Mainstream Weekly

Tagore and Sikhism

Amiya Dev — 2014-10-20T02:38:23Z

Rabindranath Tagore wrote six poems on Sikh heroism and martyrdom, two in 1888, three in 1898, and one in 1935. Of them three are on Guru Gobind Singh, one on Banda Bahadur, one on Bhai Torusingh, and one on the boy, Nehal Singh.
The Guru Gobind Singh poems are spaced between his twenty year-long sâdhanâ to be worthy of his leadership, and his death, the height of the sâdhanâ being his refusal to a rich gift brought by a disciple (the theme so enthralled Tagore that he wrote the same poem (…)

- 2014

Muktadhara's Relevance

Amiya Dev — 2012-05-13T20:35:05Z

A Tagore play that has a lot of relevance today is Muktadhara (‘The Waterfall' in his own translation, both dated 1922). It is set in the open—in fact its original title was Path or ‘Way'—on the road to Lord Bhairava's temple in a hilly country, with a quick shift of actors. The occasion is the completion of a dam, a marvel of engineering. People have come to celebrate it and felicitate its builder, Bibhuti, or have come out of curiosity in it or to bemoan their loss in its (…)

- 2012

Is Globalisation Going to Devour Literature?

Amiya Dev — 2011-09-28T20:31:15Z

On May 24-26, the Daesan Foundation of Seoul, South Korea held its Third International Forum for Literature, the two previous ones having been held in 2000 and 2005 respectively. The themes for those two were ‘Writing across Boundaries' and ‘Writing for Peace'. This one's theme was ‘The Globalising World and the Human Community'. It was approached through the following sub-themes: (1) ‘The Self and the Other in the Age of Multiculturalism', (2) ‘Writing in the Globalising World', (3) (…)

- 2011

Ideal and Waste: Char Adhyay Reread

Amiya Dev — 2011-04-08T18:46:48Z

This article was sent to us quite sometime ago but it could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons. It is now being published since next month will fall Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary.
We know that Châr Adhyây (Four Chapters) was Rabindranath's second political novel. We also know that like Ghare-Bâire (The Home and the World), 1916, the first, it fared ill with nationalists, and that one special reason for that had been his reference to Brahmabandhab (…)

- 2011

Going back to Gora

Amiya Dev — 2010-12-31T02:59:34Z

“In May next year the country will observe Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary. The following piece is being carried here as a token of our tribute to that extraordinary personality who, while being rooted in Indian ethos and culture, transcended the barriers of nationalism and attracted several of our national leaders, notably Jawaharlal Nehru, while engaging in lively debates with Mahatma Gandhi. Incidentally the centenary of Tagore's novel Gora (on which the ariticle is written) (…)

- 2010

Rabindranath versus Tagore

Amiya Dev — 2010-06-10T00:34:40Z

Are Rabindranath and Tagore the same phenomenon? It may sound absurd, but it is not always that when we talk of Tagore we are also talking of Rabindranath, and vice versa. Years ago an eminent professor of English from another part of India asked me in confidence: is Tagore really that great? This was a decade after his birth centenary. When I answered him, I wasn't telling him of Tagore, but Rabindranath. Maybe it was from around that time that a non-Bengali Indian friend of mine, not sworn (…)

- 2010

Tagore 2011: Advance Posting

Amiya Dev — 2010-03-27T10:42:31Z

CAMEO
It is a few years now that a bronze bust of Rabindranath Tagore has been installed at Stratford-upon-Avon with his poem on Shakespeare inscribed on the pedestal in the original Bengali with his own English translation. It was a gift from the Government of West Bengal. Visitors taking a stroll in the Shakespeare garden are not likely to miss it. But how many of them, barring Indians and Bangladeshis of course, will be aware of the greatness of the greatest Bengali poet? Will they be (…)

- 2010

Cyber Infection? An Appeal to Call Centres

Amiya Dev — 2009-12-26T16:32:39Z

To err is human. But does the computer ever err? Or rather, does it recognise the probability of human error? If you are giving it a command, does it give you a second or even a third chance to make sure that you are giving the right command? It better do so, else you may nose-dive an aircraft into the ground and go up in flames. But I have a suspicion that it does, only our computer-happy call centre personnel may not always like to allow it that leeway while dealing with computer-clumsy (…)

- December 2009

'Innovation Universities'

Amiya Dev — 2009-09-12T15:16:36Z

The Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India is planning to set up fourteen national universities of ‘world-class' standard, and has circulated a [draft] concept note to that effect bearing the above title.
This seems to be revised from an earlier note called ‘Brain Gain', implying retrieval of some of the better brains that have gone overseas, and thereby rationalising to a degree the still vexed question of ‘brain drain'. The (…)

- September 2009

Brain Gain?

Amiya Dev — 2009-09-09T18:22:33Z

The Union Ministry of Education is toying with the idea of setting up a few ‘world-class' national universities, and to that effect a concept note has been circulated. It is titled ‘Brain Gain', meaning retrieval of the brain that has gone overseas.
There was a time when we talked of ‘Brain Drain' feeling helpless about the migration of some of our better brains. Various reasons were in the air for that phenomenon: lack of adequate research facilities, red tape, neglect of merit and (…)

- September 2009