The Continuing Legacies of Rabindranath Tagore in Canada
By Kathleen M. O’Connell and M. A. Serhat Unsal
Although there has been considerable coverage of Rabindranath’s visits to the United States, relatively little has been written about the impact Tagore has had in Canada and the manner in which his presence, writings and concept of art have been disseminated. This essay represents a partial foray into that world, with the hope that it will stimulate further research in areas that have not been covered. The first two sections of this essay discuss aspects of the socio-political, religious and cultural climate in North America generally—and Canada specifically--which would have affected and preconditioned the response to Rabindranath’s Nobel award and his later influence upon Canadian art and culture. Sections three through five discuss Tagore’s 1912 visit to North America, the reception of his Nobel award, his influence on the Canadian artists known as the Group of Seven and his 1929 visit to Canada. The final two sections discuss the way in which Tagore’s legacy has been celebrated in Canada following his 1929 visit and his growing legacy within the network of global human consciousness through the Internet, which affects not only Canada, but the global village as a whole.
Part 1: The Socio-political Background
Over the period of Tagore’s life, several developments in North America worked in unison to build the groundwork for the reception of his philosophy and literary works on the continent. As colonies, Canada and India were not permitted to establish direct diplomatic or trade relations with each. Nevertheless, despite the early lack of official ties, the two regions were linked by two major historical trends: first, patterns of human migration and second, cultural exchange.
The history of Indian migration and settlement in North America began around the time of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 when Sikh veterans of the British Army in India crossed Canada on their way home.[1] Upon arriving in the Punjab and finding conditions inhospitable, some of these men decided to return to Canada to seek employment. In 1906, there was a sudden spike in immigration from India as a result of a decrease in Chinese immigrant labour due to a $500 head tax imposed on each new Chinese migrant worker by the Canadian government.[2] The reduction in Chinese workers created a labour shortage that was then filled by East Indian workers.
Eventually, the labour shortage turned into a job shortage and Indian migrants began to face considerable racism from the local, unemployed white settlers. In 1907, a serious anti-Asian riot erupted in Vancouver, and the anger of the local population was directed against Asian businesses as well as Sikhs living in the downtown area. When the violence abated, the rioters forced the Canadian government to take action on their behalf. In order to restrict immigration, the Canadian government passed the ‘continuous journey’ rule requiring immigrants to travel directly to Canada from the country of their birth, or citizenship, without stopping along the way, which was an impossibility for any passenger arriving from India. Throughout the period, the British government in India watched nervously as fears mounted that the ill-treatment of Indians in Canada would cause a backlash in India. And that is exactly what happened after the infamous Komagata Maru incident of 1914.
That year, a Sikh businessman based in Singapore, Gurdit Singh, chartered the Japanese ship Komagata Maru to carry Sikh, Muslim and Hindu passengers from India to Canada to challenge the continuous journey rule. After arriving in Vancouver, Canadian authorities refused to allow the ship to dock, and passengers were kept in abeyance for several months. Passengers were also refused medical assistance, and the deteriorating conditions led to a number of deaths. Then, at the end of a months-long stalemate, the boat was forced to return to India, stirring resentment in India and among the Indian Diaspora worldwide. Rabindranath had in fact rejected several previous invitations to speak in Canada to protest the treatment of the passengers of the Komagata Maru and during his subsequent journey to Canada in April, 1929, one of the places he made a point to visit in Vancouver was the gurdwara on 2nd Avenue.[3] Nevertheless, despite the protests and calls for reform of racist anti-immigration laws, these heavy-handed measures resulted in success for the Canadian government’s racist benefactors and between 1914-1918, only one East Indian man was permitted to enter Canada. Thereafter, throughout the interwar years, the number of East Indian immigrants remained very low.[4] In fact, the numbers did not pick up again until well after WWII.
Part II. A Transforming Cultural and Religious Climate in North America
While the political and immigration policies generated a generally negative climate for intercultural exchange within North America, there were countervailing, interpersonal connections being created throughout the world among religious and literary circles that would work towards a favourable reception of Tagore’s works. This section explores some of the religious, cultural and psychological influences in North America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that would have affected the manner in which Tagore was received.
