CHINA AND INDIA
Address at the opening, ceremony of Visva Bharati CheenaBhavana
on April 14, 1937
on April 14, 1937
By Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore
The most memorable fact of human history is that of a
path-opening, not for the clearing of a passage for machines or machine guns,
but for helping the realization by races of their affinity of minds, their
mutual obligation of a common humanity. Such a rare event did happen and the
path was built between our people and the Chinese in an age when physical
obstruction needed heroic personality to overcome it and the mental barrier a
moral power of uncommon magnitude. The two leading races of that age met, not
as rivals on the battle-field, each claiming the right to be the sole tyrant on
earth, but as noble friends, glorying in their exchange of gifts, then came a
slow relapse into isolation, covering up the path with its accumulated dust of
indifference. Today our old friends have beckoned to us again, generously
helping us to retrace that ancient path obliterated by the inertia of forgetful
centuries, and we rejoice.
This
is, indeed, a great day for me, a daylong looked for, when I should be able to
redeem, on behalf of our people, an ancient pledge implicit in our past, the
pledge to maintain the intercourse of culture and friendship between our people
and the people of China, an intercourse whose foundations were laid eighteen
hundred years back by our ancestors with infinite patience and sacrifice. When
I went to China several years ago I felt a touch of that great stream of life
that sprang from the heart of India and overflowed across mountain and desert
into that distant land, fertilizing the heart of its people. I thought of that
great pilgrimage, of those noble heroes, who, for the sake of their faith,
their ideal of the liberation of self that leads to the perfect love which
unites all beings, risked life and accepted banishment from home and all that
was familiar to them. Many perished and left no trace behind. A few were spared
to tell their story, a story not of adventurers and trespassers whose heroism
has proved a mere romantic excuse for careers of unchecked brigandage, but a
story of pilgrims who came to offer their gifts of love and wisdom, a story
indelibly recorded in the cultural memory of their hosts. I read it when I was
received there as a representative of a revered race and felt proud as I traced
the deep marks our ancestors had left behind on their achievements. But I also
felt the humiliation of our long lasting evil fate that has obscured for us in
an atmosphere of insanity the great human value of a noble endeavour, one of
the most precious in the history of man.
I
told my Chinese hosts on that occasion: "My friends, I have come to ask
you to re-open the channel of communication which I hope is still there; for
though overgrown with weeds of oblivion, its lines can still be traced. I have
not the same voice that my ancestors had. I have not the wisdom they possessed.
My life has not attained that consciousness of fulfilment needed to make this
message fruitful. We in India are a defeated race; we have no power, political,
military or commercial; we do not know how to help you or injure you
materially. But, fortunately, we can still meet you as your guests, your hosts,
your brothers and your friends. Let that happen. I invite you to us as you have
invited me. I do not know whether you have heard of the institution I have
established in my land. Its one object is to let India welcome the world to its
heart. Let what seems a barrier become a path, and let us unite, not in spite
of our differences, but through them. For differences can never be wiped away,
and life would be so much the poorer without them. Let all human races keep
their own personalities, and yet come together, not in a uniformity that is
dead, but in a unity that is living".
That
has happened and friends are here from China with their gift of friendship and
co-operation. The Hall which is to be opened today will serve both as the
nucleus and as a symbol of that larger understanding that is to grow with time.
Here students and scholars will come from China and live as part of ourselves,
sharing our life and letting us share theirs, and by offering their labours in
a common cause, help in slowly re-building that great course of fruitful
contact between our peoples, that has been interrupted for ten centuries. For
this Visva-Bharati is, and will, I hope, remain a meeting place for individuals
from all countries, east or west, who believe in the unity of mankind and are
prepared to suffer for their faith. I believe in such individuals even though
their efforts may appear to be too insignificant to be recorded in history.
It
might be supposed that in a world so closely knit by railways, steamships and
air lines, where almost every big city is cosmopolitan, such special
invitations for contact are superfluous. But, unfortunately, the contacts that
are being made today have done more to estrange and alienate peoples from one
another than physical inaccessibility ever did. We are discovering for
ourselves the painful truth that nothing divides so much as the wrong kind of
nearness. People seem to be coming in each other's way, dodging and trapping
one another, without ever coming together. We meet others, either as tourists
when we merely slide against the surface of their life, entering hotels only to
disappear from their land, or as exploiters in one disguise or another. We are
living in a world where nations are divided into two main groups those who
trample on others' freedom, and those who are unable to guard their own; so
that while we have too much of intrusion on others' rights, we have hardly any
intercourse with her culture. It is a terrorised world, dark with fear and
suspicion, where peaceful races in dread of predatory hordes are retreating
into isolation for security.
