LITERATURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16546, 20 November 1915, Page 2

LITERATURE.

RABINDRANATH TAGORE AND INDIA.*

By Constant Read eh.

Nearly two years ago I discovered Tagore, and announced my discovery in these columns under the title "The New Spirit." Turning up that article, I found that I was indebted for the title to an essay on " Materialism and Crime," included in MiFrancis Grierson's " Invincible Alliance," first issued in 1913. There are sentences in that essay which, in the light of the present, may bo counted prophetical. Mr Grierson set out to show that " a great revival of art, poetry, and literature will not be possible until a new religious spirit pervades tho world," and he declared: "Wo are now at the point when, leaving out many other considerations, we have to ask: Will nations be compelled to suppress materialism as they are suppressing consumption, or will the nations end in an orgy of crime?" The analysis of the ifiaterialism of the nations which followed is as subtle as it is interesting;— Germany is the hot-bed of modern materialism, and in no other country are there so many suicides. Haeckel attempts to explain away the universe from a scientific point of view, without leaving a gleam of psychic enlightenment. There are times when I consider France the mother of modern materialism. My long acquaintance with French philosophy, with French \vit and the cynicism of the boulevards, gives mo authority to speak. The difference between German and French scepticism is the difference between science and art. The Germans have attacked spiritual things by the use of the smelting pot; the French by logic. The Teuton hits with bars of pig-iron; the Gaul with rapiers of steel. It requires a long and intimate acquaintance with the typical wit of Berlin and Paris to penetrate to tho depths of their shiftless nescience. But the danger of French materialists lies not so much in their method as in their manner. Voltaire fooled the people by the diamond flash of his wit; German soeptics fool the people by their ponderosity. German science is 'the pugilism of the intellect, French materialism is the neurosis of the spirit. On the other hand, materialism in England is the product of three centuries of unobstructed political and commercial expansion ; it has developed out of a stall-fed optimism, imitating, by a singular stroke of destiny, the lethargy which existed in Rome just before the inrush of Northern hordes. Materialism in America is largely borrowed from Germany, because it looks scientific, from France beca/use it smacks of wit, from England because it is fashionable. There are many thoughful men who, looking beyond the din of the high explosives, the rain of shrapnel, and the bayonet charge, see in the great war a fight to a finish between the brigandage of materialism and those spirited ideals which_ seek expression in - a mystical optimism. If this be anywhere near the truth, the desperate oonflicts now proceeding in France and Flanders, in Russia, on the Italian frontier, in Serbia, or at the Dardanelles, represent but an infinitesimal part of the real waging of the war. " Civilisation and barbarism," wroto Francis Grierson, more than ten years ago, " are now separated by a few laws, a few conventions, one or two ideals, and a single religion. Underneath is the lair of the wild beast, • whose growls are as audible and menacing as were, those of the old Roman arena, when Rome thirsted for human blood." The ensuing paragraph has in it an element of the prophetical:— Wo may be at the beginning of a reign of a state of affairs the like of ■which the world has never known, a state o£ things which may cause a pandemonium of unrelenting fury in which all the so-called Qhristian nations become materialistic at heart, after playing at hypocrisy so long, will throw , off their masks, and 1 engage in an Armageddon of slaughter in which the thing called humanity 'will have no part,, in which the total destruction of commercial rivals w'll be tho only incentive and the ohly aim. And the l soldiers most likely' tqs -win, in the final rounding-up are the Russians in Europe, the Turks in the Near East, and the Yellow Races in the Far-East. Because these people still believe'they have souls. They are not afraid to die. The materialist hates to die, although he may not fear death. His desire is to live as long as. he can and enjoy all he can. And not only this, but there is likely to come a