R. Raj Rao is an important Gay activist and Professor of English. Sadly, he is also utterly ignorant. He asks in Scroll if Tagore was a nativist- i.e. whether he thought the natives of a country should have superior rights to those of immigrants or birds of passage from the metropole. The answer is no. Tagore's wealth depended on the Brits staying in India and keeping the Muslims from ethnically cleansing Hindus in East Bengal where Tagore owned a lot of land. True, the big beardie did go through a brief radical phase but then he noticed that the Hindu 'swadeshi' agitators were pissing off the Muslims who were the majority in the East. To be fair, Tagore did make it clear- particularly by the ending of his novel 'Home and the World', that Hindu Bengalis should support the Brits rather than slit their own throats. Nevertheless, when reading Tagore's novels or Gandhi's articles, we are struck by their evident inability to reason. Why did writing in their native tongue make them stupid and crazy? The answer is that both were writing in a loose manner as if addressing women and children. Men spoke in reasoned tones during the day. They were obliged to use the jargon of the Courts or that of the Administration or that of Commerce- i.e. English or its near equivalent constrained their bombast. In this field, there were ready made 'mimamsas' or principles of logic or interpretation which could be appealed to so as to curtail verbose nonsense. But, when men returned home and chatted to the women folk and the kids and guests who might drop by, there was no reason to speak reasonably. Indeed, it was enjoyable to display pig-headed bigotry and give vent to bile. In Bengal, this became the hallmark of buddhijivi culture. At work you might speak or write in what appears a reasonable, but vacuous manner, but only so as to rise high enough to spit out bile and bigotry in the manner of a Tagore or a Gandhi.
What Tagore has come to emblematize is what Polanyi called 'moral inversion' of a bigoted and chauvinistic kind. It finds fault with India while finding fault with the world for letting so horrible a shithole as India to continue to exist. This is not 'nativism'. It is stupidity seeking to dignify itself as a neurosis.
Incidentally, a Nativists need not be xenophobic. Thus a Kuwaiti may get along very well with migrants while insisting that only native Kuwaitis enjoy citizenship and certain welfare entitlements. Equally, an immigrant to a country may be a rabid nationalist as far as hostile neighbouring countries are concerned.
Santiniketan, declared a World Heritage Site in September by Unesco, was founded in 1901 by Rabindranath Tagore.
It was created by his father, the Maharishi. Rabindranath, in obedience to his father, started a 'Brahmacharya-ashram' for young celibate Brahmin students. This could have been just a glorified 'home-school'. However, he hired a graduate to prepare his son for matriculation and decided to charge fees for boarders. I believe an Englishman was hired at one point to give English lessons. Tagore hoped to send his sons and other students to places like Japan, to learn things like Mining Engineering and did in fact send his son and a son-in-law to America to study agriculture.
The Vidyalay acquired a cosmopolitan character in 1902, when a Japanese Buddhist monk- introduced by the brilliant world traveller and writer Okakura Kakuzo joined Shantiniketan to study Sanskrit. Kakuzo's 'Book of Tea' (1906) which was written in English became a best seller and was translated into many languages. A little later, Kakuzo sent a Judo teacher from Japan and some of the boys learnt a little Japanese.
It was started with just five students, one of whom was Tagore’s son. Tagore was disillusioned with the 19th-century formal school education that had English as the medium of instruction.
Indeed. But Tagore was practical and did try to ensure good quality teaching with a view to his sons being able to go abroad to study practical subjects. Sadly, because he himself hadn't bothered to get a degree, he had to rely on graduates who, however, tended to run away or expire. Still, the boys were being exposed to a lot of Bengali poetry- which was not necessarily a good thing. Sanskrit and religious texts were not emphasized though this may be because the boys who attended tended to be 'difficult' and to prefer to climb trees.. It should also be mentioned that there was opposition to the practice of Brahmin boys bowing to a non-Brahmin teacher. Tagore's school was small, his means straitened, yet he persisted even after his youngest son died of cholera. I suppose a heart broken man has to keep himself busy. Still, it is noteworthy that Tagore had the idea of making Sriniketan an agricultural institute before he could dream of an Arts University at Shantiniketan. The Noble Prize made that dream possible. Sadly, Tagore put his Noble Prize money into his Zamindari bank with the interest alone being payable to Shantiniketan. By 1932, the peasants could not afford to pay any interest and so the institution became more dependent than ever on Tagore's 'mendicancy'.
