Indo-German Exchanges in Education- Rabindranath Tagore Meets Paul and Edith Geheeb

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Martin Kampchen, born in Germany, obtained a PhD in German literature and theatre from Vienna, studied a year each in the USA and in Paris, and then shifted to Kolkata as a teacher of German in 1973. He returned to university to study Indian philosophy in Chennai and, subsequently, comparative religion at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal, obtaining a second PhD. He stayed on in Santiniketan to translate Tagore's poetry from Bengali to German, write his biography, and research on his relationship with Germany. He has also translated Sri Ramakrishna's conversations from Bengali. Kampchen has been active in the field of Indo-German intercultural relations and in Hindu-Christian dialogue. His many books in German, English, and Bengali include academic studies, anthologies, fiction, diaries, and essays. He contributes to Indian and German newspapers regularly. Since the last thirty years, he has been working among the Santal tribals near Santiniketan.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) founded his Brahmacharya R Ashram in Santiniketan in 1901. Paul Geheeb (1870-1961) and Edith Geheeb (1885-1982) founded the Odenwaldschule in Germany nine years later, in 1910, and thereafter a new school in 1934 in Switzerland which was to become the Ecole d'Humanite (settling down in its present location in 1946). Against the background of these pioneering educational institutions, a remarkable chapter of an Indo-German encounter has unfolded. But Paul Geheeb, a name familiar in Germany and Switzerland for his contribution to the Reformpadagogik (New Education Movement), has-in India-not really been recognized as a European personality close to Rabindranath Tagore, either in spirit or in action. This is despite their having met each other in Germany in 1930 and maintained contact for a decade. The affinity of their educational vision has never been elaborated in Tagore studies.

While perusing the published and unpublished material by and on Paul and Edith Geheeb and their close associates in Europe and in India, a densely knit web of relationships began to unfold. It became apparent that the Geheebs were in touch with a broad cross section of personalities who had an active interest in the spiritual, social, and political life of India and who, at the same time, were engaged in peace activism between the two World Wars in Europe.

Both Paul Geheeb and Rabindranath Tagore saw themselves as deeply committed educators. Their respective school projects were at the heart of their creative lives and became very much the receptacle of their national and international contacts. These schools influenced and shaped to a fairly large extent the image and the international outreach of their founders.

From the Indian side, the best-known figure who had an association with Paul and Edith Geheeb and their circle was Rabindranath Tagore. To their meeting in 1930, which has not been described at any length in either English, German, or Bengali, I shall devote a central chapter of this book. There were also some associates of Rabindranath who became prominent within the circle to which the Geheebs belonged. Notably, this was the Gujarati danseuse Shrimati Hutheesing, who was a student in Santiniketan and later married a close relative of Rabindranath Tagore, thus becoming Shrimati Tagore.