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Rabindranath Tagore
Indian Political Thought-II (6.2)
University of Delhi
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RABINDRANATH TAGORE
2017 - Tagore considered nationalism as evil
epidemic. Evaluate.
2018 -With refrence to Tagore views on
Nationalism. Discuss his philosophy of humanism.
2019 - Compare Tagore and Savarkar’s views on
nation and nationalism.
2020 - Critically Examine Tagore’s critique of
nationalism.
INTRODUCTION
Rabindranath Tagore(1861-1941),great Indian poet,
philosopher and educationist, and was an ardent
humanist. He left an indelible mark on literary and
social thought in this country. He wrote novels,
poetry, drama at once spontaneous and profound,
truly capturing the greatness of Indian tradition
amidst confusion and contradiction of daily life. He
was celebrated in his lifetime as a great Indian
literature, admired and even revered by people like
Gandhi and Nehru called him Gurudeva.
Tagore was full of patriotism and wanted India to
realize her potential but he never confused
patriotism with hatred for others. To the end he
remained indomitably independent and committed
to the ideal of the universal man. He revolted
against the humiliation and degradation of man by
any organization of commerce or power or savage
and arbitrary misgovernment which he identified
with imperialism.
creative and spontaneous in human mind and spirit. It was the capacity to create a better order.
Tagore, like the early Indian liberals considered the real problem of India as social and not political. A narrow vision of political liberty would grossly be inadequate in establishing a good society for that would deny individual's moral and spiritual freedom. Mere political freedom could not make one free, as cleavages and weaknesses of society would pose a danger to politics. Without creating confidence in the average person, he would always feel inferior and "the tyranny of injustice" would perpetuate.
It was in this emphasis of comprehending the essential basis of realising freedom by broadening the base through inculcating sense of identity and pride in every single individual in the world that Tagore's conception departed from other popular political theories of freedom which focuses more on the abstract individual.
CRITIQUE OF NATIONALISM
Tagore's perception of the dual role, one positive, "the spirit of the West" and the other negative, "the nation of the West" was the starting point of his analysis of nationalism as it developed in the West. He paid glowing tributes to the achievements of the West in the field of literature and art and also mentioned the presence of outstanding individuals fighting for the cause of humanity.
Contextualising his analysis on nationalism in the backdrop of the rise of militant and aggressive nationalistic aspirations in certain countries of Europe during first half of the twentieth century, Tagore sought to explain the birth of the idea of nationalism as a product of modern science and technological advancements. In the wake of rapid advancements in the field of science and technology, the resultant industrial revolution motivated people to join hand together to seemingly maximise the benefits accruing from this invention. He, however, insisted that such mechanical coming together of people without any moral or social considerations ingrained
devaluation of the dignity of human labour and greater reliance on mechanical power to make quick bucks. Gradually, the social interactions amongst the people start getting bereft of moral and humanistic considerations and one’s political and economic power determines his social position irrespective of moral turpitude of his activities.
In final analysis, when the lust for power and money takes a concentrated form, it creates an urge for unusual organisation of people to make their forays outside their place to explore and exploit the material resources of that region. Thus, nationalism ordinarily boils down to colonialism and fierce wars between two or more than two nations to secure a strong foothold in lucrative colonies.
The true character of nationalism also gets exposed in its activities in the colonies. Drawing examples from British imperialism, Tagore explained the numerous dehumanising and exploitative features of colonialism in India.
Despite being very critical of the context of rise and subsequent incarnations of nationalism in the form of imperialism and colonialism, Tagore was appreciative of what he calls the ‘spirit of the West’. To Tagore, the spirit of the West was not what the nationalism of the West had ordained for the people within and outside the continent of Europe. The spirit of the West, in fact, lies in providing the rest of world the values like freedom, equality, fraternity and remarkable creativity in the field of art and literature. The rise of nationalism, on the other hand, was conditioned by ‘the nation of the West’ by which Tagore meant an entity least human and least spiritual, as its focus remained centred on expanding the tentacles of nationalism through bane of war, weapons and violence. Thus, Tagore emphasised the existence of the two seemingly antithetical notions in the forms of “the spirit of the West” and “the nation of the West”.
The nation, which represented the organised self- interest of a whole people, was also the "least human and least spiritual" and the biggest evil in
colonialism. It had nothing in common with the European nationalism whose basic pursuit lied in maximizing the political and economic power of a few people at the expense of the vast mass of humanity within and outside of the Europe.
