Tagore remembered

On occasion of Tagore Day on 8 May 2013, a publication titled ‘Tagore and Sri Lanka’ was released by Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation and Deputy Minister of Finance and Prof. G.L. Peiris, Minister of External Affairs, Government of Sri Lanka in presence of Ashok K. Kantha, High Commissioner of India at an event organised by the Indian Cultural Centre, Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS) and Centre for Contemporary Indian Studies and CCIS, University of Colombo at the auditorium of LKIIRSS, Colombo.

The book ‘Tagore and Sri Lanka,’ published by the Indian Cultural Centre, is result of a joint India-Sri Lanka commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of Gurudev Tagore and contains papers presented by experts from India and Sri Lanka at a seminar organized at LKIIRSS on 12 June 2012 touching diverse themes such as Tagore’s interpretation of internationalism, Tagore’s visits to Sri Lanka linking cultures and their impact on Sinhala Literature and Sri Lankan dance and drama, visual arts and poetic humanism of Tagore. The publication also contains speeches made by Tagore during his visits to Sri Lanka.

In his remarks, Dr. Amunugama said that India and Sri Lanka were inseparable friends and that Tagore would always be remembered as a major figure in the history of Sri Lanka as he had been able to inspire and instigate several of major Sri Lankan cultural figures through his writings and Santiniketan, his educational institution.

He also highlighted the special relationship between Anagarika Dharmapala and Tagore and Santiniketan and guidance extended by Tagore to Anagarika Dharmapala in running of the Maha Bodhi Society. He urged rewriting the history of Sri Lanka in the lines of the humanistic approach of Rabindranath Tagore. He said that the impact of Tagore and other great leaders of India on the Sri Lankan psyche and history has to be properly evaluated and highlighted and that their contribution is much greater than what is realised and acknowledged.

In his address, Prof. Peiris highlighted that Tagore’s idea about an Asiatic cultural tradition and a holistic education made “an indestructible people to people relationship between Indian and Sri Lanka”. He underlined major contributions of Tagore as his ideas, personality and institution.  He recalled influence of Tagore on major Sri Lankan literary and cultural personalities such as Ediriweera Sarachchandra, Chitrasena and many others, who contributed profusely to develop and indigenous cultural tradition.

Kantha recalled the groundswell of genuine interest in Tagore in Sri Lanka as was evident during number of events organized to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Gurudev Tagore. He emphasised that Tagore elicited such an affectionate response 89 years after his last visit to Sri Lanka in 1934 and 72 years after his demise in 1941 was because of the tremendous respect for Tagore’s multi-faceted genius and the fact that he embodied the ethos, aspirations and challenges of his age.

“His call for Asiatic unity also resonates at a time when Asia is once again finding its identity and its enlarged role in the world. Tagore also encouraged the discovery of ancient cultural roots of Sri Lanka and this simple message struck a deep cord,” the High Commissioner stated. He highlighted that the civilisational bond between the two countries meant that the bilateral relations were multi-layered and not only confined at government to government level, thus lending solidity and maturity to the relationship, which was indestructible.

The Tagore Day also was the culmination of a series of events organised in Sri Lanka over the past two year as part of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore. These included, inter-alia, the release of a special postal stamp by the Ministry of Postal Services, Government of Sri Lanka and release of a commemorative volume ‘Remembering Rabindranath Tagore’ with a message from the President of Sri Lanka on 7 May 2011; a Tagore Film Festival  organised in September 2011, ‘Shaap Mochan,’ a dance drama in which Tagore had personally acted in Colombo and Jaffna in May 1934 and which was appreciated widely, including by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, former Prime Minister, re-staged in Colombo, Jaffna, Kandy and Hambantota in November 2011 by an ICCR sponsored troupe of Ashimbandhu Bhattacharjee and Bimbavati Devi in form of a fusion of Manipuri and Kathak dance performance ‘Prabhu Amar Priyo Amar’; an exhibition of digital reprints of paintings by Tagore and a photo exhibition on Tagore’s ‘Pilgrimages to the East’ in December 2011; ‘An evening of Tagore Songs’ by the famous Rabindra Sangeet singer from Bangladesh Rizwana Choudhary in March 2011; and lectures on Tagore by Dr. Reba Som, Director, Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Kolkata, at the Universities of Colombo, Kelaniya and Sri Jayawardenapura in January 2011. In addition, a number of events were organised at the Indian Cultural Centre in association with a number of Sri Lankan institutions.