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Bing Xin  In my childhood, when I discovered on the shelves of the school library Tagore's Gitanjali, the Crescent Moon and other poems, which were written so freshly, fluently and full of the atmosphere of the East, I was so elated as if I had found a hidden orchid while strolling along a mountain path.
The works of this great Indian poet carried me to a beautiful and strange country which was like a fairyland. There were broad and torrential rivers and dense blossoming forests; there were sweating workers and peasants labouring in the dusty field or roads under the scorching sun. Women in flowing saris were walking by village brooks with pottery lamps in hand and brass jars on top of their heads; musicians were playing harps of flutes in the gardens or at ferries; children were piling sand towers and dancing and laughing with the rolling waves at the seashore or riverside. There were glittering stars in the azure sky as well as rumbling thunders and heavy showers...All this led me to know and love the poet's own country and people that he loved so well. So, when I first visited India in 1953, I felt as though I was visiting an old friend's home without any feeling of strangeness. When my Indian friends cordially asked me, "Is this your first visit here?" I really wished to reply, "No, your great poet Tagore had long ago taken me to India many times." After I had finished reading Tagore's Gitanjali, The Crescent Moon and other poems, I looked for more. Either by purchase or borrowing, I got his other poems, short stories and prose writings. His stories fully express his deep sympathy and strong sense of justice, particularly towards women who were suffering under the yoke of feudalism. With his severe and sharp pen, he criticized the dark oppressive system toward women, such as child marriage, burning alive wit the deceased husband and enforced widowhood after the husband's death. He loved children, too, for whom he wrote such fresh and beautiful verses as The Crescent Moon. Basing on the lonely life of his own childhood, he protested strongly against the antiquated type of education that greatly hindered the physical and mental development of children. He loved the peasants even more, and for a long period lived among them and opened schools for them. His poems effectively expressed the joys and sorrows, hopes and disappointments, beliefs and doubts of the broad masses of his own people. Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, an Indian poetess, when commenting on Tagore's poems, says that in India "all men and all women sang the songs; the boatmen on the river, the peasants in the fields, the students in the schools, women at their household tasks, men doing the labours of men in cities and hamlets, towns and the hill-sides, in fields, everywhere they sang the songs of Rabindranath Tagore. If they were glad, spontaneously his songs rose to their lips; if they were sad, his songs were a sanctuary of broken hearts. Did men need inspiration? he inspired; if men needed to be rebuked in a gentle fashion, he rebuked them; and when his country was in distress, when his country saw dreams of freedom from every form of bondage, he held aloft the torch himself from which all eager hearts caught their own torches.' Mrs. Naidu pointed out the great beauties of Tagore's poems. The reason why these poems strike especially a responsive chord in the hearts of the Chinese people is first and foremost Tagore's fervent love of his country and people, which is well expressed in No. 11 of Gitanjali: Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see they God is not before thee! He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put of thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil! Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found? our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; he is bound with us all for ever. Come out of they meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense! What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained? Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow. Here, Tagore uses the style of a hymn to point out the importance of living and working together with the workers and peasants. He condemns those who only wish to put on white robes and worship God with flowers in the lonely dark temples but refuse to toil together with the poorest and lowliest masses of the people in the dusty places. Tagore was a patriotic poet. In his poems his fatherland is so dignified, so beautiful and so lovely! In 1905, when he took active part in the anti-British movement in Bengal, he wrote a number of poems. The first line of the first poem is: Blessed am I that I am born to this land that I had the luck to love her. He also appealed to the broad masses of the Indian people to unite with the words of a prayer. In no. 43 of his Poems, also written during the period of the Swaraj movement, he write: Let the earth and the water, the air and the fruits of my country be sweet, my God. Let the homes and marts, the forests and the fields of my country be full, my God. Let the promises and hopes, the deeds and words of my country be true, my God. Let the lives and hearts of the sons and daughters of my country be one, my God. No. 35 of Gitanjali is even more well known: 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 thee into ever widening thought and action-- Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Who will not be deeply moved when reading this poem? The free Indian in the poet's mind would uphold the truth. With utmost fervour and sincerity, the poet consistently appealed to the sons and daughters of his own country to unite and enter the 'heaven of freedom.' Tagore was a great patriot as well as an anti-imperialist poet, and that is also why the Chinese people love to read his poems. In his youth, Tagore began to take an active part in the various struggles against imperialism--the anti-British movement in Bengal in 1905. With his poems, he sounded the bugle call for battle, and kindled flaming torches in the people's anti-imperialist ranks. In this movement, the Moslems and Hindus stood in a united front and fought together. Tagore appeal in his poem, 'Let the lives and hearts of the sons and daughters of my country be on', met with universal response among the people. Tagore's attitude towards imperialism hardened as time went on. In 1919 when the promulgation of the Sedition Act by the British Indian Government in an attempt to suppress the national independence movement led to the massacre of the Indian people at Amritsar, he renounced the 'knighthood' bestowed on him by the British government to show his indignation and scorn! Because he himself and his compatriots were long under the