Letter by Rabindranath after Jallianwala bag Massacre

Amal Hom

March of 1919.

In the house of Viceroy at old Delhi – presently the campus of Delhi University – Imperial Legislative Council is in session. On the plea of teaching a lesson to the revolutionists of Bengal and Punjab, the government is hell-bent to strengthen the chains binding this country by the constriction of Rowlatt Act. The spokesman of the government in the council is Sir. William Vincent, the Home Member. Unyielding and tough civilian. Soft like a knife made of sugar candy. Comes down to the lobby, puts the overcoat on the shoulders of Surendra Nath Banerjee, talks, never without a smile, with Shrinivas Shastri; and catches up with the words of Malviyaji even before his utterance. Within the council he acts differently altogether. There, the battle is going on between two sides for nearly a fortnight –

“The bit and wounded falcon

Fights with the serpent.”

The representatives of the country are fighting with the foreign rulers with the attitude of “not a grain of earth without war” [an idiom - ‘bina juddhe nahi dibo suchyagra medini’ – the famed saying by Duryodhana in Mahabharata – Translator]. Around twenty-five amendments have been submitted on each of the clauses of the Bill originally proposed. Madan Mohan Malviya alone would have sufficed, but with him stands Surendra Nath from Bengal, Shrinivas Shastri from Madras and Jinnah – the Mohammed Ali Jinnah of those days – from Bombay. I was listening to that great debate sitting in the press gallery.

Afternoon is getting dark with the descending evening. Session of the day is also coming to an end. Viceroy and Governor General Lord Chelmsford stood up (During those days Viceroy used to be the President of the Legislature) and announced that session will resume in the night after evening dinner – otherwise discussions will not be possible on such a huge number of amendments; work of the council will not end within the scheduled number of days. Surendra Nath stood up immediately and said, “But, my Lord, we go to bed at nine!”. Lord Chelmsford replied with a smile, “Well, Mr. Banerjea, we shall condone your absence.”

The session of the council resumed. One by one, all the amendment proposals brought by the native members (who were in minority) were rejected – by the votes of majority white members and their black lackeys. Everyone realized that the Bill we be passed next day, in its original form. Not in vain did Mr. Justice Rowlatt came from white-island to this Prabhas-Tirtha (lighted place or Sacred Place of Lord Krishna) – Translator)! While coming out after the session I saw Home Secretary Sir William Vincent talking with the head of Associated Press Mr. K. C. Roy (Keshab Chandra Roy) in the lobby. Overheard a word ‘powder’ while crossing them but could not understand.

After roaming a little with Keshab babu, both were returning to the hotel in his car. We crossed Kashmiri Darwaja and were moving towards Maidens through Qudsiabagh. I asked Mr. Roy, “What Mr. Vincent was saying to you in the lobby?” He replied, “I smell powder in the air of India, Roy”.

The car was speeding on the roads of old Delhi; the faces of the government members sitting on the treasury bench of the council arose before me – with threatening eyebrows, tight-lipped. Nothing will prevent them from ‘teaching these beggars a lesson’. Something else came up in front of my eyes also, a scene I witnessed in Lahore few days back. In the old city, near Mochi Darwaja a torch-lit mass meeting is going on. A Pathan youth was giving speech standing on a stool put on a buffalo-cart:

“You think about this, this new law which is being prepared – neither will there be a court, nor a lawyer and nor an opportunity to appeal as well. Government will hold a cup of poison in one hand and in other, hold a sword. Government want to make us drink that cup of poison by force of that sword. Snatch the cup of poison from the hand of the government and break it by throwing on the ground; snatch also the sword from its hand and strike the enemy with it.”

“Shabash! Shabash!” The sky turning red with the light of torches echoed the resounding acclaim for the speaker. The audiences were all the shopkeepers, street-vendors, Tonga-wallas and hawkers! Tried to match the two images coming to my mind and became sure that conflict is inevitable. Sensed the rise of dark clouds on the horizon, foreboding of storm and perhaps the smell of powder in the air as well!

