Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan 12

Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi
Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
12

(This is class. An outstanding drawing by Adhishree Manokaran. She is challenging me to write better for attention. I am game)

No one likes to read a book which wags a finger at them. As if the reader knows it all. The ones that are preachy. Unlike music, movies and plays which are played ‘out’, a book works in the mind of the writer and reader. No writer can ever think that he can make a transformational change in the minds of the reader. Very few books have succeeded in doing it, if at all.

Of course, poets are visionaries. They do not live a cloistered life. They live in their imagination and magical realism is part of their individual, cultural and community construct. It may be ‘magical’. But ‘real’ too. Tagore and Bharathi, both were in that league. That is why they and their works are living beyond them. Still they are living beings in their works. Just as Veda Vyasa who wrote the eighteen thousand verses in Srimad Bhagawatham said that Srikrishna would live in its pages and come alive as an experience, both Tagore and Bharathi said that they would live in their works and come alive. Such conviction and confidence are not given to ordinary mortals.

Let there be no assumption or presumption or dismay or anger or anguish that Tagore pipped the post. Or at least got his nose ahead. Nothing of that sort ever happened then or now. ‘It makes for a fascinating debate which should never morph into a fierce one. If it does, then the ferocity should be enhancing not demeaning ’ as Sir Neville Cardus talked while comparing the likes of Don Bradman with Victor Trumper. Tagore and Bharathi were and are undeniable icons. It was never Tagore > Bharathi or Tagore v. Bharathi. Of course, sometimes it was, as we shall see. Therein lies the lure of the love from their lute of the language.

It is not as if Bharathiyar was or has been sidelined. There is so much written on him. And his works are available across India. Yet, Bharathi’s works in other languages, including English are ‘not in the same abundance as Tagore’s’. Did the Nobel Laurate status do it? Was it the change maker? Was the debate over and done with it that Tagore made it? Was it because Tagore had accomplished craftsmen as linguists to translate his works? Or the Bengalis owned up ‘ our Tagore’ more than we Tamilians did?

It is just that there was truth in the openness and willingness of the Bengali to wear his cultural pride on his sleeve. It happened not once in a while. But on a daily basis. They took pride in their cultural pride and read their Tagore. They did not merely trade names or works. They tucked into it and could stand up in an intellectual tussle too. Why? It is the cultural phenomenon of ‘adda’. What is unique about it?

An adda (Bengali -আড্ডা) is a “conversation” among members, who were originally of the same socio-economic strata, but the process has democratized in modern times.
Adda was incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2004. Adda In a coffee shop in Bengal is huge. And then Rabindra Sangeet is not huge. It is on your face, mind, body and soul. ‘Rabindra Sangeet runs in the bloods and veins of those born a Bengali’, said fellow Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.Any talk of Tagore would be incomplete without allusion to the magic of his Rabindra Sangeet.

“Add Rabindra Sangeet as a magical mix, Tagore flies to a different sphere viz. stratosphere among Indian poets” said a literary critic. A club of poets of ‘one’. Wikipedia would say – Rabindra Sangeet-Bengali pronunciation: robindra ongit also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengali Polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature. The first Indian and also the first non-European to receive such recognition.Tagore was a prolific composer with approximately 2,232 songs to his credit.The songs have distinctive characteristics in the music of Bengal popular in India and Bangladesh.

It is characterised by its distinctive rendition while singing which includes a significant amount of ornamentation like meend, murki etc. and is filled with expressions of romanticism. The music is mostly based on Hindustani classical music, Carnatic Classical Music, Western tunes and the inherent Folk music of Bengal and inherently possess within them, a near perfect balance, an endearing economy of poetry and musicality. Lyrics and music both hold almost equal importance in Rabindra Sangeet. Tagore created some six new (taals), which were actually inspired by Carnatic Talas) because he felt the traditional taals existing at the time could not do justice and were coming in the way of the seamless narrative of the lyrics.

In 2021, Netizens loved a viral clip of the popular Pakistani TV show ‘Dil Kya Kare’ which features a Rabindra Sangeet- ‘Amaro Porano Jaha Chay’.

