On remembering Rabindranath

One can find Rabindranath anywhere—he's there in the words we whisper, in the tunes we hum, in the ethos we believe in, in the ideal of the human we wish we were. For years, I drew inspiration from Rabindranath's women—their quotidian resistance to "aachar" (Kumu from Jogajog), their quiet dismissal of norms (Moitreyi from "Somapti"), their ability to transcend the realm of life (Kadambini from "Jibito o Mrito"), their affection for those rendered mute by the system (Mrinal from "Strir Potro")—Rabindranath's women were flawed and frivolous, courageous and coquettish, driven and demure. They were also—to borrow a term made famous by the modernist poet Ezra Pound—making it new. In Satyajit Ray's 1984 film version of Rabindranath's Ghore/Baire, Bimala's crossing the threshold of the interior space and stepping out into the outside marks a period in our history where the new woman steps outside the ondormohol—the interior domestic space—and into the bahir—the outside world—and takes her rightful position next to the bhodrolok as her ideal partner. Bhodrolok, literally meaning "gentlemen," refers to an elite social class of individuals that emerged during colonial era India who by the mid 19th century became educated and wanted change, namely a free society. That the widows didn't fit into this scheme is a discussion for another time. In significant ways then, Rabindranth's women have helped me think alternatively about the idea of being a gendered, political subject of the state. Elsewhere, Tagore's travelogues and lectures demonstrate to me how Tagore's idea of humanism is not only remarkably different from its rigidly defined Western counterpart but it also in fact, aligns, or pushes further some of the contemporary posthumanist ideas. His work offers us instances that help rethink the representation of a nonbinarised human/nonhuman world (as seen in the story "Balai"), a world oriented around an object (such as "Khata"), or death not being the parameter of life itself (such as "Konkal").

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In Europe Jatrir Chithi, written more than a decade after Europe Probashir Potro, Rabindranath seems disillusioned with the destruction brought on by Western modernity. Bhashkar Chakrabarty however argues that the poet's travel writings reveal the ways in which "his sense of the Indian self was shaped largely by his assessment of European culture". Crucially in Pather Sanchay, the polymath talks about how England's intellectual world bore little parallels with the condescension the ruling British in India had for Indians. Rabindranath's ideas thus, are ever evolving and his readers are urged, constantly that too, to rethink and recalibrate their perceptions of the world around them.

On the occasion of the anniversary of his death, may we continue to think critically through Rabindranath. May our visions and ideas continue to be challenged through Rabindranath. May the forces of hate, bigotry, and divisionism weaken in the face of Rabindranath's ethos.

Ontoro momo bikoshito koro, ontoro momo he.

Nazia Manzoor is editor, Daily Star Books and Literature.