{"title":"Poetry and Art","authors":"Bashabi Fraser","doi":"10.14297/gnb.2.1.132","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14297/gnb.2.1.132","url":null,"abstract":"Poetry and art","PeriodicalId":153709,"journal":{"name":"Gitanjali & Beyond","volume":"44 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121015462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-11-24DOI: 10.14297/GNB.2.1.112-127
Assem Shrivastava
Rabindranath’s enormous corpus of varied work has been widely un-derstood as that of a poet, a writer, a playwright, a musician and a man of letters. He has only rarely been interpreted as a philosopher, and almost never as an ecological philosopher. Preliminary research shows that he is perhaps India’s first modern ecological philosopher - at growing odds with modernity. The essay argues that Tagore’s perspectives and insights are unique and his intellectual contribution in this area is indispensable to an understanding of the ecological and spiritual implications of technological, industrial modernity. There are few thinkers during the last hundred years anywhere more relevant when it comes to teaching us the significance of how we relate to the natural world (including, needless to add, our very own bodies) and what it tells us about ourselves and the way we have come to live.The focus in this paper is on what we can learn about Tagore’s outlook on the natural world and our relationship to it from a set of letters he wrote to his niece during his years as a young man, looking after his family estate in East Bengal (now, Bangladesh).
{"title":"A Spoken Silence: Rabindranath and the Ecology of Modern Consciousness","authors":"Assem Shrivastava","doi":"10.14297/GNB.2.1.112-127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14297/GNB.2.1.112-127","url":null,"abstract":"Rabindranath’s enormous corpus of varied work has been widely un-derstood as that of a poet, a writer, a playwright, a musician and a man of letters. He has only rarely been interpreted as a philosopher, and almost never as an ecological philosopher. Preliminary research shows that he is perhaps India’s first modern ecological philosopher - at growing odds with modernity. The essay argues that Tagore’s perspectives and insights are unique and his intellectual contribution in this area is indispensable to an understanding of the ecological and spiritual implications of technological, industrial modernity. There are few thinkers during the last hundred years anywhere more relevant when it comes to teaching us the significance of how we relate to the natural world (including, needless to add, our very own bodies) and what it tells us about ourselves and the way we have come to live.The focus in this paper is on what we can learn about Tagore’s outlook on the natural world and our relationship to it from a set of letters he wrote to his niece during his years as a young man, looking after his family estate in East Bengal (now, Bangladesh).","PeriodicalId":153709,"journal":{"name":"Gitanjali & Beyond","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130685612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In matters of development and progress, it has always been a question of the acquisition of land. As history shows, control over land—extendable to different metaphors—and its resources has been instrumental in the development and destruction of human civilisation. Tagore’s Muktadhara dwells on the principle of identifying how the manipulation of a river-course could change the destiny of two neighbouring states and establish the rule of one man over others. So, in the character of Abhijeet, a typical Tagore-protagonist, one who breaks the dam to put an end to the authoritarian regime, a prototype of modern day environmental activists could be seen. The text goes beyond a mere pantheistic and humanist quest for the freedom of man as Tagore politicises the concept of land into a geopolitical space, and relates it to the imperialist policies and hegemonic propaganda that he experienced personally in his travels across Europe, Japan and America during this time. From Muktadhara (1922) to Raktakarabi (1924), Tagore seems to continue with this politics of land. If the former text represents the appropriation of nature for political benefit, the latter shows how industrialisation destroys the agricultural base, forces migration, and how these steps would be the only logical progress of the economy that advocates rampant capital accumulation. Interestingly, a play set in a mine uses a theme song about ‘pous’—a month of cultivation and opulence. The essays written by Tagore during this period, like his Introduction to Elmhirst’s ‘The Robbery of the Soil’, also reveal his vision of a sustained and inclusive human development.
{"title":"Liberating the River: Land and Politics in Tagore’s Plays","authors":"D. Kar","doi":"10.14297/gnb.2.1.51-65","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14297/gnb.2.1.51-65","url":null,"abstract":"In matters of development and progress, it has always been a question of the acquisition of land. As history shows, control over land—extendable to different metaphors—and its resources has been instrumental in the development and destruction of human civilisation. Tagore’s Muktadhara dwells on the principle of identifying how the manipulation of a river-course could change the destiny of two neighbouring states and establish the rule of one man over others. So, in the character of Abhijeet, a typical Tagore-protagonist, one who breaks the dam to put an end to the authoritarian regime, a prototype of modern day environmental activists could be seen. The text goes beyond a mere pantheistic and humanist quest for the freedom of man as Tagore politicises the concept of land into a geopolitical space, and relates it to the imperialist policies and hegemonic propaganda that he experienced personally in his travels across Europe, Japan and America during this time. \u0000From Muktadhara (1922) to Raktakarabi (1924), Tagore seems to continue with this politics of land. If the former text represents the appropriation of nature for political benefit, the latter shows how industrialisation destroys the agricultural base, forces migration, and how these steps would be the only logical progress of the economy that advocates rampant capital accumulation. Interestingly, a play set in a mine uses a theme song about ‘pous’—a month of cultivation and opulence. The essays written by Tagore during this period, like his Introduction to Elmhirst’s ‘The Robbery of the Soil’, also reveal his vision of a sustained and inclusive human development.","PeriodicalId":153709,"journal":{"name":"Gitanjali & Beyond","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130049785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The opening years of the twentieth century witnessed rising public disquiet about evident environmental degradation and the ever more obvious loss of important habitats. In the United States, following the personal intervention of President Theodore Roosevelt, Congress passed an act in 1906 to establish a protected inventory of national parks and forests. A year later the UK Parliament passed an act to establish the National Trust. Following the well trailed campaigns of self-anointed environmentalists such as John Muir and Octavia Hill, the protection of vulnerable landscapes appeared for the first time on the public policy agenda. Against this background of rising awareness of the unfettered consequences of economic growth, a similar concern can be detected for the plight of rural communities in the Indian state of Bengal, largely as a result of the personal involvement – in both word and deed – of Rabindranath Tagore. It can be argued further that Tagore’s innate empiricism as a result of this growing awareness, anticipated the discourse that would lead eventually to the World Conservation Strategy published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 1980. It was followed by the Brundtland Report (1987) Our Common Future.