iron heel of the imperialists, he had the deepest sympathy for the exploited and oppressed Asian people and bitter hatred against the Western imperialist cliques. As we read the lines Tagore wrote to denounce European colonialist pillage and plunder of the continent of Africa (Poems, No. 102): With man-traps stole upon you those hungers whose fierceness was keener than the fangs of your wolves, whose pride was blinder than your lightless forests, The savage greed of the civilized stripped naked its unashamed inhumanity. And all the time across the sea, church bells were ringing in their towns and villages, the children were lulled in mothers' arms, and poets sang hymn to Beauty It seems as though the poet, with sparkling eyes and silvery hair and beard, was piercing with his sharp pen through the hypocrisy and ruthlessness of the colonialists. When the Japanese militarists invaded China's mainland, the poet again wrote indignantly (Poems, No 108): ...sever ties of love, plant flags on the ashes of desolated homes, devastate the centres of culture and shrines of beauty, mark red with blood their trail across green meadows and populous markets, and so they march to the temple of Buddha, the compassionate, to claim his blessings, while loud beats the drum rat-a-tat and earth trembles. They will punctuate each thousand of the maimed and killed with the trumpeting of their triumph arouse demon's mirth at the sight of the limbs torn bleeding from women and children; and they pray that they may befog minds with untruths and poison God's sweet air of breath, and therefore they march to the temple of Buddha, the compassionate, to claim his blessing, while loud beats the drum rat-a-tat and earth trembles The poem denounces the shamelessness and falsehood of the Japanese militarist troops, who went to Buddhist temples and prayed for blessings before embarking on their aggressive expedition. In his letter in reply to Yone Noguchi, a Japanese poet, who defended the Japanese invasion of China, Tagore reproached him with severe indignation: 'in launching the ravening war on Chinese humanity, with all the deadly methods learnt from the West, Japan is infringing every moral principle on which civilisation is based...You are building your conception of an Asia which would be raised on a tower of skulls...China is unconquerable, her civilization is displaying marvellous resources; the desperate loyalty of her peoples, united as never before, is creating a new age for that land.' A Chinese citizen, whoever he may be, cannot but be inspired and filled with gratitude on reading these words, which are full of a sense of justice and deep understanding and sympathy for the Chinese culture and people. Now, the Chinese people have created their new age. If the poet could see it with his own eyes, how happy he would be ! In his last testament the poet used the severest and sharpest language to condemn the bullying and swash-buckling Western imperialists for the havoc they brought to the world during the Second World War. He said: ...the demon of barbarity has given up all pretence and has emerged with unconcealed fangs, ready to tear up humanity in an orgy of devastation...The wheels of fate will some day compel the English to give up their Indian Empire...what a waste of mud and filth they will leave behind!...I had at one time believed that the springs of civilisation would issue out of the heart of Europe. But to-day when I am about to quit the world that faith has gone bankrupt altogether. However, the poet was always optimistic about the future of the East and of mankind. He continued: I would rather look forward to the opening of a new chapter in his history after the cataclysm is over and the atmosphere rendered clean with the spirit of service and sacrifice. Perhaps that dawn will come from this horizon, from the East where the sun rises. Tagore placed this bright hope on the great friendship between the Chinese people and the people of India. In his address on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the Chinese Hall at Santiniketan in 1937, he spoke with great joy and excitement, 'This is, indeed, a great day for me, a day long looked for, when I should be able to redeem, on behalf of our people, an ancient pledge implicit in our past, the pledge to maintain the intercourse of culture and friendship between our people and the people of China, an intercourse whose foundation were laid eighteen hundred years back by our ancestors with infinite patience and sacrifice.' Then poetically he again said, 'As the early bird, even while the dawn is yet dark, sings out and proclaims the rising of the sun, so my heart sings to proclaim the coming of a great future which is already close upon me.' Before this, in 1924, when the poet visited China, he uttered similar words: 'I have come to ask you to reopen the channel of communication...for through overgrown with weeds of oblivion, its lines can still be traced.' 'The supreme significance is that man is a pathmaker. It is not a path leading to profit or power but one through which people's hearts can reach their brothers in other countries.' Again he said 'The friendship and unity between China and India are the foundation-stone of struggling Asia.' 'Let the dawn of this new age light up the East! These words, like glittering stars, will shine for ever in the hearts of the Chinese people! Tagore's visit to China in 1924 left the most precious memories on the poet himself as well as among the Chinese people. Tagore, who deeply loved Chinese culture and people, visited seven cities, including Pekin, Nanking and Hangchow. His several lectures at universities and cultural organizations were enthusiastically acclaimed by the Chinese people. In one of his poems (Poems, No. 123) he wrote down, in the most intimate words, the experience of spending his birthday in China: Once I went to the land of China, Those whom I had not met Put the mark of friendship on my forehead Calling me their own. A Chinese name I took, dressed in Chinese clothes, This I knew in my mind Wherever I find my friend there I am born anew Life's wonder he brings. The hundredth anniversary of Tagore's birth is coming soon. In the twenty years since his death, the 'dawn of the new age' has lighted up the East'. In commemorating the great poet whom we all love profoundly, let the 1000 million people of both our countries remember forever his valuable advice and continue to lay the most solid foundation-stones of friendship and unity for 'struggling Asia'. Bing Xin was a Chinese poet and writer. This text was written for Tagore’s centenary.
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Rabindranath Tagore  It is a day of rejoicing for me that I, who belong to a distant part of Asia, should be invited to this land of yours.