I am
reminded of my experience as we were travelling up from Shanghai to Nanking
along the great river, Yang Tse. All through the night I kept on coming out of
my cabin to watch the beautiful scene on the banks, the sleeping cottages with
their solitary lamps, the silence spread over the hills, dim with mist. When
morning broke and brought into view fleets of boats coming down the river,
their sails stretching high into the air, a picture of life's activity with its
perfect grace of freedom, I was deeply moved and felt that my own sail had
caught the wind and was carrying me from captivity, from the sleeping past, out
into the great world of man. It brought to my mind different stages of the
history of man's progress.
In
the night each village was self-centered, each cottage stood bound by the chain
of unconsciousness. I knew, as I gazed on the scene, that vague dreams were
floating about in this atmosphere of sleeping souls, but what struck my mind
more forcibly was the fact that when men are asleep they are shut up within the
very narrow limits of their own individual lives. The lamps exclusively
belonged to the cottages, which in their darkness were in perfect isolation.
Perhaps, though I could not see them, some prowling bands of thieves were the
only persons awake, ready to exploit the weakness of those who were asleep.
When
daylight breaks we are free from the enclosure and the exclusiveness of our
individual life. It is then that we see the light which is for all men and for
all times. It is then that we come to know each other and come to co-operate in
the field of life. This was the message that was brought in the morning by the
swiftly moving boats. It was the freedom of life in their outspread sails that
spoke to me; and I felt glad. I hoped and prayed that morning had truly come
in. the human world and that the light had broken forth.
This
age to which we belong, does it not still represent night in the human world, a
world asleep, whilst individual races are shut up within their own limits,
calling themselves nations, which barricade themselves, as these sleeping
cottages were barricaded with shut doors, with bolts and bars, with
prohibitions of all kinds? Does not all this represent the dark age of
civilization, and have we not begun to realize that it is the robbers who are
out and awake?
But
I do not despair. As the early bird, even while the dawn is yet dark, sings out
and proclaims the rising of the sun, so my heart sings to proclaim the coming
of a great future which is already close upon us. We must be ready to welcome
this new age. There are some people, who are proud and wise and practical, who
say that it is not in human nature to be generous, that men will always fight
one another, that the strong will conquer the weak and that there can be no
real moral foundation for man's civilization. We cannot deny the facts of their
assertion that the strong have their rule in the human world: but I refuse to
accept this as a revelation of truth.
It
is co-operation and love, mutual trust and mutual aid which make for strength
and real merit of civilization. New spiritual I and moral power must
continually be developed to enable men to assimilate their scientific gains, to
control their weapons and machines, or these will dominate and enslave them. 1
know that many will point to the weakness of China and India and tell us that
thrown as we are among other ruthlessly strong and aggressive world peoples, it
is necessary to emphasize power and progress in order to avoid destruction. It
is indeed true that we are weak and disorganized, at the mercy of every
barbaric force, but that is not because of our love of peace but because we no
longer pay the price of our faith by dying for it. We must learn tom defend our
humanity against the insolence of the strong, only taking care that we do not
imitate their ways and, by turning ourselves brutal, destroy those very values
which alone make our humanity worth defending. For danger is not only of the
enemy without but of the treason within us. We had, for over a century, been so
successfully hypnotised and dragged by the prosperous West behind its chariot
that, though choked by the dust, deafened by the noise, humbled by our
helplessness, overwhelmed by speed, we yet agreed to acknowledge that this chariot-drive
was progress, and that progress was civilization. If we ever ventured to ask,
however humbly: Progress towards what, and progress for whom? It was considered
to be peculiarly and ridiculously oriental to entertain such doubts about the
absoluteness of progress. It is only of late that a voice has been heeded by
us, bidding us take account not only of the scientific perfection of the
chariot, but of the depth of ditches lying across its path. Today we are
emboldened to ask: what is the value of progress if it makes a desert of this
beautiful world of man? And though we speak as members of a nation that is
humiliated and oppressed and lies bleeding in the dust, we must never
acknowledge the defeat, the last insult, the utter ruin of our spirit being conquered,
of our faith being sold. We need to hear again and again, and never more than
in this modern world of bead-hunting and cannibalism in disguise that: - By the
help of unrighteousness men do prosper, men do gain victories over their
enemies, men do attain what they desire, but they perish at the root.
