SHORT STORIES OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE: An Analysis.

Dr.R.Gandhi Subramanian. M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.,

Reader (Retired), Postgraduate & Research Department of English
Government Arts College (Autonomous), Coimbatore-641 018. Tamilnadu.
Rabindranath Tagore is one of the renowned sons of India, who brought laurels and blazed trails of
glory. He was a many-faceted genius, adorning everything that he touched. He was a great poet,
dramatist, short story writer and the great composer and the songs composed by him are called
Rabindra Sangeeth. He was also a reformer in Education and founded Shantiniketan subsequently
growing into Vishva Bharathi University. His plays and short stories depict the working of the human
mind compassionately and in a different light. His prose becomes simple and direct in his descriptions of
the people of Bengal of day-to-day life, the people of his own beloved land, whereas his aristocratic
classes are dealt with in a language of directness. There is an under current of pathos and the
readers/audience realize that they have been transported to a new world, where they are endowed
with the new found capacity to empathize. Tagores short stories depict hope and aspirations,
disappointments and frustrations, joys and sorrows of life Domonic K V feels, rather than dealing with
the incidents in life (Dominic KV: Tagores Short Stories). Short story is Tagores gift to modern Indian
Literature asserts Vishwanath S. Naravane.
Many have realized that Tagores short stories reveal the man, nature and the mysteries of the
supernatural and the bizarre and hence Tagore has been often compared with the other great and
renowned writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Anton Chekhov, Guy de Maupassant and Tolstoy.
Bandyopadhyay mentions: Tolstoy is didactic: Maupassant is erotic. Rabindranath combines the good
qualities of both without their excesses. He delved deep into the psychology of man and riddle of
existence in his short stories which are universal in their appeal. (Bandyopadhyay 61-62). Many of
Tagores short stories were published in Sadhana a sort of a magazine of the Tagore Family. It is highly
probable that some of the later writers were highly influenced by Tagores depiction of his women
characters to be utilized in their creative writings for depicting their women.
Karthik RM has mentioned: The beauty of Tagores writing lies in its simplicity. In fact it is so simple
that it is complex. His short stories are a reflection of socio-political life in colonial Bengal, the complex
realities of identity, class, caste, gender and colonialism. (UNCEASING WAVES: Thoughts on Tagore.
Society and Culture. June 10, 2010). Many Bengali scholars have the view that the short story came of
age in Bengali Literature with the writings of Rabindranath Tagore. Sreekumar Banerjee states that it
was Tagore among Bengali writers who first discovered the form of the short story its unprefaced
opening, its quick movement and its suggestive culmination. These excerpts give one a fair beginning
to a study of Tagores short stories.
Tagores works are available in English and a few have been mentioned: Glimpses of Bengal Life (1913)
The Hungry Stones (1916), Mashi (1918), Broken Ties (1925), The Parrots Training (1944) and The
Runaway (1959) appeared in the years mentioned against the respective title. Translations almost half a
century later have been included in Collected Stories from Rabindranath Tagore (1970) and Collected
Stories (1974). Psychological/ social criticism based on realism and delicately woven human
relationships have been explicit in most of the short stories of Tagore. Postmaster, Kabulliwalla, The
Home-coming and The Return of Khokababu, are some of the finest examples of short stories revealing
human psychology in its innocent simplicity and in most touching terms. These short stories are
seemingly simple but endowed with deep complexities delving deep into the intricacies of human mind.

