Rabindranath Tagore: The patriot
Rabindranath Tagore, as a theatrician, occupies a very important position in the history of Bengal theatre. Writing at a time when theatre practices in Bengal were still in a very nascent stage, Tagore introduces an air of freshness. Though initially he drew inspiration from the European dramas, those of Shakespeare and the Restoration dramatists, as can be seen in his early plays Raja o Rani and Bisharjan, as his plays progress and develop in various stages we see the developments of a new form of drama that is a representation of his unique style. As Professor Ananda Lal mentions in his thesis on Tagore, “in certain ways, his dominance is analogous to that of Ibsen in Norwegian literature.”[i] They both mark a distinguished change in nineteenth century theatre by breaking way from the existing traditional aspects of theatre before them. Just like with Ibsen, we have the introduction of a new kind of drama that addresses various social issues, similarly in Tagore’s drama we come across a strong voice of change and dissent. His dramas revolve around “the joy of attaining the Infinite within the finite.” [ii]The changes that Tagore introduces through his dramaturgy become in themselves, the sources of resistance in the social scenario.
From Mayar Khela to Rakta Karabi: A saga of firm resistance
Tagore writes at a time when women were not allowed to leave the claustrophobia of the inner quarters of their household and engage themselves in any form of literary and creative expression. Women were not allowed to act on stage and female characters were performed by teenage boys. He consciously brings a change in this scenario by introducing women characters in his plays and making the women of the Tagore household perform in these plays.
The courtyard of the ancestral Tagore household in Jorashanko became the centre of new ideas and revolution during Tagore’s contemporary times of Bengal renaissance. After the first performance of Balmiki-Pratibha in the courtyard at Jorashanko, we find a reviewer noting that “a maiden from a respectable family acted before the public for the first time.”[i] In his Mayar Khela, all the characters are women and in the first performance of the play, all the characters were played by the women of the Tagore household. These plays, hence, can be considered to be of great historical significance and they are instrumental in ushering in a new era of radicalized thinking in the social milieu of those times.
Tagore greatly revolutionized the stage by writing dance dramas that involved the unfurling of the plot though songs and dance sequences on the stage. Tagore himself says in his introduction to the translation of Chandalika, “It needs to be kept in mind that this play is to be seen and heard, but not read”[i]. This applies for all his dance dramas that bear very important social messages and does not only address the bourgeoisie intellectual theatre-going people but addresses the common masses as well.
Tagore’s introduction of song and dance sequences is an attempt of liberating the classical forms of dance from conformity to the orthodox traditions.[i] This is a major change from the plays written before him, which were mostly political plays or translation from European plays. Tagore also introduces changes in the stage settings by using props like stuffed birds and actual branches to describe the setting. In one performance of Valmiki-Pratibha, a pet deer was brought upon the stage to make it more realistic. There are also instances where we find Tagore himself acting as a character or simply sitting up on stage in order to sanction these new ideas and actions. Besides revolutionizing his art of theatre, Tagore uses the concept of resistance and not conforming to the dictums of an orthodox society as a common theme in many of his plays. Of those plays, his Rakta Karabi (The Red Oleanders) and Chitrangada (Chitra) deserve special mention.
Rakta Karabi introduces us to the struggles between a rapidly growing industrialized civilization and a rustic life based on love and dependence on nature. As Ananda Lal points out in his essay, Rakta Karabi is about “powerful indictment of political oppression of subjugated people and unfeeling exploitation of the Earth’s resources”[i]. The play introduces us to a society that is purely capitalist in nature and is run by the rules of a totalitarian regime.
Rakta Karabi introduces us to the struggles between a rapidly growing industrialized civilization and a rustic life based on love and dependence on nature. As Ananda Lal points out in his essay, Rakta Karabi is about “powerful indictment of political oppression of subjugated people and unfeeling exploitation of the Earth’s resources”[i]. The play introduces us to a society that is purely capitalist in nature and is run by the rules of a totalitarian regime.
