Twelve Men of Bengal in the Nineteenth Century/Maharaja Sir Jotindra Mohan Tagore
Maharaja Sir Jotindra Mohan Tagore
MAHARAJA SIR JOTINDRA MOHAN
TAGORE, K.C.S.I
1831—1908.
There was no prominent or honoured figure in Indian society in Bengal during the latter half of the nineteenth century than that of Maharaja Sir Jotindra Mohan Tagore. An acknowledged leader of the Hindu community, he played a foremost part in all the great movements of the day. For over fifty years, at wellnigh every public gathering in Calcutta his tall upright figure and dignified bearing won universal admiration and respect. There was no scheme tending to the improvement of the conditions of his fellow-countrymen physically, mentally or morally that did not meet with his ready sympathy and support. "He combined the polished politeness of the old school with the educational accomplishments of the new," wrote Sir Richard Temple, while Lord Roberts, speaking in the House of Lords, gave it as his firm conviction that "there is no more loyal or enlightened subject in Her Majesty's dominions.'
Sir Jotindra came of a family remarkable alike for its long descent and for the high distinctions won by so many of its members. Few other families in Bengal can show so long and distinguished a record of public usefulness and benevolence. Tracing back its origin to the legendary days of King Adisur, it claims descent from one of the five Brahmin priests whom that king sent for from Kanouj to restore Brahminism in Bengal. From the earliest days of recorded history, the family has held a prominent position, famed for its learning, its wealth and its integrity. Settled for many generations in Jessore, the first to take up his permanent residence on the banks of the Hooghly was Panchanana, who was also the first of his family to receive the title of Thakur, which his descendants in its corrupted form of Tagore have ever since continued to bear. It was in Govindpur, one of the villages destined later to develop into the great city of Calcutta, that Panchanana settled, a choice of domicile that was to prove fortunate for his family in the next generation. Here he first came into close contact with the English and, eager to obtain the advantages that close association with them promised, he secured the appointment of amin of the 24-Perganas for his son Joyram Tagore. It was a responsible and important post in those days, involving the conduction of all the settlement operations in the district as well as the collection of the revenue. The capture of Calcutta by Seraj-ud-dowlah threatened to overwhelm the rising family fortunes, all their possessions being lost during the Mussulman occupation of the city. With the restoration of the English, however, better days soon dawned again. The site selected by the Company for the new Fort included part of the land which Panchanana had purchased at Gobindpur on his first arrival and whereon he had erected his family house and temple. The Company now purchased the land at a considerably enhanced price from his son Joyram who reaped further profit from his association with the building of the Fort. The new dwelling-house and bathing ghat which he built for himself at Pathuria Ghatta still remains in the possessions of his descendants to-day.
Joyram Tagore who may thus be looked upon as the modern founder of the family died in 1762, and since that date his descendants have without a break continued to hold a prominent position in Bengal. His sons Darpa Narain and Nilmoni Tagore early acquired wealth and distinction, the former through successful mercantile enterprises, the latter as sheristadar of the Magistrate's Court at Alipore. Nilmoni Tagore was the grandfather of Dwarkanath Tagore who was so closely associated with Ram Mohan Roy in that great reformer's schemes for the regeneration of Bengal. Dwarkanath's career is one of the romances of the Rennaissance of Bengal. Starting life as a law agent, he carried on at the same time an extensive commercial agency, finally relinquishing both to enter government service and acting for six years as sheristadar to the Collector of the 24-Parganas. Promoted to be Dewan to the Board of Revenue, he held that post with honour and distinction for many years, retiring from Government service in 1834. Once more drawn towards commercial enterprises, he entered into partnership with Mr. William Carr and Mr. William Prinsep, establishing the firm of Carr Tagore & Co., being one of the first Indian gentlemen to enter into mercantile business in Calcutta on the European model. Associated with others in the establishment of the Union Bank, a leading Zemindar in half a dozen districts, the friend of Ram Mohan Ray and a keen supporter of every scheme of advancement and every institution destined to promote the welfare of the Hindu Community, he was for long one of the most prominent and respected men in Bengal, bringing fresh honour to the name he bore. His grandson Satyendranath Tagore had the distinction of being the first Indian to pass the competitive examination for the Indian Civil Service. Maharaja Ramnath Tagore C.S.I. was the loyal associate of his brother Dwarkanath Tagore in all his enterprises, being connected with almost every public society in Calcutta, literary, scientific and charitable. His whole career was one of public usefulness and benevolence.