Unitarian-Bengali Brahmo Samaj links between India (Calcutta), America (Boston) and Canada (Toronto)
One factor that would influence Tagore’s reception in America and Canada involved a synergetic change that began in the 1830s when British and North American religiously liberal Unitarians encountered similarly-minded individuals among the Bengali Brahmo Samaj in Calcutta. This would have included such individuals as Rammohun Roy, Keshub Chundra Sen, Protap Mazumdar and members of the Tagore family, including Rabindranath’s grandfather Dwarkanath, who had supported Unitarian-Brahmo Samaj connections in Calcutta, as well as his father Debendranath, a leader in Brahmo activities. The history of the manner in which these two groups interacted and impacted one another is a fascinating study,[5] and it should be noted that both groups, as well as influencing one another, had an impact on their respective societies and cultures that was out of all proportion to their numerical strength. It is particularly significant that when Rabindranath first came to North America, it was largely through Unitarian and academic circles that he became known, and that such circles would already have had some familiarity with the Bengali Brahmo Samaj and the Tagore family. Significantly, it was the extended Unitarian-academic-artistic circles in Boston and Toronto that found Tagore’s work so initially attractive.
Historically, many of the social reforms of the period known as the ‘Bengal Renaissance’ had Unitarian links. The majority of such reforms had their origin in the city of Calcutta, which represented the first site of extended East-West interface within India. Rabindranath’s grandfather Dwarkanath Tagore would have come into contact with Rev. William Adam—who would later serve as first minister of the new Unitarian Church in Toronto, Canada, in 1846—and other Unitarians through Rammohun Roy, who had converted Adam from a Scottish Baptist position to one of Unitarianism, while helping him translate the Bible. Rammohun Roy, Dwarkanath Tagore and William Adam had found common ground in their socio-religious concerns, and in September 1821, the Calcutta Atmiya Sabha was replaced by the Calcutta Unitarian Committee. By 1828, Rammohun, Dwarkanath and other close associates decided that a more indigenous form of ceremony would better serve the group, and the Brahma Sabha was formed in August with meetings regularly conducted in Bengali. Rammohun Roy continued his close association with British Unitarians after he left for England, and when he died in Bristol in 1833, it was Lant Carpenter, a Unitarian, who delivered his eulogy in a Unitarian church.
Following his years in India (1818-38), William Adam, the Scottish Presbyterian, who had been converted to a Unitarianian position by Rammohan Roy, went to Boston, where among other endeavours, he became a lecturer of Oriental literature at Harvard University.[6] It seems likely he would have had contact during this time with the Transcendental Club, which had been founded in 1836 and included such members as Ralph Waldo Emerson (a Unitarian who would have also been teaching at Harvard), Henry David Thoreau and later Walt Whitman. Adam’s influence extended to Canada, when, in 1846, he moved to Toronto to serve as the first minister of the new Unitarian Church. Though there were a number of Canadian clergy having come out of Harvard Divinity School, Adam represented the first of a trio of Unitarian clergymen that would have Calcutta-Boston-Toronto associations. Toronto was at the time beginning a period of rapid growth, and Adam attracted increasing members from the academic and artistic community who were seeking a more cosmopolitan type of religious and cultural synthesis that was less authoritarian, as well as being open to emerging scientific analysis and the exploration of non-Christian thought. Adam was followed in Toronto by Charles Dall, who headed up the Toronto congregation from 1850-4. Dall provided another link between Calcutta, Toronto and Boston, having spent thirty years in India—largely in Calcutta—with the Unitarian mission, where he had close contact with the Brahmo Samaj and the Tagore family. He had received his education in Boston, graduating from Harvard in 1840, where he would have been under the influence of such figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson.[7]
A third Calcutta-Toronto-Massachusetts link was provided through Jabez T. Sunderland,[8] who had spent his first four years as a Unitarian pastor in Northfield, Massachusetts, where he would have been in close touch with Boston Unitarians and other cultural figures. Sunderland provides us with the most direct connection to Rabindranath in that during his Calcutta stay he went to Jorasanko, the Tagore family home, where he heard Rabindranath’s music and poetry.[9] Jabez Sunderland was as much a cultural-political emissary as a religious figure when he came to Canada to head up the Toronto Unitarian church from 1901-1905. Sunderland would have shared his knowledge concerning India, Calcutta and likely the Tagore family with his Toronto congregation. What is especially significant about this is that it would become the congregation of Arthur Lismer, a prominent artist and member of the Group of Seven, when he arrived in Toronto. Lismer had emigrated to Canada from Sheffield, England, where he had been a member of the Unitarian church there, as well as a theosophical society. In later years Lismer would recall hearing about Tagore from speakers at the Sheffield Unitarian church.[10]
