Rabindranath Tagore's Place - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Rabindranath Tagore's Place in the History of International Education: A Case Study of the Early Discourse*

Bob Sylvester

Professor

of

Global Literacies

Bridgewater State University,

Bridgewater, MA 02325 USA

*based on forthcoming book,

“Cultivating Their Humanity: A History of International Education (1851-1950)”Slide2

First Non-European / Nobel PrizeRabindranath Tagore, a modern day polymath from Bengal was by disposition clearly of the cosmopolitan tendency, a universal internationalist and a strident anti-nationalist. Widely known in the West after 1912 when his works were promoted among the British and continental

literati

. Slide3

The Gitanjali Among the poetic verse that Tagore (1913) was recognized for by the Nobel Committee was “The Gitanjali” with an Introduction

written by W.B.

Yeats.

Tagore’s

Stream of Life

contained a poetic ecology evocative of Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass.’ Slide4

Stream of Life The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and dayruns through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth

in numberless blades of grass

and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth

and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.

And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

(

Gitanjali

69, p. 86.)Slide5

International School Directly involved by 1921 developing an International School (university) near the grounds of an ashram and school

established

in 1901 in

Santiniketan, West Bengal

.

Extensive

international correspondence during his long career, much of which pronounced his

global civic creed. Slide6

Practice of World Citizenship Rabindranath Tagore’s interest in supporting an educational practice of world citizenship was not limited to expression in essays, poems or staged productions. He founded

a modest boys’ school called ‘

Shantiniketan

,’ started

on a small scale in 1901 with five pupils and five teachers. Slide7

International Education’s Meaning “Tagore believed that international education was the means by which cultures, arising in different geographical locations, would meet and speak to each other.”

(

Gutek, 1993, pp

. 23-4)

1

5 years after opening the Boys’ School

Tagore made

concrete plans for his international university

. In

1916

in

southern California Tagore

formalized thinking

about establishing an international university. Slide8

Sir Michael SadlerHe welcomed Sir Michael Sadler, the Head of the Calcutta University Commission in 1917. It was a meeting that gave birth to a direct and abiding friendship. Slide9

“Where the world meets in one nest”His university was to be called Visva-Bharati.

Sanskrit

word for ‘universe’ with the name of the Hindu goddess of

learning and the

ancient traditional name for India.

The

motto of the university, also from a Sanskrit phrase:

Yatra

Visvam

Chavatyekanidam

or ‘Where the world meets in one nest.

’Slide10

James CousinsNext three years spent with fundraising activities around the world. At the outset of the fund-raising period,

Tagore was invited to speak to students at a college just north of Bangalore by James Cousins, the Irish poet and friend of Yeats who was serving as its College President. Slide11

National Systems of Education In his talk, Tagore painted a portrait of the tension that existed when national systems and philosophies of education are imported, in toto, into other nations:“What

I object to is the artificial arrangement by which this foreign education tends to occupy all the space of our national mind and thus kills, or hampers, the great opportunity for the creation of new thought by a new combination of truths. It is this which makes me urge that all the elements in our own culture have to be strengthened; not to resist the culture of the West, but to accept and assimilate it. It must become for us nourishment and not a burden. We must gain mastery over it and not live on sufferance as hewers of texts and drawers of book-learning

.”

(

Dutta

and Robinson, 1995, p. 222)Slide12

Meeting the East and the WestTagore acknowledged that he sought, through the university, a meeting of the East and the West. The university would have among its aims, “…to study the mind of man in its realization of different aspects of truth from adverse points of

view… To

seek to realize in a common fellowship of study the meeting of East and West, and thus ultimately to strengthen the fundamental conditions of world peace through the establishment of free communication of ideas between the two hemispheres

.”

(p.168) Slide13

1921 – University EstablishedThe formal institutional presence of the university was launched in 1921. Tagore viewed his educational practice as directly tied to a civilization-building process: “I believe the unity of human civilization can be better maintained by the linking up in fellowship and cooperation of the different civilizations of the world

.”

(

Periaswamy

, 1976, p. 122) Slide14

League of Nations ‘Handbook’ University cited in the League of Nations (1921) ‘Handbook,’

clearly

promulgated as

a ‘supporter of the meeting of East and West:’

“

L’Université

internationale

Santiniketan

essaie

de

s’harmoniser

avec

l’histoire

et

l’espirit

de

l’Inde

méme

,

réunissant

les

différentes

cultures de

l’Asie

et y

ajoutant

la plus haute culture

que

l’Occident

ait

produit en science, littérature, philosophie et dans les arts.” (p. 109)Slide15

Deliberate InternationalismModel was a deliberate form of internationalism, co-educational and ignored all sectarian barriers.Tagore (Chatravaty

, 1961) visited China in 1924 with a view towards interacting with students as much as possible.

His

talks were transcribed by his personal secretary, Leonard K.

