By Pratap Chandra Chunder
Richard Church, English writer and critic, has called Rabindranath Tagore the “universal man”. To be precise I looked up some modern standard dictionaries to find out the meaning of the word ‘universal’ in this context. The recent Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary defines the word ‘universal’, as “affecting or done by all people or things in the world or in a particular group”. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines the word as “including or covering all or whole collectively or distributively without limit or exception”. And ‘universalism’ is “something that is universal in scope”. So the connotation of “the universal man’ is that this man affects and embraces all people, that he is not selfish or self-centred and his thoughts and actions go beyond the narrow confines of his immediate surroundings. His tenets and philosophy encompass and bind the whole world without distinction based on race, colour or creed. If we refer to major creations of Tagore we have to admit that Church’s epithet is correct in as much as Tagore’s philosophy was all-embracing, bereft of all narrowness or parochialism, Church is right when he concludes:
“Tagore was an example of the harmonious man. He seemed to be guided from the beginning by a direct and unquestionable vision which led him to a philosophy of wholeness of unity”. But Church is wrong when he says,
“Tagore carried within him also a practical and rational direction of mind towards a method of unification which I would dare to say is European in its manner and political value”
A similar charge was levelled against Tagore by historian, Ramaprasad Chanda:
Comte’s Religion of Humanity and Rabindranath’s Religion of man are similar, Comte’s Grand Etre or Supreme Being and Rabindranath’s Super Man or Great Man means the same thing. So Rabindranath cannot be said to be envoy carrying the message of Eastern spiritualism of Europe, but he is the messenger of materialism sent by Europe to India.
Sisir Kumar Maitra, the philosopher, contradicts Ramaprasad Chanda and states that Rabindranath’s definition of Man is different from that of Comte in that there is no place for God in Comte’s philosophy whereas God permeates Tagore.
Church and Chanda gave a wrong and distorted assessment of Tagore’s universalism, which was essentially derived from the Indian scriptures, traditions and ethos. Tagore gave the crux thus: My religion is in reconciliation of the Super-personal Man, the universal human spirit in my own individual being. This has been the subject of my Hibbert Lecture which I have called “The Religion of Man”.
Dr. Radhakrishnan remarks:
I listened to his Hibbert Lecture in March 1930 at Manchester College, Oxford where he emphasised the ancient wisdom of India. He taught us a religion of love and humanity, beauty and laughter. Record houses listened to him”
Mulk Raj Anand is right when he asserts: “But it was through Rabindranath Tagore that Indian Universalism becomes known to the modern world.”
Anand elaborates his proposition thus:
“Being a vast collection of peoples and nationalities ourselves, a kind of miniature cosmos of our own, with ten distinct major languages and yet knit together for two thousand years by a common culture, we in India can claim to have been possessed by a strong passion for universalism for a very long, long time. The universalism of the old Buddhist ideal was proved when it travelled across frontiers and took root in ancient China and Japan. Similarly the influence of the philosophy of the Vedanta on modern German thought especially through Hegel and Schopenhauer and on British thinkers shows that the tendency of our thought has been mainly unitary and Universalist.”
In his well-known song Bharat Tirtha, Tagore exclaims,
He more chitta punya tirthe jagore dhire
Ei Bharater maha-manaver sagartire
(O my mind wake up slowly in the holy pilgrim spot, this sea-beach of the multitude of men)
In the same poem, towards the end he states that it is here that the Aryans, non-Aryans, Dravidians, Chinese, Sakas, Huns, Pathans and Mughols have merged in a single body. He gives a fervent call to the Aryans, non-Aryans, Hindus, Muslims, Englishmen, Christians, Brahmins and degraded ones to join in the coronation of the Motherland on the seashore of India’s multitude. But the real inspiration for universalism came to Tagore through the well-known Vedic verse the Gayatri which every Brahmin is expected to chant daily. In Tagore’s own words, then came my initiation ceremony of Brahmanhood when the gayatri verse of meditation was given to me, whose meaning, according to the explanation I had, runs as follows: “Let me contemplate the adorable splendour of Him who created the earth, the air and starry spheres and sends the power of comprehension within our minds”.
This produced a sense of serene exaltation in me, the daily meditation upon the infinite being which unites in one stream of creation my mind and the outer world.
This is the crux of Tagore’s universalism which unites man with the universe. The Sanskrit words with which the verse starts are Bhur, Bhuva and Svar-the earth, atmosphere, and the outer space in modern terminology. Puny man is a part of this ever-expanding universe.
In his idea of universalism Tagore was also greatly influenced by the Upanisads, which he quoted profusely in his writings. I particularly mention his essays entitled Manush (Humanity), Visvavyapi (Encompassing the universe), Viswabodha (Universe consciousness) and so on included in the collection of essays entitled ‘Santiniketan’, His essays entitled Manuser Dharma (Religion of Man) and Manav Satya (Truth of man) deserve special mention in this context . It is relevant here to mention some Upanisadic verses which profoundly moved Tagore towards universalism. To avoid prolixity I mention only one of them.
The first verse of the Isopanisad reads thus:
Isavasyam idam sarvam
Yat kincha Jagatyam Jagat Tena tyaktena bhunjita
Ma gridhah kasyasvit dhanam
Tagore translated it as follows:
Thou must know that whatever moves in this moving world is enveloped by God, and therefore find enjoyment in renunciation, never coveting what belongs to others.
In his Hibbert Lecture he commented on this verse as follows:
The Isha of our Upanisad, the super soul which permeates all moving things, is the God of this human universe whose mind we share in all our true knowledge, love and service and whom to reveal in ourselves through renunciation of self is the highest end of life.