After leaving Canada, Sunderland returned to America, where he lectured widely on Indian religions and social conditions. Sunderland established contact with Rabindranath during his 1912 visit to the United States and published articles about him as early as January 30th, 1913. In appreciation of Sunderland’s book India in Bondage, Rabindranath wrote in 1928: “The facts, which the Reverend Dr. Sunderland has set down in his book, are impressive. They corroborate the great saying of Abraham Lincoln which he quotes on the title page, “No nation is good enough to rule over another nation.”[11]
The American Civil War, Transcendentalism and Theosophy
Concurrent with the cross-cultural personal relationships and ideological transformations being created by the Unitarians-Brahmos connection were various historical events, along with new religious and literary currents, that would all challenge provincial perceptions and create the need for a broader understanding of humanity. Historically, The United States had just emerged from the first modern, industrial war in human history, the US Civil War. In the aftermath of this bloody conflict Americans began to search for a message of tolerance, unity, and peace.
Among those intellectuals and artists seeking a new humane vision were a group called the New England Transcendentalists, who became an influential voice of change. It began with the establishment of the Transcendental Club in Boston in 1836. The transcendentalists began seeking other sources of inspiration such as India and Eastern philosophies and scriptures to help them create an alternative vision to an emerging industrial society stricken with warfare, and the religious dogmatism they saw surrounding them. Such a vision privileged the artist, seeking a more personal relationship to spirituality, nature and morality. Many of the writings and ideas were disseminated through the Chautauqua camps, a progressive adult education movement that travelled through various parts of the United States and Canada. Sylvia Du Vernet in her study of the Canadian Chautauqua Association writes that: “Canadian educators and intellectuals were very much cognizant of Tagore’s creative educational philosophy as it was practiced at this school of the arts at Shantiniketan. They were also familiar with his writings in prose and poetry.”[12]
These same artists and intellectuals were also drawn to theosophy, which provided another important route of transmission for ideas from India to the West.[13]
The first Canadian theosophical lodge was established in Toronto 1891, expanding to three by 1922. It was attended by prominent artists and academics including Group of Seven Painters Arthur Lismer, Lawren Harris, Fred Varley and Jock Macdonald. Another link here would be the New Education Fellowship, an international organization which had theosophical roots, and to which both Lismer and Tagore belonged. In fact, Tagore was president of the Indian Branch of the New Education Fellowship.[14]
The North American visits of Swami Vivekananda and Protap Mazumdar—both Calcutta Bengalis, who were acquainted with the Tagore family—and their appearances at the Parliament of Religions, an adjunct of the Chicago World Fair that ran between September 11 to 27 in 1893, acted as precursors to Tagore’s own visit.
Part III. North American Reception of Tagore’s Nobel Prize
Rabindranath arrived in America in October, 1912, following a four month stay in England, during which he had impressed the leading writers and thinkers of London with his manuscript of Gitanjali. During Rabindranath’s six month stay in the United States, Gitanjali was published in England and was receiving wide spread recognition, so that by the time of his return to London in April 1913, Macmillan had reprinted his book of poems ten times.
After arriving in North America, Rabindranath, with his son Rathindranath and daughter-in-law, Pratima Devi made their base in Urbana, Illinois, where Rathindranath had obtained a degree in agriculture in 1909, and where he hoped to continue his studies. One of the important initial contacts that Rabindranath made was with the local Unitarian church and its pastor Rev. Albert Vail. Rev. Vail had organized a comparative religions group, and Tagore’s first public lecture in North America took place on November 10th at the Urbana Unitarian Church. This would become part of a lecture series and the basis for Rabindranath’s book Sadhana, published in New York by Macmillan in 1913.