Biswajit Ray & Tagore's beggar maid

Rabindranath Tagore's writing is world renowned throughout select parts of India for having the quality of being

1) as stupid as shit

2) as boring and stupid as shit

3) quintessentially Bengali- i.e. boring and stupid and utterly shit.

As a case in point consider the following tweet put out by the Embassy of India in Mali on 'Hindi day'.

This is a Hindi translation of an alleged line from Tagore meaning 'Indian languages are rivers and Hindi is 'mahanadi' (a small and unimportant river once known as 'the sorrow of Orissa' but which, after the building of a dam, is now quite well behaved.)

The humor here is that Bengali was once much superior to Hindi. Indeed, as one sailed down the Ganges from Hindi speaking areas towards Calcutta, it seemed that language and life became sweeter and more refined. One was advancing towards a more sophisticated technological civilization which was linked up with the wider, more glittering, world.

 Though we may now find it difficult to believe, the fact is, Tagore himself was considered a great poet. Alas, for my generation, Bengali was confirmed as a dialect of stupidity & Tagore the epitome of the vacuous bore. Thus it is entirely right and proper to attribute a sonorous but meaningless apopthegm to that daft beardie. To compare Hindi to a small and unimportant river in India is funny because there is a pun (mahanadi means 'great river') involved. It's like saying 'Women are flowers and among blossoms Kamala Harris is a cauliflower'. There is a pun here- Kamala means lotus- and, it may be, the intention is to say something nice and 'poetic' about her, but that is certainly not the overall effect. 

A Bengali Professor of Bangla, Biswajit Ray, writing in Print.in, suggests that something much more sinister is going on when meaningless shite of a sonorous type is attributed to a poet notorious for writing in that vein. 

As election looms in West Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore has been dragged out and dusted again by politicians. From BJP’s Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to TMC’s Mamata Banerjee, Tagore is being liberally invoked.

Tagore wasn't always a vacuous bore. He pointed out that Muslims in East Bengal would ethnically cleanse Hindus once the Brits left. Thus, for the bhadralok landed gentry, supporting 'Nationalism' involved cutting one's own collective throat. Tagore himself had a choice between sticking with being the hereditary Pope of a boring and vacuous Religion his grandad helped set up or else running a 'University for the Arts' which wasn't entirely crap- while he lived. After his death it was turned into a Central University and turned to shit. But this means Tagore is now the property of the Government. 

But intentional misinterpretation of the thoughts of great Indian thinkers for political benefit is quite a popular game in India today.

Tagore tried in a feeble manner to protest against the stupidity of the political class which was determined to cut the throats of the Hindu bhadralok- more particularly those with large estates in East Bengal. Then he simply gave up and hung out with little girls whose poetry was as vacuously shite as his own 

This game has four common rules. Selection, decoration, and dissemination are the three pillars upon which the game-board is placed.

In which case it will topple over. When it comes to a vacuous bore, like Tagore, one can simply attribute any retarded shite to the cunt- which is what this Bangla Professor will himself do in this article. 

Without contextualising a text, a part of it is selected.

No. We have just seen that the Govt. of India, itself, simply fabricates meaningless shite and attributes it to Tagore or Gandhi or Deen-fucking-dayal Upadhyaya. 

Then that selected text is decorated with calligraphies and pictures. Once the digital or physical poster is ready, it is either posted on social media or published through other mediums. Sometimes it goes viral in a moment. People read and believe it. These three rules are at least grounded on a narrow premise. But the fourth rule of the game is the most heinous one. In our boyhood days, we often invented interesting quotes in the examination hall and passed them off in our answer-scripts as remarks of great historians so that examiners would give us more marks. We never thought that the high-school game would one day also become part of ‘WhatsApp University’ and political propaganda.

The Indian education system- as repurposed by the U.P.S.C- proactively repurposed quotations from dead White males into pearls of wisdom from dead brown eunuchs of either sex. Thus, 'that Government is best which governs least'  and 'Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely' are both canonically Gandhian whereas 'Suck my dick, and make it quick' is a mahavakya of Mother Theresa. 

I can still remember that afternoon. A journalist friend rang me up. “Did Rabindranath say Indian languages are rivers and Hindi the Mahanadi? This quotation has been circulated on the notice-board of a reputed university in the name of Tagore without specifying the source,” he said. I was taken aback and searched the writings of Tagore thoroughly, but could not find it. Rabindranath never undermined the importance of Hindi as an Indian language. Hindi-Bhavana was established in his academic institution, Visva Bharati, in 1938, for cultivating the language and literature. But that does not mean the poet believed in language hierarchy. The ‘Hindi Mahanadi’ quotation is fabricated in the name of Tagore to justify the superior position of one of the many Indian languages.

