Tagore’s Crisis in America: An Overview

Subrata Kumar Das

Introduction
One of the countries that the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the first
Non-European Nobel Laureate, visited most is the United States of America. During the
period of 1912-1930 he paid five visits to that country. On 27 October 1912 when he first
arrived  there,  the  English  version  of  the  Gitanjali,  that  later  on  won  the  worldly
prestigious award called Nobel, did not come out from the press by then. It could be
noteworthy  to  mention  that  approximately  on  1  November  of  1912,  Gitanjali was
published from the India Society in England. His first visit there could not make much
impression  though  the  University  of  Illinois,  where  he  stayed  first,  oragnised  some
programmes  with  Tagore,  and  the  newspaper  of  that  University,  The  Daily  Illini,
published small news of his stay and lectures. The devotion of Prof Dr. Maycee F.
Seymour (1872-1955) of that university is also not unknown to many. The invitations that
the poet received from the universities like Michigan, Chicago, and Harvard were also
prestige wining for the Indian poet. He started for London on 12 April 1913 after the
personal visit of five months and a half. And what surprised most was that he was
awarded  the  Nobel  Prize  within  some  six  months.  After  that  he  attained  the  huge
popularity in almost all parts of the world. On 18 September in 1916, when he reached
the United States for the second time, the newspaper coverage was really impressive.
Almost all the newspapers published interviews of him and articles on him or his tour.
Huge people gathered to hear him, even at the cost of high entrance fees. A few ill
treatments were also observed. So far it is known, some cartoons on him were published.
But the most horrendous assault came from the people of his own soil on 5 October. The
Indian revolutionaries, residing in San Francisco, were the plotters for which newspaper
headings came like ‘Tagore Visitor Hit by Hindus’, or ‘Plot to Slay Sir Rabindranath
Tagore Nipped in S. F’ etc. The activities of those revolutionaries were so deep-rooted
that the American Court had to watch a dangerous incident very soon. On 23 April 1918,
when the verdict of the Hindu-German conspiracy was announced, Ram Chandra, the
editor of the Urdu newspaper  Gadar, was shot at the court premises by his fellow
revolutionist Ram Sing. During the procedure of the case, the Name of Tagore was also
included. As a result, news with a title ‘Tagore Named with Japanese at plot Trial’ was
published for which the poet had to pay much.
Gadar Party and the incident of the ship Komagata Maru
In 1916, on his way to the United States, Tagore visited Japan. The first visit of the first
Asian Nobel laureate to Japan arouse much hilarity though at the same time it caused
much tumult as well. For his criticism of acute nationalism of Japan, he had to leave the
land of the rising sun without any warm farewell. Those criticisms of nationalism were
published  in  the  US-based  newspapers  too  which  drew  the  attention  of  the  Indian
revolutionaries who were mostly guided by nationalism as well.
Two Bangla-language books focus on the connection of the poet with the revolutionaries.
Rabindranath  O  Biplobi  Somaj (Rabindranath  and  the  Revolutionary  Society)  by
Chinmohan Sehanabish from the Visvabharati in 1985 and Probashi Bharatiyo Biplobi O
Rabindranath (Expatriate  Indian  Revolutionaries  and  Rabindranath)  by  Samir  Roy
Chowdhury from Kolkata in 1997 illuminate in detail the incidents that took place. The
recent online publications of the century-old newspapers from America have brought
about many more unknown details to be looked at. But before all these, let us take a look
at the Gadarrevolution and the related issues.
It is now a well known fact that once the claimer of the liberation of India considered
Germany and Japan as their friends as those two countries were on hostile relations with
the British. America was on their preference also. In San Francisco of America, a good
number of Indians, mostly the Punjabis and Sikhs, congregated. At such a time Lala
Hardayal (1884-1939) reached there. A teacher of the Leyland University of the faculty
of Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit, Hardayal tried his best to unite the Indians living in
San Francisco. After a boon of two years, he, in 1911, could be able to form a party under
the name ‘Pacific Coast Hindustani Association’ which began to publish  Gadaras their
mouthpiece and began publishing since 1 November. Hardayal himself acted as the editor
of the spokesman. The Arabic word ‘Gadar’ means revolution. Later on, the name was
changed into Hindustan Gadar which got financial help from Germany. On an incident
Hardayal had to leave America for which the responsibility of  Gadar befell on Ram
Chandra Bharadwaj who was known as Ram Chandra Peswar as he hailed from Peswar
and as the people from there took the name of the locality, his name turned into Ram
Chandra Peswar.
