AN INDIAN POET.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20171, 25 February 1931, Page 2

AN INDIAN POET.

dr. tagore entertained. A TALK ON INTERNATIONALISM. (nOH OWN COROTSPOXDEHT.) LONDON, January 15. Dr. Rabindranath Tagore, the most famous of Indian poets, is at present in London, and last week members of the All Peoples' Association liad an opportunity of meeting him at an afternoon reception at Hyde Park Hotel. The All Peoples' Association, it may be remembered, was founded about a year ago for the purpose of promoting international friendship. It has as its chairman Mr Evelyn Wrench, the founder of the Overseas League. Dr. Tagore is now in Ms 71st year. A number of well-known people attended the reception. among them Mr Bernard Shaw. Mr Evelyn Wrench, in introducing Dr. Gftigore, said that there were few who had done more for international friendship than their guest. He also referred to the work of the college at Santiniketan. Dr. Tagore founded Visva-Bharati 30 years ago as an elementary school, where he undertook, by his personal teaching, to train children according to the lines of their natural development. Gradually %s school has grown into one of the leading educational centres in India. Although emphasising no single religious system, it develops in the students the habit of meditation and prayer to the One Supreme Being. It holds up to '"the students the mutual benefits which the East and West can render to one another. The greater part of the funds for the educational w*brk at Santiniketan have been contributed by Dr. Tagore himself. The estate at Santiniketan, the Nobel Literature, Prize Fund, and the income of the'copyright on all Mb Bengali works, which make up the major share, of his literary work, all have gone into Yisva-BharatL In thirty years this has amounted to over £50,Q00. In addition, there have been at various times gifts amounting to over £50,000 from their Highnesses the Bajahs of India. A friend in America made possible the work of the Institute: of Rural Reconstruction with an annual gift of £3OOO eight years ago. The Society, of Friends (Quakers) of England pays the salary of Professor Nalin Gangooly, M.A., Principal of the College at Santiniketan. The American Friends Service Committee is making possible the service of Dr. Timbres and his wife in' the medical work. Th° Methodist Episcopal Board of America, through Bishop Fisher, is supporting Professor Boyd Tucker as Professor of English in the College. The members of the Visva-Bharati Association pay £250 in annual membership. The total capital investment of the VisvaBharati dp to the\end of 1929 was approximately £160,000. ■ Dr. Tagore is noping to raise a fund as a per-, manent endowment for the College. The Militant Mind. Aftsr tea, Dr. Tagore,'seated, spoke to the guests' who stood, around him: ' Bis experience in. the Western countries, he said, had taught him muck.' . He found here the militant and aggres- , sive mind in international affairs. In national politics, too,, there was the fighting spirit, and peace was difficult to attain. The same spirit waa to bS found in India—personal and national 'egoism. In bis own .home ho hadl been taught that "true is tho opinion of them who realise themselves in others." He had -there, too,, had tho privilege of coming into contact with Western literature and the poetry oi great men whose sentiment 'was immersed in a love of humanity and a lore of freedom. From them they had their inspiration. Dr. Tagore mentioned the case of a student who awakened him at mmnight. ,- He had just read a wonderful line from Keats,'' he said, "and he must repeat'it to me at once." > The West, had .gut its religion \ from, the East, though it had been gradually modified to suit the Western temperament. There was much in the culture of the nations whicn > could •he interchanged. Nationalism was apt to smother the* higher spirit -in men. One found normally kindly individuals, indulging, in the greatest creulty' in the name .of sport. One found a nation indulging in similar evils and cruelties in the name of-nationalism. When nationalism was for the purpose of uplifting the people, for mutual-sup-port, and for spiritual enrichment, it was a benefit, but when it was .for aggression, selfishness, and greed, it led to the bottomless abyss. He knew that Europe had tried to overcome the evils or nationalism itt the League of Nations. But. the^ nations were not represented 'there by their poets and dreamers, but only "by. their politicians. It was, almost like asking a band bf robbers to Organise & police department. He had travelled in different countries in Europe, andeverywhere he h%d seen signs of sufferI ing caused by tfcese politicians who had' bungled thir problems. Dr. Tagore expressed , a - wish- that' great mfen from England'should visit India-Hiot merely-.men who represented the ruling classes or "belonged to official circles, but men who were great because of their spiritual' development and their love for- humanity., He honed the. time would .come when all nations, would have that -spirit which would welcome such pioneers fo* peace and brotherhood hetwe'en the nations'. , '