The Poet's Letter to Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy
Your Excellency,The enormity of the measures taken by the Government in the Punjab for quelling some local disturbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to our minds the helplessness of our position as British subjects in India. The disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon the unfortunate people and the methods of carrying them out, we are convinced, are without parallel in the history of civilised governments, barring some conspicuous exceptions, recent and remote. Considering that such treatment has been meted out to a population, disarmed and resourceless, by a power which has the most terribly efficient organisation for destruction of human lives, we must strongly assert that it can claim no political expediency, far less moral justification. The accounts of the insults and sufferings by our brothers in Punjab have trickled through the gagged silence, reaching every corner of India, and the universal agony of indignation roused in the hearts of our people has been ignored by our rulers- possibly congratulating themselves for imparting what they imagine as salutary lessons. This callousness has been praised by most of the Anglo-Indian papers, which have in some cases gone to the brutal length of making fun of our sufferings, without receiving the least check from the same authority, relentlessly careful in something every cry of pain of judgment from the organs representing the sufferers. Knowing that our appeals have been in vain and that the passion of vengeance is building the noble vision of statesmanship in out Government, which could so easily afford to be magnanimous, as befitting its physical strength and normal tradition, the very least that I can do for my country is to take all consequences upon myself in giving voice to the protest of the millions of my countrymen, surprised into a dumb anguish of terror. The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part, wish to stand, shorn, of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance , are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings. And these are the reasons which have compelled me to ask Your Excellency, with due reference and regret, to relieve me of my title of knighthood, which I had the honour to accept from His Majesty the King at the hands of your predecessor, for whose nobleness of heart I still entertain great admiration. Yours faithfully,RABINDRANATH TAGORECalcutta,6, Dwarakanath Tagore Lane,May 30, 1919
TAGORES WORKS
1878
: a story in verse)
1880
: a story in verse)
1881
Balmiki : a musical drama)
Europe)
1882
a collection of lyrics)
1883
market : a novel)
lyrics)
of essays)
1884
: a drama in verse)
written after Vaishnava poets under the pen name of 'Bhanu Singha')
poems)
of poems)
1885
of songs)
1886
a collection of poems)
1887
1888
1889
drama in verse)
1890
1891
Europe Jatrir Diary (Diary of a traveller to Europe)
1892
1893
incorporating Valmiki Pratibha)
1894
collection of pems)
previously published and Curse at Farewell)
1895
rhymes)
1896
1897
Baikuntha : a comedy)
1899
and epigrams)
1900
stories)
long poems)
1901
: text book)
1903
1904
this was later issued separately as Prajapatir Nirbandha)
1905
1906
and lectures)
1907
: a collection of essays)
of essays)
of essays)
of essays)
1908
of political essays)
sociological essays)
1909
religious songs)
before in Charitrapuja)
1910
a drama)
1911
1912
1914
of poems)
1915
use of students)
1916
: a novel)
1917
1918
in verse)
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1925
1926
drama)
Nirbandha)
1927
: a musical drama)
1928
galad)
1929
1930
book)
1931
1932
1933
: a drama)
1934
1935
poems)
1936
1937
physical astronomy)
1938
language)
1939
1940
1941
: an essay)
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