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The Bengali Prophet of Mass Genocide: Rabindranath Tagore and the Menace of Twentieth Century Nationalism

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Rabindranath Tagore

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Abstract

The nineteenth century Bengal or Hindu Renaissance has generally been viewed as a positive Indian response to humane and enlightened forms of Westernisation introduced by various means and agencies during the British era.1 Whether seen from the Anglicist perspective which equates modernisation with Westernisation or from the Orientalist perspective which stresses the modernity of Hinduism by means of syncretism, the consensus is that the British experience did provide India with an opportunity to re-define its identity and reconstruct its culture for coping with the modern world.2

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Notes and References

  1. For a book dealing with the different interpretations of the Bengal Renaissance, including those Christian and Muslim, see Reflections on the Bengal Renaissance, ed. D. Kopf, S. Joarder (Rajashahi, Bangladesh: Institute of Bangladesh Studies, 1977).

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  2. For a book which develops both the orientalist and anglicist contributions to the Renaissance in precisely this manner, see D. Kopf, British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969).

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  3. For a detailed discussion of nationalism and the Brahmo Samaj, see D. Kopf, The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind (Princeton University Press, 1979) pp.157–214.

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  4. For an extensive examination of the radical nationalists, especially Brahmobandhab Upadhyay, see ibid., pp. 187–214.

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  5. See the interesting reference to it in K. Kripalani, Rabindranath Tagore (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962) p.321.

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  6. The most Westernised and liberal faction of Brahmos actually started the Indian Association in 1876 to protest against acts of British oppression. For an analysis of this event in the Brahmo historical perspective, see Kopf, Brahmo Samaj, pp. 137–47.

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  7. The earliest reflection of this attitude by Keshub was in a speech given in London in May, 1870. See ibid., pp.261–2.

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  8. See analysis of Keshub Sen’s last public lecture on 20 January 1883 entitled ‘Asia’s Message to Europe’ ibid., pp.280–1.

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  9. Ibid., pp.268–81.

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  10. B. Kling, Partner in Empire: Dwarkanath Tagore and the Age of Enterprise in Eastern India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976) p.22.

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  11. Kopf, Brahmo Samaj, pp.161–4.

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  12. Ibid., pp.255–6, 259.

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  13. Ibid., pp.289, 291.

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  14. Ibid., pp.182–6, 259.

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  15. Ibid., p.287.

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  16. S. N. Hay, Asian Ideas of East and West: Tagore and His Critics (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970) p.23.

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  17. Tagore quoted in ibid.

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  18. For a discussion of Tagore’s active interest in Brahmo affairs and articles in the Tattvabodhini Patrikā see Kopf, Brahmo Samaj, pp.299–301.

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  19. For an excellent monograph on the socio-economic aspects of the Bengali bhadralok grouping, see J. H. Broomfield, Elite Conflict in a Plural Society: Twentieth Century Bengal (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968).

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  20. B. T. McCully, English Education and the Origins of Indian Nationalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1940) p.215.

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  21. Ibid.

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  22. For a good analysis of this, see P. Sinha, Nineteenth Century Bengal: Aspects of Social History (Calcutta: K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1965) pp.40–3.

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  23. A. Tripathi, The Extremist Challenge: India between 1890–1910 (Calcutta: Orient Longmans, 1967) pp.48–50.

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  24. D. Kopf, ‘Precursors of the Indian National Congress,’ Women, Development, Devotionalism, Nationalism: Bengal Studies 1985, ed. J. P. Thorp (East Lansing: Asian Studies Center, 1986) pp.180–5.

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  25. Rajnarain Bose, Atma Charita (Autobiography). (Calcutta: Kuntaline Press, 1909) p.88.

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  26. For an analysis of several articles by Dwijendranath, see Kopf, Brahmo Samaj, pp.182–6.

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  27. See J. C. Bagal, ‘Rajnarain Bose and Indian Nationalism’, which includes ‘Society for the Promotion of National Feeling among the Educated Natives of Bengal [April 1866]’, Modern Review, 75 (June 1944) 444–7.

