Rabindranath Tagore : One of the first celebrity air traveler in India.

The Statesman dated 9th May 2025

You heard of test drive before selecting a car but have you heard or even imagined of a test flight before undertaking a flight ?

Impossible it may sound but that was exactly a reality in city of Calcutta when a foreign airline company with a direct support from its origin country’s Government arranged one for a very special passenger only to check his level of comfort in air travel at his ripe age of seventy one . The very special potential passenger was Rabindranath Tagore then India’s one of the top global face along with Gandhi.

Tagore was too frequent to travel abroad from his teenage days and by the time he reached in his late sixties he had his countless trips to many countries across Europe, North and South America, Asia for several times. His health started failing from end of 1930 after his visit to Russia and America and he slowed down in his travel to abroad.

When he was almost settled with this painful reality that he will not be able to travel abroad anymore he received a royal invitation from the Sultan of Iran Rahlavi Reja Shah to visit his country as royal guest. Initially reluctant but engrossed with the temptation of seeing a new land and the chance of knowing new people with new culture Tagore finally accepted the invitation with a tough condition of travelling in air from Calcutta stopping Allahabad , Jodhpur , Karachi and finally at the city of in Iran. Travel by ship in that hot summer was not prescribed by his doctors considering his age.

Tagore had his first experience of travelling in air on 16th April 1921when he along with his son Rathindranath and daughter-in-law Pratima Devi took a two hours flight from London’s Croyden airport to Paris. The aircraft that he travelled was named Farman F.60 Goliath owned by a French company named Campagine Des Grands Express Aeriens . It was one of the pioneering airline company to start commercial flight service between London and Paris.

Tagore enjoyed the flight and had his wish to make few more air trips but that all were not realized.

Ten years after that in 1932 the cult of air travel in India started booming and Calcutta airport commenced its commercial flight operation from 1924. From 1930 onwards three foreign airlines British company Imperial Air, Dutch company KLM Royal Dutch and French air liners Orient all have started commercial passenger carrying business. However in 1932 it was not that popular thanks to its high cost and people’s serious doubt of its comfort and safety.

When it was in public domain that Tagore will be visiting Iran by air from Calcutta it generated a considerable amount of excitement among people because before him no national celebrity is known to travel to abroad in this mode of transportation. Once all arrangement was done with KLM a surprising offer landed from their side. The airline offered test flight to Tagore over the sky of Calcutta to check his degree of comfort with the change of atmosphere as he was sbout to travel for three long days touching 5 different cities.

On 21st February 1932 KLM arranged a special test ride for its celebrity customer Rabindranath Tagore. Piloted by one Van Dijjik who had rich experience of flying over Pacific the flight took off from Dumdum airport at 4 pm and took a 12500 ft of height flying over Bay of Bengal and returned to Calcutta after 25 minutes of joy ride. Tagore was accompanied by Netherland’s Council General Mr Viruly, his wife Mrs Visser and his personal secretary Amiya Chakraborty.

On 25th February this unique joy ride of Tagore was reported in The Statesman with his photograph. The event created a sensation across India to note such an honour gained by Tagore from a foreign airlines.

Finally on 11th April 1932 the most famous citizen of Calcutta took his first real air ride from early hour. He arrived Dumdum very early morning from Khardah where he was staying the night before. An excited Tagore described his experience of reaching Dumdum airport from Khadah on that early dawn of 11th April. He wrote that as soon as his car rode the main road from the narrow lane on its way to airport smell of petrol that he smelt made him aware of a new era where as the trees on the sides of dark road were standing like witness of an older time. He saw the electrically lit up airport building from a distance and found a thick cavern of darkness on its runway. He in that light and shadow was delighted to see an army of media persons and friends awaiting to see him off at aiport. Among them were his best friend Ramananda Chatterjee Kalidas Nag and his wife, Prashanta Chandra Mohanalibis and his wife, Surendranath Kar etc were present.

Before leaving probably no photograph was taken but Tagore gave an interview to the Liberty newspaper describing his purpose and expectation of visiting Iran. It was the first interview given by a celebrity at Calcutta airport. Tagore in that interview said “….I am past seventy and I know I am taking a risk( obviously he was speaking of his impending aerial flight ) but when I think that they have invited my country through me , I could hardly deny ad cordial an invitation . “ This very rare interview of Tagore was partly mentioned in Sudip Basu’s book.

At 5 am Tagore along with Pratima Devi and Amiya Chakraborty boarded KLM marked triple engine Fokker F.12. It was a Blue coloured plane with KLM branded in golden. Tagore described it as a “ Jantra Pakshiraj “ a mechanical bird and he found his seat next to a window. Kedar Chatterjee the managing editor of Prabashi and Modern Review magazine also the son of legendary editor Ramananda Chatterjee was also supposed to accompany Tagore but he had to fly a few days before for non- availability of ticket on that day.

Tagore after taking off from Calcutta landed Allahabad around 11 am. He found his flight confortable though the sound of engine and blades of the propeller really bothered him. Among his co-passengers he found one citizen of Denmark who has his business of sugarcane in Manila island.Inside the plane Tagore was photographed by an Indian and British employee of KLM. He was asked to give a few autographs which he gladly did. Tagore has mentioned that inside the plane adequate amount of cheese, bread, chocolate, sandesh and mineral water were provisioned.Tagore in his Iran travelogue “ Parasya Yatri “ has written that till the time he was flying over Bengal the aero plane was flying in low height and finally he landed Allahabad around 10 am where the aircraft was refueled. After Allahabad he touched Jodhpur in Rajputana and Karachi in Sidh. He finally arrived Bushire on 3rd day of his travel.

After spending nearly of six weeks Tagore returned to Calcutta on 31st May 1932 and was received by his son Rathindranath Tagore along with Prashanta Chandra Mahanalobish and Nelie Sengupta who later on became Congress President at Dumdum. He was photographed at Calcutta airport with his Pratima Debi on that day by Calcutta Municipal Gazette.His return was widely covered by press.

Sudip Bau in his book has given the cost of air travel from Calcutta to Bushire in 1932. A per him it was $ 166 on one side and $ 332 in round trip.

Tagore’s air travel to Iran by making several stop over in three cities in between created an invisible excitement in India which was a grand push for the potential air passenger market of India.It broke many myths and baseless surmises that air travel is risky and very uncomfortable. When Tagore took up this flight from Calcutta almost on that time Viceroy of India also flown from Delhi to Calcutta by air. Both the event became exemplary and both were mentioned in an article published in The Pioneer on 22nd May 1932.

Tagore created a sensation by boarding a flight from Calcutta but how he himself felt when the flight took off from Calcutta . Remembering his 1st flight of life taken in 1921 from one city of Europe to other Tagore clearly said that in that while flying from London he did not feel the pangs of leaving his own land. There was no home calling from the back thus it was easy to de-anchor that soil but while leaving Bengal he felt the call of home behind.

No doubt the biggest cultural titan of Bengal was always a Bengali first and then a global icon. No wonder that today 93 years after his historic flight from Dumdum airport one can see the entire external façade and roof of new Calcutta airport terminal operational from 2013 are decorated with the replica of his hand written alphabets and figures.

No doubt this is a fitting tribute to the most famous global city boy of Calcutta .