RIZAL Philippine Nationalist and Martyr The Author In 1950, being at the time Assistant Colonial Secretary in Hongkong, ‘Austin Coates made a study of Rizal's 1891-92 stay in the colony, interviewing people who had known Rizal or had memories of him. The author was a guest of the Philippine Government at the International Congress on Rizal, held at Manila in 1961. This biog- raphy was written during 1964-67. Born in London in 1922, son of the composer Eric Coates, he combined the early part of his writing career with work as an administrator, diplomat, and advisor on Chinese affairs, leaving government service in 1962. He is a Knight Grand Officer of the Order of Rizal, Philippines, and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, London.José Rizal Madsid 0, RIZAL Philippine Nationalist and Martyr BY AUSTIN COATES SOLIDARIDAD PUBLISHING HOUSE 531 Padre Faura Ermita, Manilap-65460 Reprinted and Exclusively Distributed by Solidaridad Publishing House 531 Padre Faura Ermita, Manila Philippine Copyright, 1992 Solidaridad Publishing House Copyright © 1992 by Solidaridad Publishing House ‘This reprint has been authorized by Oxford University Press for sale in the Philippines only and not for export therefrom © Oxford University Press 1968 ISBN 971-536-1323, Contents List of Illustrations Page Inteoduction i I YOUTH IN MEDIEVAL TWILIGHT 1861-1882 Childhood in Calamba ‘The Frailocracy Student of the Jesuits University of Santo Tomés Departure on a Mission Wr JOURNEY INTO LIGHT 1882-1887 ‘The Impact of the West . First Year in Madrid . ‘The Toasting Speech Final Year in Madrid Ophthalmic Studies in Paris and Heidelberg. Fulfilment in Berlin Noli Me Tangere and Departure from Europe mr THE STORM BREAKS 1887-1888 Return to the Twilight "The German Doctor’ Furore 30 40 3 65 n or 99 106 119 130 138wv STRUGGLE, DARKNESS, AND ACHIEVEMENT 1888-1891 1. Pacific Route to England 1, London—the Propaganda Movement 1 Literary Undertakings 2 Correspondence with Spain 3 Correspondence with the Philippines 4 Over the Channel uit, Paris and Morga’s Sucesos 1v, Brussels—the Anatomy of Sacrifice vy. Conflict in Madrid vi. Biarritz Interlude vu, El Filibusterismo, Resignation, and Exit v ON THE EVE 1891-1852 1. Hongkong—'the Spanish Doctor’ 1m. Visit to Sandakan ut. Preparation for Death 1v. Hero's Return, Arrest, and Deportation vI ‘THE DEFERMENT 1892-1896 1. Dapitan and the Jesuits 1. Scientific Works and School at Talisay tt Josephine Bracken vu ‘THE SIGNATURE OF DEATH 1896 1. Revolution u, Trial it, Ultimo Adiés, 29-30 December wv. The Good Opportunity y, An Aftermath of Controversy Conclusion Acknowledgments and Bibliography Index Maps East Asia, showing the position of the Philippines ‘The Philippines, showing places connected with the life of Rizal 283 294 308, 337 332 349) 363 379 The monogram on the title page was drawn by Rizal, and is reproduced by permission of the National Library, Manila.Illustrations José Rizal, Madrid, 1890 frontispiece Francisco Mercado facing p30 Teodora Alonso 30 The Mercado family home at Calamba 31 Portraits of Rizal, between 1872 and 1883 46 conor Rivera 7 6 Paciano Rizal Mercado 78 7 Narcisa Rizal-Lépez 7% Juan Luna, Rizal and Valentin Ventura in Paris ey josephine Bracken 4 Ferdinand Blumentrtt, 1888 8 Ferdinand Blumentritt, 1910 95 Rudolph Virchow 95 ‘The manuscript cover of Noli Me Tangere 158 Rizal in A Play Staged at the Ateneo de Manila 159 W. E, Retana 174 Reinhold Rost 174 Gertrude Beckett 175 Nelly Boustead 15 Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar and Mariano Ponce, Paris 1889 286 Lotter from Rizal to Blumentritt, 5 July 1890 287 Josephine Bracken 287 Rizal's cell in Fort Santiago 302 ‘The alcohol burner 302 Ultimo Adiés, the last page 303Introduction But 1am constant as the northern star, Of whose truc-fix'd and resting quality "There is no fellow in the firmament. Julius Caesar, Act i, Se. ‘Will my fate be that of water, never to be lost in nothingness? José Riza, Heidelberg, 6 August 1886‘TweRe WAS to be public execution, and consequently: the secets and buildings were bung with flags. A day of execution wos a fiesta Since first light a crowd of many thousands had been gather ing on the broad greensward facing the sea—gentlemen in poater hats and smart drill suits, with their ladies clad in their best, the hems of their long skirts dampened a little here and there by the dew which still lay on the grass. Tt seas the tropics’ apology for winter, the start of another swarm blue day, cloudless and still with at morning and evening ‘ry slight chill in the air, such