British politician
he is remembered as a historian and poet
TB Macaulay, in his Minute on Education written in 1835, had emphasised on English language education: “The question now before us is simply whether, when it is in our power to teach this language [English], we shall teach languages in which by universal confession there are no books on any subject which deserve to be compared to our own...”
Macaulay was saying that the Indians wanted John Company to stop wasting money on Sanskrit and Persian. Spend that money on subsidising English language instead. This was because you could always learn Indian languages from the Pundit or Mullah. The Brits knew good English and could make sure that was what was taught.
After that, Bengal Governor General William Bentinck officially made English the medium of instruction in schools.
No he didn't. Schools were welcome to teach in any language they pleased. English was already the language of schools for British children, British Eurasians or those who wanted to learn English. What Bentinck did was make English the official language of the East India Company.
But Tagore, born in 1861, was of the view that children should be taught in the mother tongue, at least in their formative years.
Children were taught in their mother tongue till they were old enough to receive instruction in Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit or some other language. The Brits did not try to force Patshalas or Madrasas to teach in English. However, schools for Whites or Eurasians maintained by John Company were English medium for the excellent reason that English was the mother tongue of such children. No doubt, ambitious Indians sent their kids to such schools as well. Still, it is absolutely untrue that the Brits tried to force anybody to study in the English medium. This demand came from the Indians. By 1905, Indians even in remote districts were demanding English medium schools.
Santiniketan, in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, was started as an experiment in alternative education.
It was started as a Brahmin school by the head of a Brahmin sect. It employed graduates, some with teaching experience, but there was high staff turn-over. What is remarkable is that Tagore stuck with the thing after the death of his youngest children.
What should be noted is that, unlike the Ramakrishna Mission schools which spread far and wide, the Brahmo variant was an elitist failure. True, Tagore had initially talked about 'Shikshar Herpher' or a type of discrepancy or unwelcome deviation caused by English style education but he was not able to supply an alternative model. He could merely create a sort of progressive boarding school for thickos or the less terminally stupid sons of one or two fellow Brahmos.
I suppose that Tagore, like Okakura, and other Westernized Asian intellectuals had gone through a brief 'nativist' phase at the beginning of the century and then, because they were repudiated by their own people, repented their folly. In India, however, there was some hypocrisy about this repudiation amongst the elite. But hypocrisy was all it was. Still, Fenelossa in Japan and E.B Havell at the Calcutta Government Art College did represent a change in Western taste. Suddenly, 'authentic' oriental art was celebrated and Western techniques were derided. William Rothenstein spent some time in Calcutta as Havell's guest which is how he came to know the Tagores. A couple of years later Rothenstein introduced Tagore to literary London. Tagore's genius was immediately recognized. An earlier age would have scoffed at Tagore's simplicity. Now, it was seen as a great virtue more particularly because he was the head of a highly spiritual, elite, Hindu sect.
The medium of instruction was Bengali and classes were held mostly in the open, under the shade of trees.
The school could only expand by taking older students. Together with high staff turnover, this meant quality of education suffered. Still, if you wish to have at least five teachers and thus be able to offer the whole curriculum, you need at least 50 students. At a later point, thanks to Gandhi and the influx of some Gujarati students, the numbers swelled to a respectable 200 or so. It seemed plausible that Shantiniketan might be a sort of Cultural version of the new University in Dacca. Thanks to Tagore's spiritual appeal, it did indeed have some brief currency of this type. But it produced nobody of Tagore's stature. Setting up shop in the boondocks was a bad idea. An Arts Institute in Calcutta might have done well. It could have become the centre of a burgeoning film and music industry. Instead, Shantiniketan was just an adjunct of the cult of Tagore himself.