It
is to this privilege of preserving, not the mere body of our customs and
conventions, but the moral force which has given quality to our civilization
and made it worthy of being honoured, that I invite the co-operation of the
people of China, recalling the profound words of their sage, Lao-tze [Laozi:
Those who have virtueattend to their obligations, those who have no virtue
attend to their claims. Progress which is not related to an inner ideal, but to
an attraction which is external, seeks to satisfy endless claims. But
civilization, which is an ideal, gives us power and joy to fulfil our
obligations.
Let
us therefore abide by our obligation to maintain and nourish the distinctive
merit of our respective cultures and not to be misled into believing that what
is ancient is necessarily outworn and what is modern is indispensable. When we
class things as modern or old we make a great mistake in following our calendar
of dates. We know that the flowers of Spring are old, that they represent the
dawn of life on earth, --- but are they therefore symbols of the dead and
discarded? Would we rather replace them with artificial flowers made of rags,
because they were made "yesterday"? It is not what is old or what is
modern that we should love and cherish but what has truly a permanent human
value. And can anything be more worthy of being cherished than the beautiful
spirit of the Chinese culture that has made the people love material things
without the strain of greed, that has made them love the things of this earth,
clothe them with tender grace without turning them materialistic? They have
instinctively grasped the secret of the rhythm of things, not the secret of
power that is in science, but the secret of expression, This is a great gift,
for God alone knows this secret. I envy them this gift and wish our people
could share it with them.
I do
not know what distinctive merit we have which our Chinese friends and others
may wish to share. Once indeed our sages dedicated themselves to the ideal of
perfect sympathy and intellect, in order to win absolute freedom through wisdom
and absolute love through pity. Today we cannot boast of either such wisdom or
such magnanimity of heart. But I hope we are not yet reduced to such absolute
