Africa Rabindranath Tagore

[During his illustrious lifetime, Rabindranath Tagore traveled extensively around the world, generating inspiration and veneration in most destinations as the emissary of the East and of a deeply futuristic universalist philosophy. An assessment of the intellectuals and cultural icons of the world that Tagore encountered, interacted with, and influenced, is both astonishing and indeed still waiting to be adequately evaluated. His exchanges with Einstein, Wells, Rolland, Gide, Freud, Durant, Yeats, Rothenstein, Andrews, Noguchi, Gandhi, Radhakrishnan, Nehru, Bose and numerous others are well documented. Tagore's literary works and public life centered around rejoicing in, and celebrating everything unique and artistic in human culture. In the grandest sense, he did not see one culture (East, West, Middle-East, or Latin America) as necessarily inferior or lesser than another. He was endlessly fascinated by all lofty pursuits of the human mind, no matter their points of origin. As much as he participated in India's freedom movement against British imperial rule, and served as the nation's greatest inspirational voice through his lectures, teachings, literary works, and of course, his greatest forte, poetry and musical compositions, Tagore empathized as well as identified with the cause of freedom and the struggle against oppression and violence everywhere in the world. In Iran, where he was received and feted by the Shah, he spoke in highly reverential terms about the works of Hafiz (see URL:http://www.ibna.ir/vdccexqsp2bqsx8.-ya2.html ), Omar Khayyam and other Persian poets and philosophers. In Turkey, he developed special bonds with Kemal Ataturk and expressed favorable views of the latter's efforts at forging a secular republic in the Muslim world. I have read that Ataturk sent Tagore an entire collection of books (probably of Turkish origin) for the library at Tagore's newly-founded Visva Bharati University in Bengal (see, for instance, URL: http://www.hindu.com/2003/09/19/stories/2003091903841100.htm ). So great was Tagore's influence upon the literary and even political firmament during his lifetime, that more than once regimes with dictatorial leanings attempted to woo the great Eastern ambassador in the hopes of receiving positive endorsements from him. The list of such questionable world leaders included Mussolini (whose efforts did not succeed; see the essay, URL: http://www.parabaas.com/rabindranath/articles/pKalyan.html ) and Stalin. Tagore visited Russia during the early years of the Stalinist regime. Given Tagore's natural leanings towards national upliftment from the grassroots, and the need to address poverty, hunger, illiteracy and mortality among the poor in the world, he was initially much impressed by what he perceived and witnessed as efforts to create an egalitarian society that was based on sharing, equity, society's obligation towards the downtrodden, and a national culture devoid of pomp and muscle-flexing. His early Russian tour resulted in the relatively favorable Letters from Russia. Doubtless, the Stalinist purges, the Gulag and associated repressions would greatly disappoint Tagore later on. As for the United States, which Tagore visited at least four times, it is safe to say that he was consistently unimpressed by its cultural life, and much less its history of slavery, racism and propensity towards self-promotion. He found America's crass commercialism distasteful (and in this regard, Tagore merely reflected what Henry David Thoreau had felt and expressed many decades earlier), and once wrote that "America is mad about sex." I am tempted to think that Tagore had not seen the worst. In the Americas, Tagore left a far stronger and more favorable legacy in the Southern continent- specifically Argentina (where his admirers included Victoria Ocampo), Chile