as there was now. The sun had siready risen on the landward side, and as the minutes drew towards 7 am, the multitudinous voices of the crowd were hnished. The beat of an approaching drum announced the arrival of the condemned man. ‘The Europeans had the best vantage places, and being in general taller than the local people they tended to monopolize the view. Despite this disadvantage, however, a fairly large number of local people had come as well—men and women, the well-to-do, the fashionably europeanized, the prudent—to join their European masters in uttering patriotic cheers. For the death to be witnessed on this fine morning was the death of traitor, and not merely of a traitor but of the arch-traitor, described by the military judge who had tried him as ‘the principal organizer and living soul of the insurrection’. For four months the country had been gripped by revolution, It had not yet succeeded in penetrating the capital, but in the countryside there were widespread disturbances which the Europeans had hitherto been unable to suppress. With the ative in the country, his execution afforded a salutary oppor tunity of showing the natives where they stood. Today might ll prove to be a turning point, Thus the exhilarated atmos-INTRODUCTION phere, The date was 30 December 1896. The place was 8 pea, the extensive public park in the heart of Manil capital of the Spanish Philippines. The crowd was 50 dense, and there was so muck jockeyit for postion, that police arrangements broke down and prisoners ailtary escort, which should have been behind bi Pad to form fle on either side of him, forcing its way throu to the execution ground. Within the fairly wide corridor space thus created, what remained of the procession was 2 seamove through the mass of people with reasonable dignit First came the drummer. After him, flanked by two tall Spanis Jesuits in black souzanes and shovel-hats, came the lesser figut of the traitor. ‘Aged thirty-five, short and slender, pale after two months prison, he was impeccably dressed in European style, black wu Epotlessly white shirt and tie, and wearing a black derby by seitch in vogue at that time in Europe, His appearance wasalmot English in its formality and taste, But it was not tis that deg people's attention. Te was his features and expression, and Botmm dignity of his bearing. As could be seen at a glance, Seas no ordinary traitor to be jeered and howled at. AS he p There was silence, while people stared, some in surprise, other snith concern, and all with the uneasy sense of being confront by something they did not fully understand. ‘Most people have a preconceived idea of what a traitor lod like, It is natural to expect to detect features of malevoler or duplicity, o defiance, the wild stare of a misplaced visiona or the grimace of a swashbuckler who has lost out. About {itor there was nothing that could be preconceived. To beg ‘ith, his was an arrestingly interesting face. Apart from know that he was a man of the Far East, it would have been difficu} to define him racially, All that could have been said—and th ‘only by an astute observer—was that he was from one of 1 countries of South-East Asia, and bore indications of 1 part Malay, partly Chinese ancestry. Yet there was nothing hhim of the withdrawn Oriental, that character beloved of European imagination. His eyes, wide-spaced, thoughtful, ‘compelling in their truthfulness, came out to meet whomer ENTRODUCTION they looked at, as European eyes do. He bad very li Bo ee eel atte frm chin and perceptive lips, could be sensed at ance a mental finity to Europe, expressed through an Asian physique. This Gas aman who had passed far beyond diflerences of race and ution. Despite being a member of a subject race, it was the fice of a person the equal of any, expressive of intellectual honesty and insight, both in unusual measure. As the Madrid newspaper reports of the oceasion show, there were few Span- fbnds present that day who, once they had seen him, remained tinaware of these qualities, disconcerting as they found them. The umpression the pale young man conveyed was inescapable. The escort forced a way through to the cleared rectangle of cas, lined by troops, which was to be the place of execution, When the traitor had been conducted to the seaward end, in which direction the shot was to be fied, there was some discussion inaudible to bystanders, ‘Then those nearest to the trator drew back, the preparatory commands were barked out, tnd in the second of silence before the final order to fire, while people excitedly eraned