Tagore's connection with Chittagong's litterateurs
Uday Sankar Das, from Chittagong
Long before his only visit
to Chittagong in mid-June, 1907, Rabindranath Tagore had contacts with the
literary figures and members of the civil society of the city. As a matter of
fact, when Tagore was in his teens – he was only 16 at the time – he met the
famous poet of Chittagong, Nabin Chandra Sen during the Hindu Mela in 1877.
After reading another
distinguished son of Chittagong, poet Nabin Chandra Das’ Bangla translation of
Part 1 of Kalidas’ “Raghubangsha”, Tagore in a letter to Das in June 1892, sent
this compliment, “I have had great
pleasure reading your translation of Ragubangsha. Such lively and beautiful
translation of Sanskrit poetry is hard to come by. In majority cases, the
language of the translation of such poems becomes clumsy and unintelligible.
The substance and beauty of the original book has been retained in its entirety
as much as possible in your translation”.
Tagore was so pleased
after reading the second part of Raghubangsha that he wrote a lengthy review of
this work in Sadhana in 1895.
After reading another
prominent literary figure of Chittagong, Shashanka Mohon Sen’s “Sindhu Sangeet”,
Tagore’s brief comment was, “In this
book, one can see a natural compassion and poetic talent”.
When Tagore visited
Chittagong in 1907, he did not miss the opportunity of meeting the eminent
writers and members of the civil society. Politely declining the invitation to
dinner of the ICS judge of the city and sending his nephew Surendranath to the
judge’s residence, he had a lengthy meeting on the evening of 17th
June, 1907.
A great scholar of
Chittagong, Professor Jogesh Chandra Shingha while recalling the events of
Tagore’s visit to Chittagong wrote in a letter to researcher Pratap Mukherjee
that Professor Rajani Kanta Sen , a teacher of Chittagong College, who was also
a noted litterateur, had invited Tagore and all the leading literary
personalities from all communities of Chittagong to his house on the first day
of the poet’s visit. The main agenda was discussion about the formation of
Chattagram Shahitto Parishad (Chittagong Literary Society).
The meeting was held at
Professor Sen’s house ‘Parade’, and among the poets, authors, litterateurs and
eminent citizens of Chittagong present, were Abdul Karim Shahitto Bisharad,
Nabin Chandra Sen, Purna Chandra Chowdhury, Moulana Moniruzzaman Islamabadi, Jatra
Mohon Sen, Ram Chandra Barua, Harish Chandra Datta, Abdur Rahman Dobhash, Mahim
Chandra Guha, Kazem Ali and Braja Kumar Sen (grandfather of Professor Anupam
Sen, the present vice chancellor of Premier University).
Tagore was very pleased
that this meeting was held in a very peaceful and congenial atmosphere, because
formation of a literary society was the main reason of his visit to Chittagong.
Tagore was also fascinated
by and interested in many events happening in Chittagong. These included the
various activities initiated by Nalini Kanta Sen, and also the initiatives that
he had heard from and read in Jamini Kanta Sen’s books. Tagore was also very
keen to know how the people of Chittagong could form their own Bengal
Navigation Company and also run two steamers by overpowering the mighty British
company, Messrs M David Company.
Tagore had formed, only a
couple of years before his visit to Chittagong, an insurance company with some
of his relatives and friends by the name of The Hindustan Co-operative Insurance
Society, for the benefit of the poor people of the community. An abbreviated
but much more multi-faceted form of this insurance company, called Marriage
Provident Fund was formed in Chittagong and Tagore showed a keen interest as to
how it worked in practice.
After his brief sojourn in
Chittagong in mid-June 1907, Tagore had expressed his satisfaction at the turn
of events both there and in Barisal, and had mentioned in his letters that ‘in both the places I had encouraged the
appropriate people to establish branches of Literary Society’.
