Scholars Underscore Need for Balanced Reappraisal of Tagore

Pics by Antony Barkur
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Nov 21: Leading scholars, including Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Vice Chancellor Prof V N Rajashekharan Pillai, who participated in a programme for the opening of the first-ever IGNOU Tagore Chair for Indian Literature in Bangalore, have called for a balanced reappraisal of poet laureate Rabinadranath Tagore.

The inauguration of the IGNOU Tagore Chair with Jnanapith award winning Kannada writer Prof U R Ananthamurthy set up in the Kannada and Culture Department’s Kannada Bhavan building in the city had Tagore Professor at Vishwa Bharati University at Kolkata Prof Udaya Narayana Singh established by Rabindranath Tagore, Eminent social psychologist and political thinker Prof Ashis Nandy, Prof K Satchidanandan, Director of IGNOU’s School of Translation Studies & Training, Prof Rita Rani Paliwal, Director of IGNOU’s School of Humanities, IGNOU Pro-Vice Chancellor Latha Pillai, IGNOU Regional Director in Bangalore Dr B S Sudhindra and Kannada and Culture Department’s Director Manu Baligar as the main speakers.

Prof V N Rajashekharan Pillai, in his inaugural address, expressed his happiness that an eminent literary personality and former vice chancellor like Prof U R Ananthamurthy accepted the invitation to take up the honour of being the IGNOU Tagore Chair for Indian Literature at a time when many universities in the country faced dearth of competent teachers of Indian languages.

Endorsing the suggestion for having a honest relook and balanced reappraisal of Tagore, at a time when the country was getting ready to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of the poet laureate and nobel literatteur, Prof Pillai supported Prof Udaya Narayana Singh and Prof Ashish Nandy’s suggestion for having Tagore’s novel, "Gora,” which holds mirror to the present situation in the Indian context, translated into almost all major Indian languages and holding seminars and debate on it.

"Tagore was such a diverse personality that he cannot be easily profiled,” he said.

Prof Udaya Narayana Singh said instituting the IGNOU Tagore Chair on Indian literature in Bangalore was the most appropriate decision as would help impart the flavour of other languages and their literature into Kannada and vice versa. There were several close links and affinity between Kannada and Bengali, he said adding: "It is in the fitness of things that the Centre’s decision for setting up chairs in Indian languages in all major universities is being initiated by IGNOU.”

"Tagore is not a mere individual but several personalities with diverse artistic and literary personalities rolled into one. He was India’s ambassador to the world and is an internationally recognised symbol of the country’s wisdom, traditions and cultural diversity,” he said.

Though Tagore became world famous and won laurels through his poetry and paintings, Prof Udaya Narayana Singh said that the poet laureate had written essays, plays, dance dramas, novels, travellogues and was renowned as the father of Indian short stories. Until he reached the age of 81, Tagore kept himself busy in his literary pursuits, music and paintings. He had over 3,300 songs to his credit, 2,600 paintings and some 42 plays. He had established the Vishwa Bharati university and spent all his earnings on this dream project.
           
Tagore was a pioneer in the education field as he started the process of introducing co-education as early as in 1901 and believed in imparting complete education to every person, he said and felt that the country owed a debt of gratitude to this great man of letters and multi-faceted personality.
           
Prof Ashis Nandi said Tagore’s role in Indian civilization could rightly be compared to Indian democracy. Tagore was a strong critic of nationalism as an ideology but was never against patriotism. He had strong views on many subjects and was never afraid to air them and even oppose Mahatma Gandhi. Tagore was willing to take unpopular stand and say harsh things without any reservations and was prepared to face the consequences, he said.
           
Tagore the author of India’s national anthem "Jana Gana Mana” was perhaps the only person to be associated with the creation of national anthem of three countries, Prof Ashis Nandi said pointing out that Tagore had penned the national anthem of neighbouring Bangladesh and had set the musical score for the Sri Lankan national anthem.
           
"We have not done justice to Tagore by uncritically applauding his writings and refusing to objectively evaluate him,” he felt.
           
Prof K Satchidanandan felt a balanced reappraisal of Tagore’s contribution was necessary as the country is getting ready to celebrate his 150th birthday. "Tagore’s creativity is larger than an individual. We need to liberate literature from individual centric and look at it as a product of the languages,” he said.

Prof U R Ananthamurthy described Tagore’s novel "Gora” as the greatest literary work and a foundational novel with a theme relevant to modern India divided by caste, communal, linguistic, regional and various other narrow divides. He said the IGNOU Tagore Chair on Indian literature would strive to promote bilingualism and indicated that he proposed to organise debates on Gora and also encourage its translation in Indian languages.
           
The inauguration the IGNOU Tagore Chair on Indian Literature was followed by a "Kavigoshti” (poet’s meet) in which poets representing 16 Indian languages read out their poems in their respective languages. A special feature of the poet’s meet was the reading of the Kannada translation of the poem first, which was followed by the recital of the poem by the poet in his or her native language.
           
A highlight of the poet’s meet was the recital of the Konkani poems by Melvyn Rodrigues, Tulu poems by Shashiraj Kavoor, Beary poems by Kasim Ullal U A and Kodava poems by Mandira Jaya Appanna.  While Vivek Shanbagh read out Melvyn's translation, Na Damodar Shetty read Kavoor's translation in Kannada. Leading Kannada activist and former minister B T Lalitha Naik came out wearing the traditional Lambani dress and read out her poems in Lambani. Dr Ajay Kumar Singh, Karnataka’s Director General of Police, read out his poems in Hindi.
           
The other poets who recited their poems are: Anindita Sengupta (English), Avinash Ogale (Marathi), Ja Na Tejashri (Kannada), K Malarvili (Tamil), Meera Chakrabarthy (Bengali), Mohamma Azam Shaheed (Urdu), K Satchidanandan (Malayalam), Rorrky Chansingh (Manipuri), Rajeshwari Diwakaralu (Telugu) and Udaya Narayana Singh (Maithili).