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  28. For a solid monograph on the history of the Hindu Mela for Bengali readers, see J. C. Bagal, Hindu Melār Itibritta (History of the Hindu Mela). (Calcutta: Maitri, 1968).

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  29. Tagore quoted in D. Kopf, Brahmo Samaj, p.293.

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  30. Tagore’s novel, The Home and the World (Ghare Bāire), though written during World War I, represents his most outspoken views on early twentieth-century Indian extremist nationalism and terrorism. In it he attacks the notion that nationalism can ever become a religion, as well as all acts of violence in the name of Swadeshi, Durga and Kali. See ibid., pp.306–7.

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  31. Rathindranath Tagore, On the Edges of Time (Calcutta: Orient Longmans, 1958) pp.9, 10.

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  32. Rabindranath wrote his letter to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, announcing his resignation of the knighthood on 29 May 1919, just over one month after the massacre.

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  33. See Tagore, Towards Universal Man (Calcutta: Asia Publishing House, 1961).

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  34. S. Sarkar, Bengal Renaissance and Other Essays (New Delhi: Peoples’ Publishing House, 1970) p.168.

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  35. Kopf, Brahmo Samaj, p.294.

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  36. The poem, ‘Sunset of the Century,’ written on the last day of the nineteenth century, was later published as an appendix to Tagore’s Nationalism in 1918 by Macmillan.

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  37. Edward Thompson’s translation of Tagore in Kripalani, p. 183.

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  38. Tagore, Gorā (London: Macmillan, 1924) p.402.

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  39. Ibid., pp.405–6.

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  40. Tagore quoted in Kripalani, p.211. This was the Bengali collection, not the English collection by the same title, published in London in 1912.

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  41. Tagore quoted ibid., pp.209–10.

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  42. Tagore, A Vision of India’s History (Calcutta: Visva-Bharati, 1951) p.37.

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  43. Ibid., p.32.

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  44. Ibid., p.36.

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  45. Ibid., p.39.

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  46. Ibid., pp.38–9.

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  47. Ibid., p.38.

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  48. Tagore quoted in Kripalani, p.210.

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  49. Tagore, Sadhana (London: Macmillan, 1913).

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  50. Tagore quoted in Kripalani, pp.226–7.

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  51. Letter from R. Tagore to A. Chakrabarty (18 March 1913), in Ajit Chakrabarty Papers, Library of Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal.

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  52. Tagore, Nationalism (London: Macmillan, 1950) p. 16.

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  53. Ibid., p.28.

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  54. Ibid., p.36.

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  55. Ibid., p.37.

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  56. Ibid.

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  57. Ibid., p.100.

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  58. Ibid., p.162.

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  59. P. C. Mahalanobis, ‘The Growth of Visva-Bharati,’ Visva-Bharati Quarterly, (April 1928) p.79.

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  60. Tagore quoted, ibid., p.94.

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  61. Visva-Bharati and Its Institutions (Santiniketan, West Bengal: Visva-Bharati Press, 1961) p.19.

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  62. Tagore quoted in Kripalani, p.257.

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  63. Tagore quoted, ibid., p.312.

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  64. Romain Rolland quoted, ibid., p.277.

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  65. Rolland quoted, ibid.

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  66. Rolland quoted, ibid., p.293.

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  67. Tagore quoted, ibid., p.290.

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  68. Tagore quoted, ibid., p.294.

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  69. Ibid.

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Authors
  1. David Kopf
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Missouri, USA

    Mary Lago

  2. Commonwealth Institute, UK

    Ronald Warwick (Literature and Current Affairs Officer) (Literature and Current Affairs Officer)

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© 1989 Mary Lago and Ronald Warwick

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Kopf, D. (1989). The Bengali Prophet of Mass Genocide: Rabindranath Tagore and the Menace of Twentieth Century Nationalism. In: Lago, M., Warwick, R. (eds) Rabindranath Tagore. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09133-1_4

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