In this respect, Shantiniketan was a precursor to the open university system of education practiced all over the world today.
No. Open Universities provide 'distance learning' and evolved out of the 'correspondence college'. Shantiniketan was residential.
Given his preference for the mother tongue,
His English was not fluent.
it is not surprising that Tagore’s vast body of poetry, short stories, novels, plays and essays was mostly written in Bengali.
As opposed to what? Chinese?
He was different here from his well-known contemporaries, Aurobindo Ghose and Sarojini Naidu, who wrote monolingually in English.
Because his English was not good. Ghose and Naidu had completed graduate level studies in England. Tagore did audit some College lectures on English poetry in London but his father called him back to India. Had Tagore gained a degree, he could have himself served as headmaster of his School and ensured it got off to a good start.
It is not as if Tagore did not write poetry in English.
It needed to be corrected. Still, precisely because it had to be simple, it was less boring than his Bengali lucubrations.
But his relationship with the English language was an uneasy one. As MK Naik, a scholar of Indian literature, points out, Tagore’s career as an Indian English poet began by sheer accident in 1912 when he was on his way to England by steamer for medical treatment. He spent his time during the long voyage translating some of his Gitanjali poems into English.
He was looking for a new direction- one simpler and more poignant.
On reaching England, Tagore showed his translations to Irish poet WB Yeats, American poet Ezra Pound and English artist-writer William Rothenstein who were enthusiastic about the content of the poems, given that they came as a breath of fresh air in a war-torn world.
There was no war as yet. The plain fact is Tagore was the head of a prestigious Hindu sect and his family held a high position in 'the Second City of the British Empire'. Anyway, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were widely read at that time. Tagore's father was a competitor of the Parmahansa and the Swamy. But he was stupid and doomed to fail.
But Tagore’s English was awkward and clumsy. Pound and Yeats realised that they would have to sit with Tagore to edit the poems before they could recommend them to the Swedish Committee for the Nobel Prize. Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature the following year.
Yeats wrote the introduction. Pound was not well known then. Indeed, Sarojini was more famous. Her 'Bird of Time' which came out in 1912 sold well on both sides of the Atlantic.
After Gitanjali, Tagore returned to India and wrote a few more collections of poetry in English. These were The Gardener, The Crescent Moon, Fruit-Gathering, Lover’s Gift and Crossing and The Fugitive. In the absence of poets of the stature of Yeats and Pound to work with Tagore, the poems declined in quality. Today, looking back, one can safely say that Tagore was a reluctant poet in English.
No. One can say he was unskilled in English. Had he studied hard in England, like Aurobindo or Sarojini or even Nehru, his literary reputation would not have sunk so quickly. Still, because he was the head of a religious sect, he retained some admirers abroad.
In a way, Tagore anticipates writers of the nativist school of criticism who made their appearance in the 20th century in post-independent India.
No. Bankim's first published novel was in English. Michael Madhusudhan wrote in English before Vidyasagar persuaded him to switch to Bengali. The plain fact is Indians weren't very good at English. But, there was a growing market for vernacular literature.
These writers believed that writing should strictly be in the mother tongue and not in English, the language of the erstwhile coloniser.
It was the language of the Nehru Dynasty and a large portion of the 'power elite'.
One of the pioneers of the movement is the Marathi novelist and critic Bhalchandra Nemade whose views author and Sahitya Akademi Award winner GN Devy describes as “widely influential”.
Among people who have no influence- sure.
Nativism had a strong influence in India considering that writers and critics of the reputation of Devy himself, UR Ananthamurthy, Rajeev Patke,
surely he writes in English?
