One man's worldview and the layman's law
Syed Badrul Ahsan reads essays and reads up on some legalities
Rabindranath Tagore's visit to China in 1924 must have been a moment of realisation for him. There were those in the country, scholars as well as students, who saw in him an august presence already made famous by the Nobel Prize for literature. Among these individuals was the scholar Xu Zhimo, who happened to be in Cambridge at the time. His enthusiasm about Tagore's trip was a pronounced affair. Years earlier, in 1913, Qian Zhixian celebrated Tagore's coming by the Nobel through an article, describing the Indian poet as one dedicated to his motherland and the welfare of mankind. And as Muhammad Habibur Rahman informs us in this excellent collection of essays, translations of Tagore's works began to appear in China, not a politically stable country at the time, as early as 1917. But interest in Tagore notwithstanding, there were the voices --- and many in number --- in China that clearly were not impressed by the global stature the poet had by then attained. One Chinese scholar, in rather cynical fashion, warned the poet not to fall captive to entrenched political authority in Beijing and Shanghai. His warning was pithy: "We hope Tagore will not be a puppet of Beijing and Shanghai." It was a sentiment that did not quite surprise people, for the visit quickly revealed the existence of a group of Chinese intellectuals not quite ready to accept Tagore as the voice of his country owing to the passive role he had been playing, or not playing at all, in the matter of Indian independence from British colonial rule. And how did the Bengali deal with all such questions? He told one gathering of Chinese men of letters after another that he was a poet, that he was not a philosopher or a prophet. He had obviously been riled by what he thought were pointless attacks on his ideas of life. And it was men like Mao Dun who made him feel that way. The Chinese wrote in the journal Juewu: "The poet-saint of India has arrived at last. No sooner did the noble poet dressed in a flowing saffron robe and a red cap set foot in Shanghai, the gateway of western imperialism, than he was welcomed with thunderous applause." Mao Dun was followed five days later by Yun Daiying, one of the founders (as Rahman informs readers) of the Chinese Communist Party: "We will not attack Tagore personally out of any malice. But there is a possibility that he will be used by others. We, therefore, have no option but to oppose him." That was Tagore in China. And yet the tenor of this compilation shows up the poet as having being everywhere. Habibur Rahman, one of the foremost scholars at this time in Bangladesh, having already had a distinguished career in the law and having presided over perhaps the finest caretaker administration in the country, brings Tagore once more into Bengali focus. And that is as it should be, for the poet in his long life of eighty years came to symbolise varied shades of meaning relating to nearly every aspect of life. In this work, the writer focuses on such aspects of Tagore's life as his views on Zionism and Palestine. The canvas then expands, taking readers on to areas as diverse as the language question in India, a theme that brings others into the scene. The juxtaposition of Tagore with other luminaries, among whom you can count Gandhi, Jinnah and Subhas Bose, brings forth a new dimension to the subject of Tagore studies. The research here, as also in the matter of the other essays in the collection, has been meticulous and extensive. Note the gender issues Habibur Rahman tackles in a discussion of Ibsen's plays. A worldview comes alive here, for the simple reason that the writer's mind travels across an entire continental landscape. The work is a serious read. More importantly, it is a hint before the world of the suavity and enlightenment that come with Bengali scholarship. Go through the piece on the documentary Matir Moyna, for instance. You will be impressed. The language of the law has traditionally, and irritatingly, been an arcane affair. Laymen have never quite been able to grasp it, unless they have had a bit of help from lawyers. The form and shape in which the law is framed is often forbidding and naturally goes over the heads of those trying to make sense of it. The sense of mystery and foreboding deepens. But there is good news at last. Mohammad Nazrul Islam Khan is here with a work that seeks to explain the law, land-related laws to be precise, in what you would call layman's language. Land being a major bone of contention in basically the rural regions of Bangladesh, it clearly makes sense for the general body of readers to be made familiar with the many laws that are out there in relation to it. The writer begins at the beginning, through outlining the network of land related offices and courts in the country. That is of crucial importance for a population that is all too often brought in touch with litigation. Experience on this score has been poor, for the poor, who are often left in a state of confusion about the modalities regarding a filing of complaints or seeking redress from the law. It is against this backdrop that Khan does a good job of educating readers, or you could say prospective litigants in land disputes. And then follow all those questions that have for ages battered the naïve citizen when it has come to a matter of understanding the preparation and handing over of legal documents. The writer raises all those questions and then, to our relief, moves on to answer them. What should be your responsibility when the matter of a registration of land arises? Obviously, registration will not be gone through unless the full payment of the price of purchased land is there. And how do you verify the ownership of land? Mutation, taxes, khas land, et al, are plainly and simply dealt with here. The explanation of the rules and laws relating to them has been concise and yet comprehensive in the broad sense of meaning. The work is a practical guide to some of the intractable problems faced by people in Bangladesh. You may not be terribly drawn to the idea of land disputes, for obvious reasons. That would not be such a romantic idea in any case. But you might as well be prepared for any eventuality in the future. Who knows? The future is not yours to see.
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