From Darpa Narayan, the elder son of Joyram Tagore, from whom Sir Jotindra himself was descended, have sprung others of the name no less worthy of their great traditions. One of Darpa Narayan Tagore's most successful ventures had been the purchase at auction of part of the immense estates of the Raja of Rajshahi, extending in area to some 249 square miles. His son Gopi Mohan inherited his father's business instincts and added to the splendid estate he inherited by yet further purchases in Rajshahi, Dinajpur and Jessore. His wealth increased so rapidly under his able management that he was regarded as one of the richest men in Bengal, and it was said of him that he never sat down without a lac of rupees beside him, his jewelled paridan and hookah alone being worth that sum. He worthily maintained the public-spirited traditions of his family, being a liberal patron of the arts and of all branches of learning. Like so many members of his family he was a learned Sanskrit scholar and devoted to music. One of his six sons was the famous Prasanna Kumar Tagore. Educated at Mr. Sherbourne's well-known school in Calcutta and later at the Hindu College, losses in business induced him to get himself enrolled as a Pleader. To a profound knowledge of Law, he united strong common sense and a keen sagacity that quickly secured him the first position at the Bar. By his dignity, ability and character he did much to raise the legal profession in public estimation and so great was his practice that he is said to have made an income of over twenty thousand pounds a year. He played a leading part in founding the Bengal Landowner's Society in 1838 and was elected President of the British Indian Association on its inauguration in 1857. On the formation of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General in 1854 he was appointed clerk assistant and later a member of the Legislative Council itself. He bequeathed the half of his immense wealth to his brother Huro Kumar Tagore, the father of Sir Jotindra.
Huro Kumar Tagore, unlike his more famous brother, figured but little in public life. Devoted to music, he was not only its liberal patron but was himself no mean performer. As a Sanskrit scholar he excelled, even in a family noted for its scholarship. He was not only able to write with ease and literary grace, he was able to converse in it fluently. There is a story told of him that when he and his brother wished to raise a tablet to his father's memory they offered a prize among all the most learned Pandits of the day for the best commemorative verses sent in. Huro Kumar annonymously sent in some verses that he had himself composed and these were at once adjudged the best although many of the greatest Sanskrit scholars of the day had competed. He died in 1858 and so well had he managed the family property that he was able to hand on a splendid inheritance to his sons Jotindra Mohan and Sourindra Mohan, who were themselves worthily to uphold the great traditions of their house.
Jotindra Mohan was born in Calcutta in 1831. He was entered as a student at the Hindu College at the early age of eight and for nine years he continued his studies there, distinguished among his fellow-students for his application and ability. Leaving the college when seventeen years old he finished his English education under the tuition of Captain D. L. Richardson, the distinguished scholar and writer. Brought up under strictly orthodox influences, Jotindra Mohan always retained his orthodox beliefs, furnishing by his piety, his charity and the sincerity of his life one of the most striking examples of all that is best in Hinduism, at the same time that his broadmindedness, his wide sympathy and his intense humanity was typical of the awakening that had come to Bengal.
From the first he was keenly interested in all that concerned education. The great cause which so many members of his house had ardently championed found in him a no less keen supporter. Following the family tradition, he had early acquired proficiency in Sanskrit, a language he always venerated as the guardian of the written tenets of his faith. His modern studies, however, kept place with his classical learning and from the first he had a perfect command of English. In his younger days, before the management of a great estate and many public duties occupied all his time, he gave evidence of considerable literary ability, and many contributions to various papers and journals, not only in prose but in verse, survive to attest his ability and grace of diction. To the Provakar and the Literary Gazette he was a frequent contributor on a variety of subjects, social, literary and political. His best-remembered literary productions however, are his dramas and farces in Bengali which attained considerable popularity. The dramatic art like almost every other branch of art in the first half of the 19th century had fallen on evil days, and it was Sir Jotindra's endeavour to raise the stage to a higher level of excellence and to improve the character of the dramas acted. One of his most famous plays was the Bidya Sundara Natak, which did much to set a better standard among Bengali compositions. At his house at Belgachhia the Maharaja organised theatrical entertainments on a elaborate scale, and by providing refined and clever plays and competent actors he succeeded in infusing a healthier moral and artistic tone into modern Bengali dramatic art. At the same time he turned his attention to stage music. Here he had the assistance of his younger brother Raja Sourindra Nath Tagore whose investigation into the theory of Hindu music have won him such a world-wide reputation and such unprecedented honours from well-nigh every country in the world. Hindu music, like dramatic art, had suffered eclipse during the troublous years of the eighteenth century and a wide field was open to enthusiastic musical revivalists. By developing a new system of concerted music, by examining the different theories of music and by comparing English and Indian methods, he set Hindu music on a sounder and higher basis.