I shall make a confession. When I had your invitation I felt nervous; I asked myself: “What do these people expect when they invite me to their country?” Before Christmas I had been debating this and putting off the date of my departure, partly because I was unwell, but also, quite frankly, because I could not make up my mind. In the meantime, Spring broke out in my own land. A sense of compulsion had been urging me to sit down and prepare my lectures. Having to write in a language not my own, this preparation was necessary for me and took time. But Spring came, the poet heard its call, and I was lured from what I thought was my duty. Songs came in such profusion, like blossoms in spring that 1 had no time for duty and went on writing my poems and composing my songs. Yet I could not get rid of the trouble in my heart. How was I to stand before my friends in China, after idling away my time doing nothing, or what was perhaps even worse, singing songs? But surely you don’t expect fulfilling of engagements from poets. They are for capturing on their instruments the secret stir of life in the air and giving it voice in the music of prophecy. Yet, a poet’s help is needed at the time of awakening, for only he dares proclaim that, without our knowing it, the ice has given way; that the winter which had its narrow boundaries, its chains of ice, inhospitable and coldly tyrannical, is gone. The world has for long been in its grip, — the exclusive winter that keeps the human races within closed doors. But the doors are going to open. Spring has come. I had my faith, then, that you would understand my idling, my defiance of duty. And it came to my mind: Is it not the same thing, your invitation and this invitation of the Spring breeze, which was never ignored by your own wayward poets who forgot their duty over the wine-cup? I too had to break my engagements, to lose your respect, — and thereby win your love. In other continents they are hard taskmasters ; they insist on every pound of flesh; and there, for the sake of self-preservation, I would have done my duty and forgotten my muse. I say that a poet’s mission is to attract the voice which is yet inaudible in the air; to inspire faith in the dream which is unfulfilled ; to bring the earliest tidings of the unborn flower to a sceptic world. So many are there to-day who do not believe. They do not know that faith in a great future itself creates that future; that without faith you cannot recognise your opportunities. Prudent men and unbelievers have created dissensions, but it is the eternal child, the dreamer, the man of simple faith, who has built up great civilisations. This creative genius, as you will see in your own past history, had faith which acknowledged no limits. The modern sceptic, who is ever critical, can produce nothing whatever, — he can only destroy. Let us then be glad with a certainty of faith that we are born to this age when the nations are coming together. This bloodshed and misery cannot go on for ever, because, as human beings, we can never find our souls in turmoil and competition. There are signs that the new age has arrived. That you have asked me to come to you is one of them. For centuries you have had merchants and soldiers and other guests, but, till this moment, ypu never thought of asking a poet. Is not this a great fact, — not your recognition of my personality, but the homage you thus pay to the springtime of a new age? Do not, then, ask for a message from me. People use pigeons to carry messages; and, in the war time, men valued their wings not to watch them soar, but because they helped to kill. Do not make use of a poet to carry messages! Permit me, rather, to share your hope in the stirring of life over this land and I shall join in your rejoicing. I am not a philosopher: therefore keep for me room in your heart, not a seat on the public platform. I want to win your heart, now that I am close to you, with the faith that is in me of a great future for you, and for Asia, when your country rises and gives expression to its own spirit, — a future in the joy of which we shall all share. Amongst you my mind feels not the least apprehension of any undue sense of race feeling, or difference of tradition. I am rather reminded of the day when India claimed you as brothers and sent you her love. That relationship is, I hope, still there, hidden in the heart of all of us, — the people of the East. The path to it may be overgrown with the grass of centuries, but we shall find traces of it still. When you have succeeded in recalling all the things achieved in spite of insuperable difficulties, I hope that some great dreamer will spring from among you and preach a message of love and, therewith overcoming all differences bridge the chasm of passions which has been widening for ages. Age after age, in Asia great dreamers have made the world sweet with showers of their love, Asia is again waiting for such dreamers to come and carry on the work, not of fighting, not of profit-making, but of establishing bonds of spiritual relationship. The time is at hand when we shall once again be proud to belong to a continent which produces the light that radiates through the storm-clouds of trouble and illuminates the path of life. Seemi Choudry  In her podcast, Jasmine Garsd recollects that when she was a child, she never confessed to her friends how she slept next to her grandmother so they could hold hands and dream together [1]. Khawab mein is Urdu for “in my dreams” or “while dreaming”.
***** Looking back, I wish I had held Barri Ammi’s hand while sleeping next to her so we could dream together. We would dream of her life in India–travel to Rampur, to her life before it was partitioned. Like the Mughals, she lived a dignified life and carried herself with the utmost grace. As a young girl, she fantasized about marriage and traveling outside of her hometown. In our dreams, we come upon the night of her marriage to my grandfather. Him: a Zamindar [2], Her: a Dhulhaan [3]. Wearing a modest embroidered dress, she slowly walks toward him while her whole family (and village) watches. Somehow, I am there too and can feel her excitement mixed with complete fear. After their marriage is officiated, they both look into a mirror placed in front of them and smile. The traditional “mooh dikhai” ceremony is the first glance between the newlyweds, through their reflection. Our dreams then transported us to the night Nazirah was born, my eldest aunt and my grandparents’ first child. Barri Ammi had that same peaceful smile–it had a tranquilizing effect reassuring me that everything was going to be okay. Within a few months of Nazirah’s birth, they had to decide: Pakistan or India. Since my grandfather’s lands were all on the Pakistan side, Barri Ammi would bid farewell to her home–to what was familiar. I’ve switched positions in bed but my hand still grasps Barri Ammi’s tightly. Then, we are taken to the Wagah Border. A border that divides India from Pakistan located in Lahore. My father, Tauseef, is in his early twenties accompanying his mother, Barri Ammi, on her first visit back