Wednesday, 29 June 2016

Tagore and Villages

In “ Rules of Cooperative”( 1928 ) : “ Socialization is the heart of village. Socialization can never be achieved in a town. One reason for this is that, as town is large social relation becomes weak. Another reason is that because of business and other special needs and opportunities population becomes large. There humans primarily want to satisfy its own essential needs. Not each other. Due to this even when people are living in the same locality they do not feel ashamed if they do not know each other. With the complication of our life this alienation is gradually growing “ 

( Remember T. S. Eliot: “ The desert is not only in the Southern tropics/ The desert is around the corner/ The desert is squeezed in the tube train? And the desert is in the heart of your neighbour”)
Tagore in a meeting of villagers in Santiniketan in 1930: “ It is necessary to tell you a fact. Many of you will not be able to feel how true is the fact. I never could imagine that I shall witness so much of distress from different countries in the west. They are not in happiness. There is no doubt that huge loads of goods have been accumulated. But there is deep untrust all around. .... People can never remain connected to each other in cities. You don’t have to go far-in Calcutta, where we stay and the place we know, there is no relation with the neighbours in their happiness and sadness or during some mishappening. “
In Rules of Cooperative Tagore writes ( 1928 ): “ The villages encircle the cities from all sides. Such unnatural dissimilarities can never be good ......It is necessary to state that this is not true only for our country. This is the common symptom of the present age. In reality, this seed of social alienation from West has spread all over the world. This not only harms the happiness & peace of mankind,it is killing from inside. So, this problem has to be considered by the people of all countries. “

In Cooperative on self- reliance ( 1922 ): “ We have to reconstruct all our villages to satisfy all our needs. It is necessary to form a Zone. If the heads of the Zones can organize all works and redress the deficiencies by themselves only then only the cultivation of self-rule will become true all over the country. It is necessary to help & inspire the villagers to start their own school, cooperative & bank. By this way if the villages become self-reliant & united then omly we will be saved. Our greatest problem is how to reconstruct our village society. “

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