Rediscovering Tagore and his work

To mark the 100th year of Rabindranath Tagore receiving the Nobel Prize in literature, the Embassy of Sweden in Delhi recently organised a lively discussion on the bard and his vast literary repertoire.

The discussion was moderated by Tagore scholar Radha Chakravarty and the panel included theatre person Prakash Belawadi, who has adapted Tagore’s plays in Kannada; Shirshendu Chakrabarti, professor at Department of English, DU and filmmaker Quashiq Mukherjee who recently interpreted Tagore’s Tasher Desh.

Radha Chakraborty initiated the discussion by highlighting that Rabindranath has become the centrestage of several cultural activities again following his 150th birth anniversary in 2011. A number of plays, films and discussions are relooking at his work - some lauding his genius, some criticising his views and others shedding new light on his enormous literary range; but our youth remains largely unacquainted with the bard knowing him only as an icon, a label associated with certain ideas and catchphrases.

Theatre person Prakash Belawadi gave some interesting insights on how he became acquainted with the legendary poet. Following Girish Karnad’s certain critical
remarks on Tagore, Prakash was requested to adapt and present Tagore’s works in Kannad, to ‘assuage the Bengali community in Bangalore especially.’

He says, “When I started working on Gora and then went on to read Tagore’s other novels such as Ghore, Baire, I realised that he was a thinker beyond his time. He did not believe in passing judgements on all issues, unlike Gandhi; but weighed his opinions before speaking. Since he was not an extremely vocal supporter of Freedom, many considered him unpatriotic, but he was constantly thinking of the India that would emerge post Independence.”

Professor Shirshendu Chakrabarti stressed that Tagore believed in inner-freedom more than freedom from an outside force. He once mentioned that ‘a student who steals notes into an exam room is no more guilty than one who mugs up the notes to do well in the papers.’

“Tagore emphasised that often freedom for one group is based on denial of rights to another section. It is important that freedom spells rights for every section of a society,” the professor added.

Filmmaker Quashiq Mukherjee brought a fresh perspective to the discussion when he observed how Tagore has assumed the role of a ‘literary tyrant’ in Bengal and how Bengali kids even loath him for his omnipresence in every aspect of life there.

“But, once I began to look for a subject to make films,” he added, “I realised that Tagore’s Tasher Desh is a most wonderful work to pick up. It has so many layers to it that it can be a challenge for a filmmaker to adapt and yet a prize achievement if accomplished.”