To typically borrow from the world of literature, a couple of write ups on Tagore and his legacy may be passé to set the base. While one is musing on Bharathi, naturally Tagore takes a back seat. Yet, we need to have an idea who are we comparing. While we muse big on Bharathi and how Tamilians see him, on Tagore we need to know how Bengalis revere him.Let’s get to Tagore just a while please from a Bengali’s perspective.

There are very few things that establish the identity of Kolkata more than the perpetual references to the first Nobel Laureate. Brushing aside the passage of time, he is still considered the leading icon of the city which does not lack men and women who can be looked up to. A major thoroughfare is named after him. So are several underground stations, a theatre, public parks, bridges. The state authorities and private individuals and concerns are loath to let go any occasion which can be utilised to use his name. Tagore remains as contemporary in these days of malls and multiplexes as he was he was on the day he became the first Asian to be awarded Nobel prize or when he chose to give up knighthood to mark his protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

On 1 Feb,2021 – Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark,” Nirmala Sitharaman quoted Tagore just before she began with the Part A of her Budget presentation. The truth is that Tagore music is probably the best way to enter into the consciousness of the masses. While it confirms the success with which the poet has become an integral part of life in Kolkata and elsewhere, doubts persist about whether musical skills have been properly imbibed before desperate efforts are made to mount a public platform. An official organiser of Rabindra Jayanti once revealed with a touch of dismay that for a platform that can accommodate not more than 50 singers in a programme that gets stretched well beyond the scheduled hour, he had received more than 1,000 applications.

What matters is that the Tagore consciousness has survived in his poems and songs, his stories and paintings, the establishments that have carried the legacy with dogged determination. Besides, there is the craze for rushing to Santiniketan for relaxed weekends and a taste of the unique climate. It has caused the railway services from Howrah Sealdah and Kolkata stations to Bolpur and Prantik to be much in demand, especially on occasions like Basanta Utsav and Paush Mela.

Tagore songs, have unique characteristics in the music of Bengal, popular in India and Bangladesh. Its distinctive rendition includes certain ornamentation like meend, murki, etc. and has well-defined expressions of romanticism. The music is mostly based on Hindustani classical and folk music of Bengal.
Take for example a Rabindrasangeet — Bhaalobasi, bhaalobasi. It says — I love the cry that breaks out from the bosom of earth and water, the sky broods like an aching heart, the horizon is tender like eyes misted with tears.
Another song Bhaalobese sokhi, nibhrite jatane — Do inscribe my name, my darling, with utmost care, affectionately in the temple of your soul.

The poet communicates effectively, as if he speaks our mind. We often share information, sometimes in very sophisticated ways, but we don’t really communicate. Real communication is a creative process. So Rabindra sangeet is an enlightened communication, an interaction at the highest level of our own consciousness, literally creating a new edge of evolutionary potential through the act of communication itself.

In his book Raga Mala, Ravi Shankar, the great musician, argues that, had Rabindranath Tagore “been born in the West he would now be as revered as Shakespeare and Goethe.” This is a strong claim, and it calls attention to some greatness in this quintessentially Bengali writer — identified by a fellow Bengali.
For the Bengali readers, Tagore has been, and remains, an altogether exceptional literary figure, towering over all others. His poems, songs, novels, short stories, critical essays, and other writings have vastly enriched the cultural environment in which hundreds of millions of people live in the Bengali-speaking world, whether in Bangladesh or in India. Something of that glory is acknowledged in India outside Bengal as well, and even in some other parts of Asia, including China and Japan, but in the rest of the world, especially in Europe and America, Tagore is clearly not a household name.

And yet the enthusiasm and excitement that Tagore’s writings created in Europe and America in the early years of the 20th century were quite remarkable. Gitanjali, a selection of his poems for which Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, was published in English in London in March 1913 and was reprinted ten times by the time the award was announced in November.

Tagore’s works, particularly his poems and songs are much like a flow of love and emotion. In the beginning there is mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it’s in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole thing worthwhile.

Thus far and no further before we get into the bone marrow of our debate.

( Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)