Despite forceful protests of the people Rowlatt Bill was passed. Tumultuous movements and tension did spread all over the country. Gandhiji gave a call for Satyagraha-protests to his fellows, friends, to the people all over India.  Bugle horns of war called from all sides. Perhaps the enthusiasm was all the more because the weapon [Satyagraha – Translator] was unknown.

‘Tribune’ [The media house where the writer Amal Hom was working then – Translator] office sanctioned leave to its assistant editor, tired of covering the Rowlatt Bill debate in the Legislative Council. Came to Calcutta by the mid of March. Before leaving Lahore, I had seen the rising mercury of the thermometer of O’Dwyer [Michael O’Dwyer, Lieutenant Governor of Punjab – Translator]. Lieutenant Governor looked determined to teach a lesson to the political agitators. Most angry he was with my ‘chief’ Kali Nath Roy. He was editor of Tribune, and he was Bengali. I came to Calcutta with terrible anxieties. As usual, keeping with his way Gandhiji appealed to the Viceroy, not to accord his clearance to the Rowlatt Act ignoring the remonstrances from all over the country. His appeal was rejected. Gandhiji announced that on first Sunday of April, i.e. on 6^th, whole of India will go on strike and processions and rallies will be held against this ‘Black Act’. With these will begin his civil disobedience against the act and subsequent imprisonment. People in Delhi confused the date – they went on strike on 31^st March. Firings occurred, Chandni Chowk reddened with the blood of Hindu and Muslim martyrs; coming in front of the bayonets of the Gurkha soldiers, stood Swami Shraddhanand, the tall saint wearing reddish tunic. A big procession of the Muslims took Swami Shraddhanand to Jama Masjid. They asked him, the brave and courageous leader of the Arya Samaj, to stand on the alter on which their Imam stood. From that alter he gave the call, “Hindus and Mussalmans, be united!” That call went from Delhi to Punjab. O’Dwyer got more heated.

Waves of countrywide strike swept the rocky, granular plains of the five rivers. Afraid and taken unaware, the government of Punjab arrested the twin leaders of Hindus and Muslims in Amritsar, Kichloo and Satya Pal, under Defence of India Act and sent them to unknown destinations. When, anguished by the exile of these two ‘crownless kings’ of Amritsar, an unarmed army of the people were going to submit petition to the British Deputy Commissioner, they were fired upon and some were killed. Maddened by that the people of Amritsar took revenge in a savage way – two banks were burnt and killing five innocent white employees of those banks. Two English women were also humiliated by them. Hearing about this act, anguished Gandhiji was coming from Bombay to Punjab – he was arrested at the border of Punjab and sent back to Bombay. Hearing the news, whole of Punjab went aflame.

Sitting in Calcutta I was getting the news of Lahore from Mr. Kali Nath Roy. On 8^th I got letter from Kali babu that Lahore is rife with the rumour about his imminent arrest, hence I should remain prepared to proceed for Lahore immediately on receipt of telegram. Telegram came on 10^th night, “come immediately”. There was no train for Lahore on that day. Hence, I boarded Punjab Mail on 11^th. In the morning, news had come to Calcutta about firing on unarmed people and arrest of Gandhiji. All the shops were closed, and modes of transport were off the road. Somehow, I could reach Howrah station.

I was supposed to reach Lahore by 12 in the noon on 13^th. But the train from Ambala started stopping frequently after some time. Making enquiry I came to know that on the previous day the railway tracks were uprooted at many places, hence this extra alertness. When the train reached Amritsar station five hours late, the platform was crowded with white soldiers; big arches were closed by sandbags with machine guns positioned on those. None was allowed to alight at Amritsar. White soldiers came in the compartments and began search operations. Suddenly loud rattles startled us. Sounds were coming from nearby. Quickly the nature of sounds became clear. I asked one white soldier “what’s the matter?” Pointing the thumb of his left hand towards the city outside the station he informed, “lots of fun going on there”.