On  his  first  visit,  the  poet  did  not  meet  Hardayal,  though  they  were  previously
acquainted. The man who the poet met was Basanta Koomar Roy, a regular contributor to
The Open Court, a monthly journal. It could be mentioned herewith that Hardayal and
Ram Chandra both would contribute to the same periodical. In the March 1912 issue
Hardayals’ essay ‘What the World is Waiting For’ was published. An important note that
could be cited here that the Kolkata-based English journal  Modern Review, edited by
Ramananda Chatterjee (1865-1943) also published articles by Hardayal which helps us to
detect a connection with the poet and the San Francisco-based Indian revolutionaries. In
March of 1917  The Open Court  published a special issue on India that incorporated
essays by Ram Chandra and Basanta Koomar. The memoirs of the noted Marxist leader
Manabendranath Roy (1887-1955) says that though Basanata Koomar himself was not a
revolutionary, he had connections with other revolutionaries like Bhupendranath Dutta
(1880-1961) and Taraknath Das (1884-1958). So, the connection of Basanta Koomar
with  the  poet  Rabindranath  was  merely  literary  and  nothing  political  may  not  be
completely true.
The other writer who was then associated with the Indian Laureate was Dhangopal
Mukherjii (1890-1936) who himself was a revolutionary and had connection with the
other revolutionaries. Dhangopal left India for Japan in 1910 and from there he went to
San Francisco. In 1916 he published two books of poems from there with titles like
Sandhya, Songs of Twilight and Rajani or Songs of the Night. It could be mentioned here
that Dhangopal’s juvenile book Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon, published in 1927 got
award from America. The award winning Bengali but English-language writer had well
connection with the poet, but it is yet to discover if they two met in 1912.
The incident that moved the poet hugely was that of the Komagata Maru, a ship. It was
carrying a group of some 376 people from the state of Punjab of India. The passengers
sold out all their assets and sailed for Canada. The team was led by Baba Gurdit Sing
(1860-1954). But when on 23 May they reached Vancouver, the Canadian government
did not allow them to get down, rather they deprived the ship-people from food and
water. At last they were given warning to blow up. As a result the ship had to start for
India  on  23  July.  On  27  September  the  ship  anchored  at  Khidirpur,  Kolkata,  but
sorrowfully the British police attacked the ship and began to open fire. A total of nineteen
people died at the spot, many succeeded to escape, and many were cordoned by the
police. As a protest of this incident Tagore refused to visit Canada for long and the
incident made the Gadar party people more enthusiastic.
The Incident of San Francisco on 5 October
Tagore landed on the Seattle port on 18 September 1916. He went to San Francisco on 30
September. The speech that he made in Japan criticising nationalism created the debate
among the Indian revolutionaries in San Francisco. They could not welcome the visit of
the poet there as they evaluated the visit as an enemy of the revolutionary movement. On
2 October, their anger was enhanced by the speech of Tagore at the Saint Francis Hotel in
which he commented that the British were better than the Moghul and other former
rulers.
All these made the Gadar party people active to stop Tagore giving lectures at different
places.  During  this  time  Professor  Bishen  Sing  Mattu  of  Khalsha  Dewan  Society
accompanied by his two associates named Umrau Sing and Pardam Sing went to the hotel
to request the poet to deliver a speech while they were obstructed by Jiwan Sing and H
Sing Hateshi. At a point the turban of Bishen Sing fell off his head and the police arrested
the protesters who were monetarily fined and was later paid by Ram Chandra.
The  incident  was  not  very  noteworthy  but  it  created  much  news  on  the  next  day.
Headings like ‘Tagore Visitor Hit by Hindus’ to ‘Plot against Hindu Poet’ were seen.
There was also news that told ‘Hindu Poet Flees from Reported Assassination Plot’. On 6
October, twenty two newspapers published news on the incident.
Hindu-German Conspiracy Case in American Newspapers
On  5  January  1917,  The  Day  Book published  news  with  the  title  ‘WOMEN
CHAMPIONS OF HINDU/COUSE INTERNED BY BRITISH’, contributed by Ram
Chandra, the editor  Hinsuatan Gadar. He wrote, ‘Women interested in the cause of
Hindu Revolutionists are being arrested and interned by British authorities.’ The news
also asserted that Madame B Cama, editor of the  Bandematram,a Hindu paper published
from Paris, was one of the important women who had been denied their liberty and
interned in Paris at the request of the British Government. The citation of this clipping is
to understand the attitude of Ram Chandra.
