Union minister draws flak for comments on Tagore’s ‘dark complexion’

Udayan Bandopadhyay, a political science professor, said Tagore’s complexion cannot be a subject of discussion. “How can anyone, be it the minister or academicians, discuss Tagore’s complexion? Can that be a topic at all?”

Union minister Subhas Sarkar has drawn flak for his comments on Rabindranath Tagore’s “dark complexion”, which he claimed on Wednesday was the reason why his family members did not cradle him as a child.

Rabindranath Tagore. (HT Archive)

“Rabindranath Tagore had a dark complexion. Because of this, people in his family did not cradle him when he was a child. But later in life, he won the Nobel Prize and brought laurels to the nation,” said Sarkar at Visva Bharati, the university Tagore founded in 1921 in Bengal’s Birbhum district.

Former Rabindra Bharati University (Kolkata) vice-chancellor Pabitra Sarkar called the minister’s remarks racist. “It is true that Tagore was not as fair as other members of his family. But he was not dark. Moreover, children in the Tagore family used to be looked after by maids. Cradling children was not a common practice among members of the Tagore family back in those days,” said Pabitra Sarkar.

The minister was unavailable for comments on the controversy.