Govt of Bengal issued notice to Modern Review for an article written by Tagore, entitled ‘On Russia’-1934

RABINDRANATH TAGORE (ARTICLE).

House of Commons

HC Deb 12 November 1934

vol 293 cc1496-7

Mr. RHYS DAVIES asked the Secretary of State for IndiaIndia Bharat Varsha (Jambu Dvipa) is the name of this land mass. The people of this land are Sanatan Dharmin and they always defeated invaders. Indra (10000 yrs) was the oldest deified King of this land. Manu's jurisprudence enlitened this land. Vedas have been the civilizational literature of this land. Guiding principles of this land are : सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर । स्वाध्यायान्मा प्रमदः । Read more whether he is aware that the Government of Bengal has given notice to the Modern Review of India that an article written by Rabindranath Tagore, entitled “On Russia,” which appeared in the Modern Review last June, is highly objectionable, and that the editor has been warned that such articles must not be published in future; and, in view of the fact that no objection was taken by the Government of Bengal when this and similar articles were published in book form by this author in 1931, will he state why this alteration of policy has taken place?

Mr. BUTLER It is the case that a warning was issued to the editor of the Modern Review in respect of an article written by Rabindranath Tagore. The article was taken from a book called “Letters from Russia,” which was published in Bengali by a local Press in 1931. This book attracted little public attention, and consequently no notice was taken of it by Government, but the translation into English of a particular chapter, which was clearly calculated by distortion of the facts to bring the British administration in India into contempt and disrepute, and its publication in the forefront of a widely read English magazine, put a wholly different complexion on the case.

Mr. DAVIES May I take it, therefore, that the article written by this very eminent gentlemanGentleman A non-Jewish. The word gentleman originally meant one who had a coat of arms and some landed property. When you called someone "a gentleman" you were not paying him a homage, but merely stating a fact. If you said he was not "a gentleman" you were not insulting him, but giving information. Aryan (Arya) is a courageous person, and Bhadralok is a well-mannered typically Bengali Babu. could be published in the Review if it were not distorted?

Mr. BUTLER I have conveyed to my hon. Friend the view that this article gave a distorted view of the achievements of British rule in India, and that was the reason why this action was taken.