Tagore Celebrations in the Netherlands

Few in Europe would have remembered 7 May as Rabindranath Tagore's birthday. Of late, this has changed quite dramatically in the Netherlands. In England, of course, where many Bengali live, Tagore celebrations are not uncommon, but also in the Netherlands a modest Tagore revival is at hand. The revival may largely be ascribed to the initiatives of a few devoted enthusiasts. Marijke de Vos (Royal Tropical Institute) and Rokus de Groot (University of Amsterdam) are such enthusiasts who hope to hold a yearly festival devoted to Tagore and his ideas.

In May 2000, there was a one-day pilot Tagore festival in The Hague that was organized by resident Surinamese intellectuals, and this year the first such festival was held on a grand scale. De Vos and De Groot were the organizers, together with a substantial number of Dutch organizations and institutions who sponsored the event.

From 9 until 13 May, the festival was held at different locations: mainly Amsterdam, but partly in Leiden and The Hague as well. The programme included screenings of films based on Tagore's stories and novels, musical performances by Calcutta-based musicians, and a symposium on the 'Arts and Ideas of Rabindranath Tagore', to which internationally renowned Tagore scholars were invited. Among the participants were well-known personalities like Sibnarayan Ray, who gave the keynote address on Tagore's vision of national unity and world-embracing universality. William Radice spoke on Indian composer Param Vir's opera, 'Devoured by the Gods' (after a narrative poem by Tagore), and Victor van Bijlert highlighted Tagore's religious and spiritual legacy. The famous Tagore singer Sharmila Roy explained Tagore's music and also performed a number of Tagore songs, whereas Rokus de Groot talked about Tagore and his Dutch translator (from English), the well-known poet Frederik van Eeden. Krishna Dutta discussed Tagore's letters, art historian Timothy Hyman spoke on the dark aspects of Tagore's painting and, lastly, Andrew Robinson showed how film-maker Satyajit Ray 'translated' Tagore's stories into visual poetry. Dutch composers and the way they were influenced by Tagore was the theme of the concert that ended the festival, which in all had been a truly international event full of nice Dutch surprises, making one look forward with great anticipation to this festival becoming a tradition as promised by the organizers. * (VvB)