Succeeding his father in 1858, he found himself at the age of twenty-seven in possession of one of the most splendid inheritances to which any young man in Bengal has succeeded in modern times. Eight years later the death of his uncle Prasanna Kumar Tagore, who had bequeathed the bulk of his vast property to his brother, who predeceased him, still further added to his great wealth. A splendid career lay before him. Devoted to literature and art, rich beyond the dreams of avarice, the bearer of an honoured name and the head of a distinguished house, immense possibilities opened out before him. From the first he thrust resolutely aside the innumerable temptations that his great possessions inevitably brought with them. Inducements to ease and indolence, to self-indulgence and personal enjoyment, must assuredly have come to the man to whom it might well have seemed that there was nothing else left to strive for. But voluntarily and whole-heartedly Jotindra Mohan set himself worthily to carry on the great traditions of his house and to fulfil the great responsibilities that his exceptional position entailed.
The largest land-owner in the province, owning property in no less than eighteen districts and numbering some six hundred thousand souls among his tenants, Jotindra Mohan first came prominently into public notice during the famine of 1866. In Orissa and Midnapore, where he held extensive Zemindaries, the distress proved more severe than any with which the British Government had yet had to deal. It was one of the greatest catastrophes of the century in Bengal. With no previous experience of famine on so extensive a scale and unware that the drought of the previous year would have so disastrous an effect upon the grain supply, Government was utterly unprepared to meet the calamity that faced it during the hot weather months of 1866. With no organised measures of famine relief and hampered by lack of the means of speedy communication and transit, starvation had overtaken thousands of the unfortunate people before relief could come. The area affected was some twelve thousand square miles with a population of four million souls, and it is estimated that something like a quarter of this number perished. How loyally the local officers worked to relieve this terrible distress the reports of the Commissioners appointed later to enquire into the cause of the famine prove, while so eager was Government to come to the assistance of the people, once the true facts of the case were known, is shown by its importation of no less than forty thousand tons of rice, of which even the most generous distribution was unable to dispose of scarcely half. It was the first great natural calamity on such a scale with which the British Government had had to deal and bitter as the experience was it led to the organised measures of famine relief which have coped so effectively with similar calamities in more recent times. Throughout all the anxious days of 1866 Jotindra Mohan loyally supported every scheme of Government relief and himself took energetic personal measures to lessen the distress among his own tenants.
From this time onwards Jotindra Mohan Tagore figured largely in the public eye. In 1870 he was appointed a member of the Bengal Legislative Council by Sir William Grey who in the following,year recommended him to the Government of India as deserving some mark of distinction for his valuable services. "Babu Jotindra Mohan is a man of great enlightenment," he wrote in making the recommendation, "and has had a thoroughly good English education. He is one of the leading members of the native community, is of unexceptional private character and is held by his fellow-countrymen in the highest respect. He is a useful member of the Council of the Lieutenant-Governor and takes a deep and thoughtful interest in the progress of the country. He has always been found ready to contribute liberally to schools, roads and other objects of public interest, both in Calcutta and in the districts in which his estates are situated, and has helped to promote science and literature amongst his countrymen by large contributions to that end. He regularly maintains eighteen poor students in Calcutta, and he fully accepted the obligations of his position in the famine of 1866, remitting the rents of his ryots and feeding 250 paupers daily in Calcutta for a period of three months."
In consequence of this recommendation the title of Raja Bahadur was conferred upon him in March 1871. Sir George Campbell, who had succeeded Sir William Grey as Lieutenant-Governor in conferring the honour upon him in a Durbar held at Belvedere spoke of him in equally appreciative terms. "I have the honour to convey to you," he said turning to the newly-made Raja Bahadur, "the high honour which His Excellency the Viceroy, as the representative of Queen Victoria, has been pleased to confer upon you. I feel a peculiar pleasure in being thus the channel of conveying the honour to you.
"You come from a family great in the annals of Calcutta, I may say great in the annals of the British dominions in India, conspicuous for loyalty to the British Government and for acts of public beneficence.
'But it is not from considerations of your family alone that the Viceroy has been pleased to confer the high honour upon you. You have proved yourself worthy of it by your own merits. Your great intelligence and ability, distinguished public spirit, high character and the services you have rendered to the state deserve a fitting recognition.
