Notes on Rabindranath’s letter to Lord Chelmsford

Q.1. Tagore’s ‘Letter Rejecting Knighthood’ is a protest against the British rule in India”.—Elucidate. Or, Why did Rabindranath Tagore feel ‘painfully compelled’ to renounce the title of Knighthood? Or,  Comment on Tagore’s letter as a protest against the British rule in India. Or, Discuss in detail why Tagore renounced Knighthood.

Rabindranath, a name that echoes with art, literature, history, culture, nationalism, has expressed his rage and regrets against the tyranny and oppression against the British rule in India by his letter to Lord Chelmsford in 1919.

In 1915 Tagore received the prestigious award of Knighthood by the British King George V in recognition of his  literary talents. But he rejected the title in 1919 as a protest against the Massacre of Amritsar, where British troops killed some 400 Indian demonstrators. The rejection of the title is one of the most important events in history that shows his nationalism. The massacre in Jalianwallahbag of Amritsar took place on 13 April 1919. Tagore’s reaction to the event was full of rage. On 31 May in 1919, Tagore wrote his most famous letter to Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy of India, rejecting his Knighthood.

Tagore was greatly shocked at the brutality of the British rulers. His reaction against the mass killings by the British force to the ‘disarmed and resourceless’ people created a blow in history. According to Rabindranath Tagore, the massacre appeared to him the helplessness and the inhumanity of the Indians under the British colonial rule -

 “The disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon the unfortunate people and the methods of carrying them out, we are convinced, are without parallel in the history of civilised governments, barring some conspicuous exceptions, recent and remote.”

Tagore was highly moved by the sufferings of the Indian people at the hands of the British rulers. He looked at the event critically and said that such brutal event did not have any logic. It neither had ‘political expediency’ nor ‘moral justification’. The impact of the massacre was immense and he has a given a description of it

  ”Accounts of insults and sufferings undergone by our brothers in the Punjab have trickled through the gagged silence, reaching every corner of India”.

He was also disappointed when Anglo-Indian newspapers praised the brutality. There were protests from every corner in India. Rabindranath wanted to express his feeling with the common people. He thought that rejecting Knighthood will give a strong reply to the misdoings and brutality of the British empire in the mass killing.

The letter rejecting knighthood truly shows Tagore’s patriotism. He goes against British colonialism and points out the wrong doings and brutal actions to common people of India. His rejection of Knighthood was one of the instances of indicating the tyranny of British rule in India. His letter rejecting Knighthood is the testimony of protest against British empire. The words of the letter will remind us his fierce voice against oppression by the British.