Political agenda pushers should let Tagore's quotes be

Citing him out of context may suit those with axes to grind but does the poet laureate a big disfavour

- Sandipan Deb

Rabindranath Tagore’s 162nd birth anniversary was celebrated a few days ago. Hundreds of people posted on social media, paying their respects and quoting from his writings. Op-ed pieces told us what we can learn from the greatest-ever Indian multidimensional genius—poet, novelist, painter, philosopher, educationist.

But the trouble is this. When we quote people who wrote and spoke a lot, we do not keep in mind the context in which they said what they did. Contradictory quotes from them are also easily available. Swami Vivekananda (was he a Hindu fundamentalist?), Mahatma Gandhi (was he against scientific progress?) and Babasaheb Ambedkar (was he anti-Muslim?) are obvious examples, apart from Tagore. To use their words in an ahistorical vacuum is political opportunism and intellectual laziness.

Last week, Tagore’s vision of a harmonious world that rises above narrow nationalistic pride was cited a lot. One columnist, worried about a “majoritarian political and religious dispensation", went further, quoting something Tagore wrote in 1911: “In order to salvage this inequality (between Hindus and Muslims), the Muslims have started demanding more than the Hindus. We should genuinely be in agreement with their demands. It will be beneficial for Hindus (and) Muslims."