'I have had the pleasure of receiving your assistance as a member of the Bengal Council, and can assure you that I highly appreciate the ability and information which you bring to bear upon its deliberations. Indeed nothing can be more acceptable to me than advice from one like yourself. It is true we have had occasion to differ, and honest differences of opinion will always prevail between man and man: but at the same time I can honestly tell you that when we have been on the same side, I have felt your support to be of the utmost value, and when you have chanced to be in opposition, yours has been an intelligent, loyal and courteous opposition.'
Later in the same year, Sir George Campbell wrote asking him to allow himself to be nominated for a further term of office as member of the Legislative Council. "Your high character and fair mode of dealing with all questions render your assistance especially valuable," he wrote, "and I have much confidence that you are a man not bound to class interests but prepared to look to the good of the whole community, high and low alike." About the same time the Raja Bahadur was exempted from appearance in the Civil Courts and in 1877 on the assumption of the Imperial title by Her Majesty Queen Victoria the higher dignity of Maharaja was conferred upon him. In the same year he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General, and office to which he was reappointed again in 1879 and in 1881. In the discussions of many of the most important measures of the day he took a prominent part. The Civil Procedure Code was then under the consideration of the Legislative Council and the criticisms of one who knew Indian conditions and Indian needs so thoroughly as Maharaja Jotindra Mohan Tagore were listened to with consideration and respect. His opinion often decided the fate of a proposed clause in the Bill and Sir A. Hobhouse, the Legal Member of Council, generously acknowledged the help he had received from his criticisms and advice.
"Whatever can be said on that subject will be said by my friend Maharaja Jotindra Mohan Tagore," he said when speaking in the Council, "for in committee he has supported the views of the objectors with great ability and acuteness, and I must add with equal good feeling and moderation." Later, in speaking of a much discussed clause he added, "If the clause stood as in Bill No. IV, I confess I should not be able to maintain my ground against such an argument as we have heard from your honourable friend, Maharaja Jotintra Mohan Tagore. I have shown that conviction in the most practical way by succumbing to his arguments in committee and voting with him on his proposal to alter Bill No. IV."
Again as the largest landowner in Bengal, he was especially interested in the long discussions that finally led to the passing of the Bengal Tenancy Act in 1885. It had long been obvious that the law regulating the relations between landlord and tenant called for thorough revision and amendment. These relations had been gradually growing more and more strained, both parties complaining of injustice and hardships. The zemindars complained of the failure of the tenants to pay their rents and of the difficulties they experienced in enforcing payment, while the ryots on their part complained of oppression, the exaction of illegal cesses and illegal ejectment from occupancy rights. There can be no doubt that there was a considerable amount of truth on both sides but constant friction had so embittered relations between them that matters were fast coming to a deadlock. This was particularly the case in Behar and in the Indigo districts. In 1893 serious agricultural disturbances occurred at Pabna, while the Behar famine of the following year reduced the ryots to a hopeless condition of poverty. The Famine Commission urged the necessity of the immediate introduction of measures to fix definitely the relations between landlord and tenant. The Agrarian Disputes Act of 1876 was passed as a temporary measure to meet urgent cases, and a Bill to provide at the same time immunity of the ryot from oppression and greater facilities for the speedy realisation of arrears of rent was taken in hand. The Select Committee on the Bill, however, urged that a more comprehensive measure revising the whole rent law of Bengal was urgently needed. Consequently in 1879 the Government of India appointed a special commission to enquire thoroughly into the matter. So great was the subject with which the Bill dealt and so keen the controversy it aroused that it was not until 1885 that the Bill finally emerged as the Bengal Tenancy Act (VIII of 1885). There were at one time during its progress no less than two hundred amendments to the Bill down for discussion and no bill that preceded it had ever come in for so large a share of criticism and discussion. It has been called with much reason the most important measure of the nineteenth century, and there can be no doubt that, though no measure can be regarded as perfect, the Bengal Tenancy Act has been productive of an immense amount of good to both landlords and tenants. The Maharaja in all the discussions in which he took part was fully alive to the necessity of strengthening the position not only of the landlord but also of the ryot. He was anxious above all that the relations of both should be definitely put on a definite basis. He agreed with Sir Courtney Ilbert, a member of the Select Committee, who during the course of the debate on the Bill aptly summed up the position. 'What the Council have to consider as practical men is, not whether this is an ideally perfect measure, not whether it is a final settlement of questions between landlord and tenant in Bengal, not whether it is likely to usher in a millenium either for the Zemindars or for the ryot, but whether it represents a step in advance, whether it does something substantial towards removing admitted defects in the existing law, whether it does not give some substantial form of security to the tenant, some reasonable facilities to the landlord. It is because I believe that the measure, however it may fall short of ideal perfection, does embody substantial improvements to the existing law that I considered it to be favourable consideration of the Council.'
