We now come to his political and social philosophy, or rather his attempts at evolving one. In " Nationalism " (Messrs. Macmillan & Co., 1917 : page 97) Tagore uses these words : " Our real pro blem in India is not political. It is social. This is a condition not only prevailing in India, but among all nations. I do not believe in an exclusive political interest. Politics in the West have dominated western ideals, and we in India are trying to imitate you." We have no quarrel with Sir Rabindra Nath the Poet in his not believing " in an exclusive political interest." It would be just as hard for some of us not endowed with poetic gifts to believe " in an exclusive poetic interest." Gifts may not determine one's launching on a political career, but training is indispensable, and the securing of a thorough training involves tinie which people engrossed in art or literature or kindred pre-occupa tions can ill afford to spare. If training is essential, knowledge of problems and public affairs is a thousand times more so. Then again, there are people who temperamentally find it in the line of the least resist ance to write verse, but would at once suffer a com plete mental collapse, if asked to mount a political platform or offer mediation in a political emergency.
But does Sir Rabindra Nath mean that the education of the masses is not necessary ? If it is according to him necessary, then how can it be secured without keen political agitation based on an intelligent dispassionate study of facts ? Or does the poet-laureate of Asia mean that the judicial machinery as it exists in India to-day stands in no need of overhauling and police methods in no need of revision ? And yet it is the merest platitude that no far reaching changes in the administration of justice or in methods of government have ever been brought about except under the pressure of an intelligent and organised political demand. Surely, it must have occurred to Tagore that there are vital political problems in India, which it were sheer cowardice and mental perversity to ignore or minimise. Why, the moment one begins to study such humdrum though harassing- questions as Indian famines and appalling mortality by the plague, in one's endeavour to trace the root causes and suggest remedies, one is at once brought face to face with the quasi-political aspects of these oft-repeated phenomena.
" Our real problem in India is not political." Does Sir Rabindra suggest that there is a political problem in India which it is not desirable to bestow attention on, or does he mean that India has not emerged on the political stage at all ? If the latter, it is but a curious irony of fate that has sent Mr. Montagu to India, as a plenipotentiary of the British Cabinet, or announced to the world India's consuming passion for political independence.
Surely Sir Rabindra Nath knew that Mrs. Besant was interned some time ago, by Lord Pentland's government on a political issue, viz., the promotion of Home Rule for India. And Tagore, who preaches that " our real problem in India is not political " sent a most pathetic message of sympathy to her in these words : " Convey my heart-felt sympathy for Mrs. Besant, and tell her that her martyrdom for
suffering humanity will do more good than any crumbs that might be thrown at us to silence our clamour." There is nothing sacrosanct about politics any more than there is anything inherently depraved about them. Politics are simply public activities directed at the furtherance of national interests in obedience to the obligations of the State. We quite agree with Tagore that " gigantic organisations for hurting others, and warding off their blows, for making money by dragging others back, will not help us. On the contrary, by their crushing weight, their enormous cost and their deadening effect upon living humanity, they will seriously impede our freedom in the larger life of a higher civilisation " (" Nationalism," p. ioi).
It is pretty obvious that Sir Rabindra Nath starts by reading some sinister meaning into politics and then proceeds to demolish the man-of-straw that he sets up. In all probability he confines politics to " a political and economic union for purposes of defence and aggression " as also to activities calcu lated to promote " Commercialism with its barbarity of ugly decorations . . . a terrible menace to all humanity because setting up the ideal of power over perfection" (p. 129: /bid). But commercial ism and aggression are not politics, and there is happily an increasing number of politicians who are fully alive to the dangers of organised national selfishness, who are fighting for the rights and liberties of countries other than their own, who seldom tire of fighting for wider opportunities for the oppressed and down-trodden and who are thus slowly improving on political ideals. Besides, if there are evils rampant in politics-ridden countries, who will venture to assert that countries where politics have been stagnant or absent altogether are models of perfection ? At the same time we should venture to point out that there are political organisations in this country, as in other European countries, whose one supreme objective is to try and mitigate the very same horrors that have sent cold shudders into Sir Rabindra Nath's being; and to combat the evil tendencies that " seriously impede our freedom in the larger life of a higher civilisation." And we shall have to admit that there is greater weight attaching to well considered and concerted action of organisations than the nebulous though sublime day-dreams of isolated individuals. For the only effective way of bringing about the overthrow of a bad organisation is by setting up a good organisation having noble aims and employing honourable methods. All right-thinking men must, of course, admit that there are sordid motives and squalid behaviour in much of the " party politics " propaganda of to-day, but all political activity does not resolve itself into party bias, and in spite of it all, he will be a bold man indeed who will dogmatically assert that no good has come out of it, in democratic countries, even out of the tension and conflict of opposing factions.