Rabindranath Tagore's
visit to Chittagong
Uday Sankar Das, from Chittagong
A poet so desirous of
wandering into distant lands is rare not only in Bengal, but one might say, in
the whole world. Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore was one such rare poet.
No poet in his era had
travelled as extensively as Tagore, be it abroad or his own country. As regards
his travels in his native Bengal is concerned, in particular in what is today’s
Bangladesh, his visits to his family estate in Shilaidaha, and also to other
places like Dhaka, Mymensingh, Barisal and Sylhet have all been well documented
and widely read.
Although avid followers of
and researchers in Tagore’s works have delved into his connection with the
south-eastern port city of Chittagong, general readers have very little insight
into his love and interest for, and also into his only two-day visit to this
beautiful city in the early part of the last century. This city later became very
much intertwined with his literary works and music.
The first ever written
evidence of Tagore’s interest for Chittagong could be found from the writings
of a young poet of Chittagong by the name of Nalini Kanta Sen who, while he was
a student of B.A. in Presidency College, Kolkata, wrote a letter on 25th
July, 1897 to his friend in Chittagong, Surendra Nath Mitra, about his meeting
with Tagore in the poet’s house in Jorashanko, Kolkata – “ I had been to the poet’s house the other day .Almost all the
conversation was related to retaining our national culture and heritage. Rabi
Babu decided not to wear Western attires ……. I had informed him about our
organisation formed with similar aim, and he gave a smile to indicate his
affirmative opinion and satisfaction.”
Tagore’s very clear
comment about natural-beauty laden Chittagong could be seen in a letter he
wrote to a prominent author Thakurdas Mukherjee on 23rd October,
1899.Mukherjee wrote a letter of condolence to Tagore on the death of the
poet’s nephew, Balendranath. In a very long letter of reply, Tagore in one
place wrote – “From the address in your
letter, I see that you are now in Chattagram (Bangla name for Chittagong). By hearing the name of the place, one can
visualise a picture of a hiily area covered with shadows of trees, and in the
horizon one could see the blue linings of the ever-vacillating sea.”
Another prominent literary
figure of Chittagong, Shashanka Mohon Sen had the opportunity of reading a part
of his poem “Sindhu Sangeet” to Tagore, and his brief comment was, “In this
book, one can see a natural compassion and poetic talent”.
During the Maghotshawb
(Brammho Festival) of 1900, Jamini Kanta Sen, a student of B.A. in Presidency
College, Kolkata and hailing from Chittagong, met Tagore in his house in
Jorashanko, and became so close to him that later he joined the poet’s school
in Bolpur. Through his acquaintance, in March 1906, the veteran leader of
Chittagong, Jatra Mohon Sen invited Tagore to visit Chittagong.
On the 14th and
15th April, 1906, Bengal Provincial Conference and Bengal Literary
Conference were organised in Barisal. Tagore was to visit Chittagong after the
conferences, but because of his busy schedule and other urgent works related to
his youngest daughter Mira’s wedding, Tagore could not go to Chittagong that
year.
Tagore did visit
Chittagong the following year, and Jamini Kanta Sen wrote about the poet’s
acceptance of the invitation, “Tagore was
invited to visit Chittagong in 1907 by the citizens of the main centre of
anti-British movement. Generally, he would not accept any invitation of this
type outside Kolkata. Chittagong has overcome that”.
After receiving Tagore’s
consent, a committee was formed to accord a befitting welcome to him in
Chittagong. Prominent among the committee members, comprising Chittagong’s
literary figures and prominent citizens, were poet Shashanka Mohon sen’s
father, Braja Kumar Sen, Sheikh-e-Chatgaam Kazem Ali, Jatra Mohon Sen, Tripura
Charan Chowdhury and Jamini Kanta Sen. The members went to the authorities of
E.B.Railway to seek permission to decorate the station with flowers on the
occasion of Tagore’s arrival.
When Rabindranath Tagore,
along with his nephew Surendranath Tagore, Kedarnath Dasgupta and others,
arrived at the Chittagong Railway Station in the morning of Monday, 17th
June, 1907, there was a torrential downpour. But people from all walks of life
braved the elements to accord him a tumultuous welcome. When there was a slight
let up in the rain, the poet was taken in a flower-decked hackney carriage to
the palatial house of Kamala Kanta Sen on Hospital Road. Sen was at that time
‘the oldest and richest pleader of Chittagong’.
A huge crowd had already
gathered in front of the house and Tagore came out to wave at them. Later, he
came back to the ‘large drawing room’ to be introduced to the prominent
citizens of the city.
On the same day, the ICS
judge of Chittagong, B.K.Mullick came to invite Tagore to dinner that day at
his place, which the poet politely declined with a smiling face. Tagore,
however, did send his nephew Surendranath to the judge’s residence for dinner
that evening, and he himself held a meeting with the literary figures and music
connoisseurs of Chittagong.
Having seen the poet from
such close quarters, especially in his own house in Chittagong, Jamini Kanta
wrote , “What I had seen in Bolpur, I have
seen in my own house………..Rabindranath’s extraordinary restraint – as in Bolpur,
here also he was calm and quiet, unperturbed, always like Sphinx……. Even as a
guest, his food was very simple, in the Western style just boiled vegetables
and rice pudding. He never took any food cooked with spices”.
On the following morning,
(Tuesday, 18th June, 1907), Tagore with a few companions went on a
tour of the city and landed up on the banks of the River Karnaphuli at
Jahajghata. There, he asked one of the labourers working on the ships (Khalashi, as they were known locally), “How
is your Chattagram"? In reply, the Khalashi told Tagore, “Babu, there is
no place like this on earth. The place we consider after Makkah-Madina is
Chattagram”.
The venue selected for according
Tagore a grand reception and his lecture was an auditorium built by Jamini
Kanta’s father in the city’s Sadarghat area. It was called ”Kamalakanta’s
Theatre Hall” (This hall later came to be known as Lion Cinema and was
demolished only a few years back).
In those days, there was
no such big auditorium outside Kolkata. The auditorium was brimming with a huge
crowd, despite another heavy downpour early in the evening. Reporting on the
reception, the newspaper, ‘Bande Mataram’ in its edition of 20th
June, 1907, commented, ‘despite bad weather, the meeting was a crowded one’.
Tagore delivered an
extempore speech delving on the crisis that the country was enduring at the
time, saying that not a single party was working for the real good of the
country, although that was the call of the day.
Prominent Hindu and Muslim
leaders of Chittagong were present on the occasion. Among the Muslim leaders
were Sheikh-E-Chatgaam Kazem Ali and his eldest son Ekramul Huq.
Braja Kumar Sen, who was
one of the prominent organisers of the reception meeting, and also a music
lover, requested Tagore to render a song. Tagore duly obliged and sang a
patriotic song.
After the reception, as
Tagore, accompanied by his nephew Surendranath and others, arrived at the
Railway Station to board the night train, there was no let up in the rain.
Despite the atrocious weather, distinguished citizens and ordinary people
turned up at the station to bid farewell to the poet.
Jamini Kanta Sen, in his
memoirs, while describing Tagore’s visit to Chittagong, wrote, “The reception accorded to Tagore was
unparallel; it was a rare sight in those days, anywhere outside Kolkata.
Receiving such adoration as a litterateur was only possible here
(Chaatagram)”.
The train carrying
Rabindranath Tagore and his entourage pulled out of Chittagong Railway Station
at around 8:30 in the evening, with hundreds of people waving him goodbye at
the platform, thus bringing curtains to a very busy but historic two days of
‘poetic’ sojourn in the city of Chittagong.
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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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