over the shoulders of others fora glimpse ole scene, the ton fly audible sid in de, xy ois, ‘Contemerton ef? wie t The command, ‘The shot. People being pushed forward upon others in the surge to view the body. A curious silenee. ‘The orgunized cheer ofthe troops. The lead given tothe release of motion, And following this, the public cheers, the cheers, the "The living soul of the insurrection was dead As so often happens in the case of public cheering they were cheers illtimed. The shot which that crowd had just heard was, the shot which br anish empire it th sex which brought the Spanish expire in the Philipines The situation in the Philippines on 30 December 1896 was ‘catively simple, The insurgents had few ams and no source of ammunition. The Spaniards hed adequate military and naval forces to deal with the insurrection provided the government continued to enjoy a certain measure of Filipino public support.pxTRODUCTION ‘This last was important for mainly geographical reasons. TI Philippines, a complex archipelago of more than seven thousan islands, with in those days only very limited inter-island com: munications, presented singular obstacles to an_outrightl rnilitary control." Each well-populated island, even today, isi a sense a small country on its own, requiring a complete appa: ‘atus of government distinct from its neighbours. At that tim outright military control offered a commander the choi between a dispersal of his forces so extensive and disconnecte that in effect they ceased to be a unitary army, or concentratior of force in various population centres, lesser islands being left in the balance of popular goodwill. In December 1896 the Spanish military administration was in the process of regroupi from the former to the latter. Nor was goodwill entirely lacking—the goodwill, or possibly just the prudence, of such as came to witness the execution a cheer. But within days of 30 December on Luzon, the mai northern and ‘capital’ island, and within weeks throughout t entire Philippines, this situation changed, Ds. José Rizal, dl young ophthalmic surgeon who had been executed that day ‘was regarded by educated Filipinos as a genius, the architect an embodiment of theit country's aspirations. By the unedueat ‘he was regarded more simply as a kind of demi-god. By all ‘was recognized as the greatest Filipino who had ever liv He was also, ironically, the most understanding, patient, an influential friend Spain possessed in the Islands. Day after day following 30 December other victims wer brought forth from the torture chambers of Fort Santiago to b ‘executed in public. It was the dry season; stains were ‘washed away by rain, From end to end the grass of the Lune ‘was brown with dried human blood. But all these deaths, terrible as they were, did not make t same impact as did the execution of the young surgeon. Fort Spain had killed him, of all people, showed to every Filip from one end of the country to the other that Spain was bli to their needs, deaf to their pleas, and contemptuous of th “The length ofthe archipelago from north to south s equivalent to sistas to Morence Sram, or om London to angie. xviii INTRODUCTION claim to be treated as the equal of other human beings, gp pallet cere ice acces a a as though they themselves had been unforgivably insulted; and 3 produced revulsion against the tnmentor It was ¢naion- wide reaction which words could not express, deeply and Secretly fei le vee ten ple pes vital to the maintenance of the Spanish position, fell away. Even the prudent who had turned up to cheer found there was prudence in not being pro-Spanish, to be so having become in effect treasonable in « Filipino. From that moment Spanish rule was doomed. The death agony took another eighteen months, but in effect on 30 Decem- ber 1896, by a single shot, Spain erected her own sepulchre in advance of the demise A scant shaft of hope might have remained, though it would probably have dane no more than prolong the death agony, could further substantial military reinforcements have been obtained. But these were not forthcoming. Spain at this time ‘vas simultaneously endeavouring to suppress two insurrections on different sides of the globe, one in the Philippines, the other in Cuba. Because of greater Spanish public interest in Cuba, because of the island’s closeness to the United States, and because of the aggressive trend of American public opinion, strongly reflected in Congress, toward the continued Spanish presence in the Caribbean, Spain, when torn between the equally urgent demands of two of her overseas ‘province’, decided that the suppression of the Cuban revolt must be given priority. Besides which, the Spanish Government underestimated the ‘capacity of the Filipinos to wage rebellion with any measure of success. Spain in fact tended to underestimate the Filipinos in coehing. This was basally wat the Plppine rel was When the Governor and Captain-General ofthe Philippines (Geviaal Cath rruvige: tied tat le easel eee ments were virtually ignored, he resigned his command in April 1897. Under his successor, General Primo de Rivera, the Tebela were at last forced into reteat. But here the SpanishINTRODUCTION successes were partly due to dissension among the Filipino leaders. “The actual organizer and first leader of the rebellion was Andres Bonifaeio, a young, cool and determined idealist, capable ‘of inspiring men to follow him, yet who, as rebellion spread from town to town, found that not every tovin loyal to his cause accepted his leadership. Furthermore, boldly attempting objec- tives which were beyond the capacity of his forces, he suffered inital reverses, thereby incurring the criticism of being inade- {quate a8 a military commander, In this capacity the outstanding man thrown into prominence by the events of revolution was Emilio Aguinaldo, who, operating from bases in Cavite province, ‘obtained numerous military successes against the Spaniards ‘At a meeting of the revolutionary leaders in March 1897 ‘Aguinaldo was elected to direct the struggle in succession t0 Bonifacio, without whom there would have been no revolt Bonifacio, bitterly disillusioned by the perfidy of those whom be had regarded as his colleagues, cut loose with a number of men still loyal to him, refusing to acknowledge Aguinalda’s leadership. “The Spaniards were quick to take advantage ofthis favourable situation. As factionalism spread among the Filipino people, some loyal to Bonifacio, others to Aguinaldo, the rebel position became desperate, On 10 May 1897 Bonifacio, on Aguinaldo’s orders, was tracked down and shot. But this scarcely improved ‘matters; the rebels continued to retreat. By this time they had litde or no arms and ammunition; most of them fought with knives and staves; but they proved themselves able guerrilla fighters and had the great advantage of enjoying the support of the population. At the end of the year it was recognized on both 2 Jone Alejandrino, sevclutionary general and a balanced observer of events supported this questiontble action Ina letter tb Fesdinand Blumen {St dited 11 My 8p, be wrotes Agunaldo snot only good army man but slsos good ruler 4s he succonded, despite the seri diaension® that Broke atthe rank off vn ie aout the ny af fhe diferent elements of whicn te Hverators of the Palippunes ae comporcd Sometimes he made use of penceful means, while in other instances be esoTed to cnefgetic measures when circumstances warranted theit Use” ‘Glad Jose Alejandrino, La Souda del Sacre; trans. Jose M. Alejand- fine, The Price of Freedom, +945, INTRODUCTION des that it was stalemate, the Filipinos unable to prevail, the Spaniards unable to suppress them. Primo de Rivera and wainaldo signed a truce, the latter going into voluntary exile jn Hongkong. "The truce settled nothing, Rebel outbreaks continued, sporadically and becoming increasingly serious; and thus it ould undoubtedly have continued for years had not an extra- yrcous event lifted the struggle from being a remote colonial ifr, suddenly placing it on the stage of world history In February 1898 the United States battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbour. The explosion was almost certainly accidental, but the American public, going through a most 1! period of warmongering sentiment, inflamed by public ation over events in Cuba, was in no mood to treat it as, h. In stentorian terms the disaster was condemned as an Of Spanish treachery. On 19 April resolutions were intro- duced into Congeess demanding the independence of Cuba and the despatch of American forces to aid the Cuban rebels. Unwsisely Spain, instead of temporizing, accepted the challenge, and made a fatal declaration of war on the United States Tt was what Washington had been waiting for. With almost unseemly speed orders were sent to American naval commanders to attack Spain at her two most sensitive points, Cuba and the Philippines. On 1 May 1898 an American squadron under the command of Commodore George Dewey entered Manila Bay, and without the loss of a man destroyed the entire Spanish fleet off Cavite. A similar disaster overtook the Spanish flet in Cuba, Dewey then