Concept of Humanity in Rabindranath Tagore's Muktadhara: Thematic Review

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Introduction

Mukta-dhara or The Waterfall (1922) is one of the better-known plays of Rabindranath Tagore. He wrote the play immediately after he had a first-hand account of the impact of modern science, technology and machines on the human temperament from his extensive tour of the scientifically advanced countries of Europe and America in the early decades of the twentieth century. There “he saw that the machine was making terrible inroads into the human personality, and ruthless technological power” (Iyengar, 1985: 135). “Tagore, Gandhi and Roy, each in his way, saw in modern civilization some kind of a Frankenstein’s monster which had become a threat to its creator, man” (Ray 114). “In his lecture ‘Construction Versus Creation,’ once Tagore conceded that Science has conferred blessings. But its potential for destruction outweighs its benefits. Scientific power has brought the world to the edge of a precipice” (The Hindu). This theme dominates his play – Mukta-dhara. Accordingly, K.R.S. Iyengar observes: “Although it is not heavily underlined, the meaning of the play is clear: Human values are paramount, and to ignore this truth is to canter towards self-destruction” (ibid.).

The play is full of mythical allusions and cultural symbols molded into the contemporary scenario of the struggle initiated by the cultural differences between orthodoxy and modernity and between man and machine. “The issue of pluralism and cultural conflict occupied Rabindranath Tagore throughout his life” (Ray 101). Mukta-dhara is one such play.

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The title of the play takes its name from a mountain spring whose waters rush down the slopes of mountainous land named Uttarakut, ‘The Peak of the North’, and irrigate the plains of Shiv-tarai. The peoples of these two places belong to different races and different cultures bonded together by the free and unhindered flow of the Mukta-dhara stream. However, the Shiv-tarayans have been held in subjection by the King of Uttarakut for quite a while. He desires to enforce this subjugation of the peoples more effectively. His vile intentions create a serious conflict in the play and splits the humanity into two halves. Using science and technology as his potent tools, the King with the ingenious help of the Uttarakut engineer, Bibhuti, dams Mukta-dhara to prevent its waters from reaching Shiv-tarai and keep these people at his mercy. Thereafter, it becomes a struggle for the Shiv-tarayans to fight against this oppression. The non-violent struggle is led by the Yuvaraj Abhijit of Uttarakut and is ably supported by a non-violent, pre-Gandhian ascetic, Dhananjaya. In the process, fight against injustice also becomes a struggle of the Shiv-tarayans to maintain their cultural identity intact and liberate themselves from the tyranny of the Uttarakut King. In a way, this fight against material and spiritual oppression symbolically becomes a fight of the third world countries against the supremacy and aggression of the developed countries to gain control over the limited world resources of the world such as oil and water. That way, a century earlier, Tagore anticipates the contemporary world full of disputes on the issues that plague our present time with bloody consequences.

Exposition – Review of the Play:

Right from the opening scene of the play, Mukta-dhara alludes to the influence of Indian mythology and culture. The chorus chant at the very beginning refers to the origin of the myth of the Ganges sprouting through the lock of Lord Shankara. The Ganges’ most sustained association with the Indian mythology is with Lord Shiva Himself. Like Shiva and the crescent moon decorating His head, the Ganges—whose life-sustaining waters flow from the realm of the moon—is symbolically connected with both life and death. The chant, which later reappears intermittently in the play, of the devotees of the lord, reads:

Victory! Lord of Terror, Sankara!

Wreaker of flood-wrath Sankara,

Sankara!

Victory! doubtings pierced,

Victory! bondage shattered,

Masterer He of the Evil, Sankara,

Sankara! (Tagore, 1950 Rpt. 1970: 9).