Actually, the mahanadi- as this guy well knows- is a small and unimportant river. Tagore was capable of irony and sarcasm and so forth. In his own time, the mahanadi was only in the news when it flooded and thousands of very poor people in Orissa died horribly.  

And as the election campaigns heat up, and the BJP tries to claim Tagore, we must put everything distilled to us in his name through a litmus test.

Why? The man was a vacuous bore. In his own translation of his work he speaks of a beggar girl pulling her skirt over her head. He seems to have been unaware that a woman who exposes her vagina is not a beggar. She is either a prostitute or a lunatic. A beggar may pull her ragged shawl over her head. She won't pull up her skirt to hide her face so that everybody can get an eyeful of her vulva. 

There is no point applying a litmus test to a man who wrote like shit because he had more beard than brain. 

Although it is difficult to stop this game of selectively quoting or misquoting, we can arrange a litmus test for those fabricated quotations.

No we can't. We can either say they are fabricated or declare their provenance.  

First, we must politely ask the quotation-makers to provide the source or the name of the text from which the lines are taken.

Professorji, there is a beggar girl quoting Tagore and lifting her skirt to hide her face. Kindly go and very politely ask her to provide the name of the text from which the lines are taken. She may try to drown you in her pussy juices. But you just go ahead and apply litmus test while holding your breath. Your wife will praise your diligence in this matter. She won't beat you with her chappal. 

Second, we should date the text, if possible, and compare it with other writings of that thinker to contextualise it.

Very true! Take this quotation from Tagore's prize winning Gitanjali-  

The morning time is past, and the noon. In the shade of evening my eyes are drowsy with sleep. Men going home glance at me and smile and fill me with shame. I sit like a beggar maid, drawing my skirt over my face, and when they ask me, what it is I want, I drop my eyes and answer them not.

What is the context of men smiling and asking a girl what she wants when the fact is she has drawn her skirt over her face and isn't saying anything at all? The answer is, a very low or demented type of prostitute is exposing her money maker because she has no other charms. 

Niradh Chaudhri has described Tagore, shamelessly begging for his Shantinketan, as a wealthy and cultured Swann reduced to the status of a rent-boy so as to shower wealth on a vulgar Odette who turns into a meretricious Central University now notorious for being littered with beer bottles and used condoms. 

No doubt, there is a Vaishnava sub-text to Tagore's witless shite but there was a long tradition of prostitution associated with this type of lyricism.

For example, if we read Tagore’s writings in chronological order, we will find that he

grew stupider and stupider because the Hindu bhadralok were getting stupider and stupider and ended up clamoring for their collective throats to be cut

opposes the centrality of any particular language, religion, icon and nation over others.

This was certainly the reason his grandfather spent a lot of money lobbying the British to send more Whites and expand their control over India. Tagore and Roy explicitly said that this was necessary to safeguard the Hindu from the rapacious Muslim. The ending of 'Home and the World' couldn't be more clear or more prophetic. The Hindus must either flee or get killed by the Muslims unless the Brits remain in charge. What Tagore could not have guessed was that once the Brits surrendered control over Food to the Provinces then democratically elected Governments in Bengal would preside over a terrible Famine. Indeed, the thing happened again once Bangladesh became democratic. Without the Brits, Bengal had both famines and pogroms- thanks to Democracy.  

In his writings on ‘History of India’, he underlines that in our society, differences are natural

which is why beggar maids draw their skirts over their face. Suppose they had dicks not vaginas, then this would not be a good tactic to drum up business. Thus differences are not just natural- they are conducive to a type of commerce which does not require much in the way of brains.  

but the differences are neither erased in the name of artificial oneness nor do they block the spirit of amity.

How come the Hindu population of East Bengal has fallen decade after decade? 

Tagore proposes a ‘Ramrajya’ where each one can believe in his or her own Rama instead of an iconic super hero.

Very good of him I'm sure. Hindus killed or chased out of East Bengal must have had a swell time believing their Ram was Spider Man or Wonder Woman or the Incredible Sulk.  

Rabindranath in his poem ‘Bhasa O Chanda’(Language and Metre) describes a meeting between Narada, the great devotee of Vishnu, and Valmiki, the ancient poet, at a topavana on the bank of river Tamasa. During their talks, Valmiki hesitantly asks Narada, “How can I write the life story of Rama? I am afraid of deviating from the truth.” Narada calmly replies, “Whatever you write is true. / Happenings are not always true. / O Poet, your heart is more reliable than the birthplace of Rama.”