(where a young Pablo Neruda was notably influenced by Tagore's romantic poetry), Brazil (where the poet Cecilia Meireles translated Tagore's works into Portuguese) and elsewhere. In the context of Indian history itself, Tagore identified with the struggles and heroic actions of people from different regions of India. Of particular note is his magnificent poem (Bandi Bir-The Valiant Prisoner, 1899. See URL: http://sikhinstitute.org/jan_2009/2poem.htm ) about the sacrifice of the Sikh hero, Banda Singh Bahadur, whose body was ripped apart live using red-hot tongs by imperial orders, even after the valiant fighter had been forced to plunge a knife into his own young son's chest while uttering Hail to Guruji! during the Sikh resistance against Mughal incursions into their dominion. This poem, I have found, is recounted by Sikhs to this day, including in special mentions online at websites dedicated to Sikh history. Thus, as with the poem dedicated to the great Maratha hero, Shivaji (Shivaji Utsab- Celebrating Shivaji, 1904. See URL: http://shivajiutsav.blogspot.com/2007/05/shivaji-utsav-rabindranath-tagore.html ), the Bard of Bengal extended hands of timeless friendship with virtually all regions of India. His travelogues and commentaries of cultural celebration included Travels in Persia,Travels in Japan, and of course Letters from Russia, as mentioned. It therefore should come as no surprise that Tagore would also hold out sympathy and a deeper understanding of Africaone of the most exploited continents in the world. His poem dedicated to Africa captures the plight and anguish of that continent rather well. Ode to Africa Rabindranath Tagore Translation - Monish R. Chatterjee, June 2012 [The copyright for the following English translation belongs to Dr. Monish R. Chatterjee, Springboro, Ohio, June 2012] In the chaos and confusion of those ancient eons When the Creator, roiled by his own discontent Shook his head violently and Destroyed, again and again, his primeval creationCaught in the vortex of his impatience and disapproval The ruthless arms of the primordial oceans Snatched you, Africa, from the breast of the primal EarthBinding you in the impossible weave of the wakeful forest Deep within the sanctum of miserly light. There, surrounded by impenetrable privacy and leisure (2) (1)

You embarked upon your quest To unravel the secrets of the uncharted -Learning how to read the incomprehensible signs Of the seas, the land and the skies Nature's magical alchemy, unseen, unheard Awakened mantras within your subconscious. Emboldened, you mocked the Terrible In the guise of the unpleasant It was but your attempt at defying fretful apprehension Much as creatures amplify their visage In the spellbinding greatness of the monstrous The cataclysmic sounds of Tandava. Alas, O Veiled One- (4) Underneath the obscurity of your dark faade Lay unknown your human identity Degraded by the collective gaze of derision. And then they arrived, manacles in hand Claws sharper by far than any on your wolves; They arrived, human rustlers and traffickers all By vanity and arrogance blinded, sightless by far Than your darkest, sun-less forests. Civilization's barbaric greed Revealed in stark nakedness Its shameless, remorseless inhumanity. Your wordless bemoaning and tears (6) (5) (3)

Mingled with the fetid vapors of the jungle; Soaked in your tears and your blood The dirt transmogrified into a noxious swamp. The mud-laden tracks of demonic cleats Left behind for all eternity, the markers of your humiliation Upon the pages of your history. Just then, across the seas, in their hallowed precincts (7) Church bells pealed in their halls of worship Morning and evening, invoking the name of the Compassionate Father; Children frolicked upon mothers' loving laps; Poets composed heavenly dirges Touched by divine notes of offerings to Beauty. Now, when dusk approaches the Western shores (8)

And ominous storm clouds gather with bated breath When, from their secret lairs the animals emerge Their menacing growls portend the end of daylightCome, Poet of the New Age As the last rays of light fade into darknessTake your remorseful place next to that violated Woman Forgive, you plead, hoping to be forgivenLike a silver lining upon the clouds of your delirium May that be, of your civilization, the very last divine pronouncement. Translation - Monish R. Chatterjee, June 2012 Commentary and interpretations:

