WHY TAGORE IS NO LONGER "SIR."

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13906, 6 November 1919, Page 2

WHY TAGORE IS NO LONGER "SIR."

Why the Indian poet, Sir Rabindranath Tagore, handed back to his donors the knighthood .bestowed by ith*e British Government .is made plain by the Japan Weekly Chronicle (Tokyo). He did it in protest against British Hoggings of Hindu rioters, and the Japanese editor seems to think a similar protest against Korean floggings would lie timely. Hut this is the story: "By the courtesy of an Indian reader we learn some further particulars of the surrender of his knighthood by Sir Rabindranath Tagore. It was done on account of the measures taken in the suppression of riots in the Punjab. It appears that floggings were administered in public. Military men are apparent!}- incurable in their belief that this is the way to 'teach the people a lesson. One might h/ive expected that after the Densliawi affair this method of dealing with a popular demonstration, even if it amounts to a- bloodthirsty insurrection, would be forever discredited. The ultimate object of any, sort of government- must be that the people will uphold it, and it is obvious that anybody witnessing corpora! chastisement, especially if it be the chastisement- of their own fellows by a foreign authority, will foe! much more sympathy for the persons punished than for the authority thus vindicated. We still have something to say on the subject of the Korean Hoggings, the victims of which have- been spared this indignity, and as we have been seinioll'i.cially challenged to criticise the liritish methods of suppressing riots in India we are dealing with this mat lei - first. We may point out to our semi-official critic also that the Rev. 0. F. Andrews, one of the companions of Sir Rabindranath Tagore "in his Japan tour, was the most prominent in getting this barbarous and foolish method of punishment stopped. He protested with such vigor and cogency that it was immediately stopped in Lahore. We have not heard of any Japanese making a. similar effort to get the Korean floggings stopped. The Bengali peot's protest- will also create u> lasting impresion, as lie is recognised not only in India but very widely both in Eueland and America, as a great- spiritual force and a man of the most enlightened outlook."