The Quest For Freedom In Rabindranath Tagore’s Philosophy, Educational Thoughts And Music
Dr. Rajasree Bhattacharya
Rabindranath Tagore imbibed a strong sense of freedom from the Bengal Renaissance. On one hand, he had great faith in the freedom of thought and expression, on the other he championed the cause of emancipation from social, aesthetic and even moral bindings of all sorts, including all types of superstitions, prejudices and dogmas. His life and work reflects his continuous effort to achieve this freedom. Rabindranath did not merely preach these ideas; he also tried to implement them practically in various fields. In our present discussion, we would like to focus our attention to the central theme of freedom- and how the same was an integral part of various activities of this myriad-minded man.
Religious views :
Rabindranath Tagore was essentially a poet and not a philosopher. However, his philosophy and views regarding God evolved incessantly all through his life. His father, Debendranath Tagore, was the great Brahmo leader under whose leadership Brahmo-Samaj became a very important religious movement in the 19th century Bengal. The Samaj, as envisaged by Debendranath, was a form of reformed Hinduism with Three major deviations from the common place Hinduism of its time:
1) It practiced monotheism
2) It denounced all forms of idolatry
3) It condemned the caste system
Rabindranath Tagore was Brahmo by birth. In his early twenties he became the secretary of the Adi Brahmo-Samaj. He participated in several debates in the 19th century against the conservative Hindus, including Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, but later in life, his religion was not confined within the boundaries of Brahmo-Samaj, along with contemporary intellectuals like Sukumar Roy, Tagore brought changes even within the existing Brahmo religion.
His concept of God evolved from the monotheistic ‘Brahma’ to the conclusion that there can be no God outside Man. Tagore emphasized the importance of Man in the context of the theory of evolution, and concluded that God prevailed, not in the past; on the contrary, the notion of God is futuristic in nature. Man through the process of evolution will become God by enriching himself. He called that futuristic Man Mahamanava and the last ever song that he wrote in his life, was dedicated to this Mahamanava.
(The Religion of Man/Kalantar- Crisis in Civilization/Rabindranath Tagore/ VisvaBharati)
Tagore’s view on religion can be challenged from various angles. However, he could establish himself as a free thinker, breaking the shackles of religious narrowness and unnecessary rituals.
Concept of Internationalism and Social Freedom:
Internationalism:-
Tagore supported the Indian freedom-movement in the early period of his life. He gave leadership to the movement against the British motives of ‘Dividing Bengal’ upon communal lines in 1905. However, after the furore that was generated in the Anti-Partition Movement, Rabindranath gradually distanced himself from the nationalist movement. In his lectures on ‘Nationalism’, delivered just prior to and during the First World War, he vehemently opposed the concept of small nation states fighting against each other.
( Ref. Nationalism/ Rabindranath Tagore/VisvaBharati)
It is during this period, that Tagore started to visualize a world without political boundaries; a journey from Nationalism to Internationalism. This very thought isolated him from close associates like Mahatma Gandhi who championed the movement of Swaraj or Independent India. In his English Gitanjali(Song Offerings), he included a poem, which was written in his Bengali book Naivedya :
“Where The mind is without fear and the head is held high ;
Where knowledge is free ;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls ;
Where words come out from the depth of truth ;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection ;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit ;
Where the mind is led forward by the into avoiding thought and action ;
Into that heaven of freedom my Father let my country awake.”
(Song Offerings/ Rabindranath Tagore)
This poem, originally a Sonnet in Bengali, sums up his views in one sentence!
Social freedom :-
Rabindranath was a firm believer in the ideal of social freedom. The poem has a clear message in this regard-
“Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit”
The society, that Rabindranath was surrounded by, was full of superstitions and dead habits. The society was broken up into fragments, people were looked down upon for their low caste and even professionals like that of a cultivator was treated poorly. The Bengali word ‘Chasha’ for a cultivator is considered quite derogatory. Tagore realised the importance of the rural sector and its immense potential to contribute to the economy. Simultaneously, he also realised the poor infrastructure and useless social norms that was prevailing at that time. He designed a model and immediately transformed his thoughts into action. Sriniketan, or the rural development centre, was born. Rabindranath sent his eldest son to the United States of America to occur a degree in Agriculture. He introduced several new forms of agricultural activities including collective farming, scientific rotation of crops etc.
