From: ezajur <Ezajur@yahoo.com>
To: alochona <alochona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tue, May 10, 2011 2:37 pm
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Tagore and the Muslims of East Bengal
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Re: [ALOCHONA] Tagore and the Muslims of East Bengal
Thanks for sharing.....
-----Original Message-----
Tagore is so far above me that I must exercise great caution when I write this. I'm not used to caution :)
But I have always been intrigued by Tagore vis a vis East Bengal and Bengali Muslims. I have no problem with any deficiencies we may find in his approach to East Bengal's Muslims. If you keep him in the context of his background and his world then his approach is not surprising - unless we deify him as some sort of saviour. His apparent efforts to prevent the rise of East Bengal can be taken as natural human behaviour. Indeed if the shoe had been on the other foot I doubt Muslims would have behaved differently.
No. The issue is not Tagore himself.
The issue is, as usual, us and our behaviour. Anyway. When I asked an elder about the past this is what he wrote to me. I am not vouching it - I just found it a good starting point for finding out about Tagore and the Muslims of East Bengal.
The greatness of great men is not diminished by error. They are human. In Bangladesh we are so used to flawed men that we treat our icons as if they were never flawed. This not only damages our understanding of the icon but also diminishes us.And boy do we know how to diminish ourselves in Bangladesh!
On a more personal and reckless note. I have found every man whom I had expected to be clamouring for reform in Bangladesh but who is silent, defeated and subservient to be a great lover of Tagore - and they tend to love him far more than Nazrul. Its like Tagore, at some subliminal level, offers comfort in defeat, harking back to better times whilst Nazrul just cannot accept defeat, harking forward to better times to come.
If Tagore were alive in Dhaka today I suspect Tagore would pack up his bags and go to Calcutta - walking if he had to. Naturally. I wouldn't blame him. If Nazrul were alive today he would probably be on hunger strike on the steps at Parliament, demanding reform. Anyway, these two giants rest in heaven - it up to us to learn from them and apply ourselves to the challenges of the day.
I attach below the mail I mentioned earlier.
Ezajur Rahman
Kuwait
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Rabindranath Tagore was the most genius poet, playwright, Bangla (Bengali) has ever produced.
He died before birth of both India (1947) and Bangladesh (1971). He therefore did not write any anthem for India or Bangladesh.
India adopted his song ' Jonogono Mono ...' as its National anthem although it was written in praise of British Rule of the then colonial India.
Our National Anthem ' Amar Sonar Bangla ...' has been taken from his long poem 'Sonar Bangla' he wrote back in 1905 for an undivided Bengal.
The then greater Bengal comprised the whole of Bengal (West Bengal now in India and East Bengal now Bangladesh) and Assam (now 7 States of India). Most of the inhabitants of East Bengal were very poor illiterate Muslims. Most were peasants of powerful and wealthy Hindu landlords. Rabindranath Tagore was such a landlord.
A few Muslim landlords like Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka, Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury of Tangail asked the British Colonial Government to divide Bengal. They wanted a separate Province of East Bengal having its capital in Dhaka so that Muslims could be emancipated from Hindu landlords (like Rabindranath). Accordingly Bengal was divided in 1905, Dhaka was declared the capital of East Bengal and Assam. Soon after many of the landmark historical buildings of Dhaka (then Dacca) were constructed including Curzon Hall (of Dhaka University), Dhaka Medical College Building, High Court Building etc.
Hindu landlords, including Rabindranath, were very unhappy that the significance of Calcutta (now Kolkata), erstwhile capital of greater Bengal, was much diminished and that their Muslims peasants were to become educated.
They started a vigorous program to reverse the new opportunities of the Muslims of East Bengal. They wanted a return to undivided Bengal, with Calcutta as the capital and Hindu supremacy.
To give a patriotic boost to Bengali Hindus he wrote that great poem 'Amar Sonar Bangla Ami Tumay Bhalovashi ...'. It is a long poem and only few stanzas were taken from it to create our National Anthem to rouse Bengalis against Pakistanis during our freedom struggle in 1971.
Many think Rabindranath was a poet of all Bengalis, Muslims & Hindus alike. He was not. He was a racist and had no compassion for Muslims. All his characters are Hindus and only in one short did he have a Muslim - a Muslim 'Kabuliwala' who was a murderer. In his great works there is nothing about Muslims.
He wrote a long poem dedicated to Shibaji (who was extremely anti Muslim). Shibaji was a forerunner of the extremely communal Shivshena Leader Bal Thekharey of Bombay, Maharashtra.
The British were compelled to return to an undivided Bengal in 1911. Dismayed, the Muslims pleaded for a university in Dhaka. Rabindranath Tagore's signature came first in a letter to the Governor General of Bengal asking for no university to be established in Dhaka because poor Muslim peasants could then be educated. In fact most Bangladeshi Muslims have no connection with Rabindranath. Only some so called 'cultured elites' are bound to Rabindranath.
In contrast Kazi Nazrul Islam is the greatest Bangla genius who wrote for Hindus, Muslims, the oppressed, for women's rights and for freedom from British rule.
Rabindranath had an unconditional belief in one God. He was a monotheist and did not like worshipping idols (his family belongs to an offshoot of Hinduism - Brammoshomaj who believed in one God without form like Muslims). He hated atheists. Strangely, most of the Rabindra lovers in our country have little belief in Allah or God whatever it is.
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