To the Conscience of Humanity

This short declaration equating the cause of the Spanish Republic with the defence of culture and civilization in the struggle against fascism was published in The Statesman newspaper on 3 March 1937.

"In Spain, the world Civilization is being menaced and trampled under foot. Against the democratic government of the Spanish people, Franco has raised the standard of revolt. International Fascism is pouring men and money in aid of the rebels. Moors and foreign legionaries are sweeping over the beautiful plains of Spain; trailing behind them death, hunger and desolation.

Madrid, the proud centre of culture and art is in flames. Her priceless treasures of art are being bombed by the rebels. Even hospitals and creches are not spared. Women are murdered, made homeless and destitute.

The devastating tide of International Fascism must be checked. In Spain this inhuman recrudescence of obscurantism, of racial prejudice, of rapine and glorification of war, must be given the final rebuff. Civilization must be saved from its being swamped by barbarism.

At this hour of supreme trial and suffering of the Spanish people, I appeal to the conscience of humanity.

Help the people’s front in Spain, help the Government of the people, cry in million voices ‘Halt’ to reaction come in your millions to the aid of democracy, to the succour of civilization and culture.”

The author was Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the Bengali writer who in 1913 became the first non-European to win the Nobel prize for Literature. (He is shown here as an elderly man in a drawing by Satyajit Ray). Months later, after recovering from a serious illness that had left him comatose, he would write his poem “When my mind was released” that was inspired by the destruction of Guernica. It began:

WHEN MY mind was released

from the black cavern of oblivion

and woke up into an intolerable surprise

it found itself at the crater of a volcanic hell-fire

that spouted forth a stifling fume of insult to Man.

In 1936, Tagore agreed to serve as president of the India branch of the World Committee Against War and Fascism which had been founded by his grand-nephew, Saumyendranath Tagore. A political thinker and labour organizer, Saumyendranath wrote a pamphlet on Spain in which he described the conflict as “an international struggle between… the reactionary forces of the past and the forces of the people for real democracy and freedom” and called on the “workers, peasants and youth of India [to] organize themselves in millions and stand solidly behind the gallant fighters of Spain”.