had to await the arrival of land forces to complete the Spanish defeat. With his agreement Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines, the Americans giving every outward indication of their intention that the country should become independent. With this encouragement, on 12 June 1898 the Filipinos declared their independence, Emilio Aguinaldo becoming President of \what is now known as the First Philippine Republic. One of the frst acts of the Republic was to declare 30 December a day of rest and reflexion in memory of Rizal, a commemoration hich despite every vicissitude hes been observed ever since xxiINTRODUCTION In the military ficld mopping-up operations proceeded swifll under Aguinaldo's direction. Within @ matter of wecks 1 only Spanish forces left in Luzon were penned in Manila at ‘Cavite, the two towns being cut off from one another. As reinforcement of American troops, Aguinaldo hoped, and country would be totally free. ‘Tt was a miscalculation, In July the land forces Dewey need began to arrive, and the Americans moved to the accomplis ‘ment of their real design, which had nothing whatever to do wit Philippine independence. For the United States had caught tl prevailing great power disease, and had resolved to embark up empire. Secret negotiations were entered into between Dewey a the Spanish authorities, and on 13 August, an agreed date, aft a face-saving exchange of fire, American forces entered Manil from the citadel of which the colours of Spain were lowered fa ever. The Filipino forces, waiting for a signal to enter the cit swere ordered by the Americans to remain outside. Only then di ‘Aguinaldo realize that he and his men had been dupes in aw game and by no means a simple one, since had the America not taken Manila, the Germans, with the requisite forces poi and afloat in the China Sea, would certainly have done so inst ‘At the time of the peace negotiations, held in Paris, Aguinal made despairing efforts to obtain international recognition Philippine independence; his representatives were not titted to the conference room. It is at this point that can seen at its clearest the significance of that execution two y carfier, and the importance of the complete psychologi estrangement of the Filipinos from Spain which it produc Had Rizal been alive in 1898 he would unquestionably: ha rallied Philippine sympathy for defeated Spain, thus placing exceedingly complex obstacle to the realization of America imperial ambitions. The United States would doubtless, int ‘mood of that time, have acquired some form of favoured posit ‘or tutelage in the Philippines, but it could never have been i the extreme form it actually took, As it was, the Filipis friends of neither the United States nor Spain, found themselv diplomatically isolated, their leader reduced in international ey‘ to the status of a bandit chief. INTRODUCTION In December 1898, by the Treaty of Paris, the Philippines were declared to be American territory. For two years Aguinaldo commanded a military struggle against American forces in the Jslands, but one by one his principal officers were captured, and in March 1901 he himself was taken, bringing his Republic to an end. On 4 July that year, with the inauguration of American Civil government, the Philippines became, in effect if not in raine, a colony of the United States of America. ‘The Americans, quick to discover the political and literary ‘works of Rizal, and to appreciate the immense esteem in which the as held by his countrymen, recognized in him an invaluable link between the Spanish period end their own that had sueceed- cd it. To many Americans it seemed that Rizal’s aims and their ‘own were one, On 7 April 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt, speaking at Fargo, North Dakota, went so far as to say In the Philippine Islands the American government has tried, and is ing, to carry out exactly what the greatest genius and most revered ot ever known in the Philippines, José Rizal, steadfastly ade ocated. With the coming of the Americans twentieth-century ait blew into the Islands. ‘The new rulers quickly rid the country of the Catholic ecclesiastical rule under which it had suffered solong, Successive changes of President in Washington, coupled With the lack of an equivalent to the British India Office or Colonial Office as a means of ensuring continuity of policy, rendcred the complete fulfilment of Theodore Roosevelt's aim {ess impressive than its enunciation; but in a leisurely way, and With increased momentum between the two world wars, the Americans