{"title":"Rabindranath Tagore: The Deep-Rooted Environmentalist and The Origins of Sustainability","authors":"C. Bruce","doi":"10.14297/GNB.2.1.8-15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14297/GNB.2.1.8-15","url":null,"abstract":"The opening years of the twentieth century witnessed rising public disquiet about evident environmental degradation and the ever more obvious loss of important habitats. In the United States, following the personal intervention of President Theodore Roosevelt, Congress passed an act in 1906 to establish a protected inventory of national parks and forests. A year later the UK Parliament passed an act to establish the National Trust. Following the well trailed campaigns of self-anointed environmentalists such as John Muir and Octavia Hill, the protection of vulnerable landscapes appeared for the first time on the public policy agenda. \u0000Against this background of rising awareness of the unfettered consequences of economic growth, a similar concern can be detected for the plight of rural communities in the Indian state of Bengal, largely as a result of the personal involvement – in both word and deed – of Rabindranath Tagore. It can be argued further that Tagore’s innate empiricism as a result of this growing awareness, anticipated the discourse that would lead eventually to the World Conservation Strategy published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 1980. It was followed by the Brundtland Report (1987) Our Common Future.","PeriodicalId":153709,"journal":{"name":"Gitanjali & Beyond","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127879524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The present paper, by taking cues from Tagore’s letters, lectures and addresses, attempts to explore that he was unconventional in his ideas of education. Nature was the best teacher for Tagore, and he adopted the model of the ‘Ashram’ of the Ancient India for the realisation of his educational ideals. An academic institution, according to Tagore, should not merely impart information to the learners. It should offer elements of culture and opportunities for studying the socio-economic condition of villages around an educational centre. Leonard Elmhirst, the famous agronomist, helped Tagore in establishing ‘Siksha Satra’ at Sriniketan where the former started rural reconstruction. Tagore shared his views of education including the ‘Visva-Bharati ideals’ with Elmhirst. Another leading intellectual who gave original ideas of university education to Tagore was Patrick Geddes. Like Tagore, Geddes also advocated for the service to the community life. Arthur Geddes, the son of Patrick Geddes, to a great extent, fulfilled the poet’s dream of uniting teachers, students and humble village workers in an organic bond of necessity. Tagore’s championing of ‘the rural uplift work’ as a part of education continues to appeal to the Twentieth Century mind.
{"title":"The Interface between Education and the ‘Rural Uplift Work’: Re-reading Tagore’s Letters, Lectures and Addresses","authors":"Joyjit Ghosh","doi":"10.14297/GNB.2.1.16-25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14297/GNB.2.1.16-25","url":null,"abstract":"The present paper, by taking cues from Tagore’s letters, lectures and addresses, attempts to explore that he was unconventional in his ideas of education. Nature was the best teacher for Tagore, and he adopted the model of the ‘Ashram’ of the Ancient India for the realisation of his educational ideals. An academic institution, according to Tagore, should not merely impart information to the learners. It should offer elements of culture and opportunities for studying the socio-economic condition of villages around an educational centre. Leonard Elmhirst, the famous agronomist, helped Tagore in establishing ‘Siksha Satra’ at Sriniketan where the former started rural reconstruction. Tagore shared his views of education including the ‘Visva-Bharati ideals’ with Elmhirst. Another leading intellectual who gave original ideas of university education to Tagore was Patrick Geddes. Like Tagore, Geddes also advocated for the service to the community life. Arthur Geddes, the son of Patrick Geddes, to a great extent, fulfilled the poet’s dream of uniting teachers, students and humble village workers in an organic bond of necessity. Tagore’s championing of ‘the rural uplift work’ as a part of education continues to appeal to the Twentieth Century mind.","PeriodicalId":153709,"journal":{"name":"Gitanjali & Beyond","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125315754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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