On that fateful afternoon of 13^th April of 1919, a new chapter of Indian history began to be written with letters of blood on an abandoned land in the city of Amritsar. Next morning the news of Jallianwala Bagh reached Lahore. Two days ago, incident of firing occurred there as well, in the market of Anarkali; shops were closed for the last few days. Now the tension rose to extremes. O’Dwyer ordered, “Open the market, open all the shops, otherwise militancy-laws will be clamped upon.” People of Lahore said, “First return the dead bodies of the persons killed in firing at Anarkali.” O’Dwyer with his council, entered the narrow lanes and bazars of the old city on horseback, guarded by armed forces in the front and back. The women inside the houses welcomed him by the antic of fake wails of ‘siapa’¹; and men, seeing Malek Omar Hayat Khan of Tiwana, the famed lackey of Punjab, on the horseback with Pathan headgear just beside the Lieutenant Governor, welcomed loudly, “the maternal uncle of the government has come!” Humiliated Lieutenant Governor returned back, could not make the shops open.

Next day, on 15^th April, Marshal Law was was announced in Lahore. Militaries and the CID polices took away Kalinath from Tribune office, I remained house-arrested in the office. Violent frenzy of Colonel Frank Johnson began in Lahore. Air-bombing was done on unarmed people at Gujranwala, torture of innocent women went on in Kasoor and on the streets of Amritsar, people were made to crawl at bayonet-point.

Thereafter came down the darkest curtain between Punjab and the rest of India. Not a dot of light was there in that deep darkness. The country as a whole was “apprehending something terrible in its silent soul” and “the horizons were hidden” [‘maha ashonka jopichhe mouna antare’ and ‘dikdiganta abagunthane dhaka’, both lines from the poems of Rabindranath]. Piercing that darkness, tearing away the dark curtain gleamed a streak of light on 30^th May 1919.

On that day the voice of the poet of Bengal rose in denouncement – holding the poison of accumulated insult of the country in his own throat like the ‘Neelkanth’ [Shiva the God], he threw away the crown of honour put on him by the British – he came out to stand by the side of his humiliated countrymen. He wrote to Lord Chelmsford:   

6, Dwarkanath Tagore Lane, Calcutta, 
May 30, 1919

Your Excellency,

The enormity of the measures taken by the Government in the Punjab for quelling some local disturbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to our minds the helplessness of our position as British subjects in India. The disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon the unfortunate people and the methods of carrying them out, we are convinced, are without parallel in the history of civilised governments, barring some conspicuous exceptions, recent and remote. Considering that such treatment has been meted out to a population, disarmed and resourceless, by a power which has the most terribly efficient organisation for destruction of human lives, we must strongly assert that it can claim no political expediency, far less moral justification. The accounts of the insults and sufferings by our brothers in Punjab have trickled through the gagged silence, reaching every corner of India, and the universal agony of indignation roused in the hearts of our people has been ignored by our rulers—possibly congratulating themselves for what they imagine as salutary lessons. This callousness has been praised by most of the Anglo-Indian papers, which have in some cases gone to the brutal length of making fun of our sufferings, without receiving the least check from the same authority—relentlessly careful in smothering every cry of pain and expression of judgement from the organs representing the sufferers. Knowing that our appeals have been in vain and that the passion of vengeance is blinding the nobler vision of statesmanship in our Government, which could so easily afford to be magnanimous as befitting its physical strength and moral tradition, the very least that I can do for my country is to take all consequences upon myself in giving voice to the protest of the millions of my countrymen, surprised into a dumb anguish of terror. The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part wish to stand, shorn of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen, who, for their so-called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings.

These are the reasons which have painfully compelled me to ask Your Excellency, with due reference and regret, to relieve me of my title of Knighthood, which I had the honour to accept from His Majesty the King at the hands of your predecessor, for whose nobleness of heart I still entertain great admiration.

Yours faithfully,
Rabindranath Tagore

Let me tell you something about the history of this letter. Everyone may not be knowing.

