LKE Tagore

DATE: 1918-1996

LEVEL: Series

This series consists of records gathered by Leonard Elmhirst relating to the Indian poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. Materials include poems, essays, speeches, diaries and art works. There are transcriptions of Leonard Elmhirst's interviews with Tagore dispersed throughout the series. There are also scattered photographs, pamphlets, printed records, and a lock of Tagore's beard. Letters and other Tagore memorabilia are preserved carefully in scrapbooks included in this series. Tagore's illustrated letters discuss his followers, travel, Indian and international politics, art, spirituality and religion. Of special interest are letters and papers written while Tagore and Leonard Elmhirst were travelling together in China, Italy, and South America. There are also letters from the poet Xu Zhimo (Hsu Tsemou). Records of travels in Italy record Tagore's meetings with Mussolini, including commentaries on the nature of the politician and his politics. Other travel related records include transcriptions of interviews and speeches given by Tagore while on a trip to the USSR in 1930. Similarly, there are records of Tagore's travels in Argentina including many letters from and to Victoria Ocampo with whom Leonard maintained a lifelong correspondence. Ocampo's personal letters to Leonard in the 1950's record her work publishing the literary journal SUR, discuss Tagore, and include observations on Argentinian politics. There are also letters of Ocampo mentioning the Peron government, her arrest by the Peronistas, and her thoughts about Eva Peron.

Later correspondence is with Indian biographers, including officials at Visva-Bharati. There is also correspondence with American scholars interested in Tagore. The series includes records of the publication of books on Tagore, including Leonard's 1961 book 'Rabindranath Tagore: Pioneer in Education.'

Records also include information on the Tagore Festival organised by the Dartington College of Arts in 1976.

Leonard Elmhirst's respect for Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) led him to save as many of Tagore's letters, anecdotes, poems, and paintings, as he possibly could. As Tagore's travelling companion in 1924 and 1925, Leonard was well placed to do this.

Leonard's relationship with Tagore began in Mar 1921 when he met the poet in New York City on the recommendation of Sam Higginbottom, a missionary operating an agricultural school in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. After completing a degree in Agricultural Economics at Cornell University in 1921, Leonard accepted the position of director of the Institute of Rural Reconstruction at Surul, a village 4 kilometres west of Tagore's Visva-Bharati (International University) at Santiniketan, Bolpur District, Bengal. The Institute was later named by Tagore, Sriniketan, which is Sanskrit for 'The Abode of Plenty'. In three years, Leonard Elmhirst was able to establish the agricultural school, and a weekly boarding school of practical education for local children known as Siksha-Satra. Much of the work at Sriniketan was influenced by Tagore's philosophies of learning. In 1923, Leonard accompanied Tagore on a fund-raising mission around India, and travelled to America and the United Kingdom. In 1924 Tagore asked Leonard to accompany him on a mission to China and Japan which Tagore had undertaken to improve bilateral relations between China and India. In China, Tagore met the Emperor, and spoke to student leaders involved in the May Fourth Movement. Among Tagore's Chinese contacts were the poet Xu Zhimo (Hsu Tsemuo) and Chinese liberal philosopher Hu Shih. In October 1924, Leonard Elmhirst (acting as Tagore's secretary and companion) travelled to South America intending to visit Argentina and Peru. Tagore fell ill and had to stay outside Buenos Aires at a villa on the River Plate, as a guest of the beautiful Argentinian writer Victoria Ocampo.

In January 1925, Tagore and Leonard Elmhirst travelled on to fascist Italy, where they were guests of the Duke Tomasso Gallarati-Scotti in Milan. Leaving Tagore in Italy, Leonard travelled on to New York where he married Dorothy Straight in the spring of 1925. In 1926 Tagore again visited Europe lecturing in Austria, Germany and Italy (where he had a controversial meeting with Mussolini), and also travelled to Dartington Hall as a guest of Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst. In 1930, Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst travelled to India where they were received by Gandhi and Tagore, and stayed at Santiniketan. Leonard certainly revered Tagore, maintaining contact with him and with his memory, for the rest of his life.

Information for Researchers

All papers belonging to The Dartington Hall Trust Archive (with the exclusion of Dartington Hall School pupils individual records) are held at the Devon Record Office. All enquiries relating to research should be made to Devon Records Office, Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Sowton, Exeter, Devon EX2 7NL
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