TAGORE’S THOUGHTS ON AGRICULTURE
Rabindranath accepted the basic
nature of the mother earth. Only he tried to find out suitable technology and
initiate modern agriculture. He wanted to refine the traditional agricultural
technology with science and power. It is beyond of doubt that Rabindranath
was a man of science, admirer of new technology. Rabindranath was in favor of
using power and machine. We know he had a good relationship with Jagdish
Chandra Bose. This relationship was seen before Rabindranath became a universal
Laurel after receiving Noble Prize. Written by Dr. Arunava Sengupta
‘Mother Earth has enough for the real needs
of all her children … but she has not nearly enough for a whole generation of
greedy children who know no limit to their desires.’‘City and Village’, 1928.
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the
path-maker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his
garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come
down on the dusty soil! (Gitanjali, 1912).
Rabindranath
Tagore wrote the following lines on March 22, 1916, in his article, titled ‘Palli
Prakriti’, “This is the very soil
of our village, our mother, our nurse, in whose lap our country is being born
every day. The mindset of our educated has been afloat maintaining a distance
from this soil up in the firmament of lofty ideals – Our union with this soil
will be complete and justified only with the down pour of the rain.”
The treasures of Rabindranath which cover a large part of
West Bengal's Birbhum, is really a rare example. The most illuminated place
here is known as Sriniketan. His glorious deeds, activities and initiatives
really strike a modern mind – how was all this successfully done in the past?
To decorate the rural life with the basic needs, Rabindranath
started his venture of development. He dreamt that farming, cooperative,
education, health – all these development tools will walk hand in hand. All
these will back each other up.
Rabindranath accepted the basic
nature of the mother earth. Only he tried to find out suitable technology and
initiate modern agriculture. He wanted to refine the traditional agricultural
technology with science and power. It is beyond of doubt that Rabindranath
was a man of science, admirer of new technology. Rabindranath was in favor of
using power and machine. We know he had a good relationship with Jagdish
Chandra Bose. This relationship was seen before Rabindranath became a universal
Laurel after receiving Noble Prize. In late years we found his scientific bent
of mind across discussion with Einstein. Rabindranath wrote master pieces
on science in Bengali. Prof. Satyen Bose became a friend of Tagore. Rabindranath
was not at all a person having imaginative ideas. His scientific
mind was seen in agricultural field. He sent his son Rathindranath along with
Santosh Mazumdar-his friend’s son in USA to read agriculture (1906). He also
sent his son-in-law Nagendra Ganguly in USA for learning agricultural
science. All these show his keen interest on knowing agricultural science
in a scientific manner and applying agricultural science in our local
condition.
Rabindranath’s love for agriculture,
his keen interest on agriculture and his relevant thoughts on agriculture could
be understood from his letter addressed
to Rathindranath (1908). In his words “…
Please encourage them to grow in their homestead land, on the boundaries of the
fields and wherever possible pineapples, banana, date palm other fruit trees.
Good and strong fibers can be obtained from the leaves of pineapple. The fruit
is also easily marketable. Tapioca can be grown as hedges and tenants should be
taught how to extract food materials from its roots. It would be profitable if they
could be inducted to cultivate potatoes. Try again to sow the seeds of the
American maize which have been kept in the office”. In this
paragraph we find Rabindranath as a fine toned agriculturist. A real
agriculturist always tries to make a change in the crop-folio incorporating
value added new crops. New crops could be grown by farmers if those crops
have market and they are profitable. Traditional cultivars are to be
replaced by new varieties. For adopting a crop we must know the know-how of
practices. These thoughts are relevant today. Rabindranath is great he
foresaw these well ahead. Farm planning, crop planning, agricultural
strategic planning as advocated by Rabindranath is still relevant.
“Arrangements has been made so that the villagers should be able to
undertake welfare measures themselves by repairing roads, removing the dearth
of water, setting their disputes by arbitration, establishing schools, clearing
jungles, providing against famines by setting up Dharmagolas (grain banks) etc.
and to every way to contribute their own share in the welfare of the village to
which they belong”. This concept of Panchayet Raj is very much in tone to the thoughts of Rabindranath.
Rabindranath thought to apply modern
science in agriculture to produce most effective way. This thought is
very much relevant today. Our country needs today more and more number of
agricultural skills and agricultural bent youths to combat food-insecurity.
Tagore
was aware that agriculture alone cannot solve livelihoods of farming community.
He recognized the value of handicrafts. He opened weaving school at
Potisar. He also tried to establish a rice mill on co-operative
basis. Tagore was aware that Diversification in rural sector
is required at village level. This thought is also equally reiterated
today.
Rabindranath was a strong advocator
of co-operative movement. He wrote numerous articles to extend the co-operative
movement. His co-operative bank at Potisar is an example. It is to be mentioned
here that Tagore deposited his Noble prize money in the Potisar Cooperative
Bank he founded. To examine the impact of co-operative movement he
visited Gosaba, Sundarbans and met Hamilton- a co-operative movement star at
Gosaba.
The Sriniketan scheme was to
organize the villages so that they could supply all their needs on a
cooperative basis. Tagore believed that the villagers, when trained in
self-reliance, could establish and maintain their own schools and granaries,
banks and co-operative stores and collaboration will bring unity among villagers.
Thus, the relevance of his thoughts
and the schemes undertaken by the government are very relevant till date.
References:
Handwritten inscription by Marjorie Sykes, in Jehangir P.
Patel and Marjorie Sykes,Gandhi: His Gift of the Fight (Rasulia, Hoshangabad, India: Friends
Rural Centre, 1987).
http://blogs.rediff.com/development/2011/04/15/relevance-of-tagores-thoughts-on-agriculture/Arabinda Mitra
Rabindranath Tagore, 11, in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (London: Macmillan, 1913), pp. 8-9 (p.
9).
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