It is difficult to say from whom Poet got the news of the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh. Dispatch of letters and newspapers between Punjab and Bengal during that period was stopped altogether due to tight censorship. His niece, Sarala Devi – wife of all-powerful leader of the ‘valley of five rivers’ [Punjab] Pandit Ram Bhuj Chaudhary – had written to him about the imminent danger her husband was facing. That letter didn’t reach the Poet. I myself had written quite a few letters to him at that time from Lahore – he received none. He was then at Shanti Niketan. But the news reached him anyway. Eight days before writing to the Viceroy, on 22^nd May – summer heat was in extreme in Shanti Niketan – Rabindranath wrote to one of his lovesome² (the young woman was then at Shimla hills):

“This might of the sky I can bear with but the might of this earth has become unbearable. You are already in Punjab. Hence you perhaps have received the news about the grief of Punjab. Heat of this grief is scorching the ribs of my chest.” (Bhanu Singher Patrabali)

Much later, the Poet had described this searing of his soul in one of his writings. His own words are here:

“You know, in the days after Jallianwala Bagh happenings, all its news had not reached here. I perhaps got the news from Choudhury family [looks like the poet is referring to Ashu Choudhury, Pramatha Choudhury and others] – do not clearly remember, I can still bring to my mind what terrible pain, unbearable pain I went through. Just went on thinking – can’t it be counteracted? Can’t I be able to give a befitting reply? Am I able to do nothing at all? If even this is to be borne in silence, living also would be impossible.” [Mongpu te Rabindranath – Maitreyee Debi]

Night after night, the Poet spent awake. Finally, when could not bear it any more, from Shanti Niketan he came to Kolkata on 27^th May. Immediately after reaching Kolkata he paid a visit to one famous political leader, who was dear to him. Rabindranath is saying, “I asked him to arrange a protest meeting, I shall speak, you people will also speak…”. The leader did not agree. Rabindranath went to meet some more leaders, none agreed. Defense of India Act was still clamped on the country. Everyone was in terror – who knows, what would happen   Mr. Andrews was with the Poet then; he writes:

“He tried to get up a public meeting of protest; but no one was willing to take the chair.” [‘Rabindranath Tagore’ by C. F. Andrews in ‘Voorslag’, a quarterly journal published from Durban, South Africa, May-July 1927]

Rabindranath said to me that then he informed Gandhiji about his readiness to go to Punjab with him. But Gandhiji did not agree.³

Two days, 28^th & 29^th May went futile in these vain efforts. On 28^th May in the morning he went to Ramananda Chattopadhyay. The Poet always had a special regard for the opinions of this friend of him. Finally, in the night of 29^th he wrote the letter to Viceroy. The Poet narrates, “I could go to sleep at four in the morning after finishing the letter. I told nothing to anyone about this. Even not to Rathis (i.e. his son Rathindranath, his wife and other relatives). I know, too many advices do not help much in such actions. I was afraid – lest someone prevents me.” [‘Mongpu te Rabindranath’ – Maitreyee Debi]

As if after so many days the suffering of his mind was ameliorated a bit. On that very day he wrote to Ranu, “After coming to Kolkata I have written to the Viceroy, to take back that title of ‘chhar’ [pun with ‘Sir’, as it was pronounced in rustic Bengali, which also meant rubbish or ash – Tr`] conferred upon me. … I have said that much pain already weighted my chest; more weight of this title has become unbearable; hence I am trying to put it off my head.” I have heard from Mr. Andrews that when next day morning, Rabindranath showed him the letter, he requested the Poet to soften the language. Mr. Andrews never forgot the way Poet looked at him – “Such a look as I had never seen in the eyes of Gurudev before or after!”

Relatives and friends were also scared and not without reason. Mr. Andrews has written that the Defense of India Act was in force at that time. Rabindranath knew that the letter sent by him has brought him face-to-face with the risk of arrest, direct court proceedings and imprisonment. In that very period, many in Punjab were punished with deportation for life and confiscation of property for much lesser anti-government activities.

Rabindranath was not afraid. In those fateful days, he gave his country the “hymn of courage” [Abhi mantra], in the “illuminated and spirited language of the pride of truth” [satyer gaurabdripta pradipta bhashay] as “godly messenger of the soul of motherland” [swadesh atmar banimurti]. Who will punish him?

[All are phrases taken from the Poets writings – Tr.]

Who came in this world with the lamp of God in hand,

Which of the kings could punish that messenger of Shiva, and when?

