Tagore hosts Gandhi and
wife Kasturba at Santiniketan in 1940.
Tagore opposed imperialism and supported
Indian nationalists,[152][153][154] and these views were first revealed
in Manast, which was mostly composed in his twenties.[47] Evidence produced during the Hindu–German
Conspiracy Trial and
latter accounts affirm his awareness of the Ghadarites, and stated that he sought the
support of Japanese Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake and former PremierŌkuma Shigenobu.[155] Yet he lampooned the Swadeshi movement; he rebuked it in "The Cult of
the Charka", an acrid 1925 essay.[156] He urged the masses to avoid
victimology and instead seek self-help and education, and he saw the presence
of British administration as a "political symptom of our social
disease". He maintained that, even for those at the extremes of poverty,
"there can be no question of blind revolution"; preferable to it was
a "steady and purposeful education".[157][158]
So
I repeat we never can have a true view of man unless we have a love for him.
Civilisation must be judged and prized, not by the amount of power it has
developed, but by how much it has evolved and given expression to, by its laws
and institutions, the love of humanity.
“
”
Such views enraged many. He escaped
assassination—and only narrowly—by Indian expatriates during his stay in a San
Francisco hotel in late 1916; the plot failed when his would-be assassins fell
into argument.[160] Tagore wrote songs lionising the
Indian independence movement.[161] Two of Tagore's more politically
charged compositions, "Chitto Jetha Bhayshunyo" ("Where
the Mind is Without Fear") and "Ekla Chalo Re"
("If They Answer Not to Thy Call, Walk Alone"), gained mass appeal,
with the latter favoured by Gandhi.[162] Though somewhat critical of Gandhian
activism,[163] Tagore was key in resolving a Gandhi–Ambedkar dispute
involving separate electorates for untouchables, thereby mooting at least one
of Gandhi's fasts "unto death".[164][165]
No comments:
Post a Comment