The argument of the Indian nationalists extended to the extent of justifying the ultimate goal of Indian nationalism as nothing but ensuring the essential cosmopolitanism in the world as argued for by Tagore.
In order to ensure that harmonious coexistence amongst the various people is brought about, the resurgence of the spirit of India and its articulation through the means of Indian independence became an unavoidable necessity. Hence, Tagore’s critique of the march of national movement in the country could not be accepted as it did not fit into the conceptualisation of nationalism advanced by most of his colleagues in the nationalist movement. More than a fight against British nationalism, the Indian national movement was an attempt to regain the lost spiritual personality of the Indian nation.
TAGORE AND GANDHI
What was common between Tagore and Gandhi was the idea that nation was absolutely inapplicable to Indian people. Both of them regarded nationalism as a byproduct of the western nation– state system and of the forces of homogenisation let loose by the western worldview. To them, ‘a homogenised universalism’ itself a product of the uprootedness and deculturation brought about by British colonialism in India, struck at the root of Indian civilisation.
In contrast with an imported category like nationalism, their alternative was ‘a distinctive civilisational concept of universalism embedded in the tolerance encoded in various traditional ways of life in a highly diverse, plural society’. So, not only was this critique of nation and nationalism morally acceptable and politically effective, it also laid the foundation of community- based society drawing on the resources of a civilization of which it was a part.
discovered the predominance of parochial nationalism, traditional egoism and instrumentalist anarchism in it. Tagore seemingly understood swaraj as seeking nothing more than political freedom. This, Tagore argued, was a reflection of the aggressive nationalism shorn of spiritual and moral personality of India. However, To Gandhi, the personality of India never bestowed honours on political or economic power and, hence, the idea of swaraj would be as much moral and spiritual awakening of the country as it would be the attainment of freedom from the bonds of British colonialism.
Tagore’s firm conviction in the value of harmonious coexistence of different people made him emphasise the long term perspective of the Indian national movement by arguing for revitalising the basic foundational characteristics of the Indian ethos and culture in terms of moral values of the Indian society. For instance, his participation in the anti-partition movement in Bengal in 1905 left him a distraught person as he could not understand the logic of
burning of clothes and boycott of foreign goods. He stated that such actions reflected the pursuit for gaining political and economic power for the urban middle class at the total neglect of articulating India’s moral superiority over the British. Hence, Tagore asked for a reassertion of India’s rationality in defeating the brute force of the British by moral uprightness and harmonious social interaction with the others. He exhorted Gandhi to have faith in reason and be the medium of impressing on the British the virtues of moral force with which Indian cultural heritage remained afloat and which would eventually compel the British to leave India as well. However, Gandhi’s response to Tagore’s viewpoints was enmeshed in his desperation to seek solution to the immediate needs of the country .
Gandhian methods of bringing the economic and social turn around of the country also did not amuse Tagore who saw in them Gandhi’s inability to grasp and resolve the basic issues in the economic and social problems facing the country. Tagore, for
The essence of Tagore’s critique of Gandhian policies, programmes, viewpoints and techniques appears to lie in the differing contexts and perspectives on the urgency of things for India in both short and long run. Tagore’s insistence on moral and spiritual awakening of India in place of waging formidable political movements differed from the views of Gandhi only in so far as the latter argued for the political independence as a pre- condition for the moral and spiritual awakening of the country.
Thus, the Tagore–Gandhi debate was revealing, on the one hand, of the difference of perceptions between the two great thinkers on the content and short term perspective on the national movement of the country and their inherent complementarities in so far as the eventual comprehensive advancement of the country was concerned, on the other.
CONCLUSION
Tagore was the poet–philosopher of the country having his own distinct set of ideas and beliefs on the various problems and issues facing the country during the early decades of the twentieth century. The uniqueness of the political thought of Tagore appears to be the metaphysical foundations of his contemplations which led him to think more in terms of moral and spiritual awakening of the country, instead of focussing on the need for political independence, as was being argued by the majority of the national leaders.
Moreover, his conceptualisations, though rooted in the moral and spiritual framework of Indian philosophy, had wider practical implications as he tried to develop a cosmopolitan perspective of life in India.
Rabindranath Tagore
Course: Indian Political Thought-II (6.2)
University: University of Delhi
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