[debater deep haste je asila bhabe,

Sei rudradute, balo, kon raja kabe pare shasti dite]

But the British did not pardon him. The Poet has said, “They were very much insulted by that. Then, while I went to England, I found they were not being able to forget that. British are a race, devoted to their king. Rejection of their king hurt them so much.” [Mongpu te Rabindranath – Maitreyee Debi]        

Not only the small Englishmen of this country, who, incensed with the return of Knighthood by Rabindranath, wrote in their newspaper Englishman:

“It will not make a ha’porth worth of difference. As if it mattered a brass farthing whether Sir Rabindranath Tagore approved of the Government’s policy or not! As if it mattered to the reputation, the honour and the security of British rule and justice whether this Bengalee Poet remained a knight or a plain Babu!”

Not only them, – even the big Englishmen of England were not disturbed any less. I have seen a letter written to Rabindranath by Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate of England and an admirer of our Poet. He also, could not forgive Rabindranath⁴. And when during those days, in 1920 Rabindranath went to USA, Henry Nevinson exposed in Nation, the famed newspaper of London, how detectives were engaged by the British Embassy to follow the Poet.

‘The letter by Rabindranath after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre’ was not only a story of great pride for his own life, but also an unforgettable chapter in the history of Indian freedom struggle. The pain of subjugation and insult of the country was not felt by anyone else in this way, and none else could make it vain the way he did.

But the poet did not rest after returning his knighthood – he did not think that he has done whatever there was to be done by him on the issue of Punjab. He repeatedly went on writing letters to many of his sagacious friends – informed them about the lawlessness and tyranny of the British Rule, the humiliation of his countrymen in its hands. Kalibabu, my editor Kalinath Roy, remembered with gratitude for his whole life, what Rabindranath did for his release from jail. Late professor Nepalchandra Roy of Shantiniketan once told me that Rabindranath left none of the authorities to write a letter for Kalibabu. The letter written to me by Rabindranath is

witness to this fact:

Shantiniketan
27.7.1819

Dear Amal,

Received your letter a few days back.

Read in today’s newspaper that Tribune has started publication once again – through your hands. I’m happy but a fear lurks in. The crooked frown of the authorities is still there. I wish that you carry this burden with caution.

I remain anxious hearing the news of failing health of Kalinath Roy in jail and have requested in writing to Montagu and Lord Sinha both, for his release. What else can be done except waiting? Do not be much hopeful.

What Sankaran Nair did? To meet him once would have been better. Perhaps, it won’t be in your convenience now to go to Shimla. Andrews will go after some days. Then to Lahore. He has informed you perhaps. You will get all the news from him. ‘Saheb’ is raging. He knows that this blot of Punjab on the British will never go.

Take my blessings,

Yours,
Shri Rabindranath Thakur  

Tribune was off the press for three months. Only after that I could get the permission to resume its publication. Hence, I really could not go to Shimla. Sudhir Mukhopadhyay, the lawyer of Lahore and friend of Kalinath during his bad days, met Sir Sankaran Nair. When none of the lawyers and barristers of Lahore Chief Court could muster the courage to defend Kalibabu, when the famous British barrister of Calcutta Mr. Norton had to return from the gates of Punjab by the order of martial law administrator Colonel Frank Johnson – he was not allowed to enter to be defense lawyer in Kalibabu’s case – only Sudhirbabu took that responsibility fearlessly and made good arrangements for defense. When with a petition to the Governor General for condoning or lessening the punishment of Kalinath Roy, Sudhirbabu went to Sankaran Nair for advice, Sir Sankaran said, showing him a letter written by Rabindranath, “By good luck, Chelmsford doesn’t know that Tagore has pleaded in this matter”. However, finally the Governor General had lessened the jail-term of Kalinath. He was released after some days.

