian Oiko Parished's that is alligned with India?
Unlike the othe chauvinistic Brahmos, fortunately Tagore felt Muslim presence in India and tolerated them. In his short story "namaj," he beautifully described the Muslim peasant praying on the boat in the Padma. The peasant was his description of the beautiful nature of the Padma River. But today's Padma River outside Tagore's Bharatio Hindu paradigm, remains dried up and in the contemporary period, many Bangladeshis are starting to see in the north Western Bangladesh, the slow extinction of Tagore's description of "Sonar Bangla."
REFERENCES
Tagore, Rabindranath. 1988. Dalia. In Rabindra Rachanavali , Govt. of West Bengal Publication
Tarling. Nicholas. 1992. The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press ( 2 volumes)
Swapna Bhattacharya (Chakraborti), 2006, Islam in Arakan: An interpretation from the Indian perspective: History and the Present.
Sen, Dinesh Chandra. 1986. History of Bengali Language and Literature. Delhi: Gian Publishing House; Stuart, J. 1919. Arakan Eighty Years Ago. 1919. Vol. 9, in Journal of Burma Research Society: 27-31
KHRG (Karen Human Rights group) website: in its" Background on Burma." (This site talks about Burman identification of Muslims as the enemy #1)
http://www.khrg.org/background_on_burma.html, June 23, 2007.
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