Reflections on independence and Rabindranath Tagore

Susan J. Natih, Jakarta

One of the first songs that my daughter learned in kindergarten was Berkebun (Gardening).

Ayo kawan kita bersama/menanam jagung di kebun kita/ ambil cangkulmu/ ambil pangkurmu/, kita bekerja tak jemu-jemu.

(Let's friends together/ grow corn in our garden/take your mattock/take your hoe/we work tirelessly).

The song, composed by Indonesia's much-loved Ibu Soed, is delightful not only because of the words and melody but also because it inspires action, teaches our children to respect the role of the farmer and begins to develop the child's understanding of symbols; planting good seed and tending it carefully, will lead to a good harvest.

In these last few years Indonesia has gone through rapid changes and is still in the process of change. For educators, this again is a golden and critical moment, for the next generation is in our care. When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what would be the goal of education in free India, he replied:

"Character-building...I would try to develop courage, strength, virtue and the ability to forget oneself in working toward great aims."

Gandhi also added that the strength of society lies in the moral character of individuals.

The Mahatma's place in history is secure, but his great contemporary, Rabindranath Tagore, who was born in 1861, is less well-known, though he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 and the admiration of the great literary figures of the West, among them W.B. Yeats and Ezra Pound. Tagore also visited Indonesia and took a special interest in the work of Ki Hajar Dewantara and the development of his Taman Siswa schools. With India celebrating her independence this 15th August and Indonesia on Aug. 17, let us take a brief look at the life of Tagore and touch upon his interest in Indonesia, her culture and developments in education.

Soon after Rabindranath's birth in 1861, the boy's father, Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, visited the country estate of a friend, situated some 100 miles west of Calcutta. Getting down at Bolpur, which was then, as it still is, the nearest railway station, he proceeded and as the sun was about to set, found himself in an open plain with nothing to break the view of the setting sun except a thin row of wild palm trees that lined the horizon.

The Maharshi was enchanted and sat down for his usual meditation under a pair of chhatim trees. When he rose from his meditation, he had already made up his mind that the place would be his. Quickly negotiating the purchase, he later built a house at that place which he named Shantiniketan or "the abode of peace."

It was Shantiniketan which was in 1901 to become the site of Rabindranath Tagore's school and later the University of Visva- Bharati with its motto Yatra visvam bharati eka-nidam, "Where the whole world meets in one nest". It was indeed the nest to which I flew as a Ph.D student on fieldwork from Exeter University England, in September 1980.

If we are to understand Tagore's contributions as an educator, we must first look briefly at his family background. The fourteenth child of Sarada Devi and Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, Rabindranath (Rabi), was born on May 7, 1861. The huge mansion at Jorasanko, Calcutta, was already filled with the children and grandchildren of a joint household and Rabi's appearance seemed of no special significance.

Tagore's emergence as an educator was completely a matter of personal development, a necessary development of the entire course of his life and experience. He was born into a family which had somehow contrived to turn its place of residence into a nucleus of all types of progressive ideas and activities, a center of numerous cultural and social movements.

Tagore had a strongly developed sense of community. The embodiment of this realization, was the Shantiniketan Ashram. Although his mind soared to the highest heights of imagination and mystic vision, he found it impossible to live and act except among and for an intimate community.

On Dec. 21. 1901, the school for children at Shantiniketan opened with five students. Many said that the school was a poet's whim and yet it was to revolutionize accepted concepts of education in India. Tagore demonstrated that what the child learns at home and in school are the most vital components of lifelong learning, that a child's mother tongue is a key learning factor, that learning through activity is more real than through the written word.

Mahatma Gandhi adopted the scheme of teaching through crafts, many years after Tagore had worked it out at Shantiniketan; in fact, the Mahatma took the first teachers for his base school from Shantiniketan. Some of the earliest experiments in what is known as community development, were conducted by Tagore, firstly among the workers on his family estates and later in the institute which he founded and named Sriniketan.

His writings on rural education and on the problems of community development still comprise a very fine manual for workers in the field. Tagore's work at Shantiniketan and Sriniketan rank him as one of India's greatest nation builders.

A a teacher and philosopher who understood the value of play in children's learning, and the use of simple, natural materials, Tagore once wrote:

The school at Santiniketan that I knew, during the five years I spent there from 1980-1985, had swelled from those five students, to hundreds, besides the university students. However, the concepts and spirit of Tagore were still very much alive, blending formal learning with knowledge of arts and crafts, appreciation of the indigenous culture and traditions and classes held outside under trees and sky, with no walls and ceiling to limit the imagination.

Shantiniketan was and still is a "world nest", a meeting place of traditions and cultures and the place from which Tagore set out as a student and teacher of the world, inspiring all those with whom he worked and came in contact. In 1927 he came to Indonesia and visited Yogyakarta and Bali.

His stay at the palace of the King of Klungkung inspired him to write a poem on the beauty of Bali and welcomed to Taman Siswa in Yogya, by Ki Hadjar Dewantara, the founding father of education in Indonesia (Bapak Pendidikan Nasional), Tagore found that Taman Siswa and Shantiniketan shared a common principle. Ki Hadjar Dewantara later commented that pictures of Tagore and Maria Montessori, another great innovator in the world of education, had graced the audience hall at Taman Siswa well before Tagore's visit.

The relationship between Taman Siswa and Shantiniketan became very close, with students such as Ki Soebaroto and the painter Rusli, among others, continuing their studies at Shantiniketan under Tagore's guidance, while guests and students from India visited Taman Siswa and other parts of Indonesia, on Tagore's recommendation.

One such guest was my co-supervisor and local guardian, Prof. Shantidev Ghosh, who had been sent by Tagore in the 1930s to experience and research the dance and drama traditions of Indonesia. Prof. Ghosh, sadly no more alive, told us vivid stories of his sea voyage to Java and his stay at the palace in Yogya. He also noted the similarities between Tagore's emphasis on learning craft skills as a part of education and the richness of craft skills amongst the young people of Indonesia.

Poet, educator and visionary, Tagore belonged not only to India but to the world. The composer of India's national anthem and one who personified independence and originality through his every thought, word and deed, Tagore was a firm upholder of tradition who recognized that change is a vital part of existence and that every day, for our children and ourselves, life's lessons are waiting to be learned.

The writer is a Founder and Executive Principal Of the Central and Sevilla Schools.