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Ramesh, the party’s general secretary and communications in-charge, said Indira Gandhi had a special relationship with Tagore, having spent about nine months at Santiniketan during July 1934-April 1935. “She was an annual visitor to Visva-Bharati.” Ramesh recalled, in the last month of his extraordinary life, he had a wonderful conversation with one of his closest associates, HY Sharda Prasad, on Tagore’s poem ‘Ekla Chalo Re’, which was his favourite.
He shared an article he wrote two years ago on X and talked about his “sensitive and painstaking” edits on the Bengali author’s work.
“Tagore’s iconic poem Ekala Chalo Re was not only Indira Gandhi’s favourite, but it also brought out her hidden literary sensibilities. Her sensitive and painstaking edits on the English translation of the work were found along with other memorabilia in the archives of her long-time press advisor HY Sarada Prasad,” read the article by Sarada Prasad’s son Sanjeev Prasad.
Prasad wrote, “In the last month of her life, there were several conversations between Indira Gandhi, my father, and the famous sculptor Sankho Choudhary. One of Indira Gandhi’s last executive actions, on October 30, 1984, was to approve the appointment of Sankho Choudhary as President of the Lalit Kala Akademi.”
“While veteran politician Ram Niwas Mirdha had secured the highest number of votes in the election for the post, he had the good sense and cultural sensitivity to suggest that a respected artist should replace another as the President of the Academy of Arts.
“But one of the more interesting conversations that took place over the month focused on the translation of Tagore’s memorable song ‘Jodi Tor Dak Shune Keu Na Ashe’, which contains the memorable phrase ‘Ekla Chalo’, which inspired Indira Gandhi. However, the translations of this poem did not meet her exacting standards,” the article reads.
“My father said on many occasions that Indira Gandhi worked tirelessly on her speeches and made an excellent sub-editor. He also said that her intelligence and education were of the highest caliber, leading writers and philosophers such as Iris Murdoch and André Malraux wanted her company. How particular she was about words and their meanings can be seen here,” Prasad wrote, and detailed the changes and suggestions Gandhi made for the English translation of the work.
“…I do not know who the little girl reader was that Indira Gandhi had in mind or whether her version of Tagore’s great poem-song was ever published, but looking at her painstaking work on the poem, even in its incomplete form, one can appreciate her literary sensibilities,” he wrote.