On the following 8 March, the  New York Tribunepublished a news with the title ‘U.S
Jury Sifting India Plot to Get Von Igel’s Papers’. The names connected included Dr
Chandrakanta  Chakraberrty  (1877-1971)  for  his  communication  with  Ram  Chandra.
After the long news another one added below ‘German Plots to Aid Revolutions in India
known at Washington’. On the same date The Day Bookpublished the news with the title
‘Sun Francisco Hindus plant Revolution’. The latter one read, ‘Evidence of a nation-wide
conspiracy, originating among San Francisco Hindus, to invade India by way of China, is
now in the hands of United States Dis’t Att’y John W. Preston, who will place it before
the federal grand jury.’ It was also told that Ram Chandra, editor of the Hindustan Gadar,
was aware of it though Ram Chandra himself denied that.
The  Daily Missourian published a small piece of news on 8 April having a heading
‘Hindus in Frisco held’. It was reported that nine Hindus were arrested together with Ram
Chandra. ‘It was reported the prisoners will be all charged with setting afoot a military
expedition against the British India Government’.
Three months later the  Ogden Standardpublished news on the similar topic where the
heading  read,  ‘HINDU  CONSPIRATOR  BROUGHT/TO  OGDEN  AND  HIS
HEARING/ SET BY JUDGE W. H. REEDER’. The feature, with four parts had small
sub headings like, ‘Planned Mutiny Concord’, ‘Denies Part in Plot’, ‘Had Charge of
Farm’ and ‘Two other Prisoners’. The conspirator who was caught red handed there was
Munshi  Ram  alias  Munga  Ram  who  denied  at  the  court  his  involvement  in  the
conspiracy. The charges brought against him included spreading revolution in Los Angels
and later on in South California with the direction of Ram Chandra. The  Tacoma Times
on 13 August published ‘Hindu Editor in Jail, Denied/ Chance to See New Baby Girl’
with a picture of Ram Chandra, his wife and daughter. It expressed the eagerness of Ram
Chandra to secure release from jail on bail in order to be his wife and infant children.
On 10 January, the  New York Tribune published another piece of news with the title
‘Hindu Plot Witness Brings in Braun’. It wrote, ‘attempts to purchase 10,00000 rifles
from the republic of China were made in 1916 by a man known as ‘Lemon’, who
strongly resembled a native of Hindustan, according to testimony offered today … ’. On
25  February,  the  newspaper  published  a  title  ‘Goldman  Worked  with  German  Spy,
Letters Indicate’ in a subtitle of which was ‘Letters Made Public’ which gave a historical
note of the newspaper Gadar, its former editor Har Dayal and their connection with the
German foreign embassy. On the same day El Paso Herald made banner news with the
heading ‘LANCING TO TESTIFY IN HINDU PLOT’ though they published the note in
a two-column space. The subtitle of the news was ‘Tagore’s Testimony’. Ram Chandra
stated Tagore would go to America to testimony if necessary and thus the name of
Tagore began to be associated with the case. Next day, the Democratic Bannernoted that
in regards to the case two members of the cabinet of Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) and
Tagore would be summoned. The New York Tribune also published similar news.
Right after two days the explosive new ‘Tagore Named with Japanese at Plot Trial’ was
published in the  New York Tribune. The sub-heading added was ‘Okuma and Terauchi
Figure in Hindu Correspondence’. It told that the revolutionaries had connection with the
Japanese Prime Minister Masatake Terauchi, the former Prime Minister Count Okuma
and Rabindranath Tagore. A shadow of the news was published on 1 March in the
Interior Journal. On 19 March ‘Two Arrests in Second Gmp’ was the part of news ‘Two
German Plots Exposed’. Among the arrestees there was Sailendranath Ghosh. During
those days, anti-Tagore propaganda was so high in the  New York Tribune that on 22
March in a news Tagore was held responsible for the divorce of a family of Luis S
Philiman. The complaint of the husband was that his wife quoted from Rabindranath all
the time. On 28 March two news were published with titles ‘Hindu Plotters had Two
Marked for Death Here’ and ‘Hindu on Trial Gets many Death Threats, He Admits to
Police’.  Here  ‘He’  is  Chandra  K  Chakravarti.  On  April  2  Evening  Public  Ledger
published  ‘US INDICTS AMERICAN GIRLS AND FIVE HINDUS’. The name now
came up included Pulin B Bose, Tarak Nath Das, Jadu Gopal Mukherjee, and Bhagwan
Sing.
