The remarkable cultural efflorescence known as the ‘Bengal Renaissance’ triggered by Warren Hastings’ appointment as governor of Bengal in 1772 can be bookended between the birth of Ram Mohun Roy (the same year) and the death of Rabindranath Tagore in 1941.
This Renaissance threw up luminaries from William Carey to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay to Toru Dutt to Swami Vivekananda and Jagadish Chandra Bose. The movement, marked by a synthesis of Eastern and Western intellectual traditions, found its zenith in Rabindranath Tagore. But what if Tagore had succumbed to familial pressures to pursue a career in law rather than the arts?
Born in 1861 into a remarkable and dazzlingly erudite family (the Tagores of Jorasanko), Rabindranath was youngest of Debendranath Tagore’s 14 children.
In his superb and wonderfully accessible book ‘Awakening: the story of the Bengal Renaissance’ (2010) Subrata Dasgupta describes how Rabindranath’s elder brother, Satyendranath, in an exasperated bid to make his precocious 17-year-old brother “professionally respectable, took him to England to study for the Bar.” After two years as a quintessential dilletante, Rabindranath returned to India which he later said was one of “utter disorderliness.”
Yet this decision to forsake a conventional career would mark the beginning of a path that redefined Indian cultural identity. Two years after his return as a lawyer manque, he produced ‘Sandhya Sangeet’ (1882), which was highly regarded by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay. In 1883, he wrote ‘Nature’s Revenge’ and his first novel
These early works set the stage for a career that would eventually lead to the creation of ‘Gitanjali’ — the immortal collection of poems which sent W.B Yeats (and countless others since then) into raptures earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, making him the first non-European laureate.
While he may have still written some luminous short stories or poetry, a full-time career in law would have stifled these creative impulses, leaving a gaping void in both Bengali and global literature.
But the instant recognition and influence of Tagore as composer has even exceeded that of Tagore the poet and novelist. In Rabindra Sangeet, he created a completely new genre of contemporary popular music. India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka would not have had their national anthems had he remained a lawyer and iconic songs like ‘Ekla Chalo Re’ would perhaps not have come into being.
But Tagore’s influence extended far beyond his literary works. His establishment of Santiniketan in 1901 and Visva-Bharati University later on redefined education in India, promoting a learning environment that valued creativity and intellectual freedom over rote memorization. His role in the Bengal Renaissance was not just as a cultural icon but also as an educational reformer whose vision reshaped the pedagogical landscape of India. A life in the courtroom would have precluded these contributions, depriving Indian education of one of its most visionary architects.
Moreover, Tagore’s global appeal—rooted in his ability to bridge Eastern and Western thought—might have been confined to the courtroom. His interactions with legions of Western intellectuals like Ezra Pound, H.G. Wells, G. B. Shaw and his dialogues on spirituality and universalism, created a unique intercultural dialogue that enriched global understanding. Without his towering voice, a vital conduit for East-West exchange would have been lost and India would have been deprived of a profound cultural ambassador.
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