INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES.
Volume-I,Issue-5,August 2012,p10-12
Rabindranath
Tagore:An Environmentalist And An Activist
by
Dr.Debesh Bhowmik
Introduction
Tagore was an environmental pioneer.
RabindranathTagore first became concerned about man’s impact on the environment
after seeing an oil spill at sea on his way to Japan in 1916, The experience
provoked Tagore to write at length about his annoyance at the way modern man
was failing to respect nature. Tagore was a great teacher of environmental
economics as well as an environmental activist
.At least one century ago, the thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore on the
environment was very much relevant
today.His philosophy on the environment
is related with sustainable rural development which is closely correlated
between nature and human being.He imagined an integrated approach of
sustainable development through revival of rural industry and increasing
agricultural growth with community development.This essay endeavours to
highlight some of his ideas on environment and how did he really implement it.
Tagore ideas and implementation on
environmentTagore not only wrote extensively on man’s relationship with the environment but also implemented it too by building Santineketan. It is surrounded by greenery on all sides. He created an example for the whole world in terms of the relationship between nature and humans. Tagore denounces human aggression on nature as an admirer of Ecocriticism which was evident in ‘The Tame Bird was in a cage’ (The Gardener, Poem No. VI). According to Peter Barry in Beginning Theory Human beings consider culture as a great achievement. Humans should understand the roles assigned to them at a macrocosmic level. Any human aggression will end in a disaster for the whole bio sphere.As William Rueckert says, “The conceptual and practical problem is to find the grounds upon which the two communities – the humans, the natural – can coexist, cooperate, and flourish in the biosphere”. Cooperation is the key to the survival of the humans in this biosphere.
In fact, Tagore plays with the
notion of climate, proposing a correspondence between politics and the
environment. As the doctor advises Madhav that “on no account should [the
child] be allowed out of doors” , he implies that the outside air will worsen
his condition, as it happens when the Raja’s messenger arrives and orders “all
doors and windows” to be open .Philosophically as well as in reality,Rabindranath
was very much conscious about the environment and the evils of environmental
damages through pollution.He felt that the air,water,soil pollution hinder the people whether they are
rich or poor but the poor will be mostly affected because of speedy
urbanization, deforestation,and declining of standard of living of poor
people.He gave a detailed analysis how urbanization affected rural life
adversely in a writing entitled “The
Robbery of the Soil” which was read at the meeting of Viswabharati Samiti on 28th
July 1922 . He emphasized that it is urgent to return the same by the people
who plundered the nature.He thought tree planting ceremony(“Briskharopan”)
integrated with the ceremony of “Barshamangal” (wellcoming for Rainy season)
and “Hallakarshan”(ploughing) because the first two are naturally correlated
with season for higher growth and the third one is to give food for the poor or
produce for the earth and its people.
In 1928, 14th July,”The Planting of
Trees” ceremony was held first in Shantiniketan, Biswabharati where , on that
occasion ,tress of Mango, Guava, Papaya, Jackfruits, were distributed to the
farmers of Ballavpur,Khejurdanga etc with 50% subsidies.On that day,Rabindranath
himself was present and attended with
students having colourful dresses and flowers.Tagore first delivered some
slokas and recited some poems which were as follows,
“
Oh Earth !hold the wealth of trees/ and keep it in your breast
“, or , “Oh Cloud!bell the Indra’s organ
with serious tones of hymns/under
the blue sky” , or , “ Oh wind! You did not ignore/ your flute
had started in the Ashar”,or , “ Oh
sky! You have bold eternal vision”, etc.The
attended students and women recited along with Tagore.At the end of the
Ceremony, Rabindranath recited his own
poem named “Mangalik”, eg,
“
The needs of soul may be full to the child alive,
The
strength may give full of honey air with
golden touch of worlds’ palace.”…..
Presently, this ceremony is held on 22nd
Sravana.The students of Biswabharati planted saplings with dancing,
reciting,singing including conch playing.Likewise they prayed for help from
ghosts reciting the poems which explains , earth , misdeeds,strength,desert,universe ,so
that the sapling may become a big tree with flowers and fruits and become able
to human welfare.He loved and performed this ceremony because he said,”
Trees of the earth are cut for several
necessities and the earth became nacked by plundering its shadows of clothes.
It increased the temperature of the air and damage the fertility of the soil.
