Tagore and I

Instead of the hollow and high sounding but empty and meaningless rhetoric and shibboleths in Tagore's poem, here is a poem I have composed which has real meaning for the Indian masses :

" Where children are not hungry and malnourished

  Where no one is poor, and everyone enjoys a high standard of living

  Where no one is unemployed

  Where healthcare, good education and housing are available freely to everyone

  Where scientific thinking is widespread, and superstition has disappeared

  Where there is no discrimination against women, dalits, minorities or any section of Indian society

 Where industry has become massive and is used for the benefit of the masses, not just to enrich a handful of people

   Where social security is provided to the old, sick and disabled

  Where more and more people are able to devote their time to genuinely creative scientific and artistic work

Where there is genuine democracy in society, and not just caste and religious vote banks to be cunningly manipulated and exploited by selfish, crafty politicians

Into that heaven of freedom, let my country awake "

Are Tagore and 'Netaji' holy cows for Bengalis ?

One evening at Allahabad when I was a Judge there I was at the house of one of the High Court Judges along with some other Judges,chatting before dinner.

 I mentioned my view about Subhas Chandra Bose, that he was a Japanese agent. At this one of the High Court Judges who was a Bengali reacted almost hysterically, and started shouting at me, and threatening to walk out. I was taken aback, and became mum thereafter, as I did not want the party to be broken up.

 But I have witnessed a somewhat similar reaction by many ( not all ) Bengalis if one speaks against Tagore. It is sometimes impossible to talk rationally with many Bengalis about 'Netaji' and Tagore.

 Are Subhas Chandra Bose and Tagore the private property of Bengalis ? Can no one criticize them in their presence ? If Bengalis regard them as public figures, not the private property of Bengalis, then the public surely has the right to assess and criticize them.

I have expressed my views about Bose and Tagore on my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in and I do not intend to repeat them in detail.

 I regard Tagore as a British stooge who was promoted by Yeats and used by the British to divert literature from the revolutionary direction Sharad Chandra Chattopadhyaya was taking it ( see  his novel ' Pather Dabi', which was banned by the British. At one time the price of one copy was the same as that of a Mauser pistol ).

See in this connection my article ' The Role of Art and Literature ' on my blog. I have explained there that there are broadly two theories of art and literature, one is called 'Art for art's sake', and the other is called ' Art for social purpose '. In a poor country like India only the second theory is acceptable. Tagore belonged broadly to the school of ' Art for Art's sake', propagating spiritualism and mystical nonsense ( see ( 'Gitanjali', 'Agni beena Bajao', etc ) and Sharad Chandra to the school of ' Art for social purpose'. The British were scared of the writings of Sharad Chandra, and so they promoted their stooge Tagore.

Am I not entitled to even present my view about Tagore before Bengalis ? Do I not have freedom of expression ?

 I regard Bose as a Japanese agent, otherwise why did he give up the struggle against the British in 1945 when the Japanese surrendered ? If he was a real freedom fighter he should have carried on a guerilla war against the British, as the Chinese had done against the Japanese. In a guerilla war one fights with the weapons of the enemy, by snatching them from the enemy.

 In fact Bose was only being used by the Japanese Imperialists, who would have bumped him off once his utility was over. Would the Japanese  fascists have given freedom to India if they had defeated the British ? No, they would have looted it, and slaughtered a lot of Indians, the way they looted Manchuria and North China under their occupation, and slaughtered tens of thousands of Chinese in Nanking, Shanghai, etc. ( see on Youtube about these massacres ).

 I have great respect for Bengalis, many of whom are my close friends. I would only request them to ponder about what I have said, and not treat Bose and Tagore like holy cows

Tagore and Sharad Chandra

The British promoted Tagore ( through Yeats ) to divert attention from the revolutionary direction Sharad Chandra Chattopadhyaya was taking literature ( see his ' Pather Dabi ', which was banned by the British, and the price of one copy of which was said to have become the price of one Mauser pistol ) towards nonsensical  spiritualism and mysticism, which can only be called escapism in a country with such tremendous poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, etc.

 Tagore served the British loyally in the field of literature ( for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize ), just as Gandhi served the British loyally in politics, by diverting the revolutionary freedom struggle against the British led by by Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen ( Masterda ), Chandsrashekhar Azad, Ashfaqulla, Khudiram Bose, Rajguru, Ramprasad Bismil, etc towards the harmless nonsensical channel called satyagrah