Tagore’s ‘Banglar mati, Banglar jol’, and the sentiment of brotherhood and patriotism that it invokes

“The people of Bengal do not support June 20, which is synonymous with violence and bloodshed that marked the partition (of Bengal), as the state foundation day,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday.

Marking the festive Poila Baishakh as Bengal’s statehood day is a strong political message from Banerjee. So is the choice of Tagore’s Banglar mati, Banglar jol as the state anthem. Written in 1905 in the context of Viceroy Lord Curzon’s partition of Bengal, the song became an anthem for those fighting against Britain’s divide and rule policy. We take a look.

The ‘first’ partition of Bengal

George Nathanial Curzon (1859-1925) was appointed Viceroy of India in 1899. A staunch imperialist, Curzon’s most unpopular measure was the partition of Bengal in 1905, a decision that triggered outrage and spurred the nascent nationalist movement (more on that later).

But the idea behind the partition was not Curzon’s alone. The size of the Bengal Presidency had worried the British for long, with proposals to split it going as far back as the 1860s, wrote Sumit Sarkar in his Modern India 1885-1947 (1983). But as Bipan Chandra et al wrote in India’s Struggle for Independence (1987), while Bengal had indeed become “administratively unwieldy”, there was “no escaping the fact that the real motive for partitioning Bengal was political”.

A map of Bengal from 1880. (Wikimedia Commons)

At the time, Bengal was the nerve centre of India’s rising nationalist movement, and Curzon, through this move, sought to sow seeds of division and hate in the diverse Bengali speaking population — a strategy that nationalist historians would later identify as “divide and rule”.

Sarkar pointed to a 1904 speech delivered by Curzon in Dacca (Dhaka), where he offered Muslims of East Bengal the prospect of “unity which they have not enjoyed since the days of the old Mussulman viceroys and kings”.

Curzon hoped that the partition of Bengal would not only sow enmity between Bengali Hindus and Muslims, it would also pull the nationalist leadership apart. Risley, Home Secretary to the Government of India, put it bluntly: “Bengal united, is power, Bengal divided, will pull in several different ways … one of our main objects is to split up and thereby weaken a solid body of opponents to our rule.”

Swadeshi Movement: the nationalist response

However, instead of friction, the partition drew unanimous criticism from nationalist politicians and eventually sparked the Swadeshi Movement — “the first mass movement” in India’s struggle for independence.

“What the British had clearly underestimated was first of all the sense of unity among the Bengalis… [and] regional pride through the evolution of a standard literary language, a growing number of newspapers and periodicals and a modern literature which with Rabindranath Tagore was on the threshold of world recognition,” Sarkar wrote.

The anti-colonial response to the partition was marked by protests and demonstrations on the streets, a boycott of British goods, and poignant symbolic gestures, foreshadowing the course the national movement would take in the coming years.

It was in this context that Tagore, a vociferous critic of the partition, wrote Banglar mati, Banglar jol — a prayer for Bengali unity and harmony.

‘All brothers and sisters of Bengals’ homes, May they be united’

Tagore endorsed the Swadeshi movement through his songs and poems. In his book Swadeshi Movement in Bengal 1903-1908 (1973), Sumit Sarkar noted that by 1904, Tagore’s political ideas had attained significant clarity.

“[From] trying in vain to placate the foreign ruler and talking big in a foreign tongue, he urges volunteers to the villages instead, spreading social and political enlightenment in the melas and through magic lantern lectures, and, above all to revive our traditional samaj, channelling all constructive work through it once again,” Sarkar wrote.

Tagore’s songs from this period reflect his vision of universal brotherhood and religious unity. They continue to resonate with Bengalis on both sides of the border even today. Amar sonar Bangla (My golden Bengal), the national anthem of Bangladesh, was written at this time.

Banglar mati, Banglar jol, West Bengal’s newly chosen state anthem, was written in 1905. Its first stanza goes like this:

Banglar mati, Banglar jol,

Banglar bayu, Banglar phal,

Punyo hok, Punyo hok,

Punyo hok, hey bhogobaan

(The soil of Bengal, the water of Bengal; The air of Bengal, the fruit of Bengal; Let them be blessed; Oh my Lord.)

The song calls for unity for all Bengalis by invoking the beauty of Bengal — its natural environs, its language, its people, and its soul. This is perhaps best expressed in the final stanza.

Bangalir praan, Bangalir mon,

Bangalir ghare jato bhai bon

Ek hauk, ek hauk

Ek hauk, hey bhagobaan

([All] Bengalis’ life, [all] Bengalis’ soul; All brothers and sisters in Bengal’s homes; may they be united; Oh my Lord.)

An anthem of the moment

This song became an anthem of the movement against Bengal’s partition, sung during rapturous processions and demonstrations that sought to emphasise Bengali unity. Tagore himself led many of these, tying rakhis to Muslims — an idea that picked up across the state from Calcutta to Dacca in the east and Sylhet in the north.

Tagore’s nephew Abanindranath Tagore recalled in his memoir Gharoa (co-written with Rani Chanda, a close family friend of the Tagores, 1941):

“Rabi kaka (Rabindranath) said one day that [the festival] of rakhi-bandhan should be celebrated by everyone … It was decided that before the ritual, we shall first take a dip in the Ganges … [as we made it to the river] on either side of the street people thronged in thousands … singing songs — Banglar mati, Banglar jol. The song was just recently composed.

[After the dip] we started tying rakhis on each other’s wrists … While passing through Pathuriaghata [we saw] a few horsemen … Rabi kaka swerved towards them and fastened rakhis on their wrists. What a mess, I had [initially] thought. These were are Muslim people … a riot was to surely break out, I thought. What followed was beyond belief! It [tying rakhis] was followed by kola-kuli (hugs, a display of brotherhood) instead.” (translated)

In her book, Tagore by Fireside (1943), Sahitya Akademi Award winner and Tagore protege Maitreyi Devi wrote that through his rakhi-bandhan, Tagore “transformed a religious tradition to a secular motif of unity in diversity”. Bengal was eventually reunified in 1911, but would break again — permanently — in 1947.