In times of misplaced nationalism.. It's indeed ironic to remember that poet and Nobel laureate who wrote India 's national anthem' Jana gana mana..' was remarkably universal in his vision and was untrammelled by narrowness of caste,class, country and creed..
Tagore, whose 156 the birthday anniversary falls on 7 the may,wasn't a nationalist if judged by today's exaggerated standards ,flawed perception and twisted definitions..
'Tagore had an all- encompassing vision and heart that throbbed for every living and non- living creatures,' opined Saravapalli Radhakhrishan is his 'Oxford Series Lectures'.Some pseudo-nationalists may argue that Tagore just wrote poetry sitting on ivory tower and didn't participate in freedom struggle of India.. They are grossly mistaken..
Tagore wasn't an indolent lotus-eater who just sat on the fence and observed the cavalcade of history by,doing nothing.
On the contrary, he had the courage of conviction to return the Knighthood that was bestowed upon him by British following Amritsar's massacre in 1919.
He wrote to the viceroy of India while returning this,a regime that doesn't have empathy for the innocent protesters, is presumed to have no empathy for decency and niceties of human existence.. I,therefore return the'honour' to the oppressive and inhuman government'.
It was Tagore who could write' jaati,dharmo nirbeshe/Ami manush,mei aamar kono dash,na kono praanto( regardless of caste and creed, I'm but an individual who doesn't belongs to any country or province.)
In his Nobel acceptance speech in 1913,Tagore said' a poet has no country, he has no community. He has a universality of vision and a profound vastnesses of sensibilities that enable him to connect on earth .'
No comments:
Post a Comment