to India since the Partition. I observe them both as he diligently holds their identification cards and papers. I can tell he is nervous. He approaches the border patrol soldier and hands over all documents requested. The soldier looks up at Barri Ammi. Then, he looks at my dad. He stamps their papers and gestures for them to pass through. My father takes a sigh of relief and Barri Ammi smiles. We then rewind and are in the home my grandparents settled in immediately after the Partition, their home in Faisalabad. Barri Ammi just put Nazirah and my father to bed, one a toddler and the other a newborn. Suddenly, she sees the shadow of a man walking down the corridor in her peripheral vision. The door down the hallway slams shut. My grandfather is not at home so any movement is suspicious, perhaps even clandestine. Barri Ammi’s faith is more prevalent than her fright. She comes to her knees, holds her hands next to each other, palms touching, and starts speaking in Urdu. “I know this home is not ours, we are only visitors,” she begins. “We are believers, we believe in The Almighty. This home used to be yours, we came here because it is safe and I want to raise children in a peaceful place. They are innocent, as are we. Please do not harm us. We promise to take care of your home.” Did she see a jinn [4]? I wonder as I witness Barri Ammi talk alone aloud. I assume that the home used to be inhabited by Hindus since her hands are in the namaste position. As usual, her tenacity carries her through the most uncertain times. ***** Looking back, I would insist on holding Khala Ji’s hand while we both sleep so we could accompany one another in our dreams. While she wasn’t my grandmother, she was the closest person to a maternal grandmother as Nanni Ammi’s sister [5]. Khala Ji became a surrogate mother to all her nieces and nephews after her older sister passed away. In our dreams, we travel to the night that she defies her family by refusing to stay in a marriage she never agreed on. I watch her execute a plan to leave her husband’s home only a month after they marry. Determined, she sneaks out while her husband is away and sets out for her family home by foot. On the path, her father spots her as he deboards the incoming train. They catch each others’ eyes and his expression is immediately filled with anger. She throws herself in front of the train, to make a point. She would rather risk her life than be wed to a man she’s not interested in. My great grandfather runs to her quickly enough to save her from being trampled but not quick enough to salvage her hand. That night, she lost her hand but regained her life. She prevailed. I wake up because I can hear Khala Ji snoring. After nudging her a little, I find a cozy spot but still manage to grab a hold of her hand while she’s in a deep slumber. As I drift away, Khala Ji takes me to the scullery of the Sabzazar home–the same home that my mother and her ten siblings were born, raised and married in. With one hand, she’s packing something. I look closer and it looks like some herbs, perhaps hashish with tobacco. Sure enough, I follow her through the back where she continues to prepare her hookah with the packed drugs. In spite of having only one hand, Khala Ji was far more efficient than any of us–even the youngest in our family. Smoking hookah was her only vice, her downtime. Suddenly, two of her nieces (my aunts) and cousin appear. Caught, there’s no way they would let Khala Ji smoke alone. Khala Ji then took me to her last night. I’m sitting with the paramedics in a dinky bus as they navigate the backroads of Sargodha. Even during her final moments, she guided the driver on the right path to get to the local hospital–scolding him to take this road rather than the other. As I sat at her bedside, her eyes are flickering, opening and closing, but they suddenly open wide when she sees a presence invisible to everyone else in the room. “Tusi aah gaya?,” She questioned. Khala Ji then read the shahada and took her last breath. A woman so strong, she wasn’t scared of death. In fact, she was prepared for it. Footnotes: [1] La Última Copa/ The Last Cup https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1134746529 [2] a Landlord [3] a bride [4] A spirit that can take human and animal forms [5] Nanni Ammi: what we lovingly called my maternal grandmother Seemi Choudry is a Pakistani-Venezuelan-American writer who believes literature is meant to liberate. Achala Moulik  Rabindranath was a tireless traveler. Asked why he traveled so much he said than human beings have been given eyes to see the varied beauty of the world, the diverse people and their customs.
From the wars of the West, Tagore turned his attention to the situation in the Far East where the rumbling of a gathering storm could be heard in China where he was invited by Sun Yat Sen and Liang-chi-Chao. He was accompanied by a few friends from Shantiniketan. All along the way, in Rangoon, Penang, Singapore and Kula Lumpur the poet received a tumultuous welcome. Sun Yat Sen, the then head of the Chinese government, sent a letter of welcome. Rabindranath gave speeches that dwelt on the ancient links between India and China. At Shanghai, Nanking, Beijing, the poet criticized the rising threat of violence in the world. To the delight of the Chinese people, he condemned Japan’s new imperialist mood. Representatives from twenty five institutions met Rabindranath and the Tagore Reception Committee organized receptions and meetings where he spoke on the future role of Asia in the forthcoming age. The first of these receptions was at a Scholars Tea on the shores of the beautiful Pei Hei Lake. Though the Leftist press in China had called him a reactionary, Rabindranath Tagore was able to win over his audience through his views on progress. He gave a lecture at the National University where he met Hu-Shih, the leader of the movement that called for western style progress in China. Tagore emphasized both the benefits and pitfalls of such progress. Hu-Shih was won over and asked the poet to spread his message of Asian unity. At the Scholars Dinner in the Navy Club Tagore met the intellectual elite of the capital where he was introduced as ‘the great poet of the revolution.’ Tagore described how the spirit of revolution had commenced with the novels –Ananda Math, Devi Chaudhurani, Durgesh Nandini - of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. When the former and last emperor of China expressed a desire to meet the celebrated poet, Tagore was taken to the Forbidden City to meet Emperor Pu-Yi. Thereafter there was a gathering at the Temple of the Earth where Tagore spoke on the need for Asian unity that was received with warm acclaim. Since the inspiration for Asian unity sprang from Buddhist ties, the Young Men’s Buddhist Association organized a meeting at the Fe Yen Pagoda where he was received by the venerable Abbot Tao-kai. Tagore’s poignant poem “The Last Worship” describing the devotion of Shrimati, the martyred maiden in the court of the Indian Emperor Ajatashatru, who had banned Buddhist rituals, was recited to standing ovation. Tsing Hua College and the Hsin Yueh Pai or Crescent Moon Society organized birthday celebrations for Rabindranath Tagore on 7th May. An indication of his mounting popularity was the decision to confer on the poet a Chinese name- Chu Chen Tan or Thundering Morning of India. Later that day the Chinese version of his dance-drama Chitrangada was staged at the famous Chen Kwang Theatre. There also he delivered his first public lecture, followed by lectures on various themes. These were later compiled in a volume titled Talks in China. Tagore was invited to speak at the International Institute of Religions. From Beijing Tagore went to Hankow where he gave lectures on a favourite topic- Child Education that was listened to with avid interest because such ideas had not been propounded before in China. He graced a reception hosted by the famous Carson Chang at his Shanghai residence. Spurred by Tagore’s vision of a culturally united Asia, the Asiatic Association was formed at Shanghai, stressing the need for Asians to unite in their common struggle against imperialism. Not since the first Buddhist pilgrims arrived in China two millennia ago did China receive any Indian with such respect and rapture. Never would an Indian be received again with the same spontaneous admiration. No Indian mission had gone from India to China after 1036. Tagore’s group was the first to go after almost a millennium. And in 1924 they picked up the threads of the old friendship. Rabindranath spoke on numerous subjects at Shanghai and Canton and always expressed his solidarity with China and supported her struggle. Tagore wanted to learn from the new China and how they were pushing forward their intellectual, social and political life. While they doing this, they were also encountering reminders of the visit of earlier Indian-Buddhist missionaries. Rabindranath spoke of the renowned Chinese travellers – Huen Tsang and Fa Hien – who carried the message of Lord Buddha to China and copies of sacred Buddhist texts. One eminent Chinese scholar, Liang Chi Chao observed that Chinese culture was influenced by Indian-Buddhist missionaries, such as the work Tao Te Ching by the great philosopher Laotse. After hearing his thoughts on Asia’s recent history and the imperative to throw out alien rule, they called him “the thunderous voice of Asia.” With the foresight of a prophet Rabindranath Tagore realized the imperative of Asian nations to join together to create a new age for themselves, freed from the shackles of colonial rule. He wanted his beloved India to establish ties with other Asian nations. In pursuance of this, after returning to Shantiniketan, he established “China Bhavan” or China House where Chinese history, language and culture were to be taught. Such was the inspiration of his ideas that his Chinese friends and admirers mooted the idea of forming an Asiatic Association where the problems and predicaments of Asian peoples could be discussed with the aim of resolving these. Though this did not materialize at that time, the idea bore fruit in 1947 when, soon after India attained independence, the Asian Relations Conference was held in New Delhi, followed by others. Most notable was the Bandung Conference of 1955. Here Afro-Asian nations met to declare their policy of non alignment and their resolve to bring progress to their nations which had suffered under colonial rule. Tagore’s vision of pan-Asian unity continues to influence foreign policies in Asia. Tagore’s vision of Pan-Asian unity is even more relevant today, not only in terms of commerce but in a spirit of amity and cooperation. Not since the first Buddhist pilgrims arrived in China two millennia ago did China receive any Indian with such respect and rapture. Never would an Indian be received again with the same spontaneous admiration. From Shanghai Rabindranath Tagore set sail for Japan, the country of cherry blossoms, the home of the scholar Okakura, author of Ideals of the East who had been a guest in the Tagore house, the country he had learned about from the writings of Finollosa. The messenger of peace landed at Nagasaki, never imagining that twentyone years later this city would be reduced to atomic ashes. Traveling from Fukuoka, Shimonoseki, Kobe, to the ancient capitals of Nara, where the first Buddhist pilgrims from India landed to the medieval capital of Kyoto, Tagore reached Tokyo on 7th June 1924. Japanese men and women gathered at the railway station with loud cries of “Banzai!” At the imperial Japanese capital, Rabindranath gave lectures at the Imperial University, Women’s University, and at the Imperial Hotel. If the young ladies of Japan were inspired by the poet’s stirring support of women’s emancipation, the poet was charmed by the delicate grace of the Japanese women who came with their silk scarves for him to inscribe with brief verses. Tagore was critical of Japan’s imitation of Western imperialism. By way of caution, he advised the Japanese people “Of all the other countries in Asia, here in Japan you have the freedom to use the materials you have gathered from the West according to your genius and your need. Therefore your responsibility is all the greater; for in your voice Asia shall answer the questions that Europe has submitted to the Conference of Man.” It was a prophetic warning. With his instinctual vision Tagore saw that Japan had embarked on a dangerous path in emulating western expansionist ideas and he urged them to emulate only the virtues of the West. However unsatisfying politically the Japan visit brought artistic fruits. Tagore brought back beautiful paintings and a Japanese artist Kampo Arai, student of Yokoyama Taikan whose style, colour and form had influenced the paintings of his nephews Gaganendranath and Abanindranath Tagore. A new school of painting thus evolved out of this Sino-Japanese and Indo-Persian fusion. A Buddhist revival was then taking place in Japan, probably as a counterpoise to the government’s militarism. Scholars such as Dr Takakuso and Dr Watanabe were busy preparing the complete works of Chinese and Buddhist classics. The industrial magnate Count Shibusawa owner of the stately Imperial Hotel, met the poet and offered him hospitality. Britain watched these Indo-Japanese cultural flirtations with some alarm. The idea of a unified Asia chilled them. British agents came to know of Rabindranath’s meeting and moral support given to Rash Behari Bose, a Bengali revolutionary who had found political asylum in Japan after the revolts of 1905. In reprisal they arrested Rabindranath’s close associate Pearson when he was in Shanghai and deported him to England. What Britain feared came to happen when Subhash Chandra Bose sought Japanese aid to form the Azad Hind Fauz in 1941. In 1926 Rabindranath Tagore and several scholar-friends undertook a tour of East Asia following Lord Buddha’s trail across Rangoon, Singapore, Penang, Malaya, Java and Bali. Everywhere crowds waited to accord tumultuous welcomes. In Java both the ruling Dutch cultural elite as well as Javanese intellectuals eagerly interacted with him. In Yogokarta he saw a school