Rabindranath Tagore, the great literary genius of the Indian subcontinent, was endowed with a strong sense of patriotism and magnanimity of heart. He was greatly moved when he saw the sufferings of his fellow countrymen at the hands of the British colonial rulers. His reaction to the oppression of the British rulers is exemplified by his rejection of the title of knighthood, awarded to him by the British Crown in 1919. He renounced his knighthood as a protest against the Massacre of Jalianwalla Bagh or Amritsar, where the British troops killed about 400 Indian unarmed innocent people at a Baisakhi Fair on April 13, 1919.
His concern about the political and socio economic problems of India came out in the open during the Swadeshi Movement' that broke out in the wake of Bengal's partition in 1905.
Further, the protesting voice in Tagore reached its climax in his letter to Lord Chelmsford, rejecting his knighthood. Tagore was very much alarmed at the cruelty of the British Raj at the Jalianwalla Bagh Massacre. Jalianwalla Bagh Massacre alternatively known as the Amritsar Massacre, was named after the Jalianwalla Bagh (garden) in the northern Indian city of Amritsar where, on April 13, 1919 held a Baisakhi Fair, one of Punjab's largest religions festivals. All on a sudden, fifty British Indian Army soldiers, under the command of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on the unarmed gathering of innocent men, women and children without any warning. About 400 unarmed people were killed and more than two thousand wounded. Tagore was deeply moved by this mass killing and on May 31, 1919 he wrote to the viceroy of India, asking to be relieved of the knighthood, he had accepted four years earlier in 1915. Tagore's rejection of the Knighthood added fuel to the Indian agitation against the British colonial rule in India.
Tagore's patriotism is strongly manifest in his letter written to the Indian Viceroy. It is true that the letter does not reject outright the British rule in India, but the way Tagore develops his arguments in the letter, its language and the force of criticism present itself as an indictment of the British colonial rule in India. He shows the helplessness of the native Indians as well as the unfitness of the rulers. The common people of India played their part in the protest against the British rule in India. Tagore now decides to play his own part. His feeling of oneness with his countrymen and his strong protest against the oppression of the colonial rule in India undoubtedly prove his strong patriotism and fellow feeling.
To sum up, Tagore's letter of protest to Lord Chelmsford displays. his great patriotism. The renunciation of his knighthood was a protest not only against the Amritsar Massacre, but also against the colonial rule in India.
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