Here, through the chant of the devotees in the play, the dramatist intends to project his vision of the might of God Shiva who, according to Hindu mythology, is the Preserver and Destroyer of the living world. Spring waters, on the other hand, are the life-sustaining force whose floods can be checked by the power of the Lord to preserve the life of the world and keep the world free from worries and tyrannies of the evil. Therefore, in Mukta-dhara, the water stream symbolises life and freedom for the Shiv-tarayans. But the King of Uttarkut wrests away this freedom by using a huge machine to dam the free flow of the Mukta-dhara spring. As a result, the Lord of the Life has to intervene to preserve the bonded life of his devotees in Shiv-tarai. He does it through Prince Abhijit, who in the end, breaks the dam and releases the sacred waters of the spring sacrificing his own life in the process. In a way, it becomes a victory of the Lord of Terror and Wrecker of Floods over the evil forces of nature as the previously mentioned chant in praise of Lord Shiva suggests.

On the other hand, the region under subjugation is named Shiv-tarai or the plains of Lord Shiva. The very name is mythical and symbolic. It suggests the calm, patient, and enduring nature of its people in the manner of Lord Shiva Himself.

The hardcore and unclean people from Uttarakut, however, consider their race to be superior to those of Shiv-tarayans. The common folks, the school-master and his wards of Uttarakut think that ‘their (Shiv-tarayans’) religion is very bad’ and ‘they haven’t got high-ridged noses’ (23). On the contrary, the Shiv-tarayans wonder: “What faces these Uttarakut fellows have! As if the Creator had started molding a lump of flesh and never had time to finish it!” and “they have no culture whatever. Their so-called scriptures, what is there in them?” (41). It is this physical and cultural difference between the Uttarakut people and the Shiv-tarayans that results in the troubled relationship between the two neighbours. Therefore, to show them political dominance and to further impoverish Shiv-tarayans, King Ranajit of Uttarakut, by taking the aid of machinery and by using the engineering skills of Bibhuti, dams the free-flowing stream of Mukta-dhara. In his opinion, “one’s own folk may be won by affection; outsiders must be held by fear” (17). The damming of the free spring using the giant and horrible-looking machine is that weapon by which Ranajit could instil fear in the mind of Shiv-tarayans and, therefore, further suppress their freedom.

The dam, however, takes twenty years to complete. The cries and protests of the subjugated humanity of Shiv tarai fall to deaf ears of King Ranajit in his desire for political, cultural, and racial dominance of the region. In the process, many innocent lives are killed due to the technical errors and misuse of science by the egotistic engineer, Bibhuti. Like his King, the proud and arrogant Bibhuti doesn’t even hesitate to propagate his feelings of contempt for the poor folks of Shiv-tarai and also of his masterful skill of engineering dominating over the power of divinity. He comments: “When a man fights the power of the gods, does he care for the curses of men?” (13). A festival is so arranged to celebrate this ‘human victory’ over the ‘free-flowing nature’ to proclaim to the world that the Uttarakut deity of Bhairava has supported them in this giant endeavour to overpower the lowly cultured Shiv-tarayans. In this blind urge to dominate the helpless subjects, King Ranajit so boasts:

Bhairava is Uttarakut’s own god. Our victories are His. So Bhairava takes our side, and takes back his own gift. He will pierce Shiv-tarai with his thurst-spear, and fling it before the throne of Uttarakut. (20).

Yuvaraj Abhijit, on the other hand, is full of love and compassion for the humanity. He loves this Paradise that is why he decides to fight “its demons” (30), that is, against his father, the King, but with the spiritual weapons of truth, non-violence, and self-sacrifice. In the process, Yuvaraj opens the Nandi Pass road “to save the people of Shiv-tarai from continual famine” (31) which was earlier blocked by the King to prevent them from passing freely, do business and prosper. He also has a special attachment to the Mukta-dhara. As Abhijit himself knows and the King’s minister once comments, “. . . he is not of royal birth but was picked up below the falls of Mukta-dhara” (17). He so thinks it to be his destiny on earth to keep the spring free and keep humanity vibrant. Therefore, he comments:

Somewhere or other in the external world, God writes for us the secret mystery of each man’s spirit. Mukta-dhara is His word to me, bearing the secret of my inner being. (29).