In his creative writings he expressed his views regarding the disparity of human beings on the ground of religion, caste, creed and profession. His views can be found in a song of Gitanjali :
“Here is Thy footstool and there rest thy feet
where live the poorest, and lowliest, and lost.
When I try to bow to thee, my obeisance cannot reach down to the depth for thy feet rest among
the poorest, and lowliest, and lost.
Pride can never approach to where thou walkest in the clothes of the humble among
the poorest, and lowliest, and lost.
My heart can never find its way to where thou keepest company with the companionless among the poorest, the lowliest, and the lost.”
(Song Offerings/ Rabindranath Tagore)
Rabindranath’s drama shows a variety of subjects in this regard. The drama titled ‘Rather Rashi’ depicts the crisis caused by denying the rightful place of some castes in this society. Similarly, in ‘Tasher Desh’ and ‘Achalaayatan’ the dead social laws and doctrines are satirically presented. A number of his drama ends with a devastation or desolation of an archaic structure, which is a symbol of social decay based on unscientific superstition and prejudice. Rabindranath had trained his mind into scientific reasoning and therefore he could hardly tolerate meaningless human activities only for the sake of some false notion.
Women’s Emancipation :
Tagore had a strong view about women’s emancipation. Many female characters of his fiction clearly indicate his profound enthusiasm in this regard. During Rabindranath’s time, public stage-performances of women, including singing and dancing, was considered very sinful and disrespectful. Rabindranath with his team from Santiniketan regularly performed with women of respectable background. This was condemned by the society at that time, but ultimately it earned social acceptance and recognition for it’s aesthetic value and powerful content.
Educational ideals of Rabindranath :
Tagore’s theory of Education was particularly influenced by his own experience in school. The closed-door room with hardly any space to move about and absolutely no opportunity to probe into the nature, left a deep scar in the mind of adolescent Rabindranath. In his view, the west with its city-centric civilization was gradually being alienated from nature. He realised the importance of a ‘green world’ and regarded nature as an intrinsic part of humanity and not something outside its domain. In his lectures delivered in Europe and America and compiled in a volume titled ‘Sadhana’, Tagore said,
“The west seems to take a pride in thinking that it is subduing nature; as if we are living in a hostile world where we have to wrest everything we want from an unwilling and alien arrangement of things. This sentiment is the product of the city-wall habit and training of mind. For in the city life man naturally directs the concentrated light office mental vision upon his own life and works, and this creates an artificial dissociation between himself and the Universal Nature within whose bosom he lies.
But in India the point of view was different; it included the world with the man as one great truth. India put all her emphasis on the harmony that exists between the individual and the universal. She felt we could have no communication whatever with our surroundings if they were absolutely foreign to us. Man’s complaint against nature is that he has to acquire most of his necessaries by his own efforts. Yes, but his efforts are not in vain; he is reaping success everyday, and that shows there is a rational connection between him and nature, for we never can make anything our own except that which is truly related to us.” (Sadhana)
He tried to formulate methods of learning all through his life where the student can remain in touch with nature. He tried his method in Shilaidah (now in Bangladesh), before finally shifting and founding a school at Santiniketan.
Tagore called his school and Ashram and he had the ancient ashramas of the Upanishad in his mind. His concept of education was holistic and included every possible means to communicate with one’s self, others and with the forces of nature. Welcoming the monsoon rains with song and dance was as essential to him as the theory of relativity. Many of his songs categorised under the title Pooja are primarily related to nature and they correspond with this view. We can cite a couple of examples from Gitanjali in this regard.
1) This Is My Delight, Thus To Wait And Watch At The Wayside…
2) Light, My Light, The World-Filling Light…
3) Yes, I Know This Is Nothing But Thy Love, O Beloved Of My Heart…
(Songs from Song Offerings/ Rabindranath Tagore)
In Santiniketan, the classes were not tied by preconceived syllabus. Though the students took lessons in the general disciplines, there was a lot of flexibility in the methods of teaching. A student, according to his ability was allotted separate classes for separate subjects, i.e., if he is poor in mathematics and good in literature, he was allowed to attend higher classes in literature and the more primary and basic classes for mathematics.
