‘No words to describe the sweetness of his voice’: A gender activist from Kerala writes about Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was an Indian poet, writer, thinker, and cultural figure. He is best known internationally for Gitanjali and for becoming the first Asian recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His importance was not only literary. He represented an Indian intellectual tradition that colonial education often ignored or undervalued.

The writer remembers hearing Tagore’s speeches in Madras during college. The article places this memory among several experiences that ended the writer’s admiration for foreign rule. It does not give the date, subject, or exact wording of Tagore’s speech, and it does not specifically describe what happened during his visit to the Women’s Christian College.

Tagore’s appearance mattered because his ideas formed part of a wider awakening. Gandhi’s speech in Thrissur, Tagore’s speeches in Madras, and knowledge of the Khilafat movement and Mappila Rebellion changed the writer’s outlook. Together, these experiences encouraged pride in Indian culture and resistance to colonial narratives.

Gitanjali is Rabindranath Tagore’s collection of poems, usually translated as Song Offerings. The poems explore devotion, human feeling, nature, humility, and the search for spiritual connection. Tagore prepared an English version from selected poems, making his work accessible to readers beyond Bengal and India.

Its strongest impression came from its simple but profound language. The poems joined personal emotion with spiritual depth without sounding like formal religious instruction. W. B. Yeats admired the English translations and wrote an introduction to the 1912 edition. C. F. Andrews, a close associate of Tagore, also valued his poetry and ideas.

Gitanjali helped create an international literary bridge. It showed Western readers that modern, powerful literature could emerge from an Indian cultural and spiritual background. The collection remains important because it expanded the global literary conversation and helped establish Tagore as a major world writer.

Rabindranath Tagore received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. He won for the idealistic and lyrical quality of his writing, especially the English version of Gitanjali. The award recognised both his poetry and the wider cultural world from which it emerged.

The achievement was especially significant because Tagore was the first Asian recipient of a Nobel Prize. At a time when European institutions dominated international literary judgment, an Indian writer gained global recognition on the strength of his own creative work. His success challenged assumptions that important literature came mainly from Europe.

Tagore’s Nobel remains a landmark in Asian literary history. It opened wider international attention for Indian writing and showed that translation could carry regional ideas across languages and borders. His achievement also complements the writer’s college experience: Tagore offered evidence of India’s intellectual and cultural strength, which colonial lessons had largely concealed.

The writer says British authorities shaped history lessons to create admiration for Britain and boredom with India. Students learned about a glorious British past, but received little evidence of India’s own achievements. This imbalance made colonial power appear natural and Indian civilisation seem unimportant.

The lessons omitted India’s contributions to mathematics, medicine, astrology, logic, economics, grammar, philosophy, and politics. They also ignored India’s ancient civilisation and its trade with distant powers. Instead, students were taught stories such as the “Black Hole” of Calcutta and a greatly inflated account of the Battle of Plassey.

The mechanism was selective storytelling. Colonial victories achieved through what the writer calls “sheer perfidy” were presented as noble triumphs. By hiding Indian accomplishments and exaggerating British success, education encouraged a deep-rooted sense of inferiority. The writer later challenged this picture through speeches, books, cultural activities, and knowledge of British repression.

The writer’s attitude changed through direct encounters with Indian leaders, writers, and history. Hearing Gandhi in Thrissur and Tagore in Madras offered powerful alternatives to the colonial version of India. These voices made Indian political and cultural life feel immediate rather than distant or inferior.

Other influences deepened the change. The writer learned about the Khilafat movement and the extreme British cruelty used to suppress the Mappila Rebellion in Malabar. The writer also read VD Savarkar’s biography, The Indian War of Independence, and his account of imprisonment in the Andaman Islands. These experiences revealed both resistance and repression.

The result was permanent. The writer says this combination “wiped out” admiration for foreign rule. The change came not from one lesson, but from competing evidence: public speeches, historical knowledge, political writing, and personal awareness of colonial violence. Together, they replaced inherited admiration with national consciousness and criticism of British power.

Formal history was only one source of learning. College life exposed students to religion, politics, art, music, literature, and questions of identity. Lectures and cultural performances filled the college hall within weeks of reopening. These activities offered richer and more varied ways to understand India and the wider world.

Swami Shraddhananda taught the Bhagavad Gita every Sunday, and some Anglo-Indian students attended and asked questions. Students performed music in an orchestra and staged plays in several languages, including Malayalam and English. Kunhilakshmi created stage props and background images. Mr Arthur Davis performed soliloquies from Shakespeare’s tragedies.

These experiences worked through participation and exchange. Students listened, questioned, performed, created, and encountered several traditions together. Dr Annie Besant, Dr Cousins, Margaret Cousins, and Sir CP Ramaswamy Iyer were among the speakers. Such education made culture active and shared, rather than a fixed story imposed by colonial authorities.

Colonialism is a system in which one power controls another country’s government, resources, institutions, and public story. It matters because control is not limited to armies or laws. Schools can influence what people remember, whom they admire, and whether they see their own culture as valuable.

The writer gives a clear example. British-controlled lessons praised Britain while omitting India’s achievements in mathematics, medicine, philosophy, economics, and politics. They also presented stories such as Plassey as heroic British victories. This selective history made conquest look legitimate and encouraged students to feel inferior.

Such storytelling can shape identity across generations. If people repeatedly encounter their culture as absent or backward, they may accept the conqueror’s judgment as truth. The writer’s later exposure to Gandhi, Tagore, Indian religious teaching, cultural performances, and anti-colonial writings shows how alternative education can restore historical confidence and encourage critical thinking.