The main object of the Bill as finally passed was to give the ryot full security in his holding at the same time that it gave the landlord facilities for the collection of rent actually due and a fair share in the increased value of the soil. While it threw on the landlord the onus of disproving the tenant's claim to occupancy, it relieved it, by means of a system of price lists, of the difficulty of proving the increased value of the land. Above all it attempted to lay down rules which might once and for all put an end to disputes between landlord and tenant, reducing such disputes to single issues and laying down equitable principles for their decision. To maintain the general principles of the act, an application was allowed in any case of dispute between landlord and tenant to determine incidents of a tenancy, while the clauses which relate to records of right and settlements have had wide-spread effect in determining the position of both parties.
Honours came fast to Jotindra Mohan during these busy years. In 1879 he was created a Companion of the Order of the Star of India, being raised to the dignity of a Knight Commander of the same Order three years later. In 1890 the title of Maharaja Bahadur was conferred upon him as a personal distinction, and in the following year the title was declared hereditary. Having no son of his own he adopted the son of his brother, Raja Surendra Mohan Tagore, who has now succeeded to his hereditary honours and, known as the Maharaja Sir Prodyot Kumar Tagore Bahadur, is so worthily following in his adopted father's footsteps. In 1890 Sir Jotindra was chosen President of the Reception Committee formed on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales, a grand fete on the maiden and illuminations being arranged in his honour. The Maharaja was also a Fellow of the Calcutta University, one of the governors of the Mayo Hospital, and a Trustee of the Central Dufferin Fund, a member of the Asiatic Society, a Justice of the Peace and an Honorary Magistrate for the town of Calcutta. These, however, are but a few among his many activities. His charities were unbounded. The possessor of great wealth, he showed himself determined from the first to use it for the public good and there was no charitable scheme in Calcutta for half a century which had not his sympathy and generous support. Though an orthodox Hindu himself, his charities were without distinction of caste or creed. Wherever suffering humanity called for help his response was prompt and unfailing. The relief of physical suffering by organised Hospital work particularly appealed to him. He gave large donations to the District Charitable Society and made a free gift to the trustees of the land on which the Mayo Hospital is built. In the Dufferin Fund from its inception he took a keen and personal interest, being a member of the committee and one of the trustees of the Central Fund. A firm believer in the value of open spaces in the great city he gave, with his brother Raja Surendra Mohan, a piece of land in the heart of Calcutta for a public square to be named after his father. In memory of his mother he founded an endowment, by a gift of one lac of rupees, for the benefit of Hindu widows, to be known as the 'Maharajmata Sivasundari Devi Hindu Widow Fund.' For the permanent maintenance of the Moolajori Temple he made a settlement of an estate worth eighty thousand rupees. His subscriptions to local schools all over his vast estates amounted to a large sum. He annually gave a gold medal for proficiency in Sanskrit literature and a gold medal in connection with the Tagore Law Lectures. Another gold medal was for proficiency in physical science, while other scholarships were founded by him for Law and Sanskrit. He himself was vice-president of the Faculty of Arts in 1881 and President in the following year. In the same year he was appointed by the Government of India a member of the Education Commission to investigate the working of the system founded in 1854 and to ascertain the actual position of education at the time. Presided over by Sir William Hunter, the Commission went thoroughly into the needs of Indian education and, while finding that in Bengal the system already inaugurated was doing well, made a number of recommendations which have gone far to perfect it still further in recent years.
Sir Jotindra's social entertainments were famous in Calcutta. His hospitability was on a princely scale and there were few European or Indian visitors or residents of distinction in the capital who did not partake of it. At Tagore Castle and at his country seat Emerald Bower outside Calcutta he surrounded himself with a valuable collection of pictures, books and objects of art, his library being one of the most complete private collections in India. Here, engaged in his favourite literary pursuits and enjoying the music discoursed by his own company of trained musicians, he spent his last years, failing health preventing him from taking his former active part in public affairs, yet never ceasing to prevent him until the last from taking a keen interest in all the great public questions of the day. He died on the 10th of January, 1908, and with him passed away one of the few remaining figures of the old school and one of the finest characters in Bengal in the nineteenth century.