built on the Shantiniketan model. Java and Bali brought home to the poet the similarities in language, customs, dance forms and the legends and myths that the people shared with India. After seeing the monuments of Borobodur, Parambanam, the temples of Siam, Indochina or present day Cambodia, and learning of the history of this region which had close connections with India in the first millennium AD, Rabindranath composed an exquisite and evocative poem- Sagarika. Almost impossible to translate I have attempted to do so with a few lines. Bathing in ocean waters Your hair flowing down, Unadorned you sat on the seashore, Your body outlined by the rays Of a pale golden dawn. A crown on my head, Bow and arrow in hand, I stood before you in regal dress, And said: I have come foreign lady. Startled, you rose from the seat of stone And asked, “why did you come?” “Fear not,” I replied “I come to pluck flowers for worship In your forest of flowers.” You came with me: we laughed And gathered jasmines and champas To adorn the image of Nataraja. Together we prayed. The poem describes in untranslatable and haunting beauty of the exchange of music and letters, art and faith, of trading ships and royal brides until How ended the day, I know not. At dusk my ship was on the sea. The wind blew against the sails, Huge waves foretold the ruin. In the dark night my jewel-ship sank. The storm refers to the grim fate that overtook India at the turn of the first millennia. Then many centuries later the Indian traveler returns to find that the cultural ties are still there. He says Listen to my plea, beautiful one, Stand before me once again That I may hold a lamp Before your face. I have no bow and arrows Nor a crown on my head I have brought no basket to pluck Flowers from your garden. I have brought only my veena. Behold me and say If you recognize me now. Rabindranath’s last foreign journey was in the year 1932 when he visited Persia as Iran was then called. He had been invited by King Reza Shah Pehlevi. For the first time the poet flew by air. As the aircraft touched down on Persian soil at Bushire a message of welcome from the Shah was telegraphed to him. The Governor of the province held a public banquet in his honour. A few days later Tagore went to the beautiful city of Shiraz, home to Persia’s great poets Hafiz and Saa’di. The Indian poet felt happy to be in the city of poetry and stayed here for a week, visited the tombs of Hafiz and Saa’di. The people of Shiraz gave warm welcome to the Indian poet. From Shiraz he went to Isfahan, the capital of Safavid Persia whose artisans and craftsmen had influenced Indian art and architecture. Here too he was accorded a warm welcome. He paused at Persepolis where the famous archaeologist Herzfeld showed him the excavations and restorations being done at this historical site where the classical Greek world had met the art and majesty of ancient Persia. At Tehran the Shah received him and the government, the intellectuals and the people showered Persian hospitality and honours on him. In his farewell speech Rabindranath praised the beautiful country of poets. Achala Moulik is former Education Secretary and author of Rabindranath Tagore: A Man for All TImes. Uma Das Gupta  Tan Yun-Shan is a leading figure in the history of Sino-Indian relations in the true sense of an inter-civilizational dialogue far from any political overtones or undercurrents. We are especially honouring his contributions in the hundredth year of Rabindranath Tagore’s visit to China in 1924 because Tan Yun-Shan became a leading figure in the history of Rabindranath Tagore’s Visva-Bharati International University at Santiniketan.
It was for the future of this University that Tagore wanted China’s cooperation in the modern age. It was Tagore’s dream to renew the cultural interface between China and India which had got lost in the centuries after the five dynasties of China (907 – 959 A.D.). It was Tan Yun-Shan who translated Tagore’s dream into action. Inspired by Tagore, and driven by his own very similar inclinations, Tan Yun-Shan gave his life to that endeavour. Of course, this was an altogether different age from that past history of relations between China and India and, therefore, the channel of communication sought was through the establishment of historical and cultural studies at a university. This university was Visva-Bharati International University located in a remote corner of South Bengal founded by Tagore in 1921. An opportunity on a grand scale arrived with Tagore’s invitation to China in April 1924. As he said to his hosts in China, “My friends, I have come to ask you to reopen the channel of communion which I hope is still there; for though overgrown with seeds of oblivion its lines can still be traced. I shall consider myself fortunate if, through this visit, China comes nearer to India and India to China, for nothing else but for disinterested human love.” We know from his life sketch that Tan Yun-Shan was not present in China at the time of Tagore’s visit. During 1922-1924 Tan Yun-Shan was studying for an advanced course in Western Culture, Philosophy and Thoughts at Chuan-Shan Academy in the Provincial capital of Changsha. He met Tagore in Singapore in 1927 during Tagore’s travels in South East Asia at the time. Tagore invited him to come to Santiniketan entrusted with creating a centre for the exchange of scholarship between China and India at Visva-Bharati. It was a stroke of good luck that Tagore found in Tan Yun-Shan a personality who combined the spiritual and the practical in carrying out this task, one who was a living source of “disinterested human love” for the cause of reopening a cultural link between China and India. Together, Tagore and Tan Yun-Shan, put their faith in it. Let me share an excerpt from Tan Yun-Shan’s own account of his life which he titled ‘My Humble Life and Work’. “I left China and went to Singapore and to Malaya in the beautiful and flowering Spring of 1924 with a heart full of emotions, hopes and prayers, of and for the past, present and future not only of my humble self but also my country and my people, as well as the whole world and all mankind. In the meantime Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore was just leading the first modern Indian Cultural Mission to China. We actually crossed each other on the South China Sea. Here again, it seemed, there might be some serious cause behind this fortuity. “Naturally I deeply regretted missing that opportunity of seeing Gurudeva and the Mission and listening to him and the other members of the Mission in my own country. However, I keenly watched all the news about them in China and went through the speeches, addresses and lectures which Gurudeva and the other members delivered there, and which were published in the Chinese newspapers and magazines. At the same time I had also read the few translations of Gurudeva’s works in Chinese as well as some of his works in English. All these impressed me and inspired me very much and profoundly. “It was indeed very fortunate for me to meet Gurudeva for the first time in