Occ AS I ONAL PUBLicATION 23 IICAcharya J.C.Bose and Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore: The Tale of a Great Friendship by Dr. Sibaji Raha IND I A INTERNAT I ONAL CENTRE 40, MAX MUELLER MARG , NEW DELH I -110 003 TEL .: 24619431 FAX : 24627751 Occ AS I ONAL PUBLicATION 23 IIC Acharya J.C.Bose and Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore: The Tale of a Great Friendship The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author and not of the India International Centre. The Occasional Publication series is published for the India International Centre by Cmde. (Retd.) R. Datta. Designed and produced by FACET Design. Tel.: 91-11-24616720, 24624336. Acharya J.C.Bose and Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore: The Tale of a Great Friendship* It is a tremendous honour for me to speak about two great personalities: Rabindranath Tagore and J.C.Bose. The 150th birth anniversary of J.C.Bose just preceded the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. This is quite natural, since they were just two and a half years apart in age. That this talk is being delivered on 23 November is actually somewhat significant for 73 years ago, J.C.Bose breathed his last on this day in 1937. In a bizarre coincidence, 23 November is also very significant in the life of Rabindranath Tagore. In 1902, Tagore lost his wife on 23 November and five years later, in 1907, his youngest son Shomindranath, whom Rabindranath considered to be the most talented individual he had ever seen, also died of cholera on 23 November. In fact, these coincidences led Rabindranath to even turn to occult practices for a number of years. Interestingly, this was also a period when the friendship of Rabindranath and Jagadish Chandra Bose was at its highest. We will come to that period in some detail later but before that, I must answer an oft-asked question: what is the utility of celebrating somebody’s centenary or 150th birth anniversary with such pomp and ceremony? What does one hope to gain by celebrating these events? My answer is * Lecture delivered at the IIC, on November 23, 2010 by Dr. Sibaji Raha 1 that whenever times change, values change. A crisis of civilization occurs whenever a new order emerges, and the old ideals need to be re-examined and remembered so that we find some anchor in the continuity of human civilization. Thus, when we started thinking about celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Sir J.C.Bose, the greatest motivation was the realization that the crisis of civilization that faces us today is probably very different from any previous crisis faced by human civilization. The slogan that we live by in this century is ‘Knowledge is Power’. And, especially for people who deal in intellectual pursuits, this apparently is a great message for what could be purer than that? Yet, as we understand the ramifications of intellectual property rights, patent fights and all that, we are also gradually beginning to realize that this is not an unmixed blessing. Moreover, what we see around us now is an almost complete reversal of the old values: knowledge for the sake of knowledge seems to be a totally forgotten idea. Today, any knowledge that does not lead to an immediate capacity for generating wealth is dismissively termed unusable, unimportant and irrelevant. And this, in my opinion, is the true crisis that faces us today. I am relieved to know that there are several others as disturbed at this development, and they agree with me that this is a kind of crisis never before faced by human civilization. I recall a letter that J.C.Bose wrote to Rabindranath in 1901, when A crisis of he was on a tour of England to demonstrate wireless signalling. Bose civilization was approached by several industrialists who told him, ‘Please do occurs whenever not reveal all your secrets, all the details of your experimentation. There is money in it and you can’t imagine how much. So we will take a new order out a patent, we will only take half the profit, but that will also give emerges, and the you tremendous amount of money with which you can further your old ideals need to research and take it ahead’. And J.C.Bose, in a very passionate letter, wrote to Rabindranath, ‘I am really shocked at the greed for money in be re-examined western society. If I ever fall into this trap, I will simply not be able to and remembered do even a part of what I intend to do. I do not have time to even say so that we find what I want to say; so I turned them away’. some anchor in This is the philosophy that Bose upheld throughout his life. the continuity When J.C.Bose founded the Bose Institute, he delivered an inaugural of human address which he titled ‘The Voice of Life’. If you have not read it yet, civilization I strongly recommend that you visit the Bose Institute website, and 2 look at this marvellous piece of writing. In it, he categorically says So this that no patent will ever be taken out of the work done at Bose philosophy Institute (a promise not particularly realistic today). I must admit that the fruits that even in Bose Institute, there are a number of works that have been patented now and to remove any doubt, J.C.Bose was not of knowledge inherently opposed to the philosophy of patenting. At the behest should be free for of Sister Nivedita, and thanks to the indirect influence of Swami the entire human Vivekananda, he did take out one patent which was the first US civilization and patent granted to any Asian. However, he also let it lapse at the for the world to first opportunity: there was never any money made out of it. enjoy without So this philosophy that the fruits of knowledge should be free for hindrance, was the entire human civilization and for the world to enjoy without hindrance, was the philosophy with which he founded Bose the philosophy Institute. We believe that this message needs to be highlighted, with which he and brought before the present and future generations of young founded Bose people so that they can also discover the romance of science for the Institute sake of science. This is why when we organized several national and international seminars to celebrate J.C.Bose’s 150th birth anniversary, one crucial ingredient was an outreach programme, where we presented Bose’s life, his works and philosophy primarily to the students of the schools of West Bengal, but also at several other places. When we were organizing these, our seniors were indulgent. They said, ‘Go ahead, try to organize them but do not expect much out of them. Today’s generation is not interested in listening to such old tales any more’. Allow me to relate a small episode here. At one such outreach programme organized in Shantiniketan, a collaboration between Visva Bharati and Bose Institute; there were about 300 schoolchildren from various villages, some of them quite far away from Shantiniketan. As patron of that programme, I just welcomed them and then came and sat among the students, listening to the various speakers. They were erudite speakers, yet at times I felt that perhaps they were not spectacular enough or sensational enough to hold the attention of these young students. As the day came close to dusk, the teachers, who had escorted the students, were understandably in a hurry to take them back and deliver them to their parents and be free of their responsibility. So, around 3 5 pm, one of the teachers started gathering her students around so that they could leave. The penultimate speaker was still speaking and at least 2-3 students turned to this teacher and said, ‘Ma’am, may we finish listening to this?’. And with that, I felt that all was not lost. We should not lose hope in our future generations. If they are not coming to science and the pursuit of knowledge, the fault largely lies with us for not sufficiently enthusing them. If we provide examples of what can be achieved, I think there is no real reason to despair yet. And what can be better examples to present to the students than J.C.Bose and Rabindranath Tagore? Rabindranath Tagore, as you all know, founded Shantiniketan, which later evolved into Visva Bharati but that was primarily an administrative transition. The philosophy of Shantiniketan was maintained intact in Visva Bharati. One of the early students of Shantiniketan, was Pramathanath Bishi, an acclaimed novelist, who later became one of the best known critics of Tagore’s literature. Bishi said that Rabindranath had once told him, ‘Do not try to become a pundit, become a scholar.’ That was the philosophy of Shantiniketan. When J.C.Bose founded the Bose Institute, he said that he was not merely dedicating a laboratory but a temple. When we want to understand the relation between Rabindranath and Bose, it is very important to understand the role of these institutions and their philosophical similarity. Some of you may ask, why should we even want to understand or spend We should any time discussing the interaction between Rabindranath and Bose? not lose hope Let me remind you that Rabindranath himself said, ‘When we were in our future trying to find the actual course of our lives, we interacted and gave generations. each other support. So our letters also not only give a record of our personal interactions but if we could put all these letters together that If they are not will give a very good example, a very good depiction of the Bengali coming to society of that time and the history of the entire evolution.’ science and Unfortunately, our sources of information are very limited.