The
Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, addressed the inaugural function of 150th
Anniversary commemorations of Rabindranath Tagore. Following is the text of the
Prime Minister’s address on the occasion:
We have gathered
here today to salute and celebrate the life and work of a multifaceted genius
who was a poet, a painter, a philosopher but above all a humanist who inspired
and elevated his fellow men and women. It is a great honour and privilege for
me to be present here today, at the inaugural function of the 150th
Birth Anniversary Commemoration of one of the greatest luminaries of modern times,
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.
The Great
Sentinel - as Mahatma Gandhi called him – was a moral force behind our freedom
struggle and one who gave a vivid and expressive voice to the depressed soul of
India. Reading Gurudev’s sublime poetry or masterly prose,
one wonders if humankind today has lost some of the finer sensibilities that
inspired his works – the intimacy with nature, the quest for inner truth, the sense
of solidarity and community that transcends borders and breaks down presumed
barriers of religion, race or language.
The
commemoration events planned over the next one year are intended to rekindle interest
in Rabindranath Tagore’s thoughts and teachings as much as in his verses, his paintings
and his music. In commemorating Gurudev’s birth anniversary, I hope that we can
inspire each one of us to a moment of quiet reflection of his ideals and an
urge to rise above the desert sands of dreary habit, in the immortal words of
the poet.
Rabindranath
Tagore’s ideas on universal humanism resonate well in today’s world. His belief in the essential spiritual unity
of East and West and indeed of all peoples is a powerful message of redemption
for a world beset by greed, callousness and irreverence. His association with great
minds such as William Butler Yeats, Romain Rolland and Albert Einstein, to name
but a few, helped him to forge personal and intellectual bonds abroad that reinforced his ideas
of international brotherhood. A number
of commemoration events have been planned abroad, particularly in countries
with which Tagore had some association.
Within the internationalism he espoused, Rabindranath
Tagore had a clear vision of how India should stand among the comity
of peoples. He wrote, ‘In India what is
needed more than anything else is the broad mind which, only because it is
conscious of its own vigorous individuality, is not afraid of accepting truth
from all sources’. So many years after these words were written, I wonder
if we can honestly say that we have understood and imbibed their precious
wisdom.
I was delighted
when last year Her Excellency Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh
agreed to oversee joint celebrations of the Birth
Anniversary in a befitting manner. The decade that Tagore spent in the
serene and enchanting surroundings of Shilaidah, Shahzadpur and Patisar was a
particularly fulfilling and creative period.
His friendship and admiration for his fellow Bengali poets like Kazi
Nazrul Islam, Kazi Abdul Wadood and Begum Sufia Kamal did a lot to promote
literary creativity and diversity. I extend a very warm welcome to His
Excellency Air Vice Marshall A.K. Khandaker who is representing the Government
of Bangladesh in today’s celebration of Tagore’s shared legacy.
I am happy to
announce that the Government of India has decided to institute a prestigious
International Award, in the name of Rabindranath Tagore, to recognize very
distinguished contributions towards the promotion of international brotherhood
and fraternity. A jury headed by the Prime Minister will select each year a
citizen of the world of outstanding public eminence who in his or her life and
work epitomizes the high universal ideals that Rabindranath Tagore stood for. We hope to present the first award by the end
of this commemoration period.
A wide range of
projects are being undertaken as part of the commemorations to make
Rabindranath Tagore’s works more accessible to a wider audience and to preserve
his work for posterity.
The digital
collection of his paintings, entitled the ‘Rabindra Chitravali’, which was
released today, has been put together for the first time with great effort and
with the support of our government.
Some important
archival materials on Tagore that are on celluloid have been restored and
packaged, for national and international dissemination, after sub-titling in
English. A unique project that has been taken up by scholars of international
repute of Jadavpur
University is the
creation of an ‘online electronic variorum’ edition of the works of Tagore in
English and Bengali. I am particularly glad to learn that special efforts are
being made to translate the literary works of Tagore and also encourage
performances of his plays in different Indian languages.
With a view to
revitalize some of our important cultural institutions and to encourage high
quality research into their precious resources, the Ministry of Culture has
introduced a new Tagore National Fellowship for Cultural Research. Under the scheme, renowned scholars have been
invited to take up research projects on unknown or lesser known cultural
resources that lie within our cultural institutions. I invite distinguished
scholars, from India
and the world over, to avail of this prestigious and well funded Tagore
Fellowship.
Rabindranath Tagore
had very definite views on the prevalent education system. He felt that it had
little connection with the reality of Indian circumstances and did little to
stimulate the power of a child’s thought and imagination. In his evocative
words he wrote "…… we are coolies of
the goddess of learning, carrying loads of words on our folded backs”. He visited many universities abroad. Finally his
quest for a method of learning that would draw directly from the experience of
life and nature led him to the charming rural hamlet of Shantiniketan.
He established Visva
Bharati as an international university, which he described thus: a place where
the whole world meets in one nest. It stands
as a living symbol of the poet laureate’s enduring faith in the learning
ability and creative power of a young mind and free spirit. Viswa Bharati should rightfully be one of the
crown jewels of our academic world. But a lot of work needs to be done to
restore this institution to its former glory and for it to live up to the true
ideals of its founder.
In this 150th
birth anniversary year of Gurudev, I can think of no more important task than
the revival of Viswa Bharati. As the Chancellor of the University, I am
personally committed to this important task. The Government of India is putting
a lot of resources into Viswa Bharati, including a special grant of Rs. 95
crores.
We are working with
Viswa Bharati to preserve Shantiniketan's cultural properties. The
Archaeological Survey of India is assisting in the conservation efforts and 27
heritage buildings have been restored. A
new auditorium is planned and as is the complete upgradation of the museums of
Rabindra Bhavana and Kala Bhavana. The
Ministry of Culture and Visva Bharati have also taken up the conservation,
restoration and digitization of all the priceless collections, paintings, books
and manuscripts.
But in the final
analysis the future of Viswa Bharati depends not so much on official patronage
or resources but the dreams and ambitions of its teachers, students and alumni.
Before I
conclude, I must compliment my senior colleague Shri Pranab Mukherjee for the
effort and energy he has put into making a success of these commemoration
events as the Chairman of the National Implementation Committee.
I conclude by
remembering the following lines penned by Tagore:
“When I am no longer on this earth, my tree,
let the ever-renewed leaves of thy spring
murmur to the wayfarers:
“The poet did love while he lived.”
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RCJ/AD/SM