These short stories reveal the Primitive Man, living a happy life and making no complaints. In other
words these characters have practiced taking life as it has been given to them or as it comes to them
and thereby blessed with peace of mind. A Wifes Letter, Woman Unknown, The Laboratory, The Story
of a Mussalmani, Number One, Vision and Punishment are short stories on women and the struggles
and injustices they face in the society. The Hungry Stones, Living or Dead and The Skeleton are short
stories with elements of supernaturalism, eerie and weird. An attempt has been made here to study
some of these short stories of Tagore and present them in their critical perspective within the limits of
space provided by the organizers. These short stories have been dealt with in different sections for
cognitive convenience.
Stories with an element of supernaturalism: Critics differ in their opinion on the supernaturalism in
Tagores stories. Dominic K V has stated, Tagore did not allow supernatural powers any role in his
stories. In this context he also quotes K.S.Ramaswami Sastri:
We must also bear in mind that Tagore has been a loving student of the best literatures of the
West and that hence his art has acquired a new grace and power by such study, which has
enabled him to take up life as it is around us and bring out its heights and depths before our
eyes without that over-idealising tendency and obtrusion of the supernatural elements which
were the chief defects of Indian fiction in the past. (Sastri, 378-379)
Many critics also have the view that some of Tagores stories having elements of supernaturalism add
a variety and among the best of Tagores stories.
Hungry Stones: The story is a strangers narration of his experiences as a collector of cotton duties at
Barich on the banks of river Susta. The stranger, a co-passenger in a journey happens to wait for
sometime at a railway junction and he tells a strange story. Even at the beginning one of the listeners
probably a skeptic feels the extraordinary person deliberately set about spinning the following
yarn. The narrator had had certain experiences and the reader/listener is made to wonder whether his
experiences were real or his delusions. According to the narrator, he had been visited by ghosts who
belong to a distant past and as he nears the completion of his narration he tells his listeners that he was
asked to tell the story of the strange beauty of his apparition; He is made an Ancient Mariner by
Tagore. The narration ends at this point, the stranger leaves abruptly to accompany an English
gentleman beckoning him from the First Class compartment of the train.
At the end of the story the readers also have similar feelings, those of one of the listeners. The man
evidently took us for fools and imposed upon us out of fun. The story is pure fabrication from start to
finish. The listener who had such a feeling adds The discussion that followed ended in a lifelong
rupture between my theosophist kinsman and myself. A close scrutiny reveals that there is no
supernaturalism in this story though it appears to have it at first sight.
Once there was a King: This is another story attempting to make one believe in the unbelievable. But
the author makes his intentions very clear even at the beginning: Ah! How we all love to be deluded!
We have a secret dread of being thought ignorant. And we end by being ignorant after all, only we have
done it in a long and roundabout way. The story is about a young boy getting married to a pretty
Princess before he realizes what has happened. He only knows that he is looked after well by a beautiful
girl. As he grows older one day he has been asked to wait for the girl for that day she will reveal her true
identity. He waits; the beautiful girl approaches to tell him that she is the Princess married to him, but
finds him dead bitten by a serpent. The story ends abruptly leaving the reader in wonder.

Tagores stories exemplify the fact that he had analysed the feelings of women. On Tagores women
Srinivasa Iyengar has stated,
The women in his stories, of course, are splendidly womanly, frail and fair, yet wise and strong
always or almost always more sinned against than sinning. Tagore plumbs the depths of the
womanly heart, and behind the seeming wiles and helpless gestures he sees reserves of
devotion and sacrifice.(77).
One finds that this is true of even the characters in stories such as The Home-coming and The
Cabuliwallah even though they have only minor roles. The women in The Wifes Letter, Woman
Unknown, The Laboratory and The Story of a Mussalmani are not superwomen but they have their
strength, strength in simplicity and simple complexity and Their reaction to circumstances, their
refusal to remain passive objects and their little rebellions against the established order are provoking,
states Karthik RM in UNCEASING WAVES: Thoughts on Tagore.
Tagore had been at Shelidaha to manage his fathers estates giving Tagore an opportunity to tour the
villages, travelling in houseboats enjoying the expanse of waters, admiring nature and meeting with
numberless unknown people, unique in their own right.
Tagore gave names to these anonymous villagers He could see them as his neighbours could
sympathise with them in their little joys and sorrows; he could reveal the petty selfishness,
which dominates human life, and admire that best portion of a good mans life. (Dominic K V).
Tagore created his characters from his close observation of people, ordinary, innocent and unknown
yet transformed into extraordinary, bold and making their presence felt by their superb sacrifice but
never caring for recognition. Tagores Kabuliwallah and The Home-coming are just two of the examples
cited and can serve the purpose. Suketu Mehta states the following on his rereading Kabuliwallah:
I recently reread Kabuliwallah, his 1892 short story about an Afghan merchants
friendship
with a little girl. It is a sentimental tale, though not melodramatic. Toward the end, the upperclass Bengali narrator discovers, through a small picture a little girls handprint, carried across
borders as a memento what he has in common with a murderous Afghan, something that
spans the huge distance between them. I understood then that he was as I am, that he was a
father just as I am a father. This what the best of Tagores stories do erase distinctions between
the self and the other.
The excerpt quoted, though long, gives one a good idea on what to expect from Tagores stories
concerned with the people one can meet with in life.
In The Cabuliwallah Tagore has created just a handful of characters Mini a girl shown as a tiny tot at
the beginning to a bride toward the end of the story, her father, the narrator of the story and Rahmun,
the Cabuliwallah. Minis father belongs to the upper classes and he is a non-intruding observer for most
part of the story. The Cabuliwallah, amerchant from across the border, is a merchant selling his wares at
the streets of Calcutta. He and Mini develop a deep affection for each other, though Mini as a timid and
tiny child is afraid of the Cabuliwallah, a huge man. They share a joke on the term father-in-law,
though Mini cannot understand who is a father-in-law or the significance of the term.
On a charge of murderous assault Rahmun gets sentenced to some years imprisonment. Years pass by.
Rehmun is forgotten to return all on a sudden on the day of the marriage of Mini. What follows is
interesting as the final part of the story unfolds:

When did you come, Rahmun? I asked him.

