MxMIndia

Tag: Rabindranath Tagore

  • Society needs to understand and recognise the fundamental conceptual difference between being free and being independent, writes Avik Chattopadhyay

    Avik Chattopadhyay: Am I “nationalistic” enough?

    By Avik Chattopadhyay

     

    We are moving close to another Independence Day. The tricolour will be unfurled from the Red Fort, the Prime Minister shall make some big announcements including about some vaccine and the National Anthem will be played. We shall all stand, as dutiful citizens.

     

    I too shall stand for the 52 seconds more as a ritual than possibly out of actual emotion. For otherwise it is an open display of disrespect to the nation. Forget the fact that most of us do not understand the meaning of the words we simply lip-sync, much like the way we muttered “Jack and Jill went up the hill…” in nursery school.

     

    I am in a curious state of mind.

    The five Rafales landing in Ambala does not enthuse me.

    The Statue of Unity did not rouse me.

    The failure of the Vikram lander did not really sadden me.

    The Surgical Strike did not inflate my chest.

    The Ram Mandir “shilanyaas” yesterday did not move me.

     

    And I thought to myself, am I nationalistic enough?

    Why do I not revel in what most around me do?

    Why do I not lament over what most around me do?

     

    But then, the migrant crisis shamed me.

    The beef-lynchings made me cringe.

    The woes of demonetisation infuriated me.

    The lot of the farmers bothers me.

    The anti-CAA agitation invigorated me.

     

    And I still think to myself, am I not nationalistic enough?

    Do I align with issues most around me do not?

    Do I identify myself with those that most around me shun?

     

    I reached out to a piece of work that I usually find solace in in such times.

     

    Tagore’s “Nationalism”.

     

    After extensive tours of Japan and the US, delivering lectures and engaging in deliberations with all types of people for over two years, he finally put his thoughts together in 1918 on the subject of nationalism in an India that would gain independence some time.

     

    The work is more than 100 years old yet so eternally relevant especially in today’s India. I will quote three portions from the 33-page essay to help encapsulate the conviction of the man who also wrote what we ended up choosing as our national anthem!

     

    “I am not against one nation in particular, but against the general idea of all nations. What is the Nation? It is the aspect of a whole people as an organised power. This organisation incessantly keeps up the insistence of the population on becoming strong and efficient. But this strenuous effort after strength and efficiency drains man’s energy from his higher nature where he is self-sacrificing and creative.” states Tagore.

     

    Four terms are important here, in their manifestations in society.

     

    The first is “organised power”. It implies a unilateral and unidimensional setup where every individual has specifically assigned roles and responsibilities from a higher authority, irrespective of personal likes and inclinations.

     

    The second is “strong”. Strength is a very relative measure and has no finish line. It is an aphrodisiac that keeps the organisation intoxicated in its endless pursuit.

     

    The third is “efficient”. This is about an organisation only of the fittest, purest and compliant. Differences of opinion, faith and abilities are gradually ‘weeded’ out over time. Inclusiveness is not a typical trait here.

     

    The fourth is “higher nature.” Is this not the same as the much-glorified management concept of ‘greater purpose’ especially in these times of uncertainty and anxiety? It is about creating a creative, collaborative and sustainable society, wherein all stakeholders co-exist for mutual benefit and even individual pursuit is for collective evolution.

     

    Tagore goes on to say, “Political freedom does not give us freedom when our mind is not free. An automobile does not create freedom of movement, because it is a mere machine. When I myself am free I can use the automobile for the purpose of my freedom.

    We must never forget in the present day that those people who have got their political freedom are not necessarily free, they are merely powerful. The passions which are unbridled in them are creating huge organisations of slavery in the disguise of freedom.”

     

    This, to me, is the summit of the essay, where the concept of political freedom being equated with independence is questioned and debunked. What we gained in 1947 was the power to determine our own future. If the same institutions of servitude and slavery are carried on from the previous regime to the new, the entire struggle ends up being pointless. If the poor and oppressed then are the same now, the freedom is reserved for only a few privileged people.

     

    The analogy of the automobile is so telling. It questions the very purpose of creating unending accoutrements to primarily help us finally ending up commanding our lives.

     

    Society needs to understand and recognise this fundamental conceptual difference between being free and being independent. Only then can the organisation and the institutions within be challenged and even dismantled.

     

    Towards the end, he comments, “When our nationalists talk about ideals they forget that the basis of nationalism is wanting. The very people who are upholding these ideals are themselves the most conservative in their social practice.”

     

    Absolutely and it is in your face! I take the Ram Janambhoomi “movement” itself as a demonstration of this wanting and constrictive conservatism. If the leaders were so bothered about the concept of ‘Ram Rajya’ as Gandhi had espoused, after ‘winning back’ the land from the ‘intruders’ they should have built the nation’s biggest hospital or set up a massive garden open to one and all. That would have been the true interpretation of the concept and a tribute to the “lord prince” of Ayodhya. But as traditional nationalists, their solution was confined to a mere place of worship.

