In his rather infamous recent posts on popular social media, Retired Supreme Court Judge Markandey Katju has repeatedly called Rabindranath Tagore a 'British Stooge'. As a mark of true grit, he has stood by his opinion, despite opposition, despite debates, despite people pointing out obvious flaws in his views, and despite reason.
As a person who began to form his first thoughts in English, sadly remaining unaware of his 'mother tongue' (the term is arguable) for a long time, and having been recently inducted into the world of Bengali Literature, I felt like going beyond racial accusations on Facebook, to explore the original works of the author, to see how low this British Stooge had stooped in his anti-nation propaganda.
Tagore's songs are published in a collection called 'Gitabitan'. The songs are categorized into Puja ("Devotion"), Swadesh ("The Motherland"), Prem ("Love"), Prakriti ("Nature") and such other categories. Often there is an overlap due to the double-meanings, but we shall avoid that. Swadesh comprises forty six songs, written about the motherland - songs in admiration of the country, some lamenting the fact that the nation is shackled and needs to be woken up, some propelling the countryman to arise and fight for the cause of his country's freedom! Two of the forty six songs are national anthems of India and Bangladesh. But Tagore was a British stooge, and Katju is an Honourable Judge. (I perhaps am a British stooge too, for so shamelessly borrowing Shakespeare's rhetoric).
A stooge is defined as a subordinate used by another to do unpleasant routine work. (Source: Google).
I do not wish to speak about the songs at length, since a blog post hardly does justice to recount how much unpleasant stooge work was done by Tagore! However, two songs are representative, of what Tagore wished to convey to his countrymen (on behalf of the British government, of course!) I shall attempt at translating them here. But I might be an utter failure. Partly because of my incompetence at translating the language, and partly because no language can be fully translated in order to do justice to it.
Song One:
" Roilo bole rakhle kaare, hukum tomaar pholbey kawbey?
Tomaar taana-taani tikbey na bhai, rawbaar jeta shetaai rawbey.
Jaa-khushi tai korte paaro, Gaayer jorey raakho maaro -
Jaanr gaaye shob byathaa baaje Tini ja shawn shetaai shobey.
Onek tomaar taka-kodi, onek dawra onek dori,
Onek Ashwo, Onek kori, Onek tomaar aache-bhobe.
Bhaabchho hobey tumi'i ja chaao, JagatTake tumi'i naachao,
Dekhbe hothat noyon khule hoyna jeta, shetao hobey."
Who did you enslave and keep, And when would your dominion bear fruit?
Your dragging and pulling won't succeed, What is to stay shall persevere.
Try as you might, Use brute force to keep and kill,
You wound the Creator, and whatever He endures will only stay.
You have the riches, and you have the rope,
You have horses and men, You have it all in your domain.
And so you fancy your rule shall prevail, and the world will dance to your tune,
You shall wake up suddenly to realize that the unimaginable has happened.
Song Two:
"Bidhir bandhon kaatbe tumi emon shoktimaan -
Tumi ki emni shoktimaan!
Aamader bhaanga-poda tomaar haate emon obhimaan -
Tomaader emni obhimaan.
Chirodin taanbey pichhe, chirodin rakhbe niche -
Eto bol nai re tomaar, shobe na shei taan.
Shashone jotoi ghero, aache bol durbolero,
Haw'o na jotoi bodo, achen Bhogobaan.
Aamder shokti mere toraao bachbi ne re,
Bojha tor bhari holei dubbey torikhaan."
You try to severe Destiny's bond, Are you that mighty -
That mighty are you!
Our creation and destruction is in your hands, Such is your vanity -
Such is your fallacious vanity!
You shall drag us backwards, you shall subdue us forever,
Your strength is not so great, your pull is not so strong.
No matter how much you enslave us, even the weak have strength in them,
No matter how high and mighty you are, there is the Almighty.
You shall not survive by trying to crush our strength,
Your vessel shall sink when your load can't be borne any more.
_____
The tunes in the songs have a folk flavour. Just to appeal to the masses for whom they were meant. I realized how difficult it is to translate, and how very impossible for me. And I did not wish to prove anything by translating a sample study of songs. But what irked me was the ignorance, the sheer ignorance of statements made. That from a former judge of the highest judicial body in the country. I wish judicial mind prevails over judges, and not judgemental, opinionated bigotry. Not to say in the least that I hope there are other stooges like Tagore, people who do the 'unpleasant, routine work' of spreading the dream of a truly independent India.
"We are in a cave of ignorance, bound by the shackles of selfishness and stupidity."
- Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Philosophy of India.
P.S. I almost forgot to write about Tagore's novels, poems, dance-dramas and short stories, concerning the nation's freedom from the British rule, whose stooge he was.