Stanza 1 : Within this opening stanza, Tagore sets the tone for Africa's unusual beginnings compared with most continents. Thus, Africa was set up amid dark forest canopies, separated from the rest of the earth by mighty seas, as if with a specific mission from the Creator (Srashta, in Tagore's language). Stanza 2 : Stanza 2 outlines how Africa embarked upon a unique evolutionary experiment, developing and unraveling mysterious secrets and creations of nature. These experiments that spanned vast amounts of time provided Africa with the ability to create life-forms, both exquisitely beautiful and unimaginably terrible, in a manner unprecedented anywhere else on the planet. What is prescient in these lines is their relevance to the ethnographic scientific discoveries much later that human life (and likely all life with myriad diversity) originated from Africa. Tagore communicated a great sense of fascination that life on earth owes its variety and vitality to Africa's unique experiments. Stanza 3 : This stanza sets up the enduring enigma of Africa. As we find later, Tagore imagines Africa as an alluring woman that set up boundaries and defenses in response to the turbulent drama of evolution that was playing out in her domain for ages. Thus, the ferocity of the African wild, in the poet's view, is nothing more than a necessary defense against the terrible cataclysms that were re-defining Africa's flora, fauna and terrain over untold millennia. Stanza 4 : Here Tagore reveals the humanity of Africa as the face of an alluring woman beneath a veil. It brings to question the civilizational (here especially European) misperception of The Dark Continent, and the attendant humiliation and derision heaped upon that crucible of life. Stanza 5 : The real stark message of brutal colonial invasion and savagery is laid out in graphic fashion in this stanza. The poet describes the ferocity and viciousness of the colonial invaders armed with manacles, with claws sharper than the sharpest on Africa's wolves. These ruthless and barbaric purveyors of civilization, traffickers in human rustling and profiteers from the savage slave trade, embarked upon supreme acts of inhumanity upon Africa's priceless gifts and heritage. The poet's indictment of colonialism and racism, plunder and pillage, slavery and human trade, even if applied specifically here to the "Dark Continent," applies just as well to all geographic and ethnic contexts. European (and, since the mid-1800s, Euro-American) invasion, occupation, exploitation and genocidal rampages in Central America, South America, vast stretches of Asia, and even Australia and New Zealand- all fit into the scheme of Civilization's barbaric greed. Tagore characterizes these acts emphatically as the sheer barbarity of imperial civilization and its racist savagery against those viewed as lesser. Stanza 6 : Tagore empathizes here with the ravaged and violated humanity of Africa, viewed metaphorically as a desecrated and humiliated woman, whose centuries-long trail of blood and tears (a continent rendered speechless and dumbfounded by the sheer savagery of the rapacious colonial invaders) has turned the very soil of Africa into a fetid swamp. Tagore sees the imperial (here clearly European) invaders as dasyus (Sanskrit for demons), whose rampaging boots and iron chains of slavery have left their grotesque marks forever upon history. Stanza 7 : This stanza is a case study in irony, contrast and unremitting hypocrisy. This diabolical hypocrisy is overwhelmingly common in the realm of religious dogma, pretenses of piety, missionary zeal, and invoking a divine name while conducting acts of extreme inhumanity. The examples of this are strewn throughout the history of missionary

religions, especially those that claim prophetic origins, and assorted holy books that are cited profusely while unspeakable acts of horror are committed by their most devout adherents. While Europe's ruthless rampage through Africa left an entire continent bleeding, gravely wounded; tribes, communities and families torn apart across a region many times the size of all of Europe; humans bound in chains, flagellated and whipped mercilessly, fathers taken away from children, sons in vast numbers crated off for lives of endless slavery; women terrorized and violated since darker peoples were not worthy of the slightest human dignity- while all of these unspeakable acts of the ultimate barbarism were going on (much like the rest of Euro-American history to this day)- Tagore paints this pious and peaceful picture of an idyllic life across the seas in any European hamlet during those exact same times. Children playing within the safety of mothers' arms; poets were composing great works of art and beauty (after all, what barbarians of the world have not heard of, or read, the works by Milton, Coleridge, Voltaire, Mozart, Handel, Byron, Mill and on and on?) dedicated to civilization. So much beauty, so much piety; so many church hymns, so many truths proclaimed by gospels. Amazingly, as Tagore says, the poets in these tranquil lands sang paeans to Beauty, and the church bells bespoke the grace of a heavenly Father. The irony and cruelty inherent in these contradictory pictures are beyond shock and bewilderment. The audacity inherent in the inhuman and savage acts of (socalled) civilization that then preaches humanity, brotherhood, and in well over 200 years, democracy to the non-Euro-centric world, is mind-boggling, and leaves any sane human being simply aghast and speechless. But this is what the human world has lived with since the golden years of colonial and imperial rampage. Stanza 8 : In the concluding stanza of this potent and exemplary poem, Tagore offers the imperial plunderers at least one possible path to partial redemption for their savage acts of inhumanity. In Tagore's imagination, along the lines of Karmic consequences, the long trail of evil and inhuman acts must lead eventually to an impending storm that proclaims the end to the degeneracy and debasement. He visualizes such an ominous dusk descending one day upon the Western horizon. In the twilight of that dusk, Tagore sees the vast congregation of animals emerging from their lairs in Africa, announcing the end of the day. He entreats the poet of that era of a not-too-distant future to prostate apologetically before the brutally violated Africa and ask contritely for her forgiveness. As Tagore puts itanything short of that would make all of Europe's pious and holy creations add up to nothing more than hingsro prolaap, in other words- violent delirium. That act of contrition alone, in the poet's vision, would be perhaps the West's last, genuinely divine and meritorious pronouncement.