After a few months Rabindranath went to England (1920). Reaching London, first of all he went to India Office, to meet Montagu and Lord Sinha. In the meantime, report of the Hunter Commission, investigating Punjab disturbances, had come out. A description of the talks about Punjab between Montagu and Rabindranath has been diarized by his son Rathindranath. There Rabindranath appears to be saying to the Secretary of State that people of India is not anxious to punish Dyer, they want to know whether England accepts that the inhuman barbarities done by him is against the principles of humanity. Rabindranath made it clear that discussion on Hunter Committee Report in British parliament is the test for British nation as a whole. During discussion with Lord Sinha, both him and Rabindranath agreed that the way the people accepted in silence the atrocities and lawlessness of Martial Law in Punjab, could not have happened in Bengal – Bengalees would not tolerate such insult of humanity. At that time Rabindranath wrote about this in ‘Shantiniketan’ magazine:

“The inhuman barbarities which took place in Punjab is now under trial. Let’s leave aside the rulers. While judging those barbarities ethically we, as a duty should discuss the character of our countrymen. The happenings which are just sad, humiliate none. But if, behaving animally with human beings becomes possible, then shame overpowers sorrow. Occurrences of Punjab have caused us shame. I feel that deeper abasement of our character has made not only inflicting sorrow but insult to our humanity easier; and that is the cause of our own internal misery.

“In Punjab we expected to hear the message of manliness, ‘however hard be the oppression, we shall suffer, but not self-humiliation’. When we could not hear that, we must first of all condemn ourselves. …. Atrocity on unarmed helpless is cowardliness, to accept that atrocity with humbleness is also cowardliness; – because there is no defeat in receiving the blow of arms with the pride of duty, accepting sorrow with head held up.”

[Shantiniketan, 2^nd year, 1^st issue, Bengali 1327]

We have learnt from that very diary of Rathindranath, that in a ceremony for felicitation by citizens, Rabindranath immediately drew aside Viscount Cecil, eminent leader of the Tories, and informed him about the lawlessness in Punjab. He asked Gilbert Murray, the world-famous professor of Oxford, that the sagacious people who think the behaviour of their countrymen in Punjab has been bereft of ethics, should publish a protest-statement in the newspaper. Poet did not sit idle in England.

After that, when the debate in House of Lords of the parliament on Hunter Commission Report ended in support for General Dyer, Rabindranath was anguished to the extreme. He wrote to Andrews:

London, July 22^nd, 1920.

“The result of the Dyer debates in both Houses of Parliament makes painfully evident the attitude of mind of the ruling classes of this country towards India. It shows that no outrage, however monstrous, committed against us by agents of their Government, can arouse feelings of indignation in the hearts of those from whom our governors are chosen.

“The unashamed condonation of brutality expressed in their speeches and echoed in their newspapers is ugly in its frightfulness. The feeling of humiliation about our position under the Anglo-Indian domination had been growing stronger for the last fifty years or more; but the one consolation we had was our faith in the love of justice in the English people, whose soul had not been poisoned by that fatal dose of power which could only be available in a Dependency where the manhood of the entire population had been crushed down into helplessness.

“Yet the poison has gone further than we expected, and it has attacked the vital organs of the British nation. I feel that our appeal to their higher nature will meet with less and less response every day. I only hope that our countrymen will not lose heart at this, but employ all their energies in the service of their country with a spirit of indomitable courage and determination.

“The late events have conclusively proved that our true salvation lies in our own hands; that a nation’s greatness can never find its foundation on half-hearted concessions of contemptuous niggardliness.

“It is the sign of a feeble character to seek for a short-cut to fulfilment through the favour of those whose interest lies in keeping it barred – the one path to fulfilment is the difficult path of suffering and self-sacrifice. All great boons come to us through the power of the immortal spirit we have within us, and that spirit only proves itself by its defiance of danger and loss.”

[“Letters to a Friend” Edited by C. F. Andrews, Allen & Unwin, London 1928]

Same voice, glowing with valour, which was in the letter relinquishing knighthood written to Governor General, had an expression in this letter to Andrews.

A few days after this letter, on 13^th August, the Poet again wrote to Andrews, this time from Paris:

“Our stay in England has been wasted. Your Parliament debates about Dyerism in the Punjab and other symptoms of an arrogant spirit of contempt and callousness about India have deeply grieved me, and it was with a feeling of relief that I left England.”

