WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/27190


Bonna,
Needless to say that I agree with your write-up except the fact that the human
Tagore, the great poet Tagore, the reformist Tagore, the reactionary Tagore, the
anti-feminist Tagore all can be judged by his essays! Essays are no doubt the
best place to judge 'socio-political' Tagore but then his literature is the best
for his creativity. Since feminism is a socio-political issue, I agree that for
finding out his views on feminism, essays are the best choice.

First question : who is Tagore? Or what is a human being? More importantly, who
I am?

Do we know it? As per what I can call latest (and not Upanishadic):

Tagore= His body with a material mind+ non-material mind (consciousness)

Both of his essays and literature are part of his non-material mind where as
what he did as social reformer or social conservative are joint action of his
physical+mental existence.

Lets review diverse activities of non-material mind:

1)Creativity
2)Rationality
3)Compassion
4)Intelligence or adaptation (both material and non-material mind)
5) Spirituality
6) Sexuality (& beauty)
etc...etc...

Ok, lets agree that till Tagore turns 73 (?) to write Nari, he was so obsessed
with spirituality, his other faculties of sexuality and rationality were
prevailed by spirituality.
So he was not progressive when comes to his social life (as evident from certain
castist incidents in ShantiNiketan ) and expressing his views on social relation
in essays.(Honestly I didn't read much of his essays, except for Jiban Smiriti,
Sahityar Pathe and Russier Chithi. I read only short stories, novels and
chitra-natya. However, I could not find much anti-feminism in either of these
three master pieces. Since Bonna claimed and showed evidence, I got to admit her
evidences till I find a contradicting one.)

But what happens when it comes to creativity? Spirituality of Tagore never
prevailed over his creativity. That is why he is genius, master creator. His
literature contains all kind of women characters, feminist & conservative,
beautiful & not-so-beautiful, dumb & intelligent ! I do not see that in
literature, though he was influenced by inherent spirituality, he never enforced
his social views. He accommodated all kinds of views for the purpose of
creation. His literature is neither progressive, not reactionary...it is the
most purest piece of creation.

Anyhow, I am really least bothered in Tagore's personal life--his personal life
counts, if somebody wants to worship him. We enjoy his creation, which is what
counts the most. He is the only writer in Bengal whose literature has crossed
the boundary of time and space. It is in his magical mysticism of
RabindraSangeet, we discover our spiritual essence-who we are, why we are and
what is the purpose if there is any! We can live without his views on society,
women and n number of things. As I recall, he never forgot to mention, those are
his personal views. Let it be personal to him, we do not need to import it.
Neither was he interested in exporting ( perhaps a controversial statement
since in Shanti Niketan, there was castism! ).

-Biplab