Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Rabindranath and Brahmo Samaj


The  year 1884 is  remarkable in the history of Tagore family. Firstly, due to the death of Keshab Chandra Sen, Brahmo Samaj faced an organisational setback. To cope with the situation and to reorganize the Brahmo Samaj, Debendranath selected Rabindranath as its Secretary and Dwijendranath as the editor of "Tattwabodhini Patrika".
In the meantime, many learned persons were attracted to Ramkrishna Paramhangsa's devotion to God. Shashadhar Tarkachuramoni and other Pandits, at that time,  began to explain some of the tenets and practices of Hinduism with the help of scientific postulates to half-learned people. Two monthly magazines, Nabajiban and Prachar, came to light  to explain the greatness of Hinduism in place of Brahmoism. Bankim Chandra, Chandranath Basu etc were amongst the contributors.
Rabindranath criticized severely some of the essays in these magazines and he had some heated exchanges in with Bankimchandra, who ultimtely took a cordial view of their differences on the ground that Rabindrababu was talented, learned and an influential person, who deserved affection and importance, specially as he was young.  He considered Rabindranath's arguments to be exaggerated but was, nevertheless, eager to hear his views.
Rabindranath too wrote in his "Jibansmriti" that his mis-understanding with Bankimchandra was cleared by a the latter's letter (which is lost) in which he forgave Rabindranath completely.  The acrimonious past was erased.