Yuvaraj “cannot bear to see the poverty that depends on charity” (32) of its masters. So, he strongly opposes the construction of the dam which was meant to dry out the fields of Shiv-tarai, make them beggars, and depend entirely on the mercy of Uttarakut. In this conflict, he sides with the just cause of the Shiv-tarayans, much to the chagrin of the people of the Uttarakut and its King, his own Father. The enraged King imprisons him for opening the Nandi Pass, and for his protesting over the construction of the dam. Even then, Abhijit’s opinions do not change. Steadfastly he comments: “I must pay my debt, the debt of my birth. Mukta-dhara was my nurse. I must set her free” (57). To fulfil this vow, Yuvaraj escapes from the prison and strikes at one of the weaker points of the dam to let the imprisoned water flow freely towards Shiv-tarai. In this noble cause, however, he gets drawn in the fierce current of the roaring waters of Mukta-dhara. The compassionate Yuvaraj thus sacrifices his own life for the sake of humanity and proves that considerations of humanitarian feelings are more valuable in the world than the inanimate use of and the dominance of scientific machines that makes man inhuman. In the process, he turns the two different opposing cultures into one, namely, ‘humanity’. It is the celebration of human freedom from the oppressions of inhuman use of science, as envisaged by Rabindranath Tagore.

Dhananjaya is another influential character in Mukta-dhara who, along with Yuvaraja, fights passively against the inhuman treatment meted upon the Shivtarains by the king of Uttarakut. In the ascetic, Dhananjaya, the dramatist envisions the later role of Mahatma Gandhi’s passive resistance against the unjust rule of a foreign power and its misuse of democratic ideals. “Incidentally, Rabindranath was an ardent advocate of non-violence long before Mahatma Gandhi used it as a weapon against rule in India” (Roy 271). Dhananjaya, in Mukta-dhara, uses similar weapons to incite the suppressed people of Shiv-tarai against the cultural and material oppression of King Ranajit of Uttarakut. He once says to King Ranajit: “What you seize by violence can never be yours. What you set free is yours forever” (Tagore, 1950: 47). He has contempt for violence. He advises Ganesh, the quarrelsome Shiv-tarayan, not to retaliate his oppressor, Chandapal, the king’s brother-in-law, with violence even when the oppressor was beating him mercilessly. Dhananjaya in Tagore’s Mukta-dhara, therefore, preludes Gandhian ideals of non-violence.

Can’t you show him what not-beating is? That needs too much strength, I suppose? Beating waves won’t stop the storm. But hold your rudder steady, and you win (36).

He also says:

Strike at the root of violence itself. As soon as you can hold up your head and say that it does not hurt, the roots of violence will be cut (36).

The people involved in this action cannot understand Dhananjaya and always follow him rather than his ideals. However, this messiah of non-violence does a great job in inculcating a sense of fearlessness in the minds of the Shiv-tarayans to oppose the tyranny and injustice of Uttarakut and inspires Yuvaraj to fight against the autocracy, against the racial and hegemonic tyranny, and the misuse of science by the king for his petty political supremacy.

Conclusion

Through the protests of Yuvaraj and Dhananjaya Rabindranath Tagore tries to pinpoint the drawbacks in the socio-political system of monarchy. “Tagore is convinced that in a democratic society the king has no right to survive as a king if he loses the confidence of his people” (Agarwal 71). Dhananjaya so advocates democracy for the benefit of Shiv-tarayans. In his opinion, “a king takes his seat on a throne, but a throne does not make a king” (40), and “Kingship is crippled if it is the king’s alone, and not the people’s” (39). That way, he tries to unite them and raise them against the tyranny of the monarchy. He also admires Abhijit’s courage and humanism and lends his support to the cause spiritually, morally, and by uniting the people against their usurper. He is also arrested by the king for such an act. Dhananjaya’s backstage support to Abhijit gives Yuvaraj enormous courage and moral strength to act even against his father’s undemocratic wishes. He liberates the bonded souls of Shiv-tarai through the free-flowing waters of Mukta-dhara and, in the process, sacrifices his precious life. Thus, through Mukta-dhara, Tagore “warns us against the dangers of sectarianism, mindless education and sacrificing humanity at the altar of political expediency, and celebrates life and freedom as the real abode of God” (Singh).

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