     

    Nationalism is a menace! We are going through a phase where it is held up as a parameter for being judged as a true “Indian”. Soon, we shall be celebrating the 75th year of our independence. Hoping that at least a serious debate is started on what we really want to be judged against…conformism or the ability to challenge.

     

    To quote from Tagore once more, into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake!

     

    Avik Chattopadhyay is a senior marketing and strategy consultant. He writes twice a month for MxMIndia, mostly every other Thursday. His views here are personal

     

     

  • Our fervour and love for Rabindranath Tagore was more feverish on the social media in the Lockdown period, writes Avik Chattopadhyay

    Anyone for Tagore’s Legacy?

     

    By Avik Chattopadhyay

     

    We celebrated Rabindranath Tagore’s birthday on the 25th of Baisakh [May 8] with the usual reverence and fervour. We prefer to address him as either “Gurudev” or “Robi Thakur”. In this lockdown our fervour was more feverish with social media being the primary channel of showing our homage to the old man and demonstrating how well we follow him.

     

    Okay, who are this “we”? We are Bengalis. On both sides of the border. And across the world. We are a 260 million strong tribe speaking the seventh largest language on earth. We take pride in our language and culture and fiercely protect it with a sense of self-bequeathed racial superiority. Rabindranath, along with Rosogolla and Ray, are Bengal’s best export items. Sadly, Revolution does not make that list.

     

    I have read a bit of Tagore through the years…in English. I cannot read Bengali very well and cannot write it, things I admit with a sense of loss but not guilt. I have been told a million times that to understand Tagore one must read him in Bengali. Otherwise the essence is lost. That means I need to read Tolstoy in Russian, Ibsen in Swedish and Camus in French. That means I need to know close to 50 odd languages to appreciate 50% of world literature!

     

    One of my favourite works of Tagore is a novel called “Home and the World” [Ghare Baire, in Bengali]. There he questions the core concepts of home and world. He questions whether one can clearly differentiate and distinguish between the two in the context of human evolution. He asks us whether staying closeted within one’s home and protecting it by tall walls is the crucible of civilization, or we need to open all our doors and windows and allow the wafts and winds from across the world embrace us and help us evolve. He questions, through his protagonist Nikhilesh, whether imposing Swadeshi at the cost of the livelihoods of the poor is true nationalism. The home, open and welcoming, is part of a larger world. And the world is made up of countless such homes.

     

    Yet, why do we Bengalis bind Tagore into shackles of tradition, ritual and the ‘right way’ in order to keep him and his works “pure”? Why could Tagore not have been the truly global philosopher given the span of his works and the spread of his thought? One must remember that Tagore was not just a poet. He built a university, an institution of agri-sciences, an entire township and worked on socio-religious harmony apart from painting, designing, writing novels, plays, dance-dramas and treatises on philosophy. I strongly believe that his book “Nationalism” should be an integral part of our high school curriculum.

     

    For years we have been tutored that there is only the ‘right’ way of singing his songs accompanied by only the pre-determined set of musical instruments! We have been told that there is only one way of presenting his dance dramas and plays. For there is only one interpretation “officially” approved by a handful of people who have taken upon themselves the task of ‘preserving’ the legacy of Tagore. After his demise in 1941, Viswa Bharati, the very institution he created, set about rules and regulations on anything and everything about him and his works. Those that did not comply were literally treated as outsiders and ‘impure’! the old man had carefully built a home with lots of doors and windows to allow everyone in. The self-appointed purists went about closing them and building high walls all around.

     

    And that, unfortunately, was the start of the decline of Tagore’s legacy and took away his rightful place as a global philosopher. They bound him and gagged him in their own ways, obviously to ensure their own livelihoods and impose their status. They had a licence on all of his works. Fair enough, but that should have stayed up to credits and acknowledgements. They extended it also to the applications, depictions and renditions. In their mindless obsession with ‘purity’ they sacrificed the very traits and values of the old man, of going out and exploring new cultures, thoughts, genres and lifestyles.

     

    We never encouraged the world to sing his songs in their different languages and genres.

    We never allowed the world to adapt his plays and dramas to their cultures and share with millions.

    We did not envision that Gitanjali, in various languages, could be the typical gift that an Indian carries to the rest of the world.

     

    Most of India knows “Ravinder Nath” Tagore as the person who wrote our national anthem. We do not even know that it is the first of a five-stanza poem called “Bharat Bhagya Vidhaata” set to music by a young pianist called Margaret Chambers! About the rest of his contribution, the less said the better.