time, and that before very long, when the soldiers of the sceptical nations will refuse to fight; the feeling of patriotism will evaporate. When this happens they will feel as if one ruler is as good as another—a Czar of Russia -would prove as -welcome as a King of England or an Emperor of' Germany. The menace of materialism, viewed in this light, ia seen in all its seriousness; and it at once becomes apparent that the ultimate victory of the British Empire hinges, to a greater extent than is generally recognised or admitted, upon the realisation of its highest spiritual ideals. This necessarily leads to an examination of the springs and sources of pure spiritual influences. Nor is it going too far to declare that one of the chief of these sources is to be found in India, and one of its mpst refreshing- and invigorating springs in the Renaissance is Bengal, at the head of wbich stands the commanding figure of Rabindranath Tagore. The recent publication of two biographies has placed mo in possession of the main facts of the Bengali poet's life and work. One of the books is the work of Basanta Koomar Roy, an Italian resident in America, whose personal acquaintance with the poet and his family led him to lecture and write about Tagore in the United States. In this volume he has collected all the information and : impressions -which he had previously utilised for his lectures and newspaper articles. The other biography is written by Mr Ernest Rhys, a Welshman, who came into close contact with Tagore during his visits to England in. 1912 and 1913. Some of the ground covered by these biographies was familiar to me in the " Autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tag-ore," the joet's father, which book I used as the basis for " A Spiritual Adventure," published on this pqge in January last. These biographies make plain the immense importance to England, to India, and to tho British Empire as a whole of the personality- of Ra,bindranath Tagore. Mr Rhys records that, -when leaving London for India in September. 1913, the poet "spoke ■with concern, of the need for a better understanding between his people and ours." Commenting on this, Mr Rhys ■writes: In one of the early chapters of _ this book it was shown how dearly the ideal expressed in Tagore s poems and stones is affected by hie hopes and fears for India. The help she has rendered in the present war to Britain is indeed a sign of the times'; but it is in states of peace that the two lands and tho allied races are 'destined to prove the doctrine, which he and his father, tho Maharshi, have preached, of a greater community of men upon earth. Every word that helps to strengthen such a faith in our commonwealth is a God-send; and a poet lake Rabindranath is more powerful by his songs to-day than any would-be world dictator in strengthening the intercourse between east and west, and giving to India her $art and her voice in the community of nations. / Basanta Koomar Roy expresses a/similar sentiment when ho . says:—"Tagore was born at a supreme moment of our history. He was needed in India, as Dante was needed in Italy. Shakespeare m England, and Goethe in Germany. After the strife and the stress of English domination _of Hindustan, the people longed for quiet. Laissez-faiTe theory was practised with a vengeance. English culture threatened the indigenous, and' soon the question arose for a momentous decision, whether English, Sanskrit, or Bengali should be the medium of instruction. Maeaulav, with his profound ignorance of Sanskrit or Bengali literature, wroto his merciless anathema on the former in his notorious minute of 1835. Tho British-Indian Government voted for English. and the peoplo have still to suffer from such a stupendously etup : d blunder. In the Calcutta University English is still the first language, and Sanskrit or Bengali the second language." ' Two years ago I wrote:— Probably some of tho enthusiasm generated in the breast of Mr W. B. Yeats by the poetry of » " Bnbindranath Tneore, the Man nnd His Poetry." By Basflntu Koomar Roy; with an introduction hv" Hamilton W. Jtabie. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company. (7s Gd.) " Bstbimlrannth Tncrore, a Biogrtfphical Study," liv Ernest Tthys. (5s net.) " One Hundred. Posms of Kabir," translated by Rabindranatti Titaoro, assisted by Evelyn TJnderhill. (4s Gd net.) "The Post) .Office," by Rabindranath Tagore; translated by Devabrnta Mukerjea. (2a 0d net.) Londsn: Macmttlaa and Co

