Abstract
The present collection of essays focusing on Rabindranath Tagore’s relations with the many mainland and maritime countries of South-East Asia has been described by the editor, Lipi Ghosh, as succeeding in ‘rediscovering the unique bond between India and the countries in the South-East Asian region’. It is a commendable work on the part of the editor, especially as it brings together, in the present volume, many essays from the South-East Asian countries that Tagore visited. In doing so, the book is a tribute to the legacy of Tagore’s establishment of cultural ties with these countries.
The book explores Tagore’s philosophy of Asianism, international coexistence and Asian humanism. His choice of companions during his travels in South-East Asia is also significant—he was accompanied by the noted philologist Suniti Kumar Chatterji; the artist, photographer and architect Surendranath Kar; and the painter–musician Dhirendra Krishna Deva Barman. Tagore was acting as a new agent of Pan-Asian cooperation linking India with Asia and his choice of companions certainly reflected that. It is to be noted that Suniti Kumar, whom Tagore described as a ‘geographer’ who enquires in detail into different ‘regions’ of language, has left a travelogue-cum-historical account of the journey, sprouting the idea of Greater India.
The volume begins with an essay by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya titled ‘Rabindranath Tagore in South-East Asia: Connectivity and Bridge Making’, who refers to the paradox that the transnational idea of ‘Asianism’ arises from the discourse of nationalism in modern times. Here, Bhattacharya has made an extremely significant statement that the development of the idea of Asia in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries was not a ‘new discovery’. It was a ‘recovery’ of what had been lost under colonial rule. Tagore had rediscovered the idea of Pan-Asianism which had been existent in the past but had been forgotten. The essay brings forward Tagore’s belief about the uniqueness of India’s role in Asian history—the exchange and assimilation of cultures between India and other South-East Asian countries. But at the same time, Bhattacharya has highlighted Tagore’s rejection of the nationalist intellectual’s attempt to reclaim the glories of a forgotten empire. Instead, Tagore has emphasised that the transmission of elements of Indian culture to South-East Asia was not a cultural conquest but resuscitation of the creativity of the recipient people. The essay has drawn a comparison between Tagore and Ananda K. Coomaraswamy in this context. In a similar vein, Coomaraswamy perceived not a replication of Indian art forms but a fusion and a new wave of creativity in the arts and artefacts of these neighbouring countries.
Himself a poet, William Radice in his ‘Leaving Home: The Journeys of Rabindranath Tagore’ has quoted several poems by Tagore to bring to focus Tagore’s creative richness and complexity in the context of his journeys in South-East Asia. Radice quoting Tagore’s poems has shown how leaving home as well as homecoming were important motifs in his writings. In the context of South-East Asia, Tagore was on a journey but at the same time he was also returning to deep roots which he, as an Indian, can share with the people of the region. Tagore was enchanted by the dance and puppet shows that he saw in Java and that in turn influenced his dance-dramas and the dance curriculum at Santiniketan. Radice concluded that Tagore’s voyages in South-East Asia are not only important from a biographical or historical interest but to our response to his creative identity as a poet.
In ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Myanmar: Understanding His Visits and Impacts’, U Thaw Kaung and Daw Khin Hnin Oo have extensively described Tagore’s visits to Myanmar (Burma). We come to know that in his letter to his daughter-in-law, Pratima Devi, Tagore expressed his disappointment that he did not see ‘the real Burma’ in his first visit. However, the tolerance, peace and tranquillity of Theravada Buddhism, the freedom enjoyed by Burmese women made a lasting impression on Tagore. On the other hand, the people of Myanmar were also influenced by Tagore and the authors have given an account of that too. It is significant to note that Tagore’s famous poem from Gitanjali which reads as ‘Where the mind is without fear…’ was translated into Burmese by Zaw Gyi during the period when nationalism and the struggle for independence blossomed into full awakening in Myanmar.
Sawitree Charoenpong’s essay, ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Thailand’, deals with India–South-East Asia interactions under the aegis of Tagore’s visit to Siam (Thailand). From her essay, we come to know that Tagore hoped that a Chair of Buddhism could be established in Visva-Bharati with the support of the king of Siam, a land where Buddhism was deep-rooted.
Angela Oons Kheng Fay in ‘Rabindranath Tagore’s Visit to Singapore and Malaya in 1927: Local Responses and Controversies’ has characterised Tagore’s trip to Malaya and Singapore as a ‘triumphal progress’. Here, the episode between Tagore and Granville Roberts regarding Tagore’s statement, ‘denouncing British invasion in China as crime’, has been recounted in details. This period of his visit to Singapore and Malaya has been overlooked by Tagore scholars who have tended to emphasise his visit to Java more.
‘Rabindranath Tagore’s Visits to Vietnam and its Impacts’ by Phan Thi Thu Hien emphasises on Vietnam–India friendship, in particular, and Mekong–Ganga cooperation, in general. Here, Tagore has been described as the pioneer to revive inter-Asian relations. It is interesting to note what different groups of Vietnamese intellectuals thought of Tagore. To the first group who chose violent means to fight for independence Tagore was a revolutionary hero and a soldier. The second group who tried to preserve national cultural heritage found in Tagore a ‘nationalist’. The third group included those who had graduated from French universities admired Tagore as a ‘social reformer’. These different perceptions about Tagore in turn bring forward the versatility of his unique personality. In the field of poetry, the translations of Tagore’s poems influenced the poets of Vietnam in creating new styles of poetry.
Arun Das Gupta in ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Indonesia: An Experiment in Bridge-Building’ describes Tagore’s Indonesia tour as a ‘cultural mission from Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan’. While exploring the details of Tagore’s journeys in Batavia-Surabaya-Bali, Surakarta and Jogjakarta, the author speaks about Tagore’s thrill to see what he believed to be a continuation of Indian religious and artistic traditions.
Sourindranath Bhattacharya’s afterword named as ‘Tagore and the Eastern Question’ delves into how Tagore’s Eastern journeys often ran into ‘bad weather, both political and cultural’. Tagore’s desperate search for an alternative idiom of civilisation for human conditions often led to misunderstanding. The author intends us to look at Tagore’s Eastern journeys in the background of the divide between the East and the West. Sourindranath feels that for Tagore’s South-East Asian journeys there could be a point of reference in terms of Pan-Indianism.
The book contains some photographs of Tagore regarding his visits in South-East Asia, which has undoubtedly increased the value of the book. However, Tagore had often situated the culture of South-East Asia in context of ancient India which brings to focus Tagore’s ideas about Indology. Moreover, Tagore while influencing the intellectuals of South-East Asian countries through his speeches and interactions with them was in turn himself assimilating the culture of these places. On his return to India, he made the Visva-Bharati a hub of cultural and artistic interchange between India and many places in South-East Asia and invited scholars from those countries to facilitate this exchange. The book would have been further enriched, if the impact of South-East Asian travels on Rabindranath’s Indological thoughts and the process of assimilation of South-East Asian culture and art in Tagore’s Visva-Bharati could have been highlighted.
The importance of the book under review lies both in the domain of Tagore studies, especially in what the editor has described as ‘multi-tier Tagorism’ as well as the history of South-East Asia. In the present context, Tagore’s journeys in South-East Asia has taken a new relevance as India is establishing a renewed cordiality between her and the countries of South-East Asia in the backdrop of the changing dynamics of Indo-China relations.