KNIGHTHOOD --- ITS RISE AND FALL

KNIGHTHOOD --- ITS RISE AND FALL

Why did Tagore in the first place accept the knighthood from the British Government and then renounce it? Netaji had rejected the ICS assignment outright. There was no accepting and then rejecting it in his case. It must be remembered that acceptance of the knighthood meant that the recipient of the rank was a knight of the imperial order of Britain that had colonised and ruled India. In a sense, therefore, it was a loyal acceptance of the British Raj. Would Rash Behari Bose accept such an accolade? Would Subhas Chandra Bose ever accept such a rank?

Perhaps, Tagore by his acceptance of the status had wished for a rapprochement of relations between Britain and its colony but on hindsight it must be said that it was a terrible compromise on the principles of freedom that our motherland was already fighting for and which had already cost so many lives at the gallows and at the receiving end of the bayonet and the bullet of the British police and army. Or, perhaps, Tagore belonging to the old feudal order was that much more conservative in his views and did not count British imperialism as an unmitigated evil and it required the British to point it right in his eyes through their dastardly deed in the Punjab on the day of Baisakhi in the year 1919 for Tagore to realise his folly? But that he did renounce this title at the most befitting moment in the history of emergent India was most becoming of his otherwise unblemished patriotism and it shamed the British in the eyes of the whole world in a manner that could have only reduced their status as a force for good and, hence, worthy of governing India.

The poet ever leads the way and so it was that Aristotle had wished for philosopher kings to rule the people. In consonance with this spirit, Tagore, in a sense, led burning India through the first hours of its awakening for freedom before Gandhi took up the reins and led the masses into conjoint non-cooperation with the evil regime from across the seas. Jallianwala died to make India live.

Written by Sugata Bose