introduced various measures of internal self-govern- ‘ment which would almost surely have led to complete independ- ence, This leisurely trend of affairs was brought to an abrupt fend in December 1941, when Japan, as part of her aim to ‘stablish a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, invaded the Philippines and subjected the country to a rule of tyranny 2nd barbarism arousing universal detestation. In the last months ref C84 by Austin Cra, Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rival, Manila,INTRODUCTION of hostilities, in 1944-5) the Japanese mounted a desperate Struggle against the returning Americans, and Manila was fought steect by stcet. Asa result t was a war-ravaged country swith much of its eapital city in ruins which on 4 July 1946 was Jecorded independence by the United States, an unsatisfactory independence, but onc on which both sides at that time were determined | The ceremony took place on the Luuneta; and as President Truman's special emissary read the deed of independence, ihe did so before the statue of Rizal, which that day witnessed, ton behalf of the man himself che fulfilment of one of the main purposes of his life's work. Outside his own country Rizal is chiefly known forthe poem hho wrote in the death cell on the eve of his exceution, and which vray smuggled out of Fort Santiago hidden in an alechel burner. "The poctn was written on small slip of paper and it was nether titled, nor dated, nor signed. It has come to be knovin as the Citimo Adiés, and holds an assured plac: inthe Spanish literature ofthe period, It istobefound in numerous anthologiesof Spanish Verse ond—in Spanish or in translation—in every anthology Of the poetry of patriotism worthy of the name. The poem, feven in translation, gave its author international recognition ‘he a poem of patriotism it is distinguished by a complete absence of jingoism, or scorn for enemies, or the appeals to glory Svhich too often make this kind of verse tedious; and in that it fells the exact circumstances in which it was witten, it has a powerful human appeal, Here is a man condemned to die for fhe cause of his country, and in the final hours before dawn, twhen he will beled forth to execution, writing his last farewell to country, family and friends. Like all poems, it suffers in ‘translation. In Spanish the compulsion of its message and the flow of the lines, some af which are of exceptional felicity and sonority, combine to make it, in its genre, a poem of particular distinction, This is to treat it in its Spanish contest, In its ‘feian context—and itis after all an Asian poemm—it is unique in quality and in the nobleness of its expression. Among all the ExTRODUCTION corse in whatever language inspired by the Asian independence Jovements there is nothing that can be compared with it. In his own country Rizal is revered as a national hero, and js known for a mass of other writings, in particular for his two ovis of contemporary Philippine life, Noli Me Tangere and bl Filibusteriomo, which are taught in all colleges. His place in his country’s history has also been fully assessed. He was the tan who single-handed awakened the Philippine people to tutional and politcal consciousness, an extraordinary achieve- trent which will he examined in what follows Yt im the panorama of Asian history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries his position is less clear, and in need of definition At the time of his birth, European power and influence in Asin had been growing and spreading for more than three hhsdeed years; but forthe most part his was a slow, haphazard « its principal motivation being trade. The Indian Mutiny 4:57 matks the end of this long epoch in Europe's relations ‘sith Asia, From 1858 onwards a new determination and energy infused European activity in the East, and with this came a new principle, the territorial acquisition of empire, still principally {or purposes of trade, but also with the aim of bringing Western forms of government and education to peoples whom the West considered to be either barbarous or decadent, or both. During this period, from 1838 to 19e0—almost the exact period of Rizal’s life;—Britain consolidated her power throughout the Indian sub-continent, added Burma to her empire, and by means of protectorates extended her influence to embrace Malays, Sarawak and Sabah (North Borneo). Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were absorbed by France, Japan was drawn out of her long seclusion, and Thailand signed her first treaties with Western nations. Ceylon was already ruled by Britain, Indonesia by the Netherlands, and the Philippines by Spain, China, rent by internal rebellion and misruled by the tottering Manchu dynasty, managed to maintain a semblance of independence; bu by 1898 every port of any usefulness on the China coast was funcr European control. The last decade of the nineteenth Jesmsury dawned on an Orient which had become a suburb ofINTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION and nations must be regarded by Europe as equals, an idea whch tthe Europe colonial power of that tins was in Vusying degrees pretentious, preposterous, or abhorrent. “The Philippine Revolution of 1896, which Rizal's works inspired but which he was in fact opposed to, knowing it to be premature and inadequately organized, was the frst genuinely ational revolt by an Asian people against a colonial power. ‘That it was genuinely national in character was due entirely to Rizal, the first exponent of Asian nationalism, - ‘His execution was reported in newspapers throughout the ‘world, In most countries the fact that Spain had felt obliged to execute, as leader of the rebellion, a 35-year-old doctor, a rman of peace and evidently a person of some local distinction, shoséed simply that there was something rorten in the state of the Spanish Philippines. But this came as no surprise. It was ‘what most intelligent readers would have assured In Asia reaction was more acute. Since the establishment of Buropean power, the sentient minority in each country of the East had become absorbed in a phase of critical self-examination, which atthe yearn, pac Deame, ineningly widepread The power and efficiency of Europe had at this time induced state of affairs in which everything from the West was assumed tobe superior. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century contrary voices were heard, challenging this assumption, In Ind che of ie exist ene ef change overs Behe Absningranath Tagore rok company with dhe Indian atts wo for more than fifty yeas had been uninspiredlyéitating uropean styles, and launched out into a distinetive style of his own, inspired by Indian sources. In China the first modera scolars had the temerity to desare thatthe philosophy and aod ais of China were every whit as valableas thos of Europe inaugurating the ra later tobe personified philsophy by iu Shik and in painting by Ch’i Pai-shih, both of whom invested old forms with a new vitality. qbatin the poi field there was hesitancy. The East which 1 Europeans had overpowered had been a world of kings Burope, The real capitals of East Asia were London, Pari ‘Amowrdam, and Madrid. In the entire vast area lying bet Guluchistan’ and the islands of the Pacific, only Japan Thailand precariously maintained a status independent oft direct or indirect European control prevailing everywhere el Ti was precisely this same period which gave birth to the who by their lives and works were to render it impossible f wetonialisin and Western exploitation to take a long lease on 1 Orient, OF these men four great individuals stand pre-emine Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, St ‘Yat-sen, and José Rizal. All four were born within a few jf cach other; Rizal and Tagore were born in the same ye4 $6r, Sun Yat-sen in 1866, and Gandhi in 1869. All fo Tpeovbed deeply the new learning of the West, and broug! Wenternctrained intellect to bear upon the problems of Asi IAll four challenged and questioned the West in the West's o jerme, a process which invigorated a largely supine contin« tea ultimately-—because the West could understand what t said, and it hurt—sapped the self-confidence of the colons powers, who tll then had believed in the supreme rightness their misson, Between them these four men, aided and emulat by others, created a new climate of thought in Asia tending the inevitable attrition of colonialism, 2 movement to which colonial powers themselves inadvertently contributed by 1 jnvasions of 1941. When the Japanese were finally thrust ba into their own islands, the climate of thougbt the four men ‘created dominated Asia completely, and the colonial pow self-confidence, despite their victory, had evaporated. (Of the four men Rizal, though the least known, is in ways the most remarkable. OF an. extreme sensibility, political ideas matured at an unusually early age. Long Tagore was anything other than a critical acceptant of Brit rule in India, when Sun Yat-sen was a student and G: just a schoolboy, Rizal was enunciating clearly, in sper ‘published articles and letters, the eoncepts, entirely his ‘Of