The teaching was not merely limited to supplying information to the student. Developing the faculty of thought amongst students was given top priority. Many of the subjects, like music, painting, crafts, dancing, story telling, sports – which are considered extra-curricular these days, were included in the curriculum itself. Music and Fine Arts were especially encouraged in Santiniketan, and after a few years, separate Bhavanas or faculties were created for music and fine arts as Sangeet Bhavana and Kalabhavana respectively. Even in these Bhavanas, Sangeet and Kala were practised by providing the students enough space for innovation and imagination. Tagore’s own music and paintings also follow this line. By not succumbing to any scripture or dicta, and by letting the innovative spirits of the students intact, Santiniketan over the years have been successful in creating a very different mode of learning. Many illustrious musicians, artists and academicians have graduated from Santiniketan over the last 100 years.
Rabindranath Tagore, the Musician :
The music of Rabindranath Tagore both practically and theoretically follows the trend that we have been trying to emphasize in our discussion. Tagore was a very eminent composer of Bengal for the variety of songs that he wrote, which were in excess of two thousand. He composed not only songs but also wrote several Dancedramas and Operas. Tagore was influenced by various sources. The Hindustani Classical Music formed the basis of his composition, but he was well versed in Western Music and Opera. The very native form of Music in Bengal, Kirtana and the Bauls, had a deep imprint on his mind.
Rabindranath’s formal training in Indian Classical Music was meager– he learnt Music in his house, but the technique of the singers of the Classical Music did not attract him very much. However, there was an atmosphere of various forms of Music in his house. He acquired a very comprehensive knowledge of the Raga and their movement. In his early days he used to adapt the Music and set them to his lyrics. His appreciation for good Music remained until his old age, but gradually he grew bolder and started improvising in various ways. He was quite assured in his method. He said he had no debt to Jayijayanti that he will follow all its notes systematically. If a note is not permitted in a specific Raga, but was aesthetically acceptable, he did not hesitate to deviate from the structure of the Raga. Just as he decried aesthetic bindings in other modes of life in music also, he loved to be boundless in his own methods.
We refer to Rabindranath’s songs as ‘Rabindra Sangeet’. In his early years, Tagore, while searching a form of his own, experimented on various forms. During the Gitanjali period (around 1910)- his song found a form of its own. Unlike the previous period, when the song patterns included two parts, four parts or even more, henceforth his songs generally had four parts. It resembles more the pattern of Dhrupad, than that of Khayal. Tagore was able to blend all the divergent forms of influences into one single unit. Lyrics in his matured phase were a storehouse of all the forms of universal music. He no longer was interested in putting words in his favourite tune– rather the tunes and lyrics responded to each other spontaneously. His songs became distinctly different from the main stream Bengali songs. Songs became a prime medium for Tagore’s expressions along with his poetry and other writings. He even said late in his life that the two main forms of his expression in his ‘banaprastha’ were songs and paintings. Thus, his songs paved a new way in the field of Music. He was able to convey his spirit of freedom through his Music. In one of his songs he said : “Through my songs let all the shackles break!” (Gane Gane Tabo Bandhana Jak Tute). His paintings received universal acclaim for its bold expression– because painting is not barred by any language. Rabindranath’s achievement in this regard through Music is immense. It is unfortunate that despite being as expressive as his paintings, his songs are limited to Bengal, only for the language barrier. The lyrics and tunes are inseparably intermingled in Rabindranath’s songs — it is impossible to convey it’s entire spirit to anybody who is not acquainted with the language.
Tagore, while composing these songs was particularly careful in getting the notations of the songs, done by competent persons. This was the reason why RabindraSangeet has been changed in gayaki over the years but the basic structure of the song has remained unchanged. He wanted his songs to be intact– without any interference from the singer. In spite of being a firm believer of freedom, he imposed a strict vigil to his own compositions by a strict notation. Apparently it may seem contradictory, but he realised the difference between freedom and anarchy. Rabindranath was very possessive about his songs. He felt that his songs would not wither away with time. He achieved the form of RabindraSangeet after much experimentation during his lifetime and therefore, did not appreciate any distortion in his songs.
Tagore even cautioned the singers not to steam roll his songs.
(Ref. Sangeetchinta/ Rabindranath Tagore/ VisvaBharati).
It has been observed that time and again the crisis of any form triggers a change of order and opens up a new path in the history of Mankind.
In 2500 years ago, Lord Buddha’s path to free Mankind from social and political aberrations had a lasting impact– a Mahamanava born to contribute positively in enhancing the quality of life.
Tagore was largely influenced by the preaching of Lord Buddha. This is evident in some of his writings and thought. Infact, his life and creation has left a tremendous impact on Humanity transcending the barrier of language, country and customs.