Singapore in July 1927, when he was on a tour of some of the South East Asian countries including Singapore, Malaya, Penang, Bali, Java, and Siam. When I saw Gurudeva, I immediately felt in him the real representative and symbol of “Tien Tu” or “Heavenly India”. On hearing of my wish to visit India and Santiniketan, very gladly and graciously he asked me whether I would accept his invitation to teach Chinese at his institution, Visva-Bharati, or, International University. This was not only an unexpected offer but a great blessing for me. I naturally accepted it with great pleasure and deep gratitude. I only asked Gurudeva to give me some time and told him I would come here in the next year, 1928, for several works which I had undertaken could not be completed in a short while. He promptly consented saying, ‘Yes, you can take your time, but we shall eagerly expect you there as soon as possible’.” The rest is history in respect to this particular aspect of China’s and India’s renewed association. From the account above we already know something of Tan Yun-Shan’s background. As for Tagore, his travels in the world after his award of the Nobel Prize in 1913 for his Gitanjali Song Offerings convinced him of the need for worldwide cooperation and he naturally hoped that Santiniketan would become the fittest place for a meeting of the scholars of the East and the West. This was the vision of the universal in Rabindranath, universal in his interpretation of India’s history and culture as well as in his goal of building a bridge between nations. A landmark in the Tagore family’s history was Tagore’s father Maharshi Debendranath Tagore’s travel to China in his advanced age. His diary of that sea voyage is unfortunately lost but fragments were published during 1875-76 in the famous Bengali journal of those times, Tattwabodhini Patrika, which used to publish articles on Taoism, Confucianism, and other systems of Chinese philosophy as well as some vivid descriptions of the temples of Canton which was the terminus of Maharshi’s journey. Being 15-16 years of age by then, and being home-schooled, Tagore could easily have been reading these articles in the Tattwabodhini Patrika, and could naturally have inherited from his father a curiosity and a fascination for Chinese culture. Tagore was clearly a China-watcher, to use a modern day terminology. The earliest reference specifically to Tagore’s interest in Asian affairs can be found in the Bengali article he wrote on “Death Traffic in China” in which he protested vigorously against the inhuman Opium trade of the European merchants. The article was published in 1881 before the foundation of the Indian National Congress. In his later years Tagore was the first to spread word of the famous vindication of Eastern idealism in Charles Lowes Dickinson’s celebrated work titled Letters of John Chinaman. Tagore wrote an appraisal on it in Bengali with the title China man er chitthi. The Republic of China was established in 1911 and in 1913 Tagore won his Nobel Prize in Literature for the English version of the Gitanjali titled Gitanjali (Song- Offerings). This was the first time that not just an Indian but an Asian citizen had become a Nobel Laureate. Not surprisingly, on his third foreign tour of 1912-13 to Europe and USA, he came in contact with many oriental students from whom he came to know that some of the early translations of the Gitanjali (Song-Offerings) were in Chinese and Japanese. In 1916 Tagore went to Japan and to America. He suffered humiliation from the Japanese for his trenchant criticism of the nationalistic chauvinism which was the cause of the first world war. He was ridiculed in the American Press for the same reason. In his next tour to Europe and America in 1920-21 Tagore found himself seriously planning to establish an Asian Research Institute in Santiniketan. While in Paris in 1921 he invited the Sinologist Sylvain Levi of the Sorbonne to Santiniketan as the first visiting professor of Visva-Bharati. Headed by Professor Levi, Visva-Bharati’s department of Sino-Indian Studies was the first institute of Asian Culture to develop under the joint collaboration of the scholars from the East and the West. Once Tan Yun-Shan came to Santiniketan in 1928, and stayed for two years at a stretch, he and Tagore got down to prolonged discussions over ways and means to establish a permanent Hall for Chinese Studies. In 1930 Tan Yun-Shan went to Singapore and Burma and Tibet to raise funds for the project. He then went to China. In 1933 the China Chapter of the Sino-Indian Cultural Society was established in Nanjing with Tan Yun-Shan as its first secretary. Tagore was delighted with this progress. In 1934 Tan Yun-Shan returned to Santiniketan and established the India Chapter of the Sino-Indian Cultural Society with Tagore as president. Soon afterwards Tan Yun-Shan returned to China to raise funds for the remaining task of the construction of the China Hall, Cheena-Bhavana, and to obtain books for its research activities. Tan Yun-Shan succeeded in obtaining Rs. 50000 in money and 100, 000 books for Visva-Bharati’s Hall of Chinese Studies with a Library. Cheena-Bhavana was thus inaugurated on 14 April 1937. However young when he came to Visva-Bharati, Professor Tan was an individual of that same spiritual and scholarly tradition who believed that the culture of peace and friendship is the spiritual side of civilization as is the common notion. For example Tan Yun-Shan wrote, and let me end our tribute in his words, “Culture helps man to realize at the first stage the real meaning and value of life, and ultimately to reach its real goal, in which alone there is eternal peace, love, joy, freedom and blessing. In this respect, there is not only much similarity but much identity between the culture of India and that of China.” Uma Das Gupta is a historian and renowned Tagore biographer. Nandita Chaturvedi  We live in a world that is undergoing rapid changes and shifting in a profound way. There is a deep political and social crisis in the West, and particularly in America. The world order, as it has existed, can no longer be determined by the West. On the other hand Asia is rising, China has lifted millions out of deep poverty, and India is poised to do the same. This is an opening up of world democracy, as millions of people in the darker world are freed from the clutches of poverty and degradation. Yet, our times are steeped in violence and tragedy. As today we celebrate Rabindranath Tagore and his vision for Pan Asia, we keep the children of Palestine, who are children of Asia, at the front of our minds. This is a time when we must educate ourselves as Indians, we must not let history pass us by without making our contribution to it. Today, there is a deep political and social crisis in the West, and particularly in America. Student protests that have deepened the crisis in American Universities. These protests are the latest iteration of a deeper rot in the American education system and show that the American university is no longer a place of knowledge and learning, but has become a place