Statue of Tagore, Gordon Square[/caption]Sue and I paid a very quick visit to the Tagore Centre’s Tagore Festival in Gordon Square, central London yesterday afternoon. The Tagore Centre organised the Festival in particular to commemorate the centenary of the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Tagore.
Rabindranath Tagore is revered in both West Bengal and Bangladesh as a cultural icon: a writer and poet of the highest merit as well as a distinguished musical composer responsible for the canon of work known as Rabindra Sangeet. Tagore’s family hailed from East Bengal in the area that is now Bangladesh, where they were landowners. Despite being sent to look after the ancestral lands Tagore devoted himself to culture from an early age. He was also a Brahmo, a member of an organisation that advocated Hindu reform. Tagore travelled widely across the world and espoused a form of Asian co-operation. He is most famous for Gitanjali, a series of poems which were received with awe by English poets when they were translated into English, and which prompted his Nobel Prize. In addition, Tagore composed the national anthems for both India and Bangladesh.
On a personal note my father sang Tagore songs from his teenage years. Apparently he sang at friends’ weddings and social events in Calcutta. But with a busy life and career when he came to the UK such cultural activities took a backseat. However, close to retirement my father began to play and sing again using an accordion and taking music lessons. At my father’s funeral a number of his contemporaries played and sang in memory of him.
The Tagore Festival took place in a corner of a busy square full of lunching students and office workers who sadly had little interest in the proceedings. We saw some classical dances, songs from Rabindra Sangeet, and a number of readings. Dr John Stevens of SOAS, quite bravely we thought, read in Bengali from Tagore’s diaries in addition to reading from Gitanjali in English.
There were a few stalls around the stage selling food, paintings, and Tagore texts. After a brief stay and eating a few samosas we left with the impression that this was an opportunity lost. The Festival was sadly lacking in vision and organisation. Whilst it is appreciated that the event was to commemorate Tagore, this could have been the focus together with a more commercial approach to the other stands and activities. So, for example, the Festival could have been combined with Kolkata or Indian Street Food, and other types of music. Regular readers will know how much we have enjoyed Indian musicians in London but Tagore is probably still an acquired taste appreciated the most by those from a Bengali background. This was an opportunity to really bring Tagore to life, to educate the wider audience about his life and work. The Festival might have been more of a success had it taken place on a weekend - it was attended mainly by more mature first generation immigrants. It needs to widen its constituency to appeal more broadly to the second and third generations, and to groups other than Bengalis.
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