a new and completely different relationship between Bur ‘and Asia—the relationship of today—in which Asian p " Absnindracath ‘Tagore (1874-1981), nephew ofthe poet RebindramthINTRODUCTION whose subjects had been their feudal property, to be elevat chastened, or conseribed for war at w ‘come new ideas, of nationhood and individual rights, but wi ‘caste, clan and regional differences to be reckoned with ‘was difficult to see what application these new ideas co have in Asia, The word nation had entered many vocabulari there was a desire among the sentient that theie countries become nations in the Western sense. But few were certain such desires were not academic dreams, so remote from achi ment did they seem in the social context of the Bast. T! hesitancy is exemplified in India in the degree to which country’s earliest political institutions owed their origin British initiative and their membership to British support. ‘Alone among Asian countries, Japan after the Meiji Resto tion of 1868 had transformed herself into a nation on Euroy lines, above all armed with European weapons, which the ¥« before Rizal's death had been used with effect in the Si Japanese War. But an aggressive nationhood such as Japan ‘was not exactly what the rest of Asia sought. Furthermore Jap: hhad for many centuries been a country unified under one gover ‘ment; the transposition from the feudal to the modern was this extent less complex than in countries such as India, unifi by a colonizing power but traditionally divided. ‘The Philippines on the other hand, prior to the Spani occupation, had had a background more related to that of I and South-East Asia, Historical research suggested that Islands had once been part of Further India, with rajas, Hind style courts, and Sanskritic writing. It was thus presumed to ‘a country with problems of national adaptation similar to tho of India, the largest and most significant of the Asian natiot subject to European rule. In India, which was awakening politically in advance of neighbours, it was the national aspect of the Philippine rebellio an aspect which Rizal as a Western-trained doctor seemed aptly to typify rebellion were remote, the Philippines being separated from rest of Asia by the twin barriers of distance and the Spani language. But Rizal's death gave the revolt dramatic public . With the West hi the nineteenth century, perhaps of any A Brapher can scarcely be accused of exaggeration in saying that thece are times when it seems as if everything his subject ever ‘83, id, wrote or thought in his shor life hus been recorded which attracted attention. The events of 1 INTRODUCTION and the message it conveyed was clear. ‘Those few in each subjected country who had dared to dream of a future day when European power would be overthrown saw that they were not alone. There were others. They might speak other languages, and {nliabit countries little known; but in their reactions to colonial rule they were kin, For the radical it became possible cautiously to believe, for the first time, that to entertain the idea of putting an end t0 European supremacy was to be in tune with one of those movements that inexplicably sweep across continents, Abore all, the national character of the Philippine revolt, a character which the unsuccessful struggle for independence against the Americans between 1898 and 1901 served to confirm, signalized what till then had been regarded by many Asian intellectuals with doubt: that the East's feudal kingdoms and principalities, expunged or emasculated by the colonial powers, \were capable of reshaping themselves as modern nations under their own national leaders. The revolt failed. The colonial epoch moved unconcernedly oon, But it was not forgotten, and among the discerning, neither was Rizal or what he stood for. To Asia's growing number of nationalists the events of 1896 in the Philippines became a land- tmark, a conclusion held increasingly as, under the Americans, the Philippines switched from Spanish to English, and more information became available concerning the rebellion and its nature. Gandhi spoke of Rizal asa forerunner and asa martyr in the cause of freedom, and Nehru, in his prison letters to his daughter Indira, recognized the significance of the growth of Philippine nationalism and, if inaccurately, Rizal’s part in it. Though the revolt failed, the idea of modern nationhood as a Practical possibility in Asia had been born. This was due to Rizal, and constitutes his place in history. Rizal's is the most highly documented life of any Asian of ever. His bio-