The heading ‘Hindu Kills and Killed at Plot Trail’ in the New York Tribune on 24 April
was most stunning. 13 April was the date of the verdict. After the announcement when
the audience present were going out of the court premises ‘the defendants had been
heard, and the United States Attorney, John W. Preston, had just completed his closing
argument.  The  bark  of  an  automatic  broke  the  silence  of  the  courtroom,  and  Ram
Chandra, who had just left his chair, fell, shot through the heart. Two more bullets
entered  his  body  before  it  touched  the  floor.’  On  28  April,  the  New  York  Tribune
published  a  full-page  article  with  the  title  ‘HINDU  PAWNS  LOST  IN  KAISER’S
GAME OF EMPIRE’. The contributor was L.J.D. BEKKER. The contributor used six
photographs, among which one was of Ram Chandra, while another was of Ram Singh.
Tagore’s initiatives to get rid of the case
It was noted that in the last week of the month of February 1918 the name of Tagore was
associated  with  Hindu-German  conspiracy  case.  The  man  behind  this  mishap  was
Chandrakanta  who  received  monetary  assistance  from  Germany  for  revolutionary
activities. In a letter dated 21 November 1916 he wrote, ‘Rabindranath has come at our
suggestion and saw Count Okuma, Baron Shrimpei Goto, Massaburo Suzuki, Marquis
Yamanuchi,  Count  Terauchi  and  others.  Terauchi  is  favourable  and  others  are
sympathetic.’ Moreover, on 10 January 1917, he wrote to the Gadar party, Berlin Office,
‘Rabindranath Tagore thinks, if he now goes to Sweden, he may be suspected and his
usefulness curtailed. His intention is to hasten home and do whatever he can. …We have
given him 12,000 dollars.’ When the police searched the house of Chandrakanta, they
discovered  the  documents.  Tagore  himself  was  quite  unaware  of  his  name  being
associated with the case. On 11 May, when C F Andrews (1871-1940), Tagore’s wellwisher and British friend, returned with the message to Santiniketan. It may be noted that
by then the verdict was declared. Listening to everything, Tagore wrote a letter to the
then US President Woodrow Wilson but thinking that could be late to reach; he sent a
telegram to the US President that read, ‘Newspapers received concerning conspiracy trial
San Francisco wherein prosecution counsel implicated me. I claim from you and your
country  protection  against  such  lying  calumny.’  After  much  haggling,  the  private
secretary of the Viceroy and Governor General Chelmsford sent Tagore an   empathetic
telegram  saying  the  he  felt  sad  to  see  the  name  of  Tagore  in  the  ‘Unwarrantable
Prominence’ published in the American newspapers.
Conclusion
The case that started on 20 November 1917 came to an end with the punishment of
twenty nine convicts out of thirty two. Two were killed at the court premises. One was set
free. But Tagore was not totally discarded of the case. Four months after the verdict on 16
August the  Ocean Standard wrote that ‘Woman Attorney Exonerates Tagore’. It was
explained that the name of Tagore in the case was somewhat incidental. It told, ‘Tagore
was mentioned incidentally in the letters of the conspirators as having favoured a change
in the Indian government. There was no evidence of any sort against him and any
connection he may have had with the conspirators was entirely innocent of wrong doing’.
On the following day news on Tagore told, ‘Tagore Maintains Loyalty / Offers Letter
From Indian / Governor to Disprove Plot’.
For the involvement of his name in the case Tagore had to cancel his next USA tour in
1918. His third visit occurred after two years on 28 October 1920. But by then many
changes were observed. The America that he left in 1916 very much enthusiastic about
him, could not be revived in the rest twenty years of his life. The worst happened when in
1929,  he  lost  his  passport  in  Canada  and  asked  for  that  to  the  USA  office,  and
consequently was dishnoured most ignominiously.
Subrata Kumar Das, the author of www.bdnovels.org, can be reached at
subratakdas@yahoo.com