Ravindra Kimbahune and many others became its adherents.
People who can't write English may be able to write in their mother tongue. But why bother reading boring imbeciles who made their living teaching literature to cretins?
However, as writer Vilas Sarang says, “The concept of nativism is closer to nationalism.
No it isn't. An Urdu writer expects to find readers on both sides of the border.
Nemade should be alerted that his concept of nativism is likely to be covertly misappropriated by those organisations who raise the high flag of aggressive nationalism in our country.”
Nemade's readers did join the Shiv Sena. He'd have had to be very stupid not to understand that a Marathi novelist might contribute to Maratha sub-nationalism or, indeed, Hindutva nationalism.
Nemade may also be criticised for trivialising the argument by making the following facetious statements: (i) writing in English is like writing with one’s fingernails;
That sounds personal and not facetious at all. Nemade taught in London. Had he had any facility with English he could have written a good enough comic novel about Indian immigrants in that City.
(ii) Indian English writers cannot make literary sense of the banter that goes on, say, among barbers in a barbershop;
There were no barbershops in the villages. Hairdressers in Cities banter in the same way as the rest of us though, no doubt, there is a generational aspect to the thing.
(iii) in Jejuri, Arun Kolatkar goes to the Khandoba shrine in Jejuri as if he is going to a Juhu Beach cocktail party.
Kolatkar was a graphic artist by profession. Whatever he sees would be translated into similar imagery. Nothing wrong in that.
And so on. (Poet Kolatkar’s sequence of poems Jejuri describes his visit to the temple town near Pune in Maharashtra.)
Such flippancy has provoked writers who write in English to strike back.
Sadly, they are wholly ignorant- thankfully so- of these Professors who do a bit of Vernacular Lit. on the side till they get a prize for being very very fucking old.
In a 1997 issue of The New Yorker, for example, Salman Rushdie says: “The prose writing – both fiction and nonfiction – created in this period [1947-1997] by Indian writers working in English is proving to be a stronger and more important body of work than most of what has been produced in the eighteen ‘recognized’ languages of India, the so-called ‘vernacular languages’ during the same time; and, indeed, this new and still burgeoning ‘Indo-Anglian’ literature represents perhaps the most valuable contribution India has yet made to the world of books.”
Rushdie was Pakistani British and would soon become American. Only Indian Professors took him seriously.
These language wars, as it were, have done nothing to give Indian literature the global visibility that it deserves.
No. Indian academics haven't written good novels or poetry.
In retrospect, can Tagore be called a nativist?
No. He needed the Brits to stick around because Bengali Hindus needed protection.
Although Tagore may resemble the nativist writers and critics in his preference for the mother tongue, he was by no means an aggressive nationalist.
Because the nationalists wanted the Brits out which would mean ethnic cleansing of Hindus from the East
Tagore’s critique of nationalism comes out strongly in his 1910 novel Gora.
Tagore was saying that the Hindus were slitting their own throat by agitating against the Brits.
Here, Tagore is clearly opposed to his protagonist Gora’s idea of Bharatvarsh, based on an acceptance of orthodox Hindu traditions and customs.
Because, if Hindus actually had courage and intelligence neither Turk nor European would have established their rule.
Instead, through the characters of Binoybhushan, Lalita, Anandmoyi and Poreshbabu, he upholds the principles of the Brahmo Samaj, founded in 1828 by Raja Rammohun Roy and Tagore’s own father, Debendranath Tagore.
Both lobbied Westminster to lift restrictions on European settlement in Bengal. Whites can protect Hindus from Muslims. The bhadralok buddhijivi can't do shit.
The Brahmo Samaj rejected the authority of the scriptures
Though a guy who called himself 'Maharishi' obviously thought he himself was an authority of some sort.
and the four-fold division of caste into Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra,
Tagore's daddy upheld the notion that Brahmins are superior to non-Brahmins because he himself happened to be one.
elucidated in texts like the Manusmriti. In its belief in the monotheistic idea of one god, and its rejection of idol worship, the Brahmo Samaj actually came close to both Islam and Christianity.