where propaganda to justify the American world order is produced. The people of that nation no longer believe in the legitimacy of their institutions. The American people are perhaps more anti-war today than they were during the war in Vietnam. The student protests at the time of the Vietnam war were sparked because of the draft. This time around, the students do not gain anything personally from their protest, but are driven by deeper moral and humanistic considerations. They do not want any longer to be complicit in a system that can oversee the humanitarian crisis in Palestine without conscience. Outrage at Israel and American and European for the war on Gaza has split certain sections of the West away from their alliance. All of this points to the fact that the world order, as it has existed, can no longer be determined by the West. We are living in a time when the threat of nuclear war, the most horrific of human inventions, looms larger than ever before. The threat of war looms over West Asia and escalation seems imminent in Eastern Europe. It is in this context that we must remember that India and China together constitute ⅓ of the world’s population, and if united in vision and ideas, can form a formidable force for world peace. As Indians we inherit a beautiful and glorious history of fighting for peace. Perhaps this history is exemplified by none better than Gurudev Rabindrath Tagore. In April of 1924, one hundred years ago, Tagore landed in China. He was received as a hero, as a messenger from the deep and ancient past of Asia but also as a prophet for what could be a glorious future. Today we celebrate Tagore’s visit to China when we, as Asians, do not know each other. There are many hurdles that stand in the way of us coming together as brothers. Many ask, why do an event on peace with China in this climate? However, we agree with Martin Luther King Jr who said, “Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.” This is a time that is calling out to us to follow the path laid out by Rabindranath Tagore. We may be few in number, but the fact that a few of us believe in a peaceful future is very significant. Tagore always considered himself a poet, whose mission was to “to attract the voice which is yet inaudible in the air; to inspire faith in the dream which is unfulfilled ; to bring the earliest tidings of the unborn flower to a sceptic world.” He too visited China in a time when the brother nations of India and China had been separated for many centuries because of colonialism. The opium grown through slavery on our land had been used by the British to subjugate the Chinese people. Tagore would say in China, “So many are there to-day who do not believe. They do not know that faith in a great future itself creates that future; that without faith you cannot recognise your opportunities. Prudent men and unbelievers have created dissensions, but it is the eternal child, the dreamer, the man of simple faith, who has built up great civilisations. This creative genius, as you will see in your own past history, had faith which acknowledged no limits. The modern sceptic, who is ever critical, can produce nothing whatever, — he can only destroy.” And so, we must come together in a spirit of hope and unlimited faith. We do not celebrate Tagore with weak sentimentalism for a dead past, but we study his ideas and life so we can act in the world with certainty and strength. We study him for the children of our nation, in whom he saw the greatest potential. Through Tagore we learn that when you study and know another people, in this case the people of China, you learn to know yourself better. You see what is universal in human beings, and in yourself. If we come together in Asia, we can share our experiences, and draw on our rich histories, both modern and ancient, to fight the struggles we all face in our own societies, poverty, illiteracy and disease. Indeed, in this time, we in India must seek to learn from the Chinese experience of poverty elimination, as they have accepted our gifts of ideas in the past. Tagore also believed that this unity could be achieved only through the ordinary men and women of our civilization. One can see this in his critique of Japanese aggression on China. Tagore sharply criticized the Japanese idea of Asian Unity based on abstract notions of ‘Asian values’ that could co-exist with domination and war. His exchange with Japanese poet Yone Noguchi shows the debate, with Tagore condemning the idea that war and imperialism could lead to peace and unity. For Tagore, the idea of Pan Asia was based in a broader unity, fundamentally based in ordinary people, in the workers and peasants who toiled all over the ancient civilizations. As Chinese poet Bing Xin said of Geetanjali, “The reason why these poems strike especially a responsive chord in the hearts of the Chinese people is first and foremost Tagore's fervent love of his country and people, which is well expressed in No. 11 of Gitanjali. Here, Tagore uses the style of a hymn to point out the importance of living and working together with the workers and peasants. He condemns those who only wish to put on white robes and worship God with flowers in the lonely dark temples but refuse to toil together with the poorest and lowliest masses of the people in the dusty places.” Tagore is beloved in China. He is taught in schools and his poems are known among ordinary people. He is the second most translated foreign author in China after Shakespeare. Speaking to Chinese people, one gets the sense that they consider him to be one of their own. In this way, Tagore is truly Asian, and belongs to us all. In fact, Tagore should really be considered a world historic thinker. This event is the second in our series this year to mark Rabindranath Tagore’s historic visit to China. I want to share with you that an extensive exhibition was put up at the Indian Institute of World Culture two weeks ago and will be up again starting Tuesday for a few days. There will be events following this one in Delhi and in Kolkata. Significantly, the centenary of Tagore’s visit is being marked in several events across China, including in Beijing University, Shenzhen University, Tsinghua University and Shanghai. I will leave you with one more quotation from Tagore’s talks in China. He says, “When you have succeeded in recalling all the things achieved in spite of insuperable difficulties, I hope that some great dreamer will spring from among you and preach a message of love and, there with overcoming all differences bridge the chasm of passions which has been widening for ages. Age after age, in Asia great dreamers have made the world sweet with showers of their love, Asia is again waiting for such dreamers to come and carry on the work, not of fighting, not of profit-making, but of establishing bonds of spiritual relationship.” This is the spirit that we wish to remember and revive today. Nandita Chaturvedi is contributor and editor of this journal. |
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September 2024
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