Analyse the contribution of Rabindranath Tagore in the field of art. Please answer in 400-500 words.
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Answer:
ExplanationHere are the incredible social reforms by Rabindranath Tagore:
1. Rabindranath and the Bengal Partition:
On July 22, 1904, the Viceroy of India Lord Curzon announced that the Bengal providence would be divided into two parts. The British government was worried about the social integrity among different communities in Bengal and wanted to divide and rule.
The Bengal Partition took place on October 16 in 1905 and this sparked a nationwide protest. The Indian National Congress had started the Swadeshi Movement where Indians denounced all British items and use all native items.
Rabindranath Tagore wrote the song Banglar Mati Banglar Jol (Soil of Bengal, Water of Bengal) to unite the Bengali population. He started the Rakhi Utsav where people from Hindu and Muslim communities tied colourful threads on each other's wrists. In 1911, the two parts of Bengal were reunited.
2. Going against conventional Western education
Tagore was against conventional classroom education. He believed that interaction with nature is essential for learning. On December 29, 1918, Tagore laid the foundation stone of Visva Bharati University.
He remodelled education as a holistic development process where teachers would be more like mentors guiding students towards emotional, intellectual and spiritual upliftment.
He invested his Nobel Prize money in building the campus and a town in Bolpur, West Bengal. He named the place as Shantiniketan, the abode of peace. His educational reforms are included in many curriculae across the world.
3. The dark knighthood:
The British were overwhelmed by the genius of Tagore. A lot of his works were translated before the First World War. After the war ended, Tagore was offered the knighthood by the royalty.
But this was the time when Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place in Amritsar on April 13, 1919. Tagore renounced the title as a protest against the brutal genocide by the British military.
In his repudiation letter to Lord Chelmsford, Tagore wrote --
"The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part, wish to stand, shorn, of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings."
His action was lauded by native politicians and the Congress party.
4. Changing how India saw the world
Tagore owns the title Viswa Kavi or poet of the world because of his universal ideology. At a time when India was struggling to find the right language of freedom movement, Tagore advocated the idea of global integrity and that the man himself is a gateway to the world.
His songs speak of man's position in the entire cosmos --
Akash Bhora Surjo Tara, Biswa Bhora Praan
Tahar-e majh khane ami peyechi mor sthaan
(The Sun and the stars fill the sky, the world full of life
In midst of this, I find my place)
This philosophy changed the way Indians saw the world. The purpose of the freedom struggle changed from protest to progress as Tagore explained the universality of man. The identity of India after independence was closely based on Tagore's ideology of peace and universal brotherhood.
5. Politics and Tagore:
Rabindranath faced criticism from radical politicians and agitators for being an upper-class author who did not connect to the public. This was the result of low educational standards.
A lot of Tagore's critics did not understand that revolution is not an overnight phenomenon but a constructive, progressive movement through education.
In his lecture, entitled "Swadeshi Samaj", he explained how the British control of India is the "political symptom of our social disease" of self-subjugation. He urged Indians to believe that "there can be no question of blind revolution, but of steady and purposeful education".
Tagore also spoke against petty nationalism. He wrote, "when the organisation of politics and commerce, whose other name is the 'Nation', becomes all-powerful at the cost of the harmony of the higher social life, then it is an evil day for humanity.":