Tagore's daddy was the head of a Brahmo sect which spent a lot of time shitting on orthodox Hinduism. To his credit, Tagore was conciliatory. Still the fact remains that his oeuvre addresses a theological controversy which everybody now finds meaningless. The fact is Tagore did not concentrate on spreading Brahmoism as its Maharishi. Suppose he had done so, then his descendants would have palatial mansions in New York and Paris and big Temples all over the place. They might even have high quality Medical Colleges and Hospitals and so forth. At the least, they could be like the Ba'hai Movement. Tagore made a mistake by going for culture not religion even though he had already invested in a beard and a kaftan and a line in vacuous chat.  

Tagore, a believer in liberty of expression, stands for poetic imagination.

If poetic imagination stands for vacuous shite.  

He knew that India is a land of varied Ramayanas.

But, more importantly, parts of it could turn into places where those who revere the Ramayana are killed, robbed, or chased away. Indeed, the thing would happen even to those who didn't revere shit but who were still classed as Hindu. 

In this land of diversity, Valmiki can imagine his own Rama.

It may be news to this writer but imagination allows anybody to imagine anything in any sort of land. India wasn't a 'land of diversity'. It was a starving shithole unable to feed or protect or rule itself. Still, the Tagores had done well. It was in their interest for the Brits to stay. Sadly, the Tagores no longer possessed any useful talent which they could successfully deploy in prolonging the Empire. Gandhi, it is true, managed to postpone Independence by fifteen or twenty years. Tagore could do nothing but run around like a headless chicken begging for money for his Shantiniketan.  

But the realpolitik of Hindutva does not believe in many Ramayanas.

Sure it does. Hindutva doesn't give a crap about the canonicity of the Uttara Kanda. All it wants is to eliminate caste so that the Nation can pursue sensible economic and defense policies.  

The Ramjanmabhoomi project certainly goes against what Tagore’s Narada had to say.

So what? Tagore's Narada is not part of the Hindu Religion. Recall, the Brahmos fought Court Cases to be declared a completely separate Religion. Later, some 'inter-caste' marriages were legalized by a false claim by both contracting parties to be Brahmos. 

However, the number of Brahmos has now greatly declined. In 2001, only 170 people declared themselves to be Brahmos. They are welcome to keep Tagore's Narada to themselves. If they die of grief because the Supreme Court Mandated Ram Temple comes up who will notice?  

Instead of keeping one’s Rama to one’s heart, the soldiers of Hindutva want to crown their political fetish on a particular geographical ground by erecting a huge temple. Setting up an immense statue or temple generally satisfies the ego of its founder or builder.

What satisfies the ego of this shitty little Professor of Bangla? Is it impotent railing against the ideology which is challenging the thugocracy of Mamta Di?  

Rabindranath Tagore categorically criticises the futile egomania of politicians and kings in his writings.

But his criticisms had no effect whatsoever. His mania in this respect was utterly futile.   

Organised religion and state-owned technology provide power-mongers with tools to nurture their pride.

So Tagore's daddy and grand-daddy- who 'organized religion' and depended on the 'state-owned' technology of the Raj for their wealth- were 'power mongers' interested in 'nurturing their pride'. But, in that case, so was Tagore. 

Our Bangla Professor probably teaches at a State owned University. This nurtures his pride. Shame on him!

He retells the story of a sage named Narottom who sits under a tree outside a golden temple.

Does this Bangla Professor sit under a tree outside the University campus? Does he refuse to accept a salary?  

A curious king comes to him and says, “Look, My Lord, I have built this skyscraper. But instead of going to the shining shrine, why are you singing the name of God under this tree?” Narottom replies, “God is not in the temple. Without giving support to the poor and fire-devastated subjects, you have used the money to construct this structure not for worshipping God but for embellishing your own pride.”

Professors enter the big shiny (relatively speaking) Universities to teach worthless subjects even though they know this hurts the poor. Look at Amartya Sen presiding over the white elephant Nalanda International University! Just these wankers are embellishing their pride all the time I yam telling you! They should go sit under tree like Narottam. Hopefully, coconut will fall on their head and crack it open.  

This candid comment makes the king furious and he labels the sage an ‘agnostic’. Nowadays, liberals are called ‘anti-national’. Bhakta Narottom hardly pays any attention to this comment.

So what? He didn't achieve anything. Sitting under a tree is one way to pass the time. So is shitting under a tree. We must encourage Professors of Bangla to go find a tree under which they can perform these two activities.  

In Tagore’s drama ‘Waterfall’, an engineer embanks a muktadhara (free river current) to control a kingdom’s water resource and stop it from reaching the colonies.

