ABSTRACT
I am the proud custodian of a manuscript letter from Rabindranath Tagore, written in 1914. It was given to me by Tony and Jean Brown, who now live in Ludlow, Shropshire. From 1961 to 1967 they worked for the Baptist Missionary Society in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Tony became the administrator of the Arthington Mission Hospital in Chandraghona, Chittagong Hill Tracts. They both learnt Bengali well. Later, after returning to the UK, Tony became Senior Tutor and then Principal of Woodbrooke College in Selly Oak, Birmingham, the international Quaker College. A previous Senior Tutor of the College, Rendel Harris, had acquired a copy of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali (the reprint of January 1914) and had pasted into the book a letter from Tagore that was clearly a reply to a letter from him. Tagore wrote:
Shanti Niketan Bolpur. Bengal Feb. 16. 1914
Dear Sir, Thank you for your kind letter of appreciation. The poem
about the woman by the well, referred to in your letter, had been written when I was not acquainted with the story of the Samaritan woman. The expression “lash of lightning” has its obvious meaning.