     

    We have made Tagore a symbol of Bengali elitist culture. Only the aficionados will ever understand him. He is not for the commonplace. One needs to read him in Bengali to grasp the nuances of his brilliant mind. How utter tragic! We, his own people, have reduced him to a black-and-white photograph on the wall that we possibly garland once a year.

     

    Under us, Tagore himself would have felt most breathless and might as well have been banned from the household!

     

     

  • Lokmat facilitates Aurangabadkars' commemoration of 100 years of Jana Gana Mana, creating a new Guinness World Record for 'the most people singing a national anthem simultaneously'.

    Lokmat’s initiative puts Indian Guinness Book

    By A Correspondent

     

    In a rousing display of patriotism and unity, the voices of thousands of Aurangabadkars singing Jana Gana Mana created history. With a tally of 15,243 people singing the national anthem, they landed India into the Guinness Book of World Records for ‘the most people singing a national anthem simultaneously’, erasing the previous record held by Pakistan with 5,800 individuals.

     

    Andrea Banfi, Head of Adjudicators, Guinness World Records Limited, who had flown in from London, handed over the certificate to Rajya Sabha MP and Chairman of Lokmat Media Limited, Vijay Babu Darda, who accepted it on behalf of each and every Aurangabadkar who created the world record for India.

     

    Other Guinness World Records Limited officials present on the occasion were Lucia Sinigagliesi, Adjudications Manager, and Nikhil Shukla, Adjudicator - India.

     

    Commenting on the achievement, Rishi Darda, Editorial Director – Lokmat Media Ltd, said: “This is our gift, as a responsible media house, not just to Aurangabadkars, but to every Indian. We are delighted that Aurangabadkars responded so splendidly to our initiative for the world record attempt to commemorate the completion of 100 years of Jana Gana Mana, since it was first sung.”

     

    It will be recalled that Jana Gana Mana was first sung at the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress on December 27, 1911. It was declared the Indian National Anthem by the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1950.

     

    Lokmat Media had pulled out all stops to inform every Aurangabadkar of the world record attempt. While Radio Mirchi was the radio partner, MCN Hathway, IBN7, IBN Lokmat and CNN-IBN were the TV partners, and Abhishek Advertisers was the outdoor media partner. The sponsors were WS Developers, while the Phadnis Group was the co-sponsor. “I would like to thank our sponsors and media partners who ably supported us in the initiative,” said Mr Darda.

     

    As early as 7 am, all roads leading to the District Sports Complex in Garkheda witnessed traffic jams, with students, working people, housewives and families making their way purposefully to take part in the historic world record attempt. The entire stadium, with an official capacity of 45,000 was jam-packed, with no standing room, and the gates had to be shut on thousands of eager locals waiting to get in and be part of the world record attempt. The final tally of 15,243 people came as a surprise to everyone.

     

    GWR head adjudicator Andrea Banfi said: “We were not able to include all the people present at the stadium in the count, as it was physically impossible since they were so closely packed. And after the first singing, many people left. But, for us to do a proper count as per the stringent GWR standards, we had to request Lokmat Media to ask the people to assemble once again, in a particular, countable order, and to sing the national anthem again. The figure of 15,243 is what we arrived at after the second singing.”

     

    Leading the swelling crowd in the chorus on stage were Shankar Mahadevan, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Tushar Gandhi, Prashant Damle, Roopkumar and Sonali Rathod, Vaishali Samant, Swapnil Bandodkar, Pramod Sarkate, Mrs Salaskar (widow of 26/11 martyr Vijay Salaskar) and others, who sang with Aurangabadkars to create the world record.

     

    “Our National Anthem is a wonderfully inspiring composition, and is a part of everyone’s psyche. I am truly excited to have been a small part of this gigantic experience,” said Shankar Mahadevan.

     

    Tushar Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, said: “I am very happy to be among the enthusiastic people of Aurangabad, who have given such a wonderful response to this initiative by the Lokmat group. It reinforces the magic of those 55 words written a hundred years ago by Rabindranath Tagore.”

     

    Prashant Damle, actor and singer said: “It is moving to see the surge of patriotic sentiment at the grassroots, as I have witnessed here in Aurangabad.” Singer Vaishali Samant said: “It has been a great experience to mingle with thousands of Aurangabadkars on this momentous occasion. I am happy to have paid my tribute to the Nation by singing with one and all.”

     

    The Fictitious Group, winners of talent reality show India’s Got Talent mesmerised one and all with their power-packed acrobatic dance routines.Vernonfrom Fictitious said: “It’s exciting to dance in the service of our Nation! We salute those who laid down their lives for the country.”

     

    Smita Salaskar, widow of Vijay Salaskar, who laid down his life defending his countrymen on November 26 2008, said: “I am overwhelmed by the patriotism of the people inAurangabad.” She urged the young students to study hard and serve with the defence forces, which need good officers.