However, it took just over
four years to form the branch in Chittagong. To be precise, the society in
Chittagong was formed on 15th August, 1911 with poet Nabin Chandra
Das as its founder President and Bipin Chandra Guha as the Secretary. The
221-member committee consisted of 10 Muslims, including Kazem Ali and Abdul
Karim, and also a number of Christians and Buddhists.
An illustrious son of
Chittagong and a renowned litterateur, Professor Abul Fazal was only four years
old when Tagore visited Chittagong in 1907. But, in his autobiography
‘Rekhachitro’, Abul Fazal had written that when Tagore visited Dhaka University
in 1926, he was a student volunteer, and listened with rapt attention, the
poet’s speech in Curzon Hall. Abul Fazal also admitted to sneaking into a
private gathering in Dhaka, where Tagore was a guest, just to have a closer
glimpse of the poet he adored.
By the time he was in his
thirties, Abul Fazal had gained name and fame in the Bangla literary arena and a
number of his books had already been published. In his writings, Abul Fazal
endeavoured to depict the everyday life of the then Muslim society in East
Bengal, including their usage of Arabic and Parsi words.
Abul Fazal wanted to have
the opinion of Tagore on the usage of such words in Bangla literature.
On 31st August,
1940, he wrote a letter from Chittagong to the Nobel laureate on the subject,
enclosing three of his already published books – “Chouchir’, ‘Maatir Prithibi’
and ‘Bichitra Kawtha’.
Abul Fazal wrote in his
letter, “An effort has been made to
portray some pictures of the society and the family lives of the Muslims living
in the eastern side of Bengal. As a result, it has not been possible to exclude
many words and expressions used in their everyday lives, which are not yet
prevalent in our literature”.
He added, “I believe, if one has to paint a picture of
the Muslim society, Bangla language has to accept many such uncustomary words”.
Citing quite a few
examples of such Arabic and Parsi words in the day-to-day lives of the ordinary
people, Abul Fazal in the last paragraph wrote, “I would be benefitted if I could get some of your comments on this
subject……………..”.
Tagore sent a reply post-haste.
Writing on a letter head of Bisva Bharati, Santiniketan, on 6th
September, 1940, he, at the outset mentioned about his failing eye-sight and
his doctor’s advice ‘to give rest to his
eyes’.
“You have said correctly about the use of language, There is
no effectiveness in a language if the difference in customs and the traits of
psychology are not complied with”, wrote Tagore.
He, however, emphasised on
the limit to the flexibility of any language which should not be exceeded.
Tagore also said that
there were quite a good number of Arabic and Parsi words in Bangla language,
and these have rightfully established their places.
As regards the Muslim
writers’ contribution to Bangla literature, Tagore in that letter commented, “The powerful Muslim writers have not
adequately described the Muslim way of life in Bangla literature. This
inadequacy, irrespective of any community, is a failure of the entire
literature………. If the words regularly used in the Muslim society enter into the
language spontaneously, no damage would be inflicted to literature, rather it
would be strengthened. There are examples of this in the history of the
evolution of Bangla language”.
Despite his failing
eye-sight, Tagore in that short span of time could read the story ‘Chouchir’ by
Abul Fazal, and expressed the hope that writers like him would be able to fill
the vacuum of sufficient knowledge of the Muslim society in Bengal.
Tagore, however, warned
that in this endeavour, if there is hard-heartedness due to a stubborn
attitude, then there would be detrimental fallout.
In the last sentence of
his reply, complimenting Abul Fazal on his writing, Tagore wrote, “From what little I have been able to see, I
have felt that there is smooth flow in your writing”.
It was therefore befitting
that despite so much opposition and resistance, when Tagore’s birth centenary
was celebrated in a week-long programme in the compound of St Placid’s School,
Chittagong, it was Abul Fazal who delivered the Presidential speech, delving
deep into the thoughts and philosophy of this great poet.
Chittagong therefore had a
great connection with Rabindranath Tagore and the great poet had always been in
close contact with the literary figures of this great city.
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The writer is a senior journalist who worked for BBC World
Service Radio in London and is presently based in Chittagong.
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