Elmhirst

, the British co-founder of

Dartington Hall in Devon,

an

experiment in rural reconstruction and progressive education. Slide16

Predatory Materialist Culture Tagore challenged his Chinese student audience with the prospect of a widespread predatory materialist culture during a dark time for the world:“This age to which we belong, does it not still represent night in the human world, a world sleeping while individual races are shut up within their own limits, calling themselves nations, barricading themselves, as these sleeping cottages were barricaded, with closed doors, bolts and bars, and prohibitions of all kinds? Does not all this represent the dark age of civilization, and have we not begun to realize that it is the robbers who are out and awake? The torches which these men hold high are not the lights of civilization, but only

pointings

to the path of exploitation

.”

(p. 208)Slide17

Objects of EducationTagore further outlined his objects for education to the students in China: “There are of course natural differences in human races which should be preserved and respected, and the task of our education should be to realize unity in spite of them, to discover truth through the wilderness of their

contradictions.”

(p. 216)Slide18

Teachers from around the WorldTagore was able to attract teachers from all around the world. In the period of 1921-1939 educators from over a dozen countries became associated with Tagore and the university.

He

attracted teachers from Switzerland, USA, Russia, Italy, Hungary, Sweden, England, Persia and China, France, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Scotland, Norway, Israel and Burma. Slide19

The Unity of Education (1921)Tagore’s (1921) philosophy of international education in essay, “The Unity of Education”.

Mungazi

(2001) observed that Tagore’s contribution to the prospect of international education

lay

in the Western idea of human relationships in which the West

displayed an ‘

inability

to recognize the importance of the existence of other cultures and their potential to contribute to the common good of humanity

.’

(p. 80) Slide20

Capitalism & Human RelationsTagore also objected to capitalism’s mechanical treatment of human relations:“The cult of the machine has produced a rift in human relationships within the West itself. The attempt to unite human beings by artificial means, as if they were pieces of paper or wood that could be gummed or screwed together, loosens the natural and creative bonds which alone can spontaneously fuse them in a deep spiritual unity

.”

(p. 241) Slide21

Materialism’s ChallengeTagore was not alone exploring a spiritual foundation of civic beliefs. Augustus O. Thomas (1921) was soon to lead efforts for a world federation of educational interests and wrote of an aggressive materialism :

“Even

yet the world is in nervous collapse from which it will require years to fully recover. Our material structure is unable to stand alone. The nations are sorely afflicted and realize the materialistic standards are inadequate. The hope of the world today lies in the inculcation of spiritual

values.”

(p. 181) Slide22

Religious Yet Not DogmaticPeriaswamy (1976) quoted the American educational philosopher Robert Ulich (1890-1977) in validating Tagore’s educational-spiritual cosmos:

“We

would misinterpret Tagore’s hopes for a new science of life if we did not recognize in them a profoundly religious – though entirely

undogmatic

– element

.”

(p. 196) Slide23

Martha NussbaumThe classicist, Martha Nussbaum (2007) paid tribute to Tagore’s educational successes in the context of a modern practice of cosmopolitanism:“Tagore was perhaps more focused on this cosmopolitan idea, given his work on developing a universalistic “religion of man.” His school cultivated this idea by inviting faculty from all over the world to teach about their nation’s groups, problems, and traditions and by having students learn about all the major religions – even celebrating their holidays

.”

(p. 38)Slide24

Cosmopolitan PracticeTagore’s cosmopolitan practice was also evident in his poetry. His award-winning poetry (Chakravarty, 1961) shows traces of the fragrance of his universal educational orthodoxy.

The

lure of nationalist sentiments was acknowledged by the poet, but its influence in his poetic mind was to be sublimated to the needs of the world in the context of its organic whole.Slide25

Cosmopolitan PoetryWhere the mind is without fear, and the heart is held high

Where the world is not broken up into

fragments by

narrow domestic walls,

Where the words come out

from

the

depths of truth,

Where tireless striving stretches its

arms

towards

perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost

its

way

into the dreary desert sand of dead habits,

Where the mind is led forward by thee

into

Ever

-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom

,

My

father, let my country awake.

(p.300)Slide26

H.G. WellsIn a striking encounter, Rabindranath Tagore and H.G. Wells met in early June, 1930 in Geneva. The transcript of the conversation (Chakravarty, 1961) reveals a shared interest in human affairs at the level of civilization: Slide27

Tagore and Wells(Tagore) – “I believe the unity of human civilization can be better maintained by linking up in fellowship and cooperation of the different civilizations of the world. Do you think there is a tendency to have one common language for humanity

?”

(Wells)

–

“One

common language will probably be forced upon mankind whether we like it or not. Previously, a community of fine minds created a new dialect. Now it is necessity that will compel us to adopt a universal

language.”

Slide28

The European NarrativeWells then placed the dominant European narrative in stark relief:The supremacy of the West is only a question of probably the past hundred years. Before the battle of Lepanto the Turks were dominating the West; the voyage of Columbus was undertaken to avoid the Turks. Elizabethan writers and even their successors were struck by the wealth and the high material standards of the East. This history of western ascendancy is very brief indeed.