penury of both as not to be able to offer at least a genuine atmosphere of
hospitality, of an earnestness to cross over our limitations and move nearer to
the hearts of other peoples and understand somewhat of the significance of the
endless variety of man's creative effort.
中国与印度
——在国际大学中国学院成立仪式上的演讲
泰戈尔
（1937年4月14日）
人类历史最令人难忘的事件是开辟道路。这当然不是为机器或机关枪开道，而是为帮助不同的种族达到思想认识的一致，履行彼此承担的体现共同人性的责任。这种为数不多的事件以前发生过，印度人民和中国人民之间曾经修筑交往的大道。在那个年代，全凭个人的英雄气概跨越高山恶水，需有非凡的恢弘气魄克服疑虑、惶惑。两个处于领先地位的国家相逢之时，不是战场上的死敌，宣称自己拥有成为世界霸主的权力；而是文雅的朋友，无比欣慰地交换礼品。之后，出现了缓慢的衰退，两国处于隔绝的状态，交往的大道蒙上了互不关心的厚尘。今天我们的老朋友再次向我们发出呼吁，不遗余力地协助我们重新踏上被遗忘了的世纪的疏懒所抹去的古道。我们为此感到欢欣鼓舞。
对我来说，今天是一个期待已久的伟大日子。我可以代表印度人民，发出消隐在昔年里的古老誓言---巩固中印两国人民文化交流和友谊的誓言。远在一千八百年前，我们的祖先以无限的忍耐力和牺牲精神，为这种交流奠定了基础。十几年前，我应邀前往中国访问的时候，我感觉到从印度之心喷涌而出的生命的洪流，漫过山岳，漫过沙漠，流到迢遥的边陲，滋养了印度人民的心田。我想起神圣的朝觐途中那些一往无前的英雄，忠于信仰，怀着超越自身，培育连结万民的至爱的理想，舍生忘死，饱受远离家庭和亲人的痛苦。他们多数人泯逝了，未留下一丝痕迹。只有少数人对后人讲述了他们的故事。这不是冒险家或侵略者的故事，冒险家和侵略者吹嘘的“壮举”，不过是为无从稽考的劫掠生涯进行带有浪漫色彩的狡辩，这是朝觐者赠送爱和智慧的礼品的故事，铭刻在接待他们的主人的文化记忆中的不可磨灭的故事。我读着这个故事，作为备受尊敬的民族的代表，在中国受到热烈欢迎。我为能循着先辈成就的深痕前进而感到骄傲，同时我感到惭愧的是，在虚无主义的氛围中，长期的厄运黯淡了人类历史的珍奇之一---崇高的奋斗所蕴含的巨大的人道主义价值。
我在为我举行的欢迎集会上对中国主人说：“朋友们，我前来请你们疏通我相信依然存在的交往的道路。尽管路上蔓生着忘却的荒草，它的走向仍依稀可辨。我没有先人那样的感召力，也没有他们那样的聪慧，完成这个使命的构想在我心里尚未成熟。我们印度是一个被打败的国家，我们没有政权、军权，也没有贸易权。在物质上我们不晓得怎样帮助你们，自然也不会损害你们。但我们可以荣幸地和你们欢聚，作为你们的客人，作为你们的东道主，作为你们的兄弟和挚友。让我们常来常往，我邀请你们，一如你们邀请我。我不清楚你们是否听说我在本国创办的学校。它的宗旨之一，是敞开印度的胸怀迎接世界。让貌似的关隘变为通途吧，愿我们不忌讳差异，恰恰在承认差异的基础上团结起来！差异永远不会消除，没有差异，生命反倒赢弱，让所有种族保持各自的特质，汇合于鲜活的统一之中，而不是僵死的单一之中。”
我说的那番话今天终于实现了。在座的中国朋友带来了友谊和合作的礼物。作为随着时间的推移不断增长的理解的核心和象征，过一会儿将揭幕的中国学院，将发挥积极作用。中国的学生和学者将作为我们的成员住在这儿，他们的生活与我们的生活水乳交融。他们将为共同的事业付出辛勤的劳动，帮助逐步修得中印两国人民之间业已中断十个世纪、富于成果的康庄大道。至于国际大学，我希望现在和将来它是各国人士聚会的场所，不管来自东方，还是西方，只要他们坚信人类的团结，决意为自己的信仰忍受艰苦。我信赖他们，纵使他们的探索或许并非意义得大而未能载入史册。
也许有人认为火车、轮船、飞机已经把世界紧紧连在一起，几乎每座城市已是国际都市，我们发出旨在加强联系的特殊邀请，纯粹是多此一举。然而，不幸的是，正是渐渐形成的那种联系，在使人们疏远和分离方面，大大超过先前的天然屏障。我们发现的令人痛心的事实是，最能分隔人们的莫过于那种错误的现代比邻。人们走上同一条路，哐互相躲避，或互相陷害，总也走不到一块儿。人与人相遇，或是乔装打扮的剥削者，或是行客，扫一眼他人的生活表层，步入旅店，便从他人的土地上消失了。我们所在的世界上，民族分为两类：一类民族践踏他人的自由，一类民族无力保卫自己。所以，我们倘若过多地干预他人的权利，就难以他们开展文化交流。当今这个恐怖的世界上，弥漫着惶遽和猜疑的黑暗。爱好和平的民族畏惧一群群掠夺者，退入隔绝的境地，以确保安全。
我至今清楚地记得我们乘船离开上海，沿着浩荡的长江前往南京的情景。我通宵待在客舱外面，欣赏两岸幽美的夜景。入睡的农舍里，闪烁着浇寞的灯光，烟雾迷蒙的丘陵沉浸在静谧中。清晨，举目望去，一艘艘木船长起白帆，涨满风，在江面上疾驶。这幅生命自由运动的壮丽画卷，多么赏心悦目！我陶醉了，我感受到我的生命之舟也扬帆飞驰，载着我冲出樊篱，冲出昏眠的昔日，进入广阔的人类世界，载着我游历了人类历史发展的各个阶段。