But these were not his last words. The Poet now came to the basic – pointed to the fault where it really was:

“Let us forget the Punjab affairs – but never forget that we shall go on deserving such humiliation over and over again until we set our house in order. Do not mind the waves of the sea, but mind the leaks in your vessel.”

Same words, which Rabindranath did speak to his countrymen all his life, “Look at yourself, take care of your home – march forward on the way of self-realization and self-culture.”

The way Rabindranath intensely, with the burning in his soul, repeatedly anguished for the humiliation his homeland had to suffer, for the insult of its miseries, the way he stood beside his countrymen during every crisis, I do not know of any other like instance in the lives of other poets of other countries. But, at the same time, he never agreed to preserve the memory any insult of his country or any humiliation of humanity. That is why, when there was a proposal to build a memorial for Jallianwala Bagh massacre, he did not agree. He said:

“Preserving by a monument, the memory of this happening in Punjab will not be a matter of pride for us. Bravery is commemorated, not cowardice. Where there were no signs of bravery either from the side of the oppressor or from the side of the oppressed, what shall we commemorate with celebration? Our imperial officials have established memorials of their evil doings in Kanpur and Kolkata. Shall we follow them? Will it, this attempt to imitate them, not be our real defeat?”

[Shantiniketan, 2nd year, 1st issue]

More important words were uttered by the Poet in the message he sent in response to the invitation extended by Muhammad Ali Jinnah to attend the first annual memorial meeting of Jallianwala Bagh at Mumbai. The message (13^th April, 1920) is worth resurrecting from the yellowed pages of the old newspaper. So, let me end this article of mine with those words:

“A great crime has been done in the name of law in Punjab. Such terrible eruptions of evil leave their legacy in the wreckage of ideals behind them. What happened in Jallianwala Bagh has itself a monstrous progeny of a monstrous war, which for four years had been defiling God’s world with fire and poison, physical and moral. The immensity of the sin, through which the humanity has waded across its blood-red length of agony, has bred callousness in the minds of those who have power in their hands, with no check of sympathy within, or fear of resistance without. The cowardliness of the powerful, who owned no shame in using their machines of frightfulness upon the unarmed and un-warned villagers, and inflicting unspeakable humiliations on their fellow-beings behind the screen of an indecent mockery of justice — not feeling for a moment that it was the meanest form of insult to their own manhood — has become only possible through the opportunity which the late war had given to men for constantly outraging their own higher natures, trampling truth and honour under foot. This disruption of the basis of civilisation will continue to produce a series of moral earthquakes, and men will have to be ready for still further sufferings. That the balance will take a long time to be restored is clearly seen by the suicidal ferocity of vengefulness ominously tinging red the atmosphere of the peace deliberations.

"But we have no place in these orgies of triumphant powers, rending the world to bits according to their own purposes. What most concerns us is to know, that moral degradation not only pursues people inflicting indignities upon the helpless, but also their victims. The dastardliness of cruel injustice, confident of its impunity, is ugly and mean. But the fear and impotent anger, which are apt to breed upon the minds of the weak, are no less abject. "Brothers, when physical force, in its arrogant faith in itself, tries to crush the spirit of man, then comes the time for man to assert that his soul is indomitable. We shall refuse to own moral defeat by cherishing in our hearts and soul dreams of retaliation. The time has come for the victims to be the victors in the field of righteousness.

"When brother spills the blood of brother on the ground and exults in his sin, giving it a high-sounding name ; when he tries to keep the bloodstain fresh on the soil, as a memorial of his anger, then God in shame conceals it under His green grass and beneath the sweet purity of his flowers. We who have witnessed the wholesale slaughter of the innocent in our neighbourhood, let us accept God's own office, and cover the bloodstains of iniquity with our prayer :—

"Rudra yat to dakshinam tnukham tena mam pahi nityam."

"With Thy graciousness, 0 Terrible, for ever save us."