Around this time, people like M. Visveswararya were showing how building dams could save thousands of lives while providing secure livelihoods and generating electricity and so forth. There were devastating floods on the mahanadi in 1936. Independent India constructed the Hirakud dam. Most people think this a good thing. This stupid Bangla Professor, who really ought to be sitting or shitting under a tree, thinks it was a very bad thing. Pride was embellished! That is very wrong! Everybody should be constantly humiliated. Then they should draw their skirt over their face like a beggar maid so as to reveal a nice vulva rather a dick because having a dick might embellish their pride. 

The king wants to tax the people for water, and so the barrage is raised. One of Tagore’s finest plays, ‘Waterfall’ ends on a rebellious note. The heir to the king’s throne, Abhijit, demolishes the dam and right to equality is reinstated in the land.

And then there are floods and epidemics and some more virile bunch of thugs takes over the territory and Abhijit's sons are turned into catamites while his daughters constantly draw their skirt over their face like beggar maids because Tagore thought that was a swell way to pass the time.  

Muktadhara was written after the First World War.

Which showed that the age of Kings and Emperors was over. 

Tagore had experienced the narrowness of jingoism

People in Britain had told him he was a smelly nigger. Max Beerbohm- not exactly a racist hooligan- wrote a poem about Tagore which made the point that Tagore was a darkie. Darkies smell. They should use carbolic soap.  

and described vividly the modalities of State power in his next play Raktakarabi.

Tagore's ancestors had an intimate knowledge of modalities of State power. But Tagore showed no awareness of this whatsoever. He wrote shite at a time when Fritz Lang and Berthold Brecht were writing similar, but much much better, shite. 

It tells the story of a city named Yakshapuri that flourishes around a gold mine. Farmers are enticed to be miners. They enter the city to test their fate and eventually are controlled by the central power. In that city, armoury, temple and wine shop stand side by side to lure the people into fantasies. Nandini and Ranjan happen to come to Yakshapuri, and they inspire the miners to revolt against the capitalist system. At the end of the play, the king comes out of his hiding place, and, as his mind undergoes a change, joins the rebels to change the system to benefit the farmers.

Compare this shite to Lang's Metropolis or Chaplin's Modern Times and you can see why Bengal was bound to decline. 

One can give many more examples from the texts of Tagore where the centralisation of power is criticised.

The Tagores rose because they supported the centralization of power by the Brits. Once power was ceded to elected Governments in the Provinces, Bengal suffered both famine and pogroms and ethnic cleansing. The economic basis of Tagore's class was wiped out. 

Still, as a guy trying to raise funds for an Arts College, the guy had to put on the sort of shite plays which appealed to donors. Marwaris and Seths were financing Gandhi. Tagore too got some crumbs for getting with their program. 

And those who are quoting Tagore today would do well to read his poetry, plays and stories first.

Fuck off! Reading Tagore makes one want to draw one's skirt over one's face while shitting and sitting under a tree.  

He was not a man who could be put in a box and branded

Bearded Bengali retard is the box and brand of this bard.

— that’s what he fought all his life.

using his man-pussy? Is that why nobody noticed?  

He fought nationalism, organised religion, and the centralisation of power.

Fought? If what Tagore was doing was fighting, fuck would surrendering involve?  

I am also quite sure that the writings of Bankim Chandra, Vivekananda, and Subhas Chandra Bose will also be used systematically to violate the spirit of plurality of our land.

No. If past history is any guide, once the Muslims take over, they will quote Muslim authors not Hindus. I may be wrong. Perhaps, Owaisi will take to Bankim and start reciting Vande Mataram all over the place. 

These Bengali thinkers had their own views and philosophy, but none of them opposed or suppressed the cultural and political diversity of India.

Bose actually ran off to Germany to get cozy with Hitler. Then he joined hands with the Japs to invade India. 

It is a fact that Fascists gain power by beating Commies in the street. Who in India has gained power in that way? Only Mamta. This Bangla Professor may like her brand of Fascism. She is after all a great writer and artist- just like Tagore. If Mamta continues to rule Bengal, the day will come when this 'Associate Professor' of Bangla will have to give lectures on the sublime literary compositions of Didi. 

Till then he can pretend to be a chemist-

So, our litmus test becomes even more necessary in this new ‘Ramrajya’.

The law is itself the litmus test of Religion. Tagore wasn't a Hindu. He was a Brahmo- a sect which has almost completely disappeared. 

Modi now has a better beard than Tagore. I suppose, because he is associated with the Ram Temple, he could be seen as having instituted Ram Rajya.

 It seems, like Tagore's shrewd beggar maid, drawing her skirt over her face, this Professor at a Central University is actually panting for Modi while appearing to truckle to Mamta.