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Elective English—III

Notes told him, “Our prophet has said that a true Muslim is he by whose words and deeds not the least
of his brother-men may ever come to any harm ...” Tagore disclosed in his diary: “I was startled
into recognizing in his words the voice of essential humanity.” Towards the end Tagore
scrutinised orthodoxy and in 1934, he struck. That year, an earthquake hit Bihar and took the
lives thousands. Gandhi welcomed it as seismic karma, as divine vengeance avenging the
oppression of Dalits. Tagore reprimanded him for his seemingly dishonourable inferences. He
grieved the recurrent poverty of Calcutta and the socioeconomic weakening of Bengal. He
detailed these latest plebeian aesthetics in an unrhymed hundred-line poem whose technique of
searing double-vision foreshadowed Satyajit Ray’s film Apur Sansar. Fifteen fresh volumes
appeared, among them prose-poem works Punashcha (1932), Shes Saptak (1935), and Patraput
(1936). Experimentation continued in his prose-songs and dance-dramas such as Chitra (1914),
Dui Bon (1933), Malancha (1934), Char Adhyay (1934), Chandalika (1938) and Shyama (1939). Tagore
was a close friend of Gandhi, to whom he gave the sobriquet “Mahatma,” meaning “great soul,”
while Gandhi dubbed Tagore, “The Great Sentinel,” out of his abiding respect for Tagore’s
unswerving commitment to open-mindedness, inclusiveness and diversity in the envisioning
of India that was soon to be born.
Tagore’s interest in science developed in his last years and is hinted in a collection of essays,
Visva-Parichay in 1937. His respect for scientific laws and his exploration of astronomy, physics
and biology, informed his poetry, which showed extensive naturalism and verisimilitude. He
wove the process of science, the narratives of scientists, into stories in Se (1937), Tin Sangi (1940),
and Galpasalpa (1941). His last five years were marked by chronic pain and two long periods of
illness. These began when Tagore lost consciousness in late 1937 and remained comatose for a
while before recurring this medical condition in late 1940. He never recovered but his poetry
from these valetudinary years is among his finest. Tagore’s prolonged agony ended when he
passed away at the Jorasanko mansion on 7 August 1941, at the age of 80.

In old age, Tagore still rose long before dawn to witness the birth of each new day, and he still
wrote fluently in his own hand. He liked to make extensive corrections, therefore, he liked his
manuscripts to be stylish, hence he began turning his waste cuttings into decorations, forming
complicated patterns and pictures of snakes and birds of his own imagination. From this odd
beginning came his last artistic adventure, as a painter. His sketches and paintings cannot be
compared to those of any other artist or school. They possess some of the stark crudity of folk art
with the imagery and symbolism which he saw in his visions.
Tagore died in the middle of the world war which seemed like the denial of all he had loved
(he appealed to President Roosevelt to interfere when the Germans marched into Paris, to
prevent its destruction). He looked forward to India’s independence because he believed that
only in freedom could Indians be true to their inheritance. His poems were selected to be the
national anthems of India and Bangladesh because of their literary value and as a tribute to him.

Notes At age sixty, Tagore took up drawing and painting; successful exhibitions of his
many works—which made a debut appearance in Paris upon encouragement by artists he
met in the south of France[8]—were held throughout Europe. Tagore—who likely exhibited
protanopia (“color blindness”), or partial lack of (red-green, in Tagore’s case) colour
discernment—painted in a style characterised by peculiarities in aesthetic and colouring
style.

Did u know? In 1929, Tagore began painting and several of his paintings can be seen in
museums today, particularly in India.

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