Last evening, he said, I was released from jail.

There are ceremonies going on, I said, and I am busy. Could you perhaps come another day?
At once he turned to go; but as he reached the door he hesitated, and said: May I not see the little
one, sir, for a moment? It was his belief that Mini was still the same.
Though Rehmun has returned after many years, time has stood still for him as far as Mini is concerned.
He thinks of the tiny girl Mini he left several years ago and is surprised to see a grown up girl, a bride on
her marriage day. He exchanges his old joke on father-in-law and now Mini can understand the term
very well. He turns to go and Minis father offers some money.
The final part of the story which follows is very touching, revealing Rabindranath Tagore as one of the
best writers of the world literature.
You are very kind, Sir! Keep me in your recollection. Do not offer me money! you have a little girl, I
too have one like her in my own home. I think of her, and bring fruits to your child, not to make a profit
for myself.

With great care he unfolded this, and smoothed it out with both hands on my table. It bore the
impression of a little hand. Not a photograph. Not a drawing. The impression of an ink-smeared hand
laid flat on the paper. This touch of his little daughter had been always on his heart as he had come year
after year to Calcutta, to sell his wares in the streets.
I forgot that he was a poor Cabuli fruit- seller, while I was but no, what was I more than he? He also
was a father. That impression of his little Parbati in his distant mountain home reminded me of my own
little Mini.

I took out a bank-note, and gave it to him, saying: Go back to your own daughter, Rahmun, in your
own country, and may the happiness of your meeting bring good fortune to my child!
My Lord, the Baby is another excellent story. It unfolds the story of Raicharan entering the house as a
twelve year old to serve the masters. The master gets married and fathers a son. In an accident the child
gets drowned and Raicharan is sent out.
Raicharan returns to his village, gets married and his wife dies having given birth to their son.
Raicharan sells his small piece of land to go to Calcutta to educate his son. The son could never quite
look on Raicharan as a father, because, though fatherly in affection, he had the manner of a servant. A
further fault was this, that Raicharan kept secret from every one that himself was the father of the child.
One day, Raicharan decides that he will hand over the boy to his former master Anukul, a magistrate
at Baraset. He hands over his own son to Anukul stating that the young lad is Anukuls son. Anukul, an
educated magistrate cannot accept that his son had been taken away from him though he has been
returned to him now and he questions Raicharan.

It was not I who did it.

Who was it then? asked Anukul.
Raicharan replied: It was my fate.
Phailna,now the son of the wealthy magistrate generously recommends that Raicharan have a small
monthly pension. Not uttering a single word, Raicharan has one last look at the face of his son, goes out
never to return.
The final lines of the story read: At the end of the month Anukul sent him some money to his village.
But the money came back. There was no one there of the name of Raicharan.It is apt to conclude this
paper with the following words: Tagores characters are never artificial creatures. They are ordinary
men and women, and children and babies There were none before or after him, who portrayed these
categories of characters with so much insight and sympathy.
Works Referred:
Bandopadhyay, Asit. Rabindranath Tagore: Novelist, Short Story Writer and Essayist. Studies on
Rabindranath Tagore. Vol. I. Ed. Mohit K.Ray. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2004. 4770
Dominic K V. Tagores Short Stories. 29 October 2010
www.museindia.com/focuscontent.asp?issid=33&id=2152
Iyengar, K.R.Srinivasa. Indian Writing in English New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 2001
Karthik RM. Unceasing Waves: Thoughts on Tagore.
Sastri, K.S.Ramaswami. Sir Rabindranath Tagore: His Life, Personality and Genius. New Delhi: Akashdeep
Publishing House, 1988
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UNDERTAKING
I, Dr.R.Gandhi Subramanian hereby give an undertaking that the article submitted above is ORIGINAL
and not published anywhere (e-versions or hard ones) either in journals or books of national or
international reputation.
(Sd) Dr.R.Gandhi Subramanian