"For the true grace comes from the Terrible, who can save our souls from the fear of suffering and death in the midst of terror, and from vindictiveness in defiance of injury. Let us take our lessons from His hand, even when the smart of the pain and insult is still fresh — the lesson that all meanness, cruelty and untruth are for obscurity and oblivion, and only the Noble and True are for Eternity. Let those who wish, try to burden the minds of the future with stones, carrying the black memory of their anger, but let us bequeath to the generations to come only those memorials which we can revere. Let us be grateful to our forefathers, who left us the image of our Buddha, who conquered self, preached forgiveness, and spread his love far and wide in time and space".

This message is the message of Rabindranath, the message of Gandhiji’s life – the eternal message of India.

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1.    In Punjab there is a tradition (do not know whether it still exists or not). If someone dies, people are brought on rent for expressing grief around the dead body. These rented grievers take part along with the laments of the relatives of the dead person with loud wails. Beating of chests and in that way announce the death. This is called ‘siapa’. To make fun of the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, the women inside the houses in Lahore imitated that, the moment Michael O’Dwyer, a day before the announcement of Marshal Law, entered the old city to make the shops open, which were closed due to strike for long five days. The fake ‘siapa’ said to him that his entry in the city is a bad omen, grievous like the appearance of death.         

2.    Ranu Adhikary; now Lady Ranu Mukherjee

3.    Much speculations have been made as to why Gandhiji did not come to Punjab ignoring the prohibitions and obstructions imposed by the government, especially the terrorizing frown of Marshal Law. I had the opportunity to listen to Gandhiji himself, when after a few months (in October 1919) he came to Lahore for the work of the Congress Investigation Committee formed to investigate Punjab disturbances. I understood from what he said that, at first he was quite eager to come to Punjab crossing all the obstructions and prohibitions. But later he felt that by announcing Satyagraha on 6^th April and thus by calling the people for Satyagraha-struggle without sufficient preparations, he committed a mistake. Understanding that, he admitted the mistake, due to which, people also indulged in some wrongful acts. Thus, he felt that after openly admitting the mistake – ‘Himalayan miscalculation’ – coming to Punjab again or being arrested in the way would be meaningless. And, even if the authorities permitted him to enter Punjab during Marshal Law, he could have done nothing. He could be kept under house arrest. Nothing positive could have happened by that. Rather, the news of his arrest would have caused bloodsheds elsewhere in the country, as it happened earlier in Gujrat and Punjab. Mr. Andrews has written in this context:

"Just before that letter [Rabindranath's letter surrendering his knighthood) was written [May 30, 1919], while I was with him in Calcutta, I had been staying with Mahatma Gandhi in Bombay, and I had seen with what agony he also had felt all that was happening, and with what difficulty he was prevented from going immediately into the Punjab in order to court arrest. Whether I did right or wrong, I do not know; but I myself joined in trying to prevent him at that time from going into the Punjab. I felt that the time had not yet come. What I want to point out is this, that I saw, at that critical moment, the same independence of spirit, the same fearless courage, the same passionate hatred of tyrannical force, the same utter disregard of consequences, the same willingness to sacrifice life itself for duty, the same love and reverence for the fair name of India in both of them—no whit less strong in one than in the other.” ['Gandhi And Tagore', "The Hindu" Madras, April 10, 1924.)

4.    One could get a hint of the extent to which Robert Bridges, the Poet-Laureate was disturbed by Rabindranath’s relinquishment of the title awarded by King, when Rabindranath was invited to deliver a speech in Oxford in 1920. When the organizers of the event requested Bridges to speak something, he refused. I have a copy of the letter Bridges did write to Rabindranath in this matter. When, after that tour Rabindranath returned from Europe, he permitted me to make copies of some more letters, written to him by various intellects of Europe, and keep with me. I am quoting some lines from that letter by Bridges:

“… and am sorry that I do not feel able to accept the invitation, which I have just received, to speak at the meeting in Oxford on Friday…

“I am writing, especially as I never sent any answer to your several communications since the late disturbances in India. I began a long letter but I feared that you might misunderstand it even more than you could misinterpret my silence, and in England we could not at first rely on the press reports of events.”

[Article published in Sharadiya Desh (Bengali year 1355) and collected in Purushottam Rabindranath ]

Translated by me.