This comment has a special bearing on his universalism as we understand it.
Similarly in this behalf Yoga (Union) influenced his thought. On this he states:
The special mental attitude which India has in her religion is made clear by the word yoga whose meaning is to effect union. Union has its significance not in the realm of to have but in that of to be. To gain truth is to admit its separateness but to be true is to become one with truth.
This connotes the idea of unity (one) in diversity (separateness) which is applicable to the national and the universal social milieu.
In the chapter on “The Man of My Heart’ in his Hibbert Lecture, Tagore also acknowledged his indebtedness to the medieval saints and folk singers for his march towards universalism. For instance he refers to the Godman about whom the village poet of Bengal sang:
“He is within us, unfathomable reality. We know him when we unlock our own selves and meet in a true love with all others”
Tagore supported his universalism with arguments drawn from science. He said “We must acknowledge that the evolution which science talks of, is that of Man’s universe. The leather binding and title page are parts of the book itself, and this world that we perceive through our senses and mind life’s experience is profoundly one with the universe”.
He referred to Biology which tells us how cells having separate existence continue to form an organic whole, and physics which shows how separate atoms staying together form material things; likewise the individual men should combine to make the universe of men (Manusher Dharma )
Enough has been said about his thoughts on universalism in the Indian context. Now a few words about his practice of the idea in his life.
In 1913 he won world recognition with the award of the Nobel Prize. In 1921 he established Vishva Bharati, the World University, ‘Yatra visvam bhavatyeka nidam’ (where the world lives in the same nest). From time to time he toured different countries and personally befriended many foreigners. He vehemently protested against the aggressive nationalism of Germany, Italy and Japan and in spite of his admiration for the Soviet Union as revealed in his Russiar chithi (Letters from Russia) he did not hesitate to write a poem against Soviet aggression against Finland. His poem ‘Prasna’ (The Question) is a scathing condemnation of oppression of the helpless. I need not multiply instances.
But he had to face malicious critics in his own province of Bengal against this universalism. One of them even alleged that the poet supported universalism at the cost of his creative literature, and due to the absence of expected fame in his country and knowing that at that time this was not possible he was crisscrossing the seas of the world, making a boat out of his the Nobel Prize.
Another critic states:
The abstract universalism of Rabindranath simply means uniting the love of God with the love of the universe. This is impossible, absurd and opposed to the history of Man.
The critic found a similar ideal even in Fascism. Nirode C. Chaudhuri, author of Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, bitterly jeered at Tagore thus:
The preaching of universalism, foreign travels in loose gown, the founding of the Vishva Bharati and Sriniketan, setting up European Zoo at Santiniketan by bringing the foreign hawkers of Indian culture, the hobbies of woodcuts and Batic painting and so on are all the handiwork of Rabindranath the actor and not the real Rabindranath.
Their attacks were scathing and vehement. They definitely pained the poet; he expressed his anguish from time to time. As these criticisms mostly came from his fellow Bengalis, Tagore even lamented that if he was to be reborn, he did not like to be reborn in Bengal. But there was no strong reason for so much despondency on his part. There were millions of his fans both in and out of the country. Top scholars fully supported him. For instance, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan stated on the poet’s seventieth birthday in Calcutta that Tagore will continue to enchant us by his music and poetry, for thought he is an Indian, the value of his work lies not in any tribal or national characteristic but in those elements of universality which appeal to the whole world. He has added to the sweetness of life, to the stature of civilization. There lies the charm of Tagore’s universalism which transcended the boundaries of his country and touched the hearts of millions throughout the world. There might have been an ebb and flow in Tagore’s popularity but it was again ascending.
In his Tagore century tribute, eminent scholar and associate of the poet, Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, stated:
Another aspect of Rabindranath Tagore’s personality is Rabindranath the High Priest of Internationalism. No one can be truly International who is not also most intensely national in the first instance. The truth of this statement is amply borne out in the life of Rabindranath.
Indeed taking a fresh look at the story of Tagore’s life, it appears to me that his genius moved within three concentric circles, regional, national and universal. Though his ultimate goal was the outermost circle he never ceased to take interest in the inner ones. He was never oblivious of the legitimate interests of those residing in the region or Province of Bengal where he was born and brought up. Similarly, at the national level, India’s interest always prevailed on him. He wrote a number of captivating songs eulogising the glories of Bengal. One such song, Amar Sonar Bangla, ami tomay bhalobasi (O my golden Bengal, I love thee) has become the national anthem of Bangladesh. Tagore took an active part in the movement for undoing the infamous Partition of Bengal. He worked for the upliftment of the peasants, workers and other down-trodden people of Bengal, at Silaidaha, Sriniketan, Santiniketan and other places in Bengal.
At the national level, without being an aggressive nationalist he worked in his own way for the liberation of the country from the foreign yoke. He was Gurudev to Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose and other great national leaders. His song Janaganamono is the national anthem of India. In fact he is the only poet in the world whose songs are national anthems of two neighbouring countries. He gave up his knighthood in protest against the ruthless massacre of innocent people at Jalianwallabagh. He wrote essays on Swadeshi Samaj, Deshahita, Desher Katha and so on for ameliorating the living conditions of his fellow Indians. In his essay on Nation Ki? (What is meant by nation?), he examined the problems of nationality and came to the conclusion with a French savant that a nation was not necessarily confined to a single race, language, religion and so on but that it was a living entity, a subjective conception.
To be continued…