Abstract: According to Benedict Anderson nation can be defined as “imagined community”. Though nationalism has largely been accepted globally as a legitimate form of political organisation, Rabindranath Tagore had not an iota of positive sentiment towards the ideology of nationalism. Tagore’s fundamental objection was on its very nature and purpose as an institution. To him nationalism is a social institution, a mechanical organisation, which has been modelled on certain utilitarian objectives in mind. He opined that as nationalism came into being in the post-religious phase of industrial capitalist socio-economic system, it was only an organisation of politics and commerce. To him, it would only bring harvests of wealth by the means of greed, selfishness, power and prosperity. Tagore’s novel The Home and the World, the English translation of the original Bengali novel Ghare-Baire (published 1917) initially seems to explore the forces of modernism. But the novel’s sharp criticism of the then nationalistic politics in general and the swadeshi movement in particular never misses the eye. While Sandip represents the then nationalistic politics and swadeshi movement, Nikhil represents, it can easily be said, Rabindranath Tagore’s own views. The present paper shows that in his novel The Home and the World, in Sandip’s actions, Tagore has anticipated all these drawbacks of nationalism mentioned by later literary-cultural critics. Thus, today, when the whole world is suffering from expressions of narrow nationalism, Rabindranath’s novel The Home and the World is still relevant and contemporary in its subject-matter and philosophy of life.
Keywords: Nationalism, Tagore.
Title: Tagore’s Appraisal of the Ideas of Nationalism: a Study
Author: Dr. Debopam Raha
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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