Special Reviews, and Gleanings from Various Sources.

Rabindranath Tagore is because apart from its beauty of form, either poet is endeavouring to ro-creatc tho literature of his own land, and infuse it with a new vitality—Yeats in Ireland and Tagore in Bengal. In such essential labour* they unite to purify tho literary and life-giving currents of the entire British Empire, and to influence the whole world." Basanta Koomar Roy echoes tho same idea when he says: —"Like the Irish Nationalists, tho Indian Nationalists are at work to regenerate the spirit of our own language, and Tagore is a paramount leader in the movement." Precisely because he is an Indian Nationalist, and like his Irish confreres, _ the poet has at various times incurred tho displeasure of the British authorities in India. But, as Basanta Koomar Roy points out:— Tagore is more than a mere Indian nationalist, he is a universal nationalist — a representative of world-wide humanity. His univorsalism has reached the . very height of perfection. He, as a twentieth century idealist, believes in the unity of the human race—unity in the richness of its diversity. He holds that above all nations is Humanity. He holds also that tho presence of the national, the racial, the creedal, and tho continental elements and their co-operation in human society are essential for the harmonious development of the universal; just as the presence and co-operation of the distinct organs of the body are essential for tho normal development of tho man. He thinks that as the mission of the rose lies in the unfolding of the petals which implies distinctness, so tho rose of humanity is perfect only when the diverse races and the nations have evolved their perfected distinct characteristics, but all attached to the stem of humanity by the bond of love. That is the reason why he believes that tho East and the West have their special missions to fulfil, but that their final goal is the same. That is why he does not, as no sensible man any longer does, believe in the cynic charlatanism of "Oh, East is East, and West is West, And never the twain'shall meet." Thus he spoke at a banquet in London, where the master minds of Great Britain and Ireland gathered to welcome him in their midst: ' I have learned that, though onr tongues are different and our habits dissimilar, at tho bottom our hearts are one. The monsoon clouds, generated on the banks of the Nile, fertilise the fardistant shores of the Ganges; ideas may have to cross from East to-Western shores to find a welcome in men's hearts and fulfil their promise. East is East and West is West —God forbid that, it should be otherwise, —but the twain must meet in amity, peace, and mutual understanding; their meeting will be all tho more fruitful because of their differences; it must lead both to wedlock before the common

order of Humanity." I have just had put into my hands a little book called "Bernard Shaw: An Epitaph " —tho title sufficiently explains its purport. The writer, Mr, John Palmer, author of a capital volume on " The Future of the Theatre," commences with the startling declaration: "At midnight on August 4, 1914, all that literature hitherto described as ' modern' passed quietly away in its sleep." Ho continues: "There is no doubt at all that tho ways of literature after the war are to be entirely altered." I hesitate to subscribe to so sweeping an affirmation; nor would I venture to dogmatise regarding Mr Bernard Shaw's prospects of gaining a fresh hearing at the hands of the British public, despite that author's expressed determination not to write another play—l incline to think, however, that one effect of the -war will be the total eclipse of Mr Rudyard Kipling's well nigh universal vogue. In this view lam supported by Mr Horatio Sheafe Krans, who, in his capital monograph on William Butler Yeats in the Irish Literary Review, institutes a comparison between Yeats and Killing, which may well to be applied to Kipling and Tagore : — Nothing could serve better to bring into relief Mr Yeat's point of view and peculiar lyrical gifts than a comparison of his poetry with that of Mr Kipling. Mr Kipling, too often hard, flashy, and materialistic, is the celebrator of imperialism. Ho loves the tumult of war and the din of labours, and sings of them with a rough and gusty energy, and in a language so plain that he who runs may read its whole meaning. He is too often an indifferent artist, speaking in the slang of the camp and in accordance with the standards of the music hall. Mr Yeats is the reverse of all this. He, and -with him the men of the revival, stand opposed to the encroachments of a uniform civilisation that is distinctive of natural and provincial variations of every kind. He shuns the distractions of the workaday world and courts the solitary delights of the spirit. His poems are full of thought, spirituality, and lyrical phantasy, and have a music that is subtle, sweet, and beguiling. They are the product of an exacting artistic conscience, and everywhere wrought with the .utmost care. If Mr Kipling seeks too eagerly to catch the ear of the crowd, Mr Yeats, tends, on the contrary, to address himself to a cult that understands the content of his art and speaks its language.