The homeless forests tend to warmth by unbearable hit of the sun. Keeping these
words in minds, we held the ceremony of tree planting which is nothing but the
function of filling in the gaps of plundered mother’s wealth.”He
understood that tree planting is urgent to save the planet from warming.So he
was bound to say, “The danger is imminent because of deforestation.To save the
danger,we have to recall the god of the forests ,so that it can save this land
and can bear fruits, and allows shadows.”(Gupta and
Chakraborty,1987).Therefore,the thoughts of Tagore on preserving the
environment was nothing but to grow more trees and to protect forest.The
ceremony of planting trees was considered as a symbol of praying trees for
maintain environment to save the planet from global warming and to make the
world an abode of peace which is a green world to live in.
This thought was reflected in his poem entitled “
Brikshbandana” which is translated and is given below;
Oh!
Brave hero of the soil,
Announce
your struggle to free the soil
From
the deep desert fort,
This
war goes on and on …and forever,
You
born on the open bank of the unaccessible islands
And
sit on the throne of the greenery by your
Utmost
patience swimming the ocean;
You
came forth on the midst of distance hills
On
all the grounds of stones
Write
the ballads of victory in the leaves astounding the dust
On
the markless shores and fields and
Found
your own way forward…….
Tagore always thought environment as a part and
parcel of integrated rural development whose ingredient factors were
agricultural development , cooperative movement,and rural industrialization.On
agricultural development his idea was based not only on higher yield but also
on improvement of technology. As a zaminder, he believed that land should not
be distributed to the ignorant riots who could not keep up the land right from
the exploitation of zaminders. He said, “My objective was to rouse the
confidence of the farmer in his own power. Two themes recurred in my mind. One,
the title to land, in justice, does not belong to the landlord, but to the
cultivator. Two, there will be no improvement in agriculture without
co-operative based collective farming. Tilling subdivided and fragmented lands
with primitive ploughs is as futile as carrying water in a sieve.”
To save the rural poor farmers from poverty , he
established Sriniketan in 1922 where he revived cottage industries which may
tend to rural wealth in future.Rural artisans can maintain their livelihood
from that activities and the produced commodities. Rabindranath requested to Elmhurst who was interested
about Indian Agriculture and gave him the responsibility of Sriniketan for rural
industrial reconstruction.Elmhurst was fully
coordinated with Santosh Ch.Majumder,Gour Gopal Ghosh and Kalimohan
Ghosh in the revival of rural cottage
industries.
In Sriniketan , he introduced the weaving,batik and
batik printing,leather works,pottering, spinning etc from which the basic commodities were produced and
the rural poor meet their needs and can earn.In Sriniketan he was also introduced
a training centre in which the selected youth from the rural areas from several
districts were trained the courses of rural industry,cottage industry,and the
problems of rural industry.Moreover , they were trained on rural health and
primary health care.Even they were taught on the village organization and
co-operatives.Along with these training ,physical exercise, punctuality, ethics
and amusement were the additional
courses of learning. After the completion of the courses,they returned to their
villages to organize such courses for implementation on the mode of the
production processes to uplift the rural poor.
But Santiniketan was ignored and marginalized by the
imperatives of a competitive capitalism and nationalism. Even,Sriniketan was
included in this fobia.Thus,within some years,the crisis started,
Although,Leonard Elmhurst sent money amounting to Rs 50000/- per year for
running the Striniketan.The King of Baroda usually sent 6000/- per year during
1924-1934 and afterwords it was stopped.Tagore collected money to show dances,
dramas in Patna,Lahore, Delhi, Meerat, Joypur,Ahmedabad and Mumbai and lastly appealed to the people for helping
Sriniketan.
His ideas on rural development is obviously
interlinked with rural rural money supply institutions and thus,he
established “Patisar Krishi Bank” in
1905. He was also aware of the unpredictable nature of Indian agriculture and
arising out of it, the swings in the hopes and despair of the Indian peasant
community. He was certainly not unaware of the basic exploitative nature of the
colonial administration. He knew that for the drudgeries of life to be lifted,
age-old dependence on nature couldn't be converted into another kind of
deprecating dependence – that is to look up to the State for succour. So the
fundamental premise on which he based his community development programme came
to be "self-help and enlightenment."
Tagore felt that the integrated
rural development under the sectors of education, health, economics, and
welfare should function multilaterally. He felt that Patisar Krishi Bank will
endeavour to free rural poor from their indebtedness. In this context , he
wrote, “We cannot alleviate poverty by sentimental rendering of poetry. We must
gird up our loins and get to work. ” Ultimately, this bank ran about 30 years.
And at last, in 1927,Vishwa Bharati Central Coopearative Bank was set up.