深夜，一座村庄是一个中心，每一幢默立着的农舍被麻痹了的意识的链子缠捆着。我猜想我观赏夜景之时，那些沉睡的灵魂周遭浮荡着离奇的梦。令我的心强烈震颤的是，人们酣眠之时，局限在多么狭窄的个人生活的圈子里啊！沉入黑暗和无忧的寂静中的民房，只有孤灯相伴。我看不见的惟一的清醒者，大概是鬼鬼祟祟的窃贼，趁人沉睡干着不光彩的勾当。
明灿的曙光中，我们跨出个人生活的圈子。然后，沐着普照古今、普照芸芸众生的阳光，在生活领域中互相了解，互相合作。这是破浪前进的航船厂捎给黎明的喜讯，也是舒张的风帆对我描述的生命的自由，我为此感奋不已。我衷心祝愿真正的的黎明降临人类世界，金色的阳光永远普照大地。
我们所处的时代依旧代表昏睡的人类世界的黑夜？各个国家囿于各自的疆域，名义上是国家，却像入睡的锁闭的民宅，用门闩、插销、各种律条禁锢自己？这些莫非反映文明的黑暗时期？我们尚未识破在户外清醒地活动的是盗贼？
然而，我毫不沮丧。正如天空尚未破晓，晨鸟歌唱着宣告旭日在升起，我的心歌唱着宣告，伟大的未来正向我们走来，离我们很近了。我们应当准备迎接这个新时代。
某些聪明、傲岸、务实的人说，心地善良不是人的本性。古往今来，人类互相厮杀，强者征服弱者。人类文明不可能有货真价实的道德基础。我们无法否认他们列举的事实，强者统治着人类世界。但我拒绝承认这揭示了真理。
惟有合作、友爱，互相信任，互相帮助，能使文明显示真正的伟大价值。当前，应该继续加强精神和道义的力量，以促使人们协调科学方面的利益，控制、驾御武器的军备。
我知道有些人会指出中国和印度的弱点，警告我们，我们已被无情地抛入世界上强悍的侵略者中间。为免遭灭亡，增强实力、推动进步刻不容缓。确实，我们没有组织起来，软弱可欺，是野蛮势力怜悯的对象。根本原因不是我们对和平的热爱，而是我们不再为我们的信仰付出死的代价。我们务必学会保卫自身的人格，反对强暴者的横行霸道，注意不走他们的老路，不使自己性情残暴，不去毁掉那确保我们的人格值得保护的真正价值。
危险不独来自外部的敌人，也来自我们内部的背叛。一个多世纪以来，繁荣的西方的马车后面，灰尘呛鼻，喧声震耳。孤立无助中，我们唯唯诺诺，飞驰的车轮把我们压倒，我们被有效地蛊惑，被摆布，依然同意承认那驾车的娴熟体现进步，进步即文明。如果我们鼓足勇气问一句：”这种进步的目的何在？是为何人？”则会被认为是东方人狂妄可笑地对绝对的进步持怀疑态度。不过，前些日子，我们耳朵里传进了另一种声音：你们不要只关注那四轮马车具有完美的科学性，也要考虑路上挖的堑壕的深度。今日，我们大胆诘问：“这种进步若使美好的人类世界变为漫漫荒漠，它有何价值？”虽然我们作为受压迫受欺侮的、在尘埃中流血的民族的一员说话，但我们绝不承认失败，不接受无休止的凌辱，不认为受压抑的民族精神和被出卖的信仰已经沦丧。
我们应该经常收听这样的消息：靠别人撑腰，有的人腰缠万贯，有的人战胜了对手，有的人捞到贪图的一切，但是终都走向了灭亡。传出这类消息最多的地方，是打着各种幌子猎取人头、啖食人肉的现代世界。
特别需要加以维护的，不是风俗习惯，而是道德力量。道德力量能够提高我们文明的质量，使之受到广泛尊重。所以，我请求中国人民给予合作。我愿援引中国的先哲老子的一句名言：有德司契，无德司彻。与内在理想无关而与外在诱惑钩连的所谓进步，追寻着无穷利欲的满足。然而文明是一种理想，能给予我们尽责的力量和快乐。
让我们坚持不懈地履行职责，保护并提高各自文化的特殊价值。不可盲目地相信：古老的尽是破烂，现代的样样是珍品。我们把现代和古老的东西分门别类的时候，往往按照年份，这是个大错误。众所周知，春天的鲜花是古代繁衍下来的，象征着大地的生命的黎明，它难道是泯逝之物或废物的标记？因为绢花是“昨天”制作的，就可取代春天的鲜花？我们爱惜的应具有人类恒久的价值，不管它是古老的还是现代的。优秀的文化精神，使中国人民无私的钟爱万物，热爱人世的一切，赋予他们善良谦和的秉性，而未把人们变为物欲主义者。还有什么比这更值得珍惜的呢？他们本能地抓住了事物的韵律的奥秘，即情感表现的奥秘，而不是科学孕育的权势的奥秘。这惟独天帝深谙的奥秘，是一份珍贵的礼品。我羡慕他们，但愿印度人民能分享这份礼品。
我不清楚中国和其他国家的朋友期盼分享我们哪些卓越的成就。印度的先哲献身于智能和行善的理想，以聪明才智获得解脱，以同情获得至爱。如今，我们不应该夸耀他们的智力和爱心。我只希望这些在我们身上尚未衰竭到使我们无力创造一个环境去热诚地接待嘉宾，去超越自我更加贴近其他国家的人民的心，去认识人类无止境的创造性工作的深远意义。
The world got to know China through silk in the ancient times. In the 4th century BC, Greece called China as ‘silk country’. Julius Caesar, the great Roman ruler, went to the theatre with a silk gown which aroused keen attention and interests among the audience. Since then, the price of silk rocketed and it even became as expensive as gold.