Before tho war is over there will have to be a serious settlement of affairs in the East. Already ominous clouds are making their appearance on the horizon, which may have something to do with Lord Kitchener's mysterious mission. In this final settlement a man of Rabindranath Tagore's mental and spiritual calibre will have great influence. In his introduction to Basanta Koomar Roy's biography, Mr Hamilton W. Mabie, the American critic, says : We must understand the East, if we are to. deal justly and wisely -with tho delicate and difficult questions already raised by mpre intimate relations. These questions will become dangerous to the peace of the world unless sympathy, knowledge, and imagination unite in the endeavour to. sot them at rest. The West has exploited the East too long. Tho habit of dealing with countries from the standpoint of business advantage does not conduce to an understanding of these ' countries. As a rule, no class knows less about the spirit and character of a people than than those who live among them for purposes of exploitation. Tho door of understanding closes automatically when a people is approached in this 6pirit. And dealing with a peoplo for the sake of profit that can be made out of them inevitably breeds that sense of superiority which is the source of arrogance and assumption, and makes normal and wholeSomo relations between races impossible. Tagore's work is deeply rooted in the soil of Oriental religion and civilisation; its imagery, language, and informing spirit are unaffectedly, and therefore uncompromisingly, Oriental. He is a man of tho Far Ealst uttering the deepest and most characteristic thought , of that ancient world, with a sincerity so deep that wo cannot miss his essential message to us, though it demands from us the exercise of faculties which have become almost atrophied by disuse. He makes no concession to our habit of formal logic; to the literalism of phrase which we have como to regard as the evidence of sincerity and clear thinking. The Western statesmen who are called upon to formulate a Far Eastern policy ought to be required to take 'an examination in Tagore's " Sadhana" and "The King of the Dark Chamber." "The King of the Dark Chamber" and "The Post Office" aro the two of Tagore's plays which have been performed by the Irish Players in Dublin and at tho Court Theatre in London, and which, with "Chitra," are now available in English translation. Tagore has written at least a score of plays and poetical dramas. When a boy of 14 or 15, living in Calcutta, ho wrote a play far an amateur dramatic company in that city, and acted in it himself; and since that time the drama has bulked l largely in all his work. " The Post Office" (Dakghar in the original) was performed in London with Syngo's "Tho Well of the Saints" as a companion nieoe, and Mr W. B. Yoats declares that " on the stage the little play shows that it is very perfectly constructed, and conveys to the right audience an emotion of gentleness and peace." Of this little gem of a play, which, even when merely read aloud, takes a wonderful hold of tho audience, and makes a.ppeal to young and old alike, Mr Rhys writes: — The storv of "The Post Office" turns upon tho longing of a small boy who is a prisoner, unable to be moved from tho village hut where siekness holds him fast. He' ;s hope's most pitiful pensioner, living in a remote village that has hardly been hoard of, and he has for his solace been led to believe that the King himself is sending him a letter. Hero you may think is a slender thread bv which to move the pulleys. But as it to aoted, even with the drawback of having a partly Irish, instead of an Indian characterisation of its villtag"! humans, it proved moving and particularly effective in tho stroke of tragedy redeemed at the close. The -would have been too znuch for a

stage-idyll, except that imagination saved it, and that in the Indian order death is ■ so often not catastrophe at all, but a blessed escape. " One Hundred Poems of Rabir," the last of the four Tagore books upon which this article is based, is of espeoial interest to the 6tudent, for two reasons. In the first place, it introduces the English reader for the first time to the songs of a poet who is one of the most interesting personalities in the history of Indian mvsticism. In the second place, it reveals Rabindranath Tagore as a peculiarly sympathetic interpreter _of Rahr's vision and thou~ht. The instruction furnished by Miss Evelyn Underhill, one of the best living authorities on the complex subject of mysticism, is singularly clear and illuminating, being at once a study of the poet Rahr himself and a survey of the poetry of mysticism, which latter she defines as " on the one hand a temperamental reaction to the vision of Reality; on the other as a form of prophecy." Miss Underhill says: —

As it is the special vocation of the mystioal consciousness to mediate between two orders, going out in loving adoration towards God, and coming home to tell the secrets of Eternity to other men; so the artistic self-expression of this consciousness has also a double character. It is but love-poetry -which is often written with a missionary intention. Kahr's songs are of this_ kind: outbursts at once of rapture and of charity.