India, Tagore, Dartington and me, what's the connection?

India 

My father was born in the Indian hill station of Kodaikanal in the state of Tamil Nadu, and lived in India until the age of 6. His father, in other words my grandfather had joined the Indian Civil Service and was posted first to Madras in 1908 and later to Bangalore. My grandmother trained as a teacher in Ambleside and travelled out to India with Lord Pentland in 1912 to be Governess to his two children, meeting my grandfather there. They were married in 1915 and their lives were then bound up in India until 1944.

Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was born in 1861 in Calcutta, India, at a time of an Indian cultural renaissance, a fertile time for developments in the arts, philosophy, religion and society. His parents were editors & publishers of magazines, translators to and from Bengali, composers and performers, and encouraged the writings of the young Rabindranath, schooling him at home. Absorbing all of this rich cultural background he was seen as something of a prodigy by the time he reached adolescence. His parents sent him to Britain to study law, however he failed after two attempts and returned to India settling down to writing music and literature in 1881. He started writing short stories and poems drawing on his intimate knowledge of the daily rural life of small communities, and these writings are seen as universal in their human relevance.

In 1986 the Barbican Art Gallery
held an exhibition of Tagore's paintings
and drawings

Three years later and with a young family of his own he undertook his childrens' education. This gave birth to a desire to start his own school which he did at Santiniketan in Bengal, the ideas for which had grown from his own experience and his poems. His belief was that "education should be a creative process controlled by the individual's own rhythm of growth, using the natural world as a source of knowledge." His school was not easily accepted as it was unorthodox and did not measure success by exam results.

Briefly, Tagore travelled to London in 1912 and met Sir William Rothenstein, a leading member of the New English Art Club and later the Principal of the Royal College of Art from 1920-35. He was already aware that Tagore was the leading man of letters in Bengal, and in 1910 had instigated the founding of the India Society, aiming to introduce the British public to the arts and literature of India. Tagore's poetry had impressed him so much that he called upon W.B.Yeats to read it, which led to the publication of a private edition. "Gitanjali" (song offerings) was immediately popular and in 1913 Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature. At the time this was a sensational achievement for a
non-European and it brought Indian literature to world-wide importance. Having now become an international figure he was knighted in 1915, although renounced the honour four years later in protest at the Amritsar massacre. His school had grown to some importance and by this time he had announced his intention to establish the University of Visva-Bharati, which was inaugurated in 1921 welcoming students and teachers from around the world. 

The Dartington link

Leonard Elmhirst is the link that connects Tagore with Dartington, in fact Dartington college wouldn't have existed without him. Elmhirst worked with Tagore in India in 1921 establishing the Institute of Rural Reconstruction as a part of Tagore's university of Visva-Bharate. He and his wife Dorothy returned to England in 1925 to found Dartington Hall as a centre for experiment in rural reconstruction, education and the arts, drawing heavily on his experience in West Bengal. 

Dartington was opened in 1926 and for its 50th anniversary in 1976, when I was studying there, it held a Festival to honour Tagore.

Rabindranath Tagore with Leonard Elmhirst at Dartington

We were treated to performances by Indian musicians including Imrat Khan, famous sitar and surbahar player, Latif Ahmed Khan, a leading tabla player and Durga Lal, a leading exponent of Kathaka Dance, all three of them working with us as College students.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCtjrsu4dFk

In addition there were lectures by representatives of Tagore's University of Visva-Bharati, other notable singers, dancers and a leading Indian sculptor attending the week of celebrations.

The India-Tagore family connection

We believe that my grandparents met Tagore himself and below is the programme of a meeting of 'The Poetry Society' which I understand was founded by my grandmother, dated November 1st 1941 which was the year of Tagore's death. The meeting was to commemorate his songs and poems.

By coincidence I became a music student at Dartington, and by good fortune was there at the time of the Tagore Festival. My grandparents decided to give me one or two of their mementos from India including an Indian edition of Tagore's book "Gitanjali" as well as another book of his poetry, the  Poetry Society programme and this original painting.  

"Dr Tagore" by Sudhir Khaslgir