(

Chakravarty

, 1961, p. 108)Slide29

The Colonial FrameBoth men then lamented the lost opportunities in education within a colonial frame of reference: (Tagore) – “And then, the channels of education have become dry river beds, the current of our resources having

systematically

been diverted along other directions

.”

(

Chakravaty

, 1961, p. 108.)

While

H.G. Wells would continue writing about his utopian visions, Tagore would persevere in his attempts to develop a new human culture in practical educational terms.Slide30

Professor Gilbert MurrayThe theme of education developing an international mind was a major preoccupation in the 1920s and 1930s. Rabindranath Tagore

praised

the concept as a ‘Giant Killer’ which, though small in size, was very much a real force in the global society.

Professor

Gilbert Murray, the Oxford University Greek classicist and chair of the Committee on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations, embraced a ‘cosmic’ framework for understanding the role of education in building a new world. Slide31

An International MindMurray (1929) plotted out the central features involved in education that would develop such an international mind:“And I strongly suspect that the surest way both to a good education and to international citizenship is to have one’s studies grouped around some central purpose. Such a central purpose, to be at all satisfactory or enduring, must help or at least be consistent with the good of the whole; above all it enthrones the principle of cosmos above the turmoil of momentary desires and egotisms

.”

(p. 215)Slide32

Murray and TagoreTagore engaged in correspondence with Murray in September 1934, an exchange which reflected the dilemma of international education in the Interwar Period:I find much that is deeply disturbing in modern conditions. I am more conscious of the inevitable and inescapable moral links which hold together the fabric of human civilization. I cannot afford to lose my faith in the inner spirit of man, nor in the sureness of human progress. Man, in his essential nature, is spiritual and not entirely materialistic.

(

Mungazi

,

2001,

p. 83)Slide33

Murray and TagoreMurray responded in an openly personal manner (Murray and Tagore, 1935) remembering the late Madame Curie who he witnessed involved in the work of the ‘Intellectual Co-operation’ and

who

‘sought

to remedy the destructive and narrow impulses of intellectual

leaders’

displayed during WWI.

These

inspiring thoughts were present in Murray’s letter when he wrote:

‘...there is a higher task to be attempted in healing the discords of the political and material world by the magic of that inward community of spiritual life which even amid our worst failures reveals to us Children of Men our brotherhood and our high destiny

.’

(p. 105) Slide34

Fabric of CivilizationTagore then answered with equally personal and lofty sentiments, filled with a sense of anguish over the immensity of the educational work to be done: “I am in complete agreement with you again in believing that at no other period of history has mankind as a whole been more alive to the need of human co-operation, more conscious of the inevitable and inescapable moral links which hold together the fabric of human civilization

.”

(p. 106)Slide35

Murray at the WFEAA few years earlier at the WFEA World Conference in Geneva, Gilbert Murray (in Ryan 1929a) sought an ultimate educational purpose beyond self-gratification. In speaking of the fundamental flaws of most modern systems of education he observed: “In

wishing to remove the element of compulsion or authority which was excessive in some older systems, they have come perilously near accepting the individual’s momentary desire as the standard by which all values are to be judged

.”

(p. 979)Slide36

Coin of the RealmTagore’s legacy as a champion of world citizenship in education may be viewed through his international school efforts.

His

correspondence with Murray highlights his underlying belief in human unity and world citizenship as

the coin of the realm

in the building of such a human civilization.Slide37

Death in 1941Rabindranath Tagore, the 1913 Nobel Laureate in Literature and founder of an international university in the outskirts of Calcutta in 1921, died after a prolonged illness in 1941. This Renaissance man who showed a loathing for the destructive legacy of the of the British colonial education regime for India was awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University in 1940 for all of his achievements in the arts and humanities. Slide38

Tribute by MontessoriLater in his life, Tagore attracted the collaboration and association of the international educator Maria Montessori who visited Shantiniketan in 1939. Upon his death, she wrote (Dutta

and Robinson, 2001) to Tagore’s son:

“There

are two kinds of tears, one from the common side of life, and those tears everybody can master. But there are other tears which come from God. Such tears are the expression of one’s very heart, one’s very soul. These are the tears which come with something that uplifts humanity, and these tears are permitted. Such tears I have at this moment

.”

(p. 196)Slide39

Tagore as World CitizenTagore was an exemplar of world citizenship in the 20th century. But the political class of India was slow to appreciate Tagore’s world standing. He was viewed with greater admiration and appreciation around the world rather than in India. Slide40

India’s InternationalistJawaharlal Nehru, (Periaswamy, 1976) the first prime minister of India, viewed Tagore’s legacy within a global lens:

“He

has been India’s internationalist par excellence, believing and working for international co-operation, taking India’s messages to other countries… It was Tagore’s immense service to India, as it has been Gandhi’s in a different plane, that he forced people in some measure out of their narrow grooves of thought and made them think of broader issues affecting humanity. Tagore was the great humanist of

India.”

(p. 206)