Tagore in the 21st century
own trajectory of working for his own country, his own times and for his own mother tongue – Bangla, or Bengali that holds together two nations, India and Bangladesh. He knew that after the dark comes light, as he said: “Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” Whereas reason and logic have an important place in Tagore’s scheme of things, the inner strength and the belief in one’s own self and an intuitive knowledge are of equal importance. Tagore had once said: “A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.” How true it is in the context of creating a space for finer elements in one’s life as well as in one’s learning processes. Creative writing, meaningful performances, imaginative art, and soulful music have a major role to play in shaping the human mind as much as tools, technology and tangible instruments such as earthly riches.
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he face of the world is changing, and as time passes, the changes are visible with a lot of disturbing images. But each time one feels an element of doom and despair, one’s faith is rekindled to see that there are thinkers and doers like Tagore who firmly believed that ultimately the truth and beauty would prevail. It is not surprising to see Einstein sharing the same beliefs as the doyen of Indian literature, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). Einstein said: ‘The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully have been kindness, beauty, and truth.” The progress of mankind is crucially dependent on this realisation. In exchanges with Einstein, Tagore had commented: “The progress of our soul is like a perfect poem. It has an infinite idea which once realised makes all movements full of meaning and joy. But if we detach its movements from that ultimate idea, if we do not see the infinite rest and only see the infinite motion, then existence appears to us a monstrous evil, impetuously rushing towards an unending aimlessness.” No amount of personal loss could make Tagore deviate from his INDIA PERSPECTIVES
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At a time when the world celebrates the onset of the 150th year of Rabindranath Tagore between May 2010 and 2011, it was thought appropriate to pay a tribute to this great son of India who made us proud. We have, therefore, put together a special issue in his honour with close to two dozen essays together with extremely important and rare visuals – from photographs to images of his paintings. Some of these essays have been published earlier – mostly in Visva-Bharati publications, but most of them have been written for this edition. We are hopeful that the offerings we are making will be received well by the international readership of India Perspectives, and this issue will be a collector’s item which would be remembered and discussed for a long time. We are thankful to the authors as well as to Visva-Bharati in general, and to the staff of the archives of Rabindra Bhavana, in particular. We take this opportunity to express our appreciation to the Public Diplomacy Division, Ministry of External Affairs for their interest and cooperation in putting this issue together. Udaya Narayana Singh Santiniketan; March 2010
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