His co-operative concept was extended to the famous
idea of Grain Bank.Thus, he established a co-operative Grain Bank in 1928 at
Sriniketan .Even, a few Co-operative Credit Societies were formed in Santalpara
where most of them were landless labours. During the same year, another credit
society was set up at Ballavpur.
Thus we found that his integrated rural development
approach is not independent of each other stated above rather it is
functionally related with sustainable development that should be raised from
the bottom level in true sense of the term. In 1910, he wrote,
You
depressed those who will fall down you also,
You
keep them behind and they pull you back
You
lay then dark of ignorance
They
make wide difference covering your good
You
will be equal to all through looking down upon.
So, his sustainable rural development concept was so
integrated with agriculture , rural industry and rural money supply ie
cooperative banking with a comprehensive
manner so that production and distribution become environment friendly.
Otherwise, the nature may take revenge and livelihood of rural people may
suffer. This is clear from his famous poem ,(Shesh Saptak -44)
My
old age room ,that I made by mud, and I give its name “Shyamali”
When
it breaks, it will lay like sleeping and mix with the lap of mud
It
will not protest in the broken pillar and will not quarrel with the earth
It
will not build ghosts houses of deaths
showing bones from broken wall….
Rabindranath Tagore’s views pertaining to eco-ethical human
living and sustainable development are based on ancient Indian philosophy,
especially embedded in the Upanishads. Tagore considers Nature and human life
as integral parts of the single entity, the omniscient, omnipresent, ubiquitous
(sarbang khallidang), attribute-free (nirguna) Brahman. So Tagore
emphasizes symbiosis and balance between man and all other aspects of the
mundane world (plants, other living beings, the Earth, atmosphere and the rest
of the universe), and between man and the world beyond (moksha).
In “Aranya Devata”, Tagore opines that modern man
indulges too much in luxurious and profligate living. So long as he used to
live in and around the forest, he had a deep love and respect for the forest
and therefore he used to live in perfect symbiosis with it and its plants and
animals. Wanton destruction of forests, in order to supply timber for city
life, brought about a curse on human race. Paucity of rainfall endangered human
life and the rapid spread of deserts started engulfing human habitation in
various parts of India. So, Tagore emphasizes, we should retrieve our love and
respect for the forest and restore symbiosis with the forest in order to avert
peril.Tagore’s views on ecological stability and symbiosis between man and
Nature have been elaborated in the article “Tapavan”.
Conclusion
To day we are concerned about environmental
disaster. Environmental imbalance intensifies poverty. Therefore, his thoughts
on rural development and poverty alleviation were environment friendly, because
his notion concisely can be stated as ,
[i]Identify poverty from a total perspective using a
holistic framework. [ii]Invest in agriculture, and improve the lot of the
farmers; [iii] expand co-operative movement and encourage community-based
development.[iv]Introduce scientific farming, establish agricultural
bank.[v]Expand cottage industry.[vi]Focus on environment friendly development.
On environment , Tagore believed that : “...owing to
deforestation a calamity is imminent. To escape this peril we have to
propitiate the goddess of forest to protect our land, give us fruits and shade
which are her blessing.”
His environmentalism really reflects in Shantiniketan and Sriniketan.The economy of Shantiniketan
showed his concept on integrated rural development.The hegemony of nature in Shantiniketan
and his modern Viswabharati reflects his
thoughts of sustainable development.As he said that,
We,
two live in the same village , that’s our only happiness
The
Magpie birds sing in their trees
Their
songs fill our hearts .
……….
The two villages are very close
A
field between the two
Many
bees in their forest, make honey in our forest
The
worshipping China Rose garlands of their
banks flow in our metal banks
The
dishes of blossom- flowers of their
village were sold in our village
hat(hub)….
Lastly , the modern Germans felt on the thoughts of
ecology of Rabindranath .Tagore’s love of nature was inspired by the awareness
that all living beings, including animals, trees and plants, are endowed with a
soul. On this level of consciousness, human beings are equal with “low”
creatures and plants. We are all co-creatures of God’s creation. Accordingly,
Tagore’s praise and worship of nature is born of a deep spirit of togetherness
and feeling of a creational bond between humans and nature. Such a sense of
unity is missing in modern Western ecology. It tends to emphasize the
usefulness of nature and the necessity of a natural environment for the
practical survival of mankind. Thus, with his poetry and his essays, Tagore can
inspire a deeper understanding of and togetherness with the natural
environment. Uma Dasgupta(2008) rightly wrote that Tagore was a deeply independent and
unorthodox personality who found a way of expressing this through the fashions
and orthodoxies of his environment interplaying of nature and nature.
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