Not in the view of either Muslims or Christians. Like Hindus, they thought the thing was vacuous shite.
In Gora, speaking unequivocally through the character of Poreshbabu, Tagore writes:
“The gates of the Muslim community are open to the whole of humanity, and the Christian community also welcomes everyone. The same law applies to all communities belonging to the Christian world. If I want to become an Englishman, it would not be entirely impossible: by living in England and obeying their laws, I can gain entry into their society; I need not even become a Christian...With Hindus it is the exact opposite. The way into their community is completely shut, but there are a hundred thousand ways out of it.”
So, get behind the Arya Samaj's shuddhi movement already! Of course, Tagore was talking bollocks. You can lose 'caste' but there is no way to stop being a Hindu save by embracing an Abrahamic religion.
If only Tagore had done a degree or at least qualified as a barrister he might not have written such stupid shite.
Tagore’s views become relevant in the light of a recent controversy in Pune, where a junior college lecturer was arrested for extolling the virtues of Islam and Christianity as monotheistic religions, while critiquing Hinduism’s polytheism.
This is a lie. He was arrested for making 'objectionable remarks about Hindu deities' in a class-room under a law which makes 'outraging religious sentiments” an offence.
They also assume significance in the context of the Sanatan Dharma imbroglio
imbroglio means something jumbled. The right word is controversy. The question is whether those who follow Vedic Hinduism (Sanatan Dharma) should be driven out of the country. The answer is- no. Don't be silly.
currently raging in India, and in the BJP’s changing of the name of India to Bharat.
Bharat is an official name for India. Still, maybe this elderly fool doesn't like change. He wants India to revert to the good old days when certain types of homosexual behaviour were criminalized.
In the end, it is Tagore’s famous poem in Gitanjali (Poem Number XXXV) that proves without a shadow of doubt that he was neither a nativist, nor a narrow-minded nationalist:
He was loyal subject of the King Emperor.
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
and no Muslim cut-throats are nigh
Where knowledge is free;
though Shantiniketan charged a fee
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
it is very naughty to have a bedroom or a toilet with walls. Everybody should be able to watch you fuck and shit.
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
as opposed to the arsehole of lies- right?
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
anybody can stretch their arm towards perfection without any fucking striving. Tagore was a perfect imbecile.
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
why the fuck would it lose its way? Oh. There's no rhyme or reason to this beardie's bullshit. He is Bengali after all.
in the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
not to mention the dreary kitty-litter where Tagore goes potty.
Where the mind is led forward by thee
If God is doing the leading, why bother with Reason?
into ever-widening thought and action
as opposed to the verbose bollocks Tagore prodigiously shat out
– Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Meanwhile, let it slumber on. Otherwise the Brits might fuck off and then the Muslims will slit our throats. No doubt, Raj Rao is liberal enough to wish the country to turn into an Islamic Caliphate where gay people are killed by having a wall collapsed upon them.
Why did Vishva Bharati fail? The answer is that it held to two absurd propositions
1) people can only think in their mother tongue. Since, in the case of Bengali, only contact with and knowledge of English had enabled the language to become literary, clearly the opposite was the case.
2) Indians should learn only each others languages and religions and then go on to learning those of the rest of Asia. The problem here was that the West already had superior campuses where all of the languages and religions of Asia could be studied alongside cutting edge STEM subject stuff. Intellectual 'swadeshi' or dirigism was even more fucked in the head than the notion of economic autarky.
What Tagore should have concentrated on was promoting the Brahmo Samaj as a cult to which American plutocrats could shower money. Set up a Shantiniketan in a rapidly rising metropolis and it might attract and retain talent. Choose to locate in a rural shithole and the thing is bound to degenerate into a cult of personality or, after Tagore's death, a Central University of appalling parochialism and stupidity.
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