Abstract
I am not oblivious of one’s enough guts required to call the giant poet and writer Rabindranath Tagore, a social activist, especially while celebrating the occasion of the anniversary of his birth at the completion of one and half centuries. But it is my confident conviction that it would be no small a tribute to him if we recall, recognise, and evaluate. Tagore more adequately and comprehensively than ever before as an activist had remained in his entire creative life immensely concerned, tirelessly active, and deeply thoughtful about rural material poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, superstitions, and such other social evils in our country, and also about the ideals and notions of development and their environmental ramifications and remedies. As would be argued here, it is important not to get Tagore’s ideas, thoughts, visions, and actions in various spheres of socio-economic transformation (especially among the poor insecure rural masses) overshadowed by our overwhelming appreciation and recognition of his colossal literary and philosophical contributions and creations in the forms of poetry, songs, novels, stories, drama, and art.
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Notes
- 1.
Tagore of course has not been left similarly unheeded in the academic discussions/discourses pertaining to the ideas, ideals, and principles of education and philosophy. In any case, we would not presently dwell on Tagore’s thoughts and actions in these two broad areas.
- 2.
Quoted in Sen, Sudhir (1943), Rabindranath Tagore on Rural Reconstruction, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, p. 91.
- 3.
Quoted in Das Gupta, Uma (1978), ‘Rabindranath Tagore on Rural Reconstruction: The Sriniketan Programme, 1921–1941’, The Indian Historical Review, 4(2):354–378, p. 354.
- 4.
See e.g. Rabindra Rachanabali (Bengali) vol. 13.
- 5.
Rabindra Rachanabali (Bengali) vol. 13, p. 791.
- 6.
Rabindra Rachanabali (Bengaki), vol. 13:792.
- 7.
Even as late as the late 1980s the official and non-official circles alike appeared somewhat hesitant and unsure as to the priority and urgency of compulsory primary education and universal literacy. For instance, India’s former Prime Minister, the Late Rajiv Gandhi, when faced with a student’s somewhat awkward question over the possible contradiction and stigma attached with the persisting mass illiteracy in the context of India’s record of uninterrupted democracy, remarked during his speech at the Harvard University in 1987 thus: ‘I don’t think literacy is the key to democracy …Wisdom is much more important. We have seen—and I’m not now limiting myself to India, I’m going beyond to other countries—literacy sometimes narrows the vision, does not broaden it’; quoted in Weiner, M. (1991), The Child and the State in India, Delhi: Oxford University Press, p. 101).
- 8.
See e.g. Drèze, J. and Sen, A. (1995), India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity, New Delhi: Oxford University Press; Drèze, J. and Sen, A. (2002), India: Development and Participation, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
- 9.
Interestingly, as late as the 1990s, this mythical view held for long by Indian officialdom and political leadership continued to prevail, despite scattered evidence and arguments to the contrary, perhaps until the former received a much hyped jolt from the key findings of a large-scale educational survey undertaken by Probe Team in 1999, which reported, inter alias, about an overwhelming majority of parents from the educationally backward pockets, who, even when they did not send their children to schools because of the latter’s poor quality and infrastructure, did not fail to attach a good deal of importance to the need and value of their children’s education (PROBE Team (1999), Public Report on Basic Education in India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press; see also Drèze, J. and Sen, A. (2002), India: Development and Participation, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, Chap. 5).
- 10.
I have probably never come across any academic piece/writing wherein Tagore’s experiments in rural socio-economic transformation and their achievements or failures, his practical ideas, and his visions have been evaluated and assessed from the standpoints of mainstream economic and social theory and thinking.
- 11.
Quoted in Sen, Sudhir (1943), Rabindranath Tagore on Rural Reconstruction, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, pp. 91–92.
- 12.
Das Gupta 1978, op.cit.; Ray, P., Biswas, B. And B. K. Sen (2005), ‘Knowledge Communication in Tagore’s Model of Rural Reconstruction: An Overview’, Annals of Library and Information Studies, 52(3):94–102.
- 13.
Sen 1943, op. cit. p. 109.
- 14.
Das Gupta 1978, op. cit. p. 377.
- 15.
See footnote 14.
- 16.
To illustrate how meagre had been the state support and patronage for Tagore’s social initiatives and activism meant for rural reconstruction and village uplift including health and environment: while ‘Sriniketan was entirely dependent on donations’, the contributions from two Departments of Bengal Government (e.g. Health and Industry) did not constitute even 10 % of its total annual budget as per the estimates made as late as 1936–1937 (Das Gupta, Uma (1978), ‘Rabindranath Tagore on Rural Reconstruction: The Sriniketan Programme, 1921–1941’, The Indian Historical Review, 4(2):354–378, p. 371, fn.6).
- 17.
Kabir, H. (1961), ‘Introduction’ in Rabindranath Tagore, Towards Universal Man, Bombay: Asia Publishing House, p. 16.
- 18.
Ibid 1961:19.
- 19.
Quoted in Sen, Sudhir (1943), Rabindranath Tagore on Rural Reconstruction, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, p. 92.
- 20.
Raha, B. (2011), ‘Rabindranath Tagore and Sriniketan: Experiments with Village Welfare’, Muse India, Issues 39, September–October, p. 13.
- 21.
Rabindra Rachanbali (Bengali) vol. 13.
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Maharatna, A. (2013). Sketching Tagore as a Social Activist. In: India’s Perception, Society, and Development. Springer, India. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1017-7_7
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