The voice of the ruler that we come across in the plays represents the figure of a dominating ruler completely immersed in gaining material wealth. In his first encounter with Nandini, he acknowledges- “I am like a mountain peak, my barrenness is my adornment.”[i] This barrenness that he talks about is very much visible within the other characters of the play. Spending their lives as workers of the mines who disembowel the earth to bring up wealth, their identities are reduced to numbers and their voices are muffled. Remaining true to the hierarchical profit seeking structures of a capitalist society, these men like Phagu and the professor toil day and night and their minds are completely corrupted by the emptiness that surrounds them. Amidst this claustrophobic society, Nandini is their only ray of hope who tries to bring these oppressed people “into the light”[ii]. Nandini, in this play, become the prospects of newness and change amidst the desolation of the mining population. As Bishu rightly points out, Nandini is the voice of freedom and resistance. Nandini reminds us of the song of the autumn which essentially becomes a call for these subjugated people to break free from the societal shackles imposed on them and return to nature with the expectation of truly discovering themselves. Where there is hardly any expression of life, Nandini stands for all the beauty and love of this world. She is “the evening star in the rich sky of leisure”[iii]. Her voice stands against the voice of the ruler of Yakshapuri who has drown in greed and believes in exploitation. The king wants to possess Nandini like another of his artifacts, keeping her safely locked away in a cage. But her resistance lies in not submitting and in living in life’s abundance. As Nandini discovers that Ranjan too is tied to the bound of industrialization and is about to be sacrificed before the demonic god of mechanization, her beliefs in beauty, poetry and love are further reinforced. It is she who inspires the people of Yakshapuri to crawl out of their sufferings and rise up in protest against the authoritarian state power. In this symbolist drama, Tagore makes Nandini the source of dissent and by using her as his mouthpiece he succeeds in expressing his adherence to the beauty and love that life has to offer.
The mystic Chitrangada
Chitrangada is the “perfect vehicle for Tagore’s idealistic thesis about romantic love”[i]. This lyrical drama highlights “the true nature of love and human beauty”[ii]. Written when Tagore was spending his days in Selaidaha, he brings his experiences of life in rural Bengal within the play and combines it with the “mystical bond between nature and man immanent in creation.”[iii] The play follows the technique of a dance drama and in its later performances Tagore introduced aspects of folk dance forms into the classical choreography of the dance sequences, thereby marking a significant change in the history of performance of this drama. Chitrangada was written at a time when women could not freely express themselves. Thus, Chitrangada’s notions about her own sexuality and her constant oscillation between her two personalities become a very important social message. Chitrangada is introduced to us as the princess of Manipur who is brought up as a man. She excels in her role as a ruler and a soldier. However, the conflict arises in the play when on a chance-encounter with Arjun, her feelings of love are evoked. The societal conventions are highlighted here when Chitrangada feels that her masculine attributes would not allow her to stand before him as his lover. Hence, she attempts to transform herself into a more feminine personality in order to meet the lover’s gaze. Chitrangada portrays how the society considered the masculine to be the ugly and the feminine to be the epitome of beauty. Her disowning of the masculine self (ku rupa) in order to embrace the feminine self (su rupa) shows the flawed ideas of gender that existed with the contemporary society of Tagore’s times and continues to exist even till this day. Chitrangada travels from one end of the gender spectrum to another and through her act of accepting herself as she is, comes a protest against the heterosexual hegemony. Chitrangada, hence, brings forth Tagore’s notions that love does not depend on the outward appearances but on the inner spiritual connections. His message becomes a voice against the societal institutions of marriage and love and through this unique tale of love, Tagore breaks down the oppressive ideas and customs regarding marriage and love.
Tagore still continues to be a very important voice in literature and is instrumental in bringing change through his dramaturgy and stagecraft. Tagore’s dramas teach us to think beyond the limits that society has set for us and to break free from the shackles of societal conventions. His songs, dance sequences, dialogues, use of stage- everything inspires us to assume a voice of dissent against the injustices that we see around. Through what Abanindranath Tagore calls to be “a perfect marriage of word and music”[iv], Tagore teaches us the language and protest against all those factors that affects our connection with love, beauty and life.
Excellent flow of narration really enjoyed reading it.
Looking for more on Tagore from you.