Photographer: George Grantham Bain.
Possibly, Tokyo, Japan.
Bengali literary persona and Asia’s first Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, passes a contemplative glance in this photo by legendary photographer George Grantham Bain who happened to be covering the poet laureate’s visit to Tokyo, Japan for the Bain News Service in 1916.
While globe-trotting George Grantham was an American photographer, who later came to be known as the father of foreign press photographic news, and left behind a massive collection of 50,000 photographic prints, encompassing a wide variety of topics, captured in different parts of the world. His subject on this occasion had been the creative genius Rabindranath Tagore: A poet, playwright, storyteller, lyricist and artist – whose contribution of poems, songs and stories not only embellished Bengal’s literary landscape with wit and depth but continues to inspire generations of creative talents from authors to filmmakers.
Rabindranath Tagore Greetings Cards by Farbound.Net
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Born to a land-owning aristocratic family of Brahmanical roots and sent to England to be educated at the age of seventeen, Tagore, however, was more than just a poet of his day. An open-minded scholar critical of his own follies and a revolutionary thinker who sought to blend together the best of European and Indian values. He was also a social reformer who worked tirelessly for the upliftment of the neglected classes of India buried under the prevailing caste system and the taboo of untouchability. As well as the founder of the Visva Bharat University for education and Sriniketan – an institute for Rural Reconstruction he established with British agricultural economist, Leonard Knight Elmhirst. His secretary and friend, who later toured with him for a great many years.
What catapulted Tagore into the limelight was his experimental translation of the Geetanjali in 1912. A collection of poems he had composed after the death of his wife and children in 1905. Originally written in his native language Bengali, the translated version had become an international sensation after its discovery by his friend, the author and painter, William Rothenstein and Irish poet W.B Yeats, and subsequently in 1913 gained him the Nobel prize for literature – as well as turned him into the first literary person in history to tour and promote intercultural harmony via lectures and speeches.
Though a close acquaintance of Nehru, Gandhi and other members of the All India National Congress Party, Tagore was an anti-nationalist at heart, critical of Gandhi’s ideologies of a freedom movement. Condoning Gandhi’s idea of Swaraj as narrow and chauvinistic in nature, he was more in favour of championing humanity, justice, and equality for all, and was an outspoken advocate who stood rigidly by his own ideals. Tagore also considered patriotism and nationalism to be limited in scope, political, restricted to boundaries and inferior to the grander idea of what was right, intercultural harmony and projected the greater good of humanity.
On being criticized for his stance by Abala Bose, wife of Bengali botanist Jagdish Chandra Bose, Tagore is revealed to have explained his ideologies with a letter containing the following words:
Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity, as long as I live – Rabindranath Tagore , Selected Letters .
A sentiment which he was to again express through the protagonist of his popular novel, Ghari Barai (Home and the World):
I am willing to serve my country; but for my worship I reserve ‘RIGHT’. Which is far greater than my country. To worship my country as a God is to bring a curse upon it – Rabindranath Tagore -Selected Letters, Ghari Bari.
Yet, in spite of his passive and half-hearted support for the Indian freedom movement. Tagore, nonetheless, firmly believed in independence. Proud of his cultural roots, he felt deeply for the suffering of his countrymen and never once failed to openly criticize the vices of British colonial rule or express his indignation with letters and in prose. Despite the deep respect he continued to harbour for the British people and his frequent praise of their system.
In protest of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (13th April 1919) and to express his heartfelt distress. Tagore was to return the Knighthood, which had been bestowed upon him by reigning King of England George V, four years earlier in 1915. Prior to the renouncement of this honour, Tagore in 1905 had strongly protested against the partition of Bengal, and later the marginalization of the Bengali Muslim community.
His song, Amar Shonar Bangla (My Golden Bengal), originally composed to protest against the partition of Bengal is now the National Anthem of Bangladesh. While the opening stanza of his song, the Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata, is the National Anthem of India. First sung in Calcutta at the avenue of an All India National Congress party meet in 1911.
Here in the photo, Tagore can be seen, perhaps walking to lecture the students of Tokyo University as the ambassador of intercultural harmony. The lecture, now known as the Spirit of Japan and alternatively as India’s Message to Japan, was to reveal Tagore, boldly criticizing Japan’s rising nationalist spirit and imperialist tendencies as well as praising her spirit of development. Tagore’s words at the time had not thrilled the Japanese audience, and his reception had turned from a warm welcome to a cold acknowledgement.
In 1937, Tagore would once again be invited to Japan by Bengali revolutionist, Rash Behari Bose (founder of the Indian National Army, INA) to lend his support for a nationalist movement being planned in alliance with the imperial eastern power. On this occasion too, the poet laureate would stand firmly by his former convictions and turn down his fellow countryman. His letter to Behari Bose reflecting both the hopes he once had for Japan and his disappointment in her actions during World War II:
I know in making this appeal, you counted on my great regard for the Japanese. For I like the rest of Asia, did once admire and look up to Japan, and did once fondly hope that in Japan, Asia had at last discovered its challenge to the West. That Japan’s new strength would be consecrated in safeguarding the culture of the East. But Japan has not taken long to betray that rising hope and repudiate all that seemed significant in her wonderful, and to us, a symbolic awakening. And has now become itself a worse menace to the defenceless people of the East – Rabindranath Tagore, Selected Letters.
