Saumyendranath Tagore, the Communist of the Tagore household

When Rabindranath Tagore visited Russia, he was accompanied by a few from his family. One of them was Saumyendranath, the grandson of his elder brother Dwijendranath Tagore. Saumyendranath Tagore is considered to be one of the pioneers of the communist movement in India and was an internationally acclaimed communist intellectual. He even represented India in the Sixth World Congress of the Comintern, was imprisoned by German, and British forces for his radical Communist ideology. In 1934 he even founded his own political party named Communist League, which later became RCPI5.

Then why many in India never heard of Saumyendranath Tagore? In his book Jatri (The Wayfarer) which was basically an autobiography, spanning many years of his eventful life, this lesser-known Tagore writes like a visionary on how the Communist movement could take over the world order. Though he visited Russia with Rabindranath Tagore, they viewed the world and the communist regime in a different way. Rabindranath was rather impressed by the huge scale of development in the education front in Russia, but Saumyendranath was more interested in studying the gap between the so-called socialist theory and practice in Soviet Russia. Born and raised in a highly cultural and intellectual household, Saumyendranath was initially inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, but soon the romance with Gandhism failed to answer some of his basic queries. 

Despite their differences, Saumyendranath’s love and admiration for Rabindranath Tagore was indisputable. Once, while discussing about world literature, he had categorically declared that there existed not a single writer in Soviet Russia equaling the standard of Romain Rolland, Rabindranath Tagore, Thomas Mann et al.

He went to Russia in 1927, took lessons of Communism from Bukharin himself, got admitted in the Lenin course at the Marx-Engels Institute, and learned the Russian language. Saumyendranath never faltered to express his opinion even in Stalinist Russia. He debated with Bukharin, disputed Gorky’s opinion regarding proletarian literature, and opposed the Kuusinen Thesis. Saumyendranath was a political theorist, a revolutionary and he could easily analyze the ground situation in Russia as he stayed there for long periods to understand literally what was happening on the streets. He even to some extent influenced Rabindranath’s views about Russia. Before leaving Moscow, in an interview with the famous Russian newspaper Izvestiya, Rabindranath Tagore said: “But I find here certain contradictions to the great mission you have undertaken. Certain attitudes of mind are being cultivated which are contrary to your ideal. I must ask you: Are you doing your ideal service by arousing in the minds of those under your training anger, class hatred, and revengefulness against those not sharing your ideal, against those whom you consider being your enemies? …for the sake of humanity, I hope that you may never create a vicious force of violence that will go on weaving an interminable chain of violence and cruelty. Already you have inherited much of this legacy from the Tsarist regime. It is the worst legacy you could possibly have. You have tried to destroy many of the other evils of that regime. Why not try to destroy this?”

In his book, Saumyendranath had described in gruesome detail his experience of Stalinist Russia, including the political turmoil, controversies, personal, group, and political conspiracies, secret killings in the name of justice. Very interestingly, Saumyendranath was not ready to accept the Russian Nationalism propagated and forced by Stalin’s regime as Communist Internationalism. 

Saumyendranath Tagore is considered to be one of the pioneers of the communist movement in India and was an internationally acclaimed communist intellectual. He even represented India in the Sixth World Congress of the Comintern, was imprisoned by German, and British forces for his radical Communist ideology.

Soviet authorities also did not like Saumyendranath’s criticism. In the book Traditions of Great Friendship published as late as 1985, authors Yevgeni Chelyshev and Alexei Litman write: “Tagore was rendered great assistance in getting to know Soviet reality more deeply by those who accompanied him on his journey: his secretaries Aryanayakam and Amiya Chakravarti, his friend Harry Timbers and Margot Einstein, daughter of the famous German physicist” (1985, p. 188). But there is absolutely no mention of Saumyendranath.

In his letter written to Rabindranath Tagore on 1st November 1933, Saumyendranath was vocal about the apparent controversy in Rabindranath’s stand where he reportedly opposes Italian fascism but supports German Nazism. These two, in Saumyendranath’s opinion, were one and the same thing. Saumyendranath’s efforts resulted in the formation of the Indian chapter of ‘League against Fascism and War’ in 1937, and Rabindranath Tagore became the President and he took charge as the general secretary of the organization. Among other members of this anti-fascist association were Prof. K. T. Shah, Jayaprakash Narayan, and S. A. Dange. Saumyendranath was the lone communist who raised his voice, wrote, and organized people against fascism continually in the 1930s.

He went to Russia in 1927, took lessons of Communism from Bukharin himself, got admitted in the Lenin course at the Marx-Engels Institute, and learned the Russian language. Saumyendranath never faltered to express his opinion even in Stalinist Russia. He debated with Bukharin, disputed Gorky’s opinion regarding proletarian literature, and opposed the Kuusinen Thesis.

Despite their differences, Saumyendranath’s love and admiration for Rabindranath Tagore was indisputable. Once, while discussing about world literature, he had categorically declared that there existed not a single writer in Soviet Russia equaling the standard of Romain Rolland, Rabindranath Tagore, Thomas Mann et al. His Russian friends thought these writers represented bourgeois culture and instead considered fellow Russian Demyan Bedny a great poet. But Saumyendranath protested and called such Russian poets as poster-makers and slogan-writers. In those days criticizing Russia from Russian soil was not an easy task. 

Jawaharlal Nehru was however irked by Saumyendranath and his opposition to Gandhi’s stand. He writes: “Mr. Saumyendranath Tagore is one of our young comrades in India for whom I have the greatest respect. Ardent, clear-headed, devoted to the cause of freedom of the masses, anything that he says or writes must deserve attention, but he needs to be careful.” Though this lesser-known Tagore has been forgotten even by the communist brigade of India, the young intellectual was undoubtedly the first Communist reformer of India who brought in revolutionary ideas straight from Russia.