Of Abantikumar Sanyal <i>and</i> Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland (1866-1944), the French Nobel Laureate for literature in 1915, was one of the pioneering western philosophers who played a role in disseminating Indian spiritual philosophy in the West. He developed links with many Bengali figures, such as Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) and Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858-1937). His biographies called Vie de Ramakrishna (1929) and Vie de Vivekananda (1930) promoted Indian spiritual ideologies across the world. All such facts have meticulously been researched by the Bengali writer Abantikumar Sanyal (1926-2007), who was born in tradition-rich village Korokdi in district Faridpur and who has two books on Rolland and two translations of Rolland's books to his credit.
Abantikumar Sanyal was born in a cultural family which produced many personalities who contributed hugely to literature, politics, culture and sports in undivided Bengal. There was Ajit Sanyal (b 1926), who wrote Dui Desh Dui Mon (1959) on his Europe visit in 1953 with the dance guru Bulbul Chowdhury; there were too Sulekha Sanyal (1928-1962), who wrote Nabankur (The Seedling's Story, 1955) and many stories on the partition of India and the Bengal famine; and Sujata Sanyal, who has a good number of volumes of poetry to her credit. They were all his siblings. Being the eldest child in the family, Abantikumar spent his childhood and adolescence in Faridpur and Chittagong. Later he went to Scottish Church College in Kolkata, before graduation and post graduation from the Bangla Department of Kolkata University.
Abantikumar started his literary career during his student life. He developed proficiency in four languages Sanskrit, French, English and his mother tongue Bangla which helped him to work in a multidimensional arena. He has translated a good number of books by Howard Fast, Mikhail Sholokhov, Kishan Chander, Maupassant, etc. His collections of essays are Prachin Natyoprosongo (Ancient Dramatics, 1972), Bangla Natoker Prothom Path (First Lessons of Bangla Drama, 1986), Bharotio Kabyototto (Indian Poetics, 1986) and Babu (1987). In addition, there are Rabindranather Godyoriti (Prose Style of Rabindranath, 1970) and Kobir Obhinoy (Acting of the Poet, 1996).
The books that Abantikumar wrote in relation to France, the French language and Romain Rolland are Proshongo: Romain Rolland (1991) and Ramakrishna-Vivekananda O Romain Rolland (2002). Moreover, he translated Romain Rolland's two books into Bangla with the titles Bharatborsho (1976) and Moscow'r Dinolipi (1995). In Proshongo Romain Rolland Abantikumar has sketched Rolland's connection with three great Indians --- Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and Jagadish Chandra Bose. The latter book focuses, as the title suggests, on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda.
It may be remembered that Rolland developed a sort of craftsmanship in writing biographies, starting with Life of Beethoven (1903), followed by Life of Michelangelo (1907), Handel (1910) and Life of Tolstoy (1911). The other point worth mentioning is Rolland's interest in Indian philosophy. Abantikumar, who retired as a professor of Bangla from Burdwan University, has delineated all these turns in Rolland's life.
It might be well-known fact to readers of Rabindranath that in 1916 when the poet visited Japan for the first time, he delivered a lecture called 'The Message of India' at Tokyo Royal University on 18 June. The lecture was published in the New York journal Outlook on 9 August. Rolland felt deeply drawn to the thoughts that Rabindranath expressed in his lecture and published it with the title 'Message de L'Inde au Japon' in his booklet Aux Peuples Assassinés along with an essay of his own without taking any prior consent from Rabindranath. Let us not forget that these two great littérateurs of the world were at the time not acquainted with each other and had not even read each other's writings. Abantikumar Sanyal has provided a factual narrative of how Rolland got acquainted with Indians and Indian philosophy from his early youth.
It is assumed that Rolland happened to get The Bhagavad translated by Eugene Burnouf (1801-1852), which he mistakenly referred to as The Bhagavad Gita afterwards, so Abantikumar comments. But there is the use of verses from The Gita in his magnum opus Jean-Christophe. In the volume 'Dans la maison' Olivier takes a book from the shelf called la apostrophe du dieu Krichna which Christophe snatches from him and reads from it. Olivier read the 37-38 verses of the second part of The Gita and Christopher read 22-24 verses of the third part.
The first direct interaction of Rolland with the Indian people occurred during World War I. Rolland was very much against the war from the beginning. By then ten volumes of Jean-Christophe had come out. He published an essay, 'Au-dessus de la mêlée', (Above the Battle) which invited criticism from nationalist intellectuals. They began to attack him through writings. Threats at personal levels were also not irregular. Publishers began to boycott him. During those days Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) wrote an essay on 24 December 1914, which he dedicated to Rolland. Then an exchange of letters between Rolland and Coomaraswamy commenced. Coomaraswamy sent Rolland a copy of the translation of The Bhagavad Gita along with his own book, The Arts and Crafts of India and Ceylon (1913). Coomaraswamy was the first person who came into personal interaction with Rolland, as Abantikumar notes.
In 1921 a historic meeting between Rabindranath and Rolland took place. It was 19 April when Rabindranath met Rolland in Paris, which led to thoughts of a new possibility of international peace. During these years many more writers and intellectuals, Indian and non-Indian, met Rolland in relation to Rabindranath and Mahatma Gandhi. The people who met Rolland included Kalidas Nag (April 1922, September 1923), Pearson (September 1923), Lala Lajpat Rai (June 1924) and many more. In the year 1924, Rolland first published a biography of an Indian. It was on Mahatma Gandhi. Abantikumar has pointed that before September 1926, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were quite unknown to Rolland.
The writer asserted that the first interaction between Rolland and Jagadish Chandra Bose started through letters. In March 1924, after his speech at Paris University, J C Bose first wrote to Rolland. He enclosed his booklet, Circulation and Assimilation of Plants, along with the letter. Returning home on 20 May, Jagadish Chandra again wrote to Rolland. This time he enclosed his book, Response in the Living and Non-Living (1902), and The Life and Work of J C Bose (1920), by Patrick Geddes. During his eighth tour to Europe Jagadish Chandra called on Rolland on 9 July.
Now let us see how Rolland came to know of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. There is no denying that Abantikumar's Ramakrishna-Vivekananda O Romain Rolland is a milestone in rediscovering that relationship. Rolland first heard of Ramakrishna from Dhan Gopal Mukerji (1890-1936). Dhan Gopal, whose award winning book, Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon, came out in 1927, was a well-known English-language Indian writer by then. His The Silence of Face, a biography of Ramakrishna published in 1926, became one of the forty famous books the United Nations selected for its library in Geneva. Rolland read Dhan Gopal's book and felt interested in meeting him. The meeting materialised in October of the same year. Rolland requested Dhan Gopal to introduce him to the Ramakrishna Math. And what a coincidence! During this time Josephine Macleod, who had been in close contact with Vivekananda for about seven years, came in touch with Rolland and spent some days with him and all these opened the door for Rolland to write on the great Indian souls.
Rolland finished the Ramakrishna biography in December 1928. The biography of Vivekananda was finished by June 1929. And the exclusive news was that before the publication of the original French biographies, their English translations were published in India. The translation by E. F. Malcolm-Smith from Advaita Ashram are available in the market even now.
Abantikumar has delineated the total historic time in their full detail in his works. His evaluation of the two books by Rolland is also included. He also informs readers that the publication of the French-language biographies encouraged many to publish those two in their own languages. In a very short time, a German edition from Zurich, a Dutch edition from Holland, a Swedish edition from Stockholm and a Spanish edition from Madrid got published by 1931. Abantikumar has also incorporated a reliable account of the reactions to the books from around the world.
Rolland did not know Bangla, not even English, though the individuals whose biographies he was going to write were Bengalis, with English as their second language and with no access to French. His sister Madeleine Rolland knew English and could read Bangla too. When in 1910 Rolland met with a motor accident and became totally crippled, it was Madeleine who took up the responsibility of caring for her brother. While sitting together in the long evenings she would read all the books by Vivekananda and letters of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. That was when Rolland began to envision composing the biographies of the Indian spiritual gurus.
Let me end on a personal note. I have had a fascination for the history of Korokdi from my very adolescence. When I learnt about Sulekha Sanyal from a Kolkata little magazine, I felt I needed to know more about the people of that village. Gradually there appeared Abantikumar Sanyal, from whom I got two letters. The second letter was written on 19 June 2002 after the publication of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda O Romain Rolland. Abantikumar Sanyal wrote: "After researching on French literature for about thirty years, I have collected a huge amount of materials on Rabindranath and Romain Rolland. I am worried I won't be able to write my last book on the subject." Abantikumar lived for more than five years after that letter. How much of thought did he formulate on the relations between Rabindranath andRolland